So now that the secret is out, here we go—the Clarks are expecting little Clark lady #2 at the end of July! And I know you're wanting an update, so buckle in.
We are already 21 weeks and some change into this shindig and let me tell you, I've never been so happy to be feeling halfway normal in my life! The first 20 weeks of this pregnancy were a trip, that is for sure. Now, don't get me wrong—I'm still not 100% on the mend yet. For example, just yesterday morning I'd basically barely opened up my eyes before my head was in the toilet, so it's not all rainbows around here yet. But it HAS been better, and we are just thankful for progress!
By week 6 things were still pretty even keeled. Other than a few mild symptoms—I literally couldn't even think about coffee, I was tired more than usual (maybe because of lack of coffee) and I had some other slight aversions—it was fairly smooth sailing. I was actually lacking symptoms more than I'd anticipated and started to wonder if everything was okay. With Arden, I was 10/10 sick almost immediately. Everything just seemed much more dramatic much faster the first time around.
Our first appointment and ultrasound was December 7th where they confirmed little bit was in there, heart was beating strong and he/she was rolling around happy as a clam.
I keep a note on my phone of my symptoms week by week, and about week 7 was when I started to feel truly terrible all day long without much of a break. That's around the time I called my doc in desperation and learned that the nausea meds that saved me in my first pregnancy were no longer covered by insurance—and were $700 a bottle without it. I cried.
That week I started taking Unisom, a sleep aid my OB recommended for nausea. I was convinced it was garbage until I forgot to take it before bed one night. The next morning I quickly figured out that it is in fact not garbage. And even though I was still sick while taking it, I was definitely sick without it. It's only been a few weeks since I've finally been able to get away with skipping it every night.
At first I was surprised by how quickly I started to show. Then I realized that from when this photo ^^ was taken (week 8) until the photo below was taken (week 15) I didn't see much bump-growing action at all. Finally at about weeks 19-20 the belly made an appearance (which was around the time the first photo in this blog was taken). And now I can officially say that the "rubber band trick" (if you know, you know) no longer works and if the pants aren't maternity, I'm not wearing them. Period.
I told two or three really close friends I was expecting pretty early—mostly because I was feeling so sick I literally had to explain why I was not going to be at work. Haha. Turns out I was able to suck it up and get to the office on time just about every day, with the exception of a few.
We waited until Christmas to tell our families we were expecting—I was about 9 weeks along. We wrapped up a "Big Sister" shirt in Arden's size, our ultrasound photos and a little notecard and gave it to each set of parents for Christmas. The card says "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to say a baby is on the way! Baby Clark coming summer 2019."
2019 started out ROUGH for the Clarks. For starters, I got the flu...while pregnant...so no good meds were available to me and I was literally bedridden for five full days. Right after me, Drew got the flu. Then literally two days later he also tested positive for strep. Then Arden got the flu (by the way YES, we all three had the flu shot. I will continue to receive it annually, but will remain convinced that it is a scam). In the midst of all that, Arden got a bad stomach bug, and I got this terrible, awful cold that I couldn't shake for at least three full weeks. It has been a MESS of a first few months. So for our anniversary February 7th, I wanted to shake things up and do something fun. Not expensive (hello, baby on the way), not crazy, not cliche...just fun and unexpected.
I'd heard about this at-home gender test you can take, and I thought it would be a fun surprise for Drew, so I ordered it and waited for it to show up.
Basically you poke yourself, fill up a little vile with your blood and mail it off to some lab in California (seemed legit). From there, they test the sample and see if it registers any male DNA. If it does, you're having a boy. If it doesn't, you're having a girl. They email you your results directly, so my friend Hannah received the results to her email address on our behalf and was sweet enough to have the gender color baked into a cake.
One day Drew came home from work and there was a random white cake on our countertop. (I think I was about 15 or 16 weeks along.) Even with the "It's a..." cake topper on it, he still had no clue what was happening. When I explained that we were about to learn the baby's gender, he literally could NOT believe it. He was honestly very caught off guard and also very excited.
Before this cake basically fell into his lap, we hadn't really talked much about how we'd learn the gender. We knew we didn't want to do another big gender reveal party—which was SO fun, but we wanted something a bit more intimate this time. I think we both assumed we'd just find out at our anatomy scan in the doctor's office and that would be that. So again, Drew was pretty stunned.
We were both nervous/anxious for no reason. We knew we'd be happy either way, but I'd had so many dreams it was a boy that I'd started to get a feeling it was. Plus about 70% of the baby names on my list were boy names. But deep down I think I knew...
Baby Clark is a girl! Even though my symptoms onset a few weeks later this time than last time, there have been just about zero other differences between these two pregnancies. I've been sicker than a dog, couldn't even look at coffee or tea until around week 15, I get heartburn at the drop of a hat and I slept for a solid 12 hours a night for the first 12 weeks—all just like with Arden.
So Arden's gonna be a big sister! Does she understand what's happening? Barely. She "knows" there's a baby in mommy's belly—whatever the heck that means to her. She knows she's going to give her crib to the new baby, and she's getting a new big girl bedroom soon. She knows the ultrasound photo on the fridge is "baby belly mommy" and she knows that mommy can't carry her around as much because of the baby. But even though she can recite all that...she's still pretty confused and that's okay. She'll have all the time in the world to figure it out. And she's gonna rock it.
This kid is a mess, but man do I love her. She really couldn't be cuter or sweeter and she's going to share mommy and daddy like a champ.
And of course we are ALL already wondering what color hair little sis is going to have!
At our anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks everything came back normal and we confirmed that baby Clark is indeed a little lady. Unfortunately my quad screen test came back abnormal and we had to go see a maternal fetal specialist and have a level two ultrasound performed. It was scary. And I'll definitely follow up with that story soon and update you on what we found out.
Please check out that cute profile and that tiny little hand waving at us with five perfect fingers!
But for today Drew and I are just ecstatic to have been entrusted with this sweet baby girl. Drew was made to be a girl dad, and he truly can pick out outfits and matching bows with the best of them. I can't wait to see him front row at dance recitals or coaching the soccer team in a few years. He was made for this.
Do we have a name picked out? YES we think we do. Could it change tomorrow? For sure. So we are keeping it under wraps just like we did with Arden until she arrives. Come on July! We are already over the moon and beyond excited to meet our summertime girl.
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