Two Pregnancies

Lots of parents do it, you'll see it on the blog and occasionally I may even bring it up among close family, but one of the things I have enjoyed doing while I was pregnant with Lilly and even now-a-days is fondly remember my pregnancy with our son and even compare the two pregnancies. To me it isn't a sad topic to think or even talk about, my pregnancy with our son is filled with some of the best memories I will ever have with him, it is one of the few ways that I can begin making a connection between my children, to me this is a very happy topic.

This is actually the first time I am sharing photos of my pregnancy with our sweet boy but also, sharing his name. An appropriate post as I make connections between our babies even though only Lillith is in my arms.

Although I carried similarly with both, very low, I showed a lot faster with my daughter. Some will say that is because this was a second pregnancy and my body was already stretched and knew what to do while it is also obvious that my body and weight too changed between the two. While our son spent majority of his time in my belly in the traditional position, our Lilly changed every week from transverse to frank breach and traditional breach, even head down near the end although always with her legs out in my ribs. Some will say that movements are so much stronger with boys but honestly I think it is just their personalities showing, maybe our little boy would've been the gentle, quiet one while our Lilly already can't wait to get moving.

Because I'm a fan of car rides (yes like a little kid) I always loved that our son would calm down during car rides while Lillith loved to wiggle and kick about at any time. We always speculated that our son would be one of those babies that a car ride was a guaranteed nap time while Lillith is hit or miss even when she is absolutely exhausted.

During the big anatomy ultrasound our sweet son was stubborn and shy, not letting us see he was a boy until a much later ultrasound while his little sister, although also terribly stubborn, had no problem letting us know she was a little girl. But both of them were often caught with a hand or arm stretched over their face which you can sometimes see their Daddy do when he falls asleep, although Lillith was often seen holding her hands at her chest or just below her face which she still does now.

A lot of people while wondering if their on team boy or team girl will ask about symptoms and differences people had with their pregnancies, hoping to get some sort of insight. I have seen people with completely different pregnancies have two of the same gender while I carried very similarly with both my son and my daughter - there are no hints here ;)

I craved a lot of the same things, all sorts of fruit and icey cold milk were favorites with both but my nausea was far worse with our daughter while the nausea I had while pregnant with our son was only really bad during the early weeks. Like I mentioned before, aside from showing earlier with Lilly I carried low and similarly with both pregnancies, but I found my back and hip pain far worse while pregnant with our son and my round ligament pains more frequent with our daughter.

Both of their fetal heart rates stayed above 140 bpm, a popular old wives tale that the above 140 bpm range meant a baby girl. But I do have to give a nod towards daughters stealing moms beauty, I wouldn't say I was ugly (because that is a horrible thing to say) but I know that I had some acne pop up and my hair was just not as cooperative (as much as curly hair ever is) when I was pregnant with Lilly but while carrying our son my hair was thick and soft, growing quickly and my skin was wonderful.

I could go on, it is just such a happy feeling to reminisce about our babies and a time where they were a part of me, while now they carry pieces of my heart with them.

xo, Anne.