Baby Number 2!

Surprise! I'm pregnant! I was going to do something cute to make the announcement, like have a picture of Ingrid wearing a “big sister” tee or something. But unfortunately, I’m so sick I can barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom most days. I have Hyperemesis Gravidarum, like I did when I was pregnant with Ingrid. I like to call it the princess Kate disease, since nobody (other than those unfortunate enough to have the disease) had really heard much about it until Kate Middleton had it for all of her pregnancies. It’s also sometimes called extreme morning sickness. And it’s grossly extreme. While pregnant with Ingrid I lost 10 lbs in 10 days and ended up having to go to the ER for for severe dehydration. I’ll spare you any of the gory details beyond that, partly because no one deserves to read that unsuspecting on social media while their probably eating lunch or something. I then spent the rest of my pregnancy on strong anti-nausea medication that only slightly helped, but it did allow me to keep enough down to stay hydrated and not need regular IV rehydration (like many HG sufferers have to undergo). As a semi-crunchy person, I never imagined being on drugs my entire pregnancy, but now feel very thankful to live in a time when these drugs are available. Before they were, many women with HG would miscarry or even die during pregnancy.

So I realize that this pregnancy announcement has become less, “yay! Baby! We’re so happy, blah, blah, blah,” and more about a disease that you’ve probably never heard of. But I guess I wanted to talk about it for a few reasons.

Because it only affects 1% of pregnant women, it is largely undiscussed and isn’t even studied that much. Even among health professionals you’ll find many that don’t fully understand it and are far from empathetic when dealing with patients who have it. Like the nurse, while I was pregnant with Ingrid, who told me, I just wasn’t trying hard enough to keep more food down, and FYI she wasn’t nauseous when she was pregnant with twins! And this is frankly a pretty mild story compared to some of the one’s I hear on HG forums. Because of this, it can be extremely isolating. I was lucky enough to have midwives who were very understanding, and 2 other moms in my birth group last time who also had it. And it was beyond comforting to be able to commiserate with people who truly understood what I was experiencing.

Another reason I wanted to discuss it is because like with so many of the issues regarding women’s reproductive health, and motherhood it’s often minimized or not talked about. Every woman has a very personal, and sometimes difficult journey in this area, whether is is infertility, miscarriage(s), ectopic pregnancy, HG, pregnancy sciatica, prolapsed uterus, post-partum depression, traumatic births, premature births, the list goes on. Having a child can be rough! We’re often expected to just talk about the good, how happy and thankful we are, the “glow” of pregnancy, the bliss of a newborn. When in reality each woman’s experience can be so different. I’m really happy if your pregnancy or road to get pregnant was easy or delightful. I know that happens too. But we need to have a space for all experiences to be discussed. Because while I am very happy and thankful to be welcoming a new baby to our family, I also really, really hate being pregnant. I feel depressed and angry and alone and hormonal and sick! So, so sick!

This brings me to the last reason I wanted to use my entire pregnancy announcement to discuss how awful I feel. This business is a very small, family run business. And events like this end up really affecting our small team. Everyone has been working overtime to fill in here and there for me while I’m sick. And I’ve been trying to get at least a little work done every day, but it’s been difficult. We really want to thank our customers for sticking by us during this time and supporting a small business like ours. We apologize if our response rate has been a little slower on here and through email. We are doing everything we can to bring you and your little ones their goodies as quickly and efficiently as we can. We are not Amazon and I know you don’t expect us to be, but we also pride ourselves on providing our customers with the best service we can.

In conclusion, baby #2 coming July 2018! Whoo hoo!

And I’m posting a picture of Ingrid when she was a baby, because for me, this is the light at the end of the tunnel.