The female body is so amazing and being pregnant truly makes a woman appreciate their body more than ever- at least for me it does.  I LOVE being pregnant.  It’s such an amazing journey and it really brings you and your partner closer together (not that Jeremy and I need to be any closer than we already are with our home life and work life).

Every pregnancy is different just like every situation that brought you to that moment will be different.  Ours was expensive and I always like to say that Jeremy had to experience it a little differently than most men.  We always knew we wanted to have a child together and share in the experience since our pasts were not what you would call ideal.  We both deserved that chance whether it could happen or not.  So, four hours of surgery and eleven thousand dollars later, Jeremy had a vasectomy reversal to get the process started.  We were given a ninety percent chance of being able to get pregnant after the first year of the reversal, which is phenomenal.  Of course, I wanted to be pregnant within the first two minutes because I’m impatient as hell.  I remember buying TONS of pregnancy tests to take every single month after he was given the okay to have sex again.  I would get so discouraged after taking the tests every month.  Then along came April, just four months after his reversal.  April was different.  I had just finished a fitness photoshoot super early in the morning and was feeling a little off.  I went home and took another test expecting to get the same discouraging, negative result, but ended up taking three different tests that all said POSITIVE – with a smiley face – and I couldn’t believe it; nor could I keep it a secret.  I immediately called Jeremy, who was just walking into work, and he had to go back to his car to cry tears of joy so no one saw him.  And so, our journey began.

The First Trimester

The first trimester goes by so fast, but yet so slow at the same time.  Morning sickness is what makes it linger.  And it wasn’t just morning sickness for me.  It was all day – morning, mid-morning, afternoon, evening, in the middle of the night.  So much fun!  My six o’clock in the morning workouts didn’t happen very often.  I just had to squeeze them in during the day when I was the least nauseous.  I tried my best to stick to my routine and continue eating healthy, but for a while I lived on gluten-free bread, oatmeal, and soup.  Even though I loved being pregnant, I couldn’t wait to get to the second trimester.

The Second Trimester

I had a ton of anticipation in the second trimester.  From impatiently waiting to find out the gender to waking up every day wondering when I was going to feel him move.  By the middle of my second trimester the morning sickness had subsided quite a bit, but new, fun things began to happen; leg cramps, heartburn, headaches, lightheadedness, feeling bloated ALL the time.  The cravings also began and you better believe I filled the void of those cravings every single time I felt the need!  I started craving pizza, chocolate, avocado toast, AND brussels sprouts with dijon mustard.  I know, weird, but it was so tasty!  At least most of my cravings were somewhat healthy, right?

The leg cramps were so annoying because they would happen at night when I was trying to fall asleep.  I started feeling restless and lethargic every morning which became very frustrating because I was just starting to finally get back into my early morning workout routine.  Now that I think about it, that’s probably what contributed to me having headaches and getting lightheaded almost every day.  Who knew!

Okay, onto the more positive notes from the second trimester.  We found out the gender which was so exciting (except for Brooklyn and Taylor who wanted ‘him’ to be a girl).  I finally started feeling him move – and let me just tell you, that’s a feeling you can never forget!  And my baby bump started growing towards the end of the second trimester so I finally started looking pregnant and not like I had just eaten twelve tacos and a whole pizza by myself.

The Third Trimester & Labor

Bring on the lack of sleep, nesting, and baby kicks!  So many different emotions and feelings filled the third trimester.  I was super hormonal during the last two months of pregnancy.  I would go from feeling so prepared to asking how the hell we were going to manage all of this with our work schedules and the kid’s sport’s schedules.  I would be so hyper and filled with energy one day and the next day feel like I was hit by a bus.  It was such a rollercoaster.  I had to stop doing double unders (jump rope for all you non-fitness peeps) or any running or jumping exercises during my workouts because I would always pee on myself!  Yeah – gross, but whatever, it’s a part of it.  I literally had to pee every five minutes and it drove me nuts, especially at night.  Waking up ten times in the middle of the night to pee is always going to make you feel like you had a good night’s rest… said no one ever!

We had a couple of false alarms, but alas, at 39 weeks – the day my physician performed a membrane sweep, we rushed to the hospital after eating Chipotle.  I was hardheaded and thought it was just going to be another false alarm, so I hid in my bedroom for a while, rocking back and forth with excruciating contractions.  Finally, doubled over, I packed my bag and yelled for Jeremy that it was time to go.

Let me stop to tell you my birth plan.  I told Jeremy way ahead of time that I was going to have a natural birth with no epidural because the last time I had an epidural it didn’t go very well.  I made sure he understood NOT to let me change my mind because I wanted to experience an all natural birth through the pain and all.

Now, fast forward to rushing to the hospital at 10:30 at night and being five to six centimeters dilated on arrival, the contractions were awful!  My blood pressure kept dropping to the point that I would pass out, I vomited, and I kept having to use the bathroom, but was hilariously afraid he would fall out if I did.  The physician broke my water at 1:30am, told me it would probably be a while because I was still only six centimeters dilated, and went back to his office to sleep.  I warned him ahead of time that when my water breaks, then it was going to be game time pretty quickly afterwards, but he laughed.  The contractions were so much worse and I had VERY little to absolutely NO time between each one at this point.  At about 1:50am I looked at Jeremy and furiously told him to get the nurses because I was ready for an epidural.  I couldn’t take the pain any longer.  He responds, “I can’t do that, Courtney, you told me not to let you get an epidural.”  I can’t remember what my exact response to him was, but just know that it was not very nice and it involved yelling.  I do remember telling him that he was being too slow and to hurry the heck up and do what I say!  The nurses came straight in to check how much I was dilated and looked at me with big eyes and said “I’m sorry, it’s too late for an epidural.  You’re almost ten centimeters.”  Literally the very next minute, I looked at the nurses and told them I needed to push.  They told me that it still wasn’t time, but my body said otherwise as all of the amniotic fluid gushed out.  I was already pushing before the doctor even made it back to my room.  I tried to tell him, didn’t I?!  Although the pushing only lasted for about ten to fifteen minutes, that was the most worthwhile pain I had ever experienced in my life and our little reversal baby was born!  Lleyton Rei Speicher was welcomed into the world on January 12, 2019 at a whopping five pounds, eight ounces.  It was love at first sight and I had never witnessed my husband being more proud of me than in that very moment.