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@Calvin so glad you got an appointment for a scan sooner! That's great!!

@crystal Im6so sorry to hear that tiings are stressful for you right now. I know lots of women who had bleeding from sub C hemorrhage and went on to have healthy babies if that's any consolation! As for morning sickness, taking methylfolate (which I need instead of folic acid/folate because of me gene defect) has made things much easier this pregnancy than my last with regards to sickness right from the get go. I haven't vomited yet but do still get nauseated! Then my napro doc recommended b6 supplementation at 100 mg/day either all at once or spread out (I take it spread out) and that has helped enormously, within days! Now I mostly just feel nauseated in the AM before breakfast, but feel better within a little while of eating and taking all my supps. I also take ginger pills and digestive enzymes, and they help a lot with the bloating and constipation/diarrhea/general digestive turmoil! Another thing that has surprisingly helped a lot has been gentle bouncing to music on my rebounder (got the ok to do it from my pregnancy chiropractor as long as I always have one foot on the rebounder at all times, no big jumps.) Gentle exercise really does help a lot by encouraging efficient digestion and boosting endorphins, and I particularly love bouncing because it's just plain fun. I put on my old fave K-Pop Playlist, pretend I'm 17 again and have a blast!

@E. Thank you. I'm sure she will come around. I hope my parents will be happy; it's another grandbaby. I don't have a birth plan in place yet but I will be delivering at the hospital in case something happens. I'm glad your midwife was there. I waited too long with my boy too. I assume my water had broken as during the night I got up to pee and my pajamas were soaked. Changed out of them and went back to sleep and woke up around 5 I think, and in a bit of pain so it was time to go in. I was supposed to be induced the next day, but he wanted to be born on his uncles (my brother) birthday. I hope you get to experience home birth with this baby. Will you be having any more after this pregnancy?

E-Massey, I had a home birth with my first 20 yrs ago and I loved it! I tried with Oscar and got transferred, and that didn't turn out well, but he had issues they didn't catch. Phoebe I was too high risk and she had to be induced early because I was losing fluid. I'm hoping for a healthy, fat, full term baby this time, but I'm not eligible for a home birth so it'll be the hospital again. I wish I was younger and could try for another home birth. I highly recommend them for uncomplicated pregnancies and proven moms. Especially during this pandemic, it's really safer that way from that perspective.

AFM, I'm doing fine. No nausea yet, but the tips on B6 I'm filing away. Phoebe's was bad once I got to about 9 wks, so I'm crossing my fingers. Got some brown spotting still, but I think it's the normal 6wk implantation bleeding coming out - hoping anyway. It's making me nervous. I'm keeping an eye on it and taking it easy. I didn't really realize I wanted this baby till I was scared I'd lose it. Now I want it!! Phoebe is going to be such a great big sister, and I miss the baby stage. Plus, a spring baby? I had my son in May and it's a wonderful time to have a baby. No sweaty yuckiness for being really pregnant in summer, which I hated. And we're all going to have spring babies! It's great, because if they are jaundiced at all, you just take them outside in the sun for a little bit each day.

@calvingirl. I had the brown spotting when I wiped once with my last baby and it threw my anxiety way up as I didn't have it with my first and didn't know it was even possible. This time, I didn't have any. So, that was a relief. I'm hoping that what you are experiencing is left over implantation finally working its way out. My baby won't be due until February so, he or she may have to be put in a warmer if that is the case; my last one did but that was based on his levels. A home birth won't be possible for me but that's okay.

Hey ladies!
@E. thank you for your advice! I have the MTHFR gene as well and I am on the same vitamins. My doctor also has me on Diclegis. I think it helps a lot, I really think I'd be worse without it. But I still get bad nausea spells off and on throughout the day, worse at night for me. Seabands take the edge off.

I did some research on my subchorionic hemorrhage and asking my doctor some more educated questions, I am feeling much better about it. Commonly these are found behind the placenta, which can cause issues with the placenta partially detaching and causing growth issues with the baby or miscarriage. Luckily, mine is not located behind the placenta and is also considered to be on the small side. So I am feeling much more relieved.

I am almost 8 weeks and so relieved to make it this far. My doc may do another ultrasound next week to check on my SCH and hoping so, I want to see my little rainbow bean again!! I am going above and beyond with excitement, I think. I already have my baby registry made and have absolutely everything on it already I have boy and girl items picked out as well, as once we find out the gender I can go remove what we don't need.

I am high risk, as I have been with all my pregnancies ever since I have my 19 week missed miscarriage, so I will be delivering again in the hospital. I don't mind this, my house is usually too busy and full of family popping in and out anyways, so I'd probably get more rest and peace in the hospital after birth

@dragonfly I hope we will be able to have more! Our plan is to have as many as God blesses us with, or as many as I can mother well with my chronic health problems (POTS, anxiety.) We both come from families of 6 kids - we're Catholic, can you tell?

