Pregnancy This Time Around

So, hey, I’m like 17 weeks along already. Funny how time just keeps moving along.

Hubby asked me the other day how big the baby was…and, uh, I had no idea.  I had to look online to find out (answer in actual units of measurement:  about 5 inches, answer in fruit/vegetable units of measurement: onion).  Which got me thinking about my pregnancy with Bink… at any point of time I could have told you exactly what fruit or vegetable he was closest in size to and precisely which baby milestones he was hitting each week.  This time through…not so much.

And I blame Bink for that.  I just don’t have the mental capacity to try to absorb all that information when my evening are already full of matchbox cars, pirate swords, Dora the Explorer, “pee-fa” (pizza) dinners, and gummy vitamins.  Not to mention algebra, ADD, middle school drama, a broken dishwasher and a never ending pile of laundry.

So I started compiling a mental list of how this pregnancy is different than my first…

• First Time–At the end of each day, I read piles of pregnancy books, baby care books, baby stuff buying guides, and Consumer Reports printouts.
• This Time–At the end of each day, I read piles of dinosaur books, Dora books, toddler development books, and how to handle tweens books

• First Time–All I wanted to eat was cereal.  Bowls and bowls of cereal.  I even kept a box of it in my desk drawer at work.
• This Time–All I want to eat is spicy food.  Lots and lots of the spiciest food possible.  I even keep a bottle of Sricha chili sauce in my desk drawer at work.

• First Time–I felt exhausted all the time.  Being pregnant was hard work.
• This Time–I’m pretty exhausted all the time.  Being pregnant is hard work…made harder by lugging around a 30 pound toddler who insists on “Mommy, up me!” most of the time.

• First Time–I worried about how to change diapers, give a baby a bath, and nursing.
• This Time–I’m worried about finding time to shower, how to get two children under three to the grocery store (or anywhere), and how I’m going to keep Bink occupied while I nurse this baby, without having to resort to holding the baby to my boob with one arm and chasing after Bink with the other.

• First Time–Two weeks before we were going to find out the gender, I had a pretty good spreadsheet of name ideas, origins, and meanings.  Hubby and I worked through the list making smaller and smaller lists of our favorites, until we got it down to three.  The day we found out for sure Bink was a boy, we picked.
• This Time–It’s two weeks before we will find out the gender and every time I broach the topic of baby names with Hubby he helpfully suggests “Bink, Jr.” or “Kirsten, Jr.”

On the topic of finding out the gender, we’ve decided to do a gender reveal cake. After calling a local bakery who acted like I was a crazy person, I found someone to make the cake for us.  We’ll the ultrasound tech to put the baby’s gender into an envelope, take it to the baker, and on Saturday, October 8th we’ll cut into either a pink or blue cake.

The fact that this is adding an extra five days to me finding out is not lost on me.  At least there will be cake.