Happy 2022!

I hope everyone is having a great and healthy holiday season and New Year. We know of a lot of people who spent this holiday unwell, so we spent most of the winter break at home and away from people because the pregnant lady (me) is trying to desperately avoid getting sick with all of the things at all costs.

But, with the new year, I wanted to take some time to kind of update on…everything – it’s been awhile since I have been really active here. Part of that is due to pregnancy and part of that was due to how emotionally taxing this school year has been so far. Any of you who are also educators know; coming back after last year has been hard – on the kids, on the families and on us, too. Trying to get kids back into a classroom who basically just refused to do virtual last year is hard (which is basically all of my caseload) and get them re-engaged takes so much out of you (me). Since my “9-5” was taking so much out of me and pregnancy was requiring a lot of me also, it’s been hard to show up here the way that I always have and the way that I really wanted to.

This winter break, though, has been immensely beneficial for me. Normally when I have a school break, I will make this overly ambitious to-do list of things I want to get done around the house or places to go and things to do; but this break, I didn’t have it in me to do that. Mentally, I had a couple of things I wanted to try to do around the house but I didn’t put a whole lot of pressure on myself to do it because, before break, all I could think was “I’m so tired”. Not just physically tired, but also mentally tired – like I couldn’t imagine the thought of being responsible for one more thing. So, I just planned to do as little as possible, and I did and it was amazing.

I spend a lot of break resting and recharging. Devon and I did get our Covid boosters, which took us both out for a couple of days. I will say, our side effects were less…severe? than the second shot, but we did just feel kind of tired and a little achy for a couple days. I did have some nausea this time, that I didn’t last time, which I’m assuming is probably pregnancy-related. But we did, you know, nap a bit more and rest, which we both needed.

My biggest accomplishment was getting our pantry re-organized – which it was in desperate need of. I had absolutely no idea what was in there at one point and there were a few things that had expired over a year ago (so clearly it had been awhile since I had done anything beneficial in there). It might not be “Pinterest-worthy” but I do not care because it is actually functional and there is finally a place for everything and I don’t have to worry about things falling out when I open the door.

First Trimester

A few of you have asked how I’ve been feeling, which I greatly appreciate. Outside of announcing that I was pregnant, I haven’t really said much else here. But, I honestly can’t complain that much – I’ve had a pretty uneventful pregnancy so far, even though I’m of “Advanced maternal age”.

Which I’ve heard about a million times already.

FTR, I’m only 35, which is the very beginning of what is considered advanced maternal age, but all of the same precautions happen: a little more testing, a few more sonograms, etc.

We have had screenings for chromosomal issues, birth defects, etc and so far everything looks good. From all of the testing, we’ve even already been told the gender, but we’re going to wait until our “official” anatomy scan at the end of January to just get the “visual confirmation” before we say it. But, the baby is healthy and growing as expected, which is really all we wanted.

The only thing I could really “complain” about in the first trimester is the level of tiredness I had. I swear I napped every day after work; some days I barely made it to after work. This was pretty much how I was from the moment we had the test to determine whether the IUI worked or not, (The IUI process I’ll talk about in another post later.) until about 13 or 14 weeks. I am not someone who typically naps, but I could not function an entire day without one during that time.

There was one week; I actually think it was Halloween weekend, where I was so tired, I didn’t actually leave the house at all. I had plans to do all of these things, run all of these errands, but I mostly just wound up sleeping. I remember coming home on Friday afternoon, taking a nap for about 90 minutes, then sleeping all night, and still feeling exhausted on Saturday. So Saturday I wound up taking a solid 2 hour nap, then sleeping again all night before I finally felt somewhat more awake on Sunday.

I don’t remember ever sleeping that much.

I had a little bit of morning sickness throughout the first trimester. I actually thought because I never actually threw up that it wasn’t morning sickness, but my doctor is like, “nope, you were nauseous, that’s also morning sickness”. So, I had it, but not severely, which I greatly appreciated.

My co-workers/admins have known about my pregnancy since the IUI procedure was being done. I wanted to be open with them since I wasn’t sure what all the extra hormones were going to do to me and I wanted to be upfront that I may not act like my normal self for a bit. It wound up being a really great support system for me while I was going through the waiting and then ultimately finding out that it took. They have all been so supportive and caring this entire year, and I am so grateful for that.

I feel like there are moments when I can see that I’m pregnant and others where I’m like “meh…still can’t tell”. I’m 17 weeks now, so it’s becoming a little more obvious as everything is starting to round out a bit. But when you look at me straight on, you can’t really tell, but when I turn to the side, you can see it.

Krieger wasn’t the biggest fan, initially. His vet said that once my pheromones change he may be a bit weird around me and he was for a few weeks – it was almost like he wasn’t sure who I was. But he seems to be adjusting a bit better as the pregnancy progresses. He’s going to be mad when he can’t fit in my lap as well anymore, though. We’re trying to figure out how to acclimate him to the baby when the time comes – if anyone has any tips, feel free to let me know!

Devon, however, is extremely excited. I’ve actually never seen him so pumped about anything. Don’t get me wrong, I knew he was going to be excited, but it’s still so lovely to see him already falling into a paternal role. He’s always been protective of me, but even moreso now; he talks about things he wants to do when the baby is here, and how he wants the nursery to look. It’s making this even more enjoyable for me to see him so involved and excited about it all.

We’re working on clearing out a bit of the nursery today since we are on a snow day (which is really the best way to have your first day back after winter break, if you ask me) and since I didn’t touch it over winter break. But we want to pull the carpet out of the room and put it in hardwood floors before the furniture comes in, and we can’t do that until we stop using it as a storage area. Luckily, we have some time.

Here is to 2022 – a year of change and growth and expansion (in several ways). I hope this year is better for most than the past couple have been. And here is to a snow day in the Mid-Atlantic, we haven’t gotten a lot of those in recent years.

Have a great week!