Nope, not Twins... It's a 4th Pregnancy!

Yay!!

They say that with every subsequent pregnancy, you show earlier.  With my first, people couldn’t tell I was pregnant until 20 weeks.  With my 2nd, I started to show around 17 or 18.  With my third, I was popping out around 12 and noticeable around 13.  I thought, with number four, maybe 10 or 11 weeks, people could start to see bump.  I had heard that I would be surprised at how quickly I pop with four… apparently, four is some magic pregnancy number where crazy stuff happens.

They weren’t kidding!!

I found out I was pregnant at 5 weeks.  I have never tested positive until at least 5 days after I was due.  It was the same this time.  I thought this time, I would take a before picture.  So here I am at 5 weeks:

Then I literally woke up on week 6 with a bump!

Then by week 7 I started to think that maybe there was more than one in there.

But the more I researched and talked to friends who had 4 all said that they showed super early too.  Here I was at week 8:

Then by week 11, I really started retaining water on my arms… And the bump GOT HUGE!!!  I got really self conscious!!

Then at week 12:

I got so depressed about it, that I stopped taking pictures for the next while.  I felt like a freak of nature.  I wasn’t gaining a ton of weight, which was good, but I looked it!!  But at week 12 I was okayed to start running again and the bloat started to go away a bit.  Here I am at 14 week, you can see the bloat has gone down a TON!!  The belly is still there, but I didn’t feel like a fatty as much.

Then of course, here I am at 16 weeks:

You can still see some swelling in my upper arms and my face… but aside from that, I am all belly.  Luckily, my doctor said that it is all normal for my 4th to get so big so fast, and now it seems my belly size has stabilized for now.  It is still a little embarrassing, because I am measuring like I am over 22 weeks… and I have no reasonable explanation other than it’s my forth.  The pregnancy symptoms all come on a lot earlier — like heartburn, braxton hicks, some sciatic pain (but not so bad I can’t run), and the exhaustion!!!  Tired all the time!!  Aside from those things, I am truly blessed to not have the morning sickness!  And honestly, it hasn’t been that rough of a pregnancy.  Also, the awesome thing about the 4th is that you feel the baby move SUPER EARLY!!  I started feeling flutters around week 13!  And now at week 17, Ben can even feel the kicks.  Awesome.

So, I am getting over my pride at feeling huge and just trying to enjoy this pregnancy for what it is.  A new life that I am creating inside and a whole future of amazing possibilities!

-Cat