A Tale of Two Babies

Are you tired of pregnancy posts yet?  If so, I'll save you some time and you can skip this one.  If not, then read on my friend.

I wanted to do a little comparison of this pregnancy vs. my first one.  I thought that they all were the same and I was really looking forward to being pregnant again since I had such an easy pregnancy the first time.  Well friends, I am here to tell you that that little myth is not true.  Pregnancies, just like kids, are completely unique.

With Claire the smell of meat made me want to vomit.  However, I had zero morning sickness and felt great the entire time I was pregnant.  I had massive swelling everywhere.  Picture the scene from Harry Potter where he accidentally blows-up his aunt, that's what I felt like.  The swelling only got worse after she was born and didn't go away for at least a month.  It was bad.

With Susanna I haven't had any food aversions I just haven't wanted to eat anything.  In the beginning, every time I ate I would feel sick so I had to resort to small bland meals that gave me lots of protein.  Let's just say I went through a lot of peanut butter.  I've been more tired, had more aches & pains and definitely more sickness with her too.  It's only been in the last 2 months that I have started feeling normal but then the insomnia kicks in and I feel horrible once again.  This time around I have had no swelling at all.  My best guess as to why is that she figures that I have suffered enough.

There are some similarities though.  I carried both of them very high.  While it was me vs. Claire's foot for control of my rib cage, Susanna has only just found it and is not to fond of living there, which is fine by me.  With both girls I cannot get enough root beer.  While I drink more water than should be humanly possible, anywhere between 70 and 100 ounces a day, I crave root beer.  With Claire I also craved watermelon.  The last month I was prego with her I was eating at least 2 a week.  Susanna has been baked goods.  Anything with pastry, cream cheese and fruit filling doesn't stand a chance with me in the room.

With that said, I'll move on to weight.  Just to give you an idea of my normal size I'm just shy of 5'6" and usually weigh around 130.  My total weight gain with Claire was 38 pounds and she was an 8 lb 8 oz baby.  So far with Susanna I have gained 21 pounds and she will probably be between 6.5 and 7 lbs.  Big difference people!

Here are some pictures for a good comparison.  In both I am about 37 weeks.

Claire

Susanna

I think the most noticeable difference is in my face.  I was so swollen with Claire it really made me look more tired than I was.  With Susanna, I'm exhausted but look great.  I guess it's a trade-off.

This is my last week of being pregnant.  Yippee!!  I will have a c-section on Friday and finally get to meet the baby girl who I'm sure will be the complete opposite of her sister.  For those of you wondering, I had to have a cesarean with Claire therefore Susanna has to come that way too.  I didn't pick the date though.  Some things should be left up to a higher power and in this case that was my doctor.

~ Andrea