@calvin I'm glad that you got to experience home birth! I ended up being transferred AFTER the birth because I was fainting. Turns out that giving birth makes POTS flare really badly! All they did that helped was give me fluids. The experience at the hospital was awful really, they treated me like trash, and my private midwife too (they blamed her for my problems, because they are ignorant of how POTS works lol.) If I was in my right mind I would've made formal complaints afterwards. They severely neglected me - they pumped me full of fluids, then ordered me not to get out of bed to pee unless there were two nurses to assist me, then left me for literally hours. I called again and again, and they always said oh OK we'll send nurses, but never did. By the time they got to me I was in so much pain I was almost in tears, and when they let me get up I passed a clot that was the size of a softball - that's how long they left me sitting in bed, all of the blood I was losing coagulated! (gotta love public hospitals.) So yeah, I'll be avoiding the hospital like the plague unless I absolutely have to go because there is a medical necessity. Public healthcare is such a double edged sword! Luckily I live only 15 minutes from the hospital, in case I do need to transfer. My worst fear is ending up in an emergency cesarean, because they will have to do it under general anaesthesia as my spine is fused from scoliosis surgery, making a spinal or epidural physically impossible. That's why I'm so passionate about facilitating natural birth, it's natural or bust for me!

This time if I am able to birth at home, we will be much more careful about managing my POTS - that will mean not climbing stairs like I did last time to try to get to the shower (it'll be a sponge bath in bed and a bed pan until I have slept and recovered enough to get up safely!) and my midwife will be able to start up fluids during labor, which will help mitigate the effect that normal blood loss during birth will have on my already low blood pressure. Lessons learnt from last time!

I will not be having a Spring baby - because I live in Queensland Australia! I moved here from the States in 2015, so I will be extremely pregnant for the worst of the scorching Australian Summer, just like last time when my son was born in April! It doesn't start to cool down here until at least April - May.

@crystal I'm so glad to hear that your SCH isn't as bad as you thought! I hope they so another u/s so you get to see baby again. Also MTHFR solidarity. I'm hoping that now that I'm taking the correct vitamins my baby won't suffer the same issues with tongue tie that my son did!

@afm, 10 weeks today! I see my midwife for the first time on Tuesday, and I can't wait to hear that little heartbeat on the doppler! b6 is working miracles in the morning sickness department, and I am outgrowing my brand new bras again. Seriously, the girls need to CALM DOWN already, this is getting ridiculous. Working on getting ready to put our house on the market, and waiting for pre approval on a home loan so we can start seriously looking. Crazy busy, but all I want to do is eat pasta and sleep!

@agatch. That's awesome, another baby girl and I am sure your daughter will make an amazing big sister. I hope your appointment goes well today.

AFM. Yesterday was a really awful day for me and I feel absolutely horrible and still depressed. We took the kids to buy a new back door and my daughter was misbehaving and my son gets involved as he's little and she encourages him. So, I was in a rough mood anyway as I wanted to say something sweet to my husband while he was driving and I guess I startled him and he got all pissy stating, I'm trying to drive, what do you want? When the kids talk while he's driving, he talks to them. I swear he respects them more than me. Then after that, it all escaladed from there. Another thing is that my husband gave my son his Air Miles card and when I was taking the kids out, he must of dropped the card and I didn't even notice it until we got home and by then, it was too late. Guess that will teach him to give his cards to play with. I was already sad from his comment that I wished I handled the situation better with the kids. With all the stress I endured this weekend, I really hope the baby is okay and patiently waiting for the day when I can feel kicks and pokes.

On to something a bit more positive, I picked up a cake mix and some icing/food coloring and figured I could announce my pregnancy to my parents that way by making a cake and icing it with pink and blue but not sure how to go about it. Ideas?

@Dragonfly I think I could have written this post. Taking my kids to get something done is often a disaster and my daughter encouraging her younger brother to misbehave is common occurrence! Also my husband definitely has way more patience with the kids than with me. I guess that’s a good thing because I would hate for him to lose his temper with them but always being the one on the receiving end of any bad mood is not fun! Hope you had some better days since then.

My first trimester screening went really well last week but then I woke up in the middle of the night with some brown spotting about an hour ago so I am now freeking out! We just drove down yesterday to visit my husband’s parents so we are staying at a hotel 2 hrs away from where my doctor’s practice is. I’ll call first thing in the morning and see what the doctor says but am assuming I’ll have to go to the ER yo get checked out. . I know it doesn’t necessarily means I am miscarrying but with my history it is really concerning. Plus there is no reason why I would be spotting (no recent pelvic exam and we haven’t BDed in a week). My cervix also is low and feels really soft right now

@agatch. I hope things are going well and that the brown spotting is just implantation bleed finally working its way out. I know how you feel with that as I had it with my last pregnancy. We are in the same boat with how our children are "trouble makers". It's very stressing. My son loves to be kind to his big sister and she craps (gets mad) on him. I feel sorry for him somedays. Hope she grows out of it soon.

Other than that, I hope everyone is doing well.

AFM. I made rainbow cake cupcakes as a way of anouncing my pregnancy to my parents and tomorrow we are going to visit my grandma (kids great-grandma). I'm anxious and hope it goes well; then bite the bullet and see my mom and dad.

Here are the cupcakes that I made today before it got too hot outside (+34C) and for my first time they turned out pretty good. I still have to put icing on them. I hope you all can see what my intention/plan was. I hope they can see it too. Keep you posted.

Took this picture yesterday of my 16 week belly.