Diary of a COVID pregnancy: 2 months
My husband and I are currently expecting our third baby.
In many ways, we’ve already ‘been here, done that’: pregnancy with a second or subsequent child is certainly different to the first time round when everything is new and unknown.
But every pregnancy is different – whether owing to symptoms, risk factors, or the current stage of your life, family and your resulting priorities. In our case, our daughters are now busy 5 and 3 year-olds, so the things we now spend our time doing are vey different to when I was pregnant first time round. Personally, since we had our last baby I have trained as a hypnobirthing instructor and childbirth educator, and am now fully immersed in the world of birth work in a way that gives me a new perspective to the one I had with my previous two pregnancies.
And of course, this time, we’re doing something that less than a year’s worth of parents will have done before us – preparing to meet our baby in the middle of a global pandemic.
This monthly diary intends to chart the ups, downs and questions we’re dealing with during this unique time. I hope I can offer other pregnant women an honest take on my thoughts and anxieties as they evolve, and as a hypnobirthing instructor, I hope I can share some insight about things I’m doing to manage them.
That’s the plan anyway. If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s to take things one step at a time, so we’ll see how this goes!
Weeks 5 – 8
Found out we’re expecting again! Given the date (July 4th), a true American baby! For various reasons we thought maybe our time was done and the decision to grow our family had been taken out of our hands, so we were thrilled to get the positive result. Now to get our heads around having a baby in the age of COVID…
After getting the positive test result, I called and got booked in with the hospital midwives practice we used with the girls. I’m not sure if that’s still going to be the right fit this time, but better to get on their books whilst I do some more research and make the pros and cons list. They had me in for an early ultrasound for dating purposes at 8 weeks. I was told they’re not doing them as standard at the moment (thanks COVID) but then a nurse from the practice called and based on a few different factors (wonky cycle length and technically being of ‘advanced maternal age’ this time round - ugh, such a horrible phrase!) I got the go-ahead. No one is allowed to come with you, which didn’t bother me too much as I knew what to expect, but I’m sure for a lot of women that must be really anxiety-inducing. Makes it harder for partners to feel involved too, I think. Fortunately all looks good and the estimated due date we were working to fits with the current size, so all well on that front.
Had a few days of mild nausea – usually in the later afternoon – so much for morning sickness! One day of feeling absolutely rotten – horribly nauseous, which is not something I’ve really had to contend with in my previous pregnancies. I know it’s a good sign that the hormones are doing their thing, but in the height of the Philly summer with two active kids running around, that wasn’t much consolation! I tried listening to a guided relaxation track for morning sickness, which was a helpful distraction, but fortunately the really strong symptoms didn’t last and were followed by a few days of feeling totally normal. Of course then my mind started spinning a ton of new questions: shouldn’t I be feeling rough? Does the fact that I’m ok mean that something’s wrong? Tried to remember what a midwife told me first time round – pregnancy isn’t an illness, so if you’re fortunate enough to feel well, enjoy it!
We’ve decided not to tell our families at the moment. With no face-to-face visits (thanks to COVID) there’s not much to hide, and it feels right to get a few more weeks under our belts before sharing the news. Also going to wait to tell the girls for a while – the 9 month-wait will be impossible for them, so we’ll buy ourselves as much time as we can! Quite like having this delicious secret just between the two of us for a little while!
Questions running round my head during these weeks:
Where should we have the baby this time? I’m not sure a hospital birth is the right fit for us this time round. I’ve made an appointment for 12 weeks to see the midwives at the hospital again, but need to look into other options in the meantime.
What’s the COVID situation going to be like by next spring?
How are we going to manage the logistics of the birth / childcare for the girls if we still can’t have family visits by then?
The due date falls in March – what if there’s a snowstorm when I’m in labor?!
