Pages

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Same Mommy, Different Pregnancies

In general, I've found my pregnancy with Greg to be much, much easier than my pregnancy with Susanna. There are a few possible reasons for this. First, I've carried him mostly through the fall and winter and not in the heat of summer. Second, I have less stress in my life this time around (I'm not a pastor and while my grandmother's death at week eight made me sad for a while, it affected me less than Bill's death did when I was 24 weeks pregnant). Here's a breakdown of what's different and the same with my pregnancies so far:

Different:
-Greg made me throw up for most of the first trimester. With Susanna, I only threw up twice; the rest of the time I was simply nauseous.
-I've only gained 17 lbs so far with Greg, so anticipate my total weight gain to be somewhere around 20-22 lbs. With Susanna, I gained probably close to 40 lbs. Of course, I wasn't chasing around a two-year-old then.
-My blood pressure has stayed well within normal range this time. With Susanna, I had elevated blood pressure from week 20 on, and I'm pretty sure that I was borderline pre-ecclampsia towards the end.
-No swelling whatsoever with Greg (knock on wood), but with Susanna EVERYTHING was swollen (ankles, feet, hands) from the third trimester onward. Again, I think the heat had something to do with it.
-I had to take the three-hour gestational diabetes test with Susanna, and it was VERY CLOSE to being positive. With Greg, my one-hour test was well within normal limits.
-I feel less cumbersome and have more energy this time than with Susanna, although I think the weather is a big factor.
-I think I'm carrying Greg lower than I did Susanna. Or at least differently. Maternity pants that fit fine last time don't really fit this time...they pretty much fall down. On the other hand, my pair of "fat pants" still fits...at 35 weeks. It's hard to describe, but it's been sort of frustrating, because I have about three pairs of pants that I am comfortable in, and the rest require constant adjustment.
-I have now had two UTI's with Greg, and had none with Susanna.

Similarities:
-I had bronchitis in the third trimester with both of them.
-I was exhausted during the first trimester with both of them.
-I'm craving corn nuggets and other nutritious food (HAHA) with both.
-Tons of Braxton-Hicks contractions from about 26 weeks onward.

It will be interesting to see how Greg's labor compares with Susanna's!

No comments: