Growing Our Family

Surprise! Baby #2 is on the way and we couldn’t be more excited to share the news that we’re growing our little family. If you’ve been following along for awhile now, you know that the past 6 months have been chaotic (and wildly exciting) to say the least. I left a career that I had worked at for a decade, said goodbye to weekly blogging and social media influencing, started my dream job, London turned 1, and we got a puppy! And well… in the midst of that, I also found out that I’m pregnant!

Now, let me back things up a bit and begin from the moment I took that little pregnancy test out of the box in my upstairs bathroom. We had just gotten Penny (our 10-week old black bear coat Shar Pei) the week before on a whim after stumbling upon a Facebook post saying that she was in need of a home. Originally, before we lost Oliver and I switched careers, we had planned to get pregnant again around the time London turned 1. When his birthday rolled around, I was still breastfeeding, so I didn’t have my cycle back and we just decided to soak in our time with him a little longer and wait.

During our trip to Charleston, SC to celebrate my 29th birthday, I was surprised to find that my cycle had returned and not long after that I was feeling pretty queasy, more exhausted than normal, and just horribly bloated. I didn’t think much of it until my older sister was visiting for the weekend (who is also pregnant) and she asked me, “are you pregnant?” I waved it off saying there was practically no way and a few hours later I figured I should just take the leftover pregnancy test sitting in my bathroom drawer, “just to be sure”. I was utterly shocked at the results.

Hands shaking and in total disbelief, I took the positive pregnancy test to my sister to show her and only about a minute later Sam was walking up the stairs with London where I shared the news with them. Neither Sam nor I was expecting to get pregnant so quickly with baby #2 based on our last time around struggling with infertility. It was an incredibly bittersweet moment; being so overjoyed at the news of another little baby growing inside of me, and a little sad for London feeling like all of a sudden I hadn’t had enough time dedicated to only him. Needless to say, the Mom guilt hasn’t subsided entirely, but I know that ultimately he’ll be grateful to have a sibling to grow up with so close in age.

At the moment of writing this, I’m 18 weeks pregnant! We found out that I was pregnant around 5 weeks, had some complications just like my experience with London where I was bleeding in the first trimester, crying at nearly every appointment, constantly getting lab work done, adjusting my thyroid medication, and praying that this baby would make it through. At 13 weeks, we found out that we are having another boy! And honestly, even though that’s what we were both hoping for, the news was shocking because this pregnancy has just been so vastly different from my last one.

Almost since the moment I found out I was pregnant, I started getting sick (and still am). I finally learned the true meaning of “all day nausea” and understood when women would get irritated by anyone calling it “morning sickness” (spoiler: it’s not just in the morning). I am now the quintessential pregnant lady throwing up in a plastic bag in the car, running to the bathroom during get-togethers with friends, and stashing ginger chews in my purse anytime I leave the house.

As far as cravings go, aside from the rare urge to eat Indian as quickly as I possibly can, food has been less than appealing this time around. Let me just translate that: everything is gross. My morning routine of sipping on a mug of black coffee halted around 7 weeks, meat in particular makes me gag, and snacking has been non-existent. Right now, the only things that are in my daily routine are bone broth, fresh celery juice, protein bars, and smoothies. Everything else has been a struggle to keep down, but I’ve still been gaining weight just fine so far and baby is healthy, so that’s all that matters.

At 18 weeks, we are nearly halfway through this pregnancy and I’m just trying to soak up every single moment of it - nausea and all. While caring for London and keeping up with life’s responsibilities, some days without the nausea I totally forget that I’m pregnant. It’s not all prenatal yoga, shopping for baby clothes, and taking weekly photos of my growing bump. So, because my time and energy are more limited this time around, it makes me appreciate every little belly flutter and reminder of our future son even more. It is such a blessing to be able to carry another baby and it’s not lost on me how precious this experience is. Our plan is to keep our family small with two little ones, so if this is my last time experiencing pregnancy, I want to remember it and cherish it as the special season it is.

While I won’t be sharing as much as I did last time around publicly (mainly because I’ve got my hands full), we still appreciate all the love and are just as excited to celebrate this news with you all. Thanks for reading and sharing in our special announcement! xo Anna Elizabeth

Thank you to Ali with Alisandra Photography for capturing these precious photos to celebrate this milestone!