Both of my pregnancies were planned.

With my daughter we had been trying for about 6 months before getting pregnant. Prior to this I had a miscarriage and we lost the baby around 6 weeks, so I wasn’t actually sure I could even carry a healthy baby to term. With my son, we had been trying for a few months before getting pregnant. We knew we wanted to have two kids close in age and they are 21 months apart.

We told our family pretty much as soon as we found out with each pregnancy with a simple phone call. After a miscarriage though, you are nervous to share with others so we waited until we hit the 3rd trimester to announce to friends and social media. Both times we came up with cute pictures to share the kid’s excitement about being big brothers and sisters.

The second trimester was by far the most enjoyable for me. I had a ton of energy, no sickness or headaches, and worked out every day.

My must have each day of pregnancy was a yogurt parfait. I actually was a vegan for a few years prior to getting pregnant so I thought it was super interesting that yogurt was something I had to have (and currently still must have daily!)

Yes, both times.

Not technically a complication but my daughter’s head was measuring behind her body so we had to get high risk ultrasounds every few weeks to check on it. Everything turned out fine (and her larger head actually increased the amount of time I was in labor!)

Both pregnancies happened naturally

With my daughter the total time for labor was 12 hours. I labored at home only 30 minutes until my water broke and we went to the hospital. Once we got there, and I got my epidural, I went from 4cm dilated to 10 fairly quickly. I wound up pushing for 3 hours! With my son, labor was 8 hours. Contractions started around 2AM and we headed into the hospital at 7am and I was only 2 cm dilated. They had me wait an hour to see if they’d admit me and within that hour I went to 10 cm and my water broke! My plan was to get an epidural again but it was too late! I felt the immediate need to push and was in a panic. The doctors and nurses rushed me down to my room and told me that I had to hold it or I would push the baby out in the hallway!! The room wasn’t even ready for us when we got there and everyone was rushing. By the time we got in the room and 2 pushes later, 5 minutes had past and we had my son!

The first time, the pushing was the toughest for me. I believe my epidural was too strong so I couldn’t feel any contractions at all so I wasn’t working with them. Our hospital was so busy that I rarely saw my doctor, nurses came in and out and at one point we had no one in the room with us.

No

Arianna Corinne: Born 12/23 20 inches 6lbs 7oz at 1:32pm Isaiah James: Born 9/5 20 inches 6lbs at 10:38am

I would say the doubt you have that you’re doing the right thing. I constantly questioned myself and felt worried and nervous all around. Breastfeeding was tough with my first and I remember crying a lot about it. Luckily we were able to breastfeed 19 months! With my second my worries were still there but a lot less and honestly, the hardest part was balancing taking care of my other kids. With my son though, around 3 months I began to experience post partum anxiety (and currently still am struggling a bit) which made things really hard and I began to have all those doubts all over again.

Reach out to other moms who have kids like you. I found so much comfort in finding the right mom groups on Facebook. Those ladies were up when I was and made me feel less alone.

Spend some time now doing some things for you and finding a close circle of moms to spend time with.

I never even wanted to be a parent and now I know God had this laid out for me. I love being a mom but it’s hard. I am so thankful for the opportunity to spend time with these little people every day and make sure I stop to find the joy in the little moments (even when things are crazy!)