Baby Brew #2!

It's the truth, my big belly cannot lie. Ok, maybe not quite "big" yet, but already growing. It is really quite amazing how much faster the whole process happens (at least how it is happening for me) the second time around. I am already starting to show, you know in that awkward stage where people are not sure if you are just getting fat or if you are pregnant. I am just happy I can still wear my jeans. The day I go to Maternity clothes will one of tears I am sure. For now, I am appreciating my non-pregnant clothing and hoping I can last longer in them than I am thinking I will.

As of today, I am a little over 13 weeks and due July 31st! Poor Jackson and this baby may just end up having the same birthday. Jackson's is August 3rd. We definitely did not plan it this way. What we actually wanted was a May or June baby, but sometimes things don't always happen the way you plan them to. He/She is already wanting to be just like Jackson :)

The first 10 weeks of this pregnancy were great! A little bit of morning sickness, but no actual sickness until week 10 hit me. wow. I woke up way sick, but just figured it would be similar to my pregnancy with Jackson where I was sick in the morning, then I would be fine all day with a little nausea in the evening. All this ended around 14 weeks, too! For 3 weeks straight I have felt so so sick all day long and have been packing on the pounds like crazy. I don't feel like I am eating more calories than I was before and I don't feel like I am doing anything different either. In fact, I am in way better shape (and was 15 lbs lighter) than when I got pregnant with Jackson. So why the heck are the pounds racking up so dang fast??? I thought being in better shape would help me keep off those extra layers. Apparently, my body prefers a specific weight for growing babies (that isn't medical advice, just my own hypothetically incorrect presumptions), because the throwing up daily sure is not helping my weight gain.

I will say the sickness is getting a little better. It is not ever day that I get sick anymore and my energy levels are good when I am getting lots of sleep.

To say we are really excited about this baby would be an understatement. I am as ecstatic and nervous as I was when I was pregnant with Jackson. I have been having incredibly crazy dreams (peeing out medicine bottles? wth?) and dreams that I am out in public naked (gross.) so I guess the pregnancy must be going pretty good, between the nausea and the obscene dreams, I am right on track.

We are going to be looking for gender at my next appointment, which is really exciting. We go in for my 16 week appt/ultrasound on Feb. 12th. It will be a little Valentine gift! I have no idea what we are having. In the beginning I kept feeling like it was a girl because I had a dream about a baby girl, but now I am really not so sure. Jeff really wants a boy for Jackson to be best buds with, so that ultimately means we will have a girl because you never get what you want. ;) I wish I had a better inclination for these things, but I have a really bad one. I thought Jackson was a girl for sure, so yeah, obviously I have no sense of these things. I will be incredibly happy either way. A boy would be convenient because we have all the clothes and everything we would need ($$ wise), but a girl would be so much fun and it would be awesome to have a darling little sweetpea. I just cannot wait to find out!

I told my principal last week that we are expecting and he was really happy for me. I told him that I was planning on coming back next year, just taking the first 6 weeks unpaid maternity (I know, right. the education system is pretty messed up), like I did with Jackson. He was really supportive and that was great. However, I felt a little confused and hurt when my asst. principal talked with me. He didn't congratulate me or anything, the first thing he said was "so you aren't quitting on us next year, are you?" I felt like I had made it clear to my principal that the reason I even told him so early was so that he would know, from me directly, that I had no intentions of quitting and that I wanted to continue teaching. I told my asst. principal that I had full intentions of returning to work as long as they would have me. He then said "It's really not up to us.You are a good teacher." which is confusing to me, because they are the ones in charge of my career and this is my evaluation year where they decide if I have the skills that I need to be a Level 2 teacher, or tenured. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take it as a compliment or if he was making a borderline inappropriate comment, but either way, I hope I still have a job next year. I don't think we could survive on just one of our salaries. But, with both of them we live a great life. And, I enjoy teaching. I don't want to stop until it isn't possible for me to take care of the kids (or afford daycare).

The Rumor

To add to my decreasing sense of self confidence, I had a couple students come up to me yesterday and ask me if I was pregnant. Apparently, in child development class they are learning about childbirth and some girl decided she wanted to start telling people that I am pregnant (she doesn't know I am). She told these girls and they wanted to know if it was true. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Since when do people find it okay to start telling other people rumors? What if I really wasn't pregnant but wanted to be? I would say this could go as far as sexual harassment. What if I was just getting really fat from all the delicious treats from the holidays? High school girls are so dramatic and always take things too far.

It looks like I will have to tell my classes next week that my eggo really is prego.