The First Trimester

I was blessed with an extremely easy pregnancy with Clara and thus far this pregnancy has been even easier. My period is like clockwork so I knew I was pregnant right away, but at the same time I was not experiencing any of the symptoms I had with Clarita so I questioned it. With Clara I was absolutely exhausted. Like an exhaustion I had never experienced before. I even thought that I had a thyroid problem and was going to go to the doctor. With this little one I had absolutely zero symptoms. No exhaustion (which is good since I have a Clara running around full of energy), no nausea, I didn't really feel any different. Except that I began to crave meat. I haven't eaten any meat aside from fish in about eight years and I have never had any desire to do so. At Christmas I had this insatiable desire to eat bacon. And it wouldn't go away. I finally bought some fake bacon and ate that (and I HATE fake meat). I also started eating fake sausage (and I've never really liked sausage). Luckily these cravings only lasted a couple of weeks and now I am back to my normal meat hating self. Tia Laurie says these differences between pregnancies means I am having a boy. I say we'll see.

I did notice that I began showing a lot earlier this time around. In both pregnancies I gained a ton of weight during the first trimester. I think I gained at least five pounds with Clara and more like seven this time around. By week 13 it was more and more difficult to hide the fact that I was pregnant. I swear one day my belly just popped out!

I thought I felt Clara moving pretty early on, but wasn't really sure since I had nothing to compare it to. This time I began to feel movement around 12 weeks. It is faint but I'm pretty sure it's the baby. When we had an ultrasound around this time the little rascal, as the ultrasound tech called the baby, jumped around the entire time. He or she was constantly flailing his/her tiny arms and bouncing all over! Clara was super active too so this just seems normal. Maybe it's all the running I do; the little one is used to bouncing around!

I took weekly pictures my entire pregnancy with Clara. Dada made me stand in the same exact place each week and would not let anyone move the tripod. While it's impossible to leave a tripod set up now, I still take weekly pictures. Since I never posted the pictures from my pregnancy with Clara, I will post both sets together now so we can compare and contrast!

All in all it's been a great experience thus far and I hope this continues for the next 26 weeks!

8 Weeks

9 Weeks

10 Weeks Clara

10 Weeks

11 Weeks Clara

11 Weeks

12 Weeks Clara

12 Weeks

13 Weeks Clara

13 Weeks