5.9.26 | 💛 How I Prepared For A Second (HG) Pregnancy

Welcome to The Weekend Edit, a Saturday ritual from The Good Trade featuring our top 10 reads of the week and a letter from one of our editors.

Happy Mother’s Day weekend!

I had my first daughter five years ago, at the peak of the pandemic, and she blew my life and heart wide open.

At the time of her conception, we hadn’t planned on having children for several more years and I was preparing for an egg freezing cycle. I was managing a young business and team, and my husband had a demanding, travel-heavy job. We loved our life in Los Angeles and felt in no rush to change it.

I also carried a long-held fear of pregnancy.

My mom had undiagnosed Hyperemesis Gravidarum through all of her pregnancies. HG is a severe, genetic pregnancy complication, often life-threatening, marked by relentless nausea, vomiting, dehydration, weight loss, and hospitalizations.

As the oldest child, I witnessed much of my mom’s pain and losses firsthand. I often wondered, if I faced the same condition myself: Would I lose my babies? Would I lose myself?

But life shifted in 2020. By March we were in lockdown, and by April I realized something unexpected: if I also became ill during pregnancy, there might never be a more private time to go through it. I was suddenly working from home, and my husband was no longer traveling.

In early May, on the morning of my 30th birthday, I got on my knees and welcomed my future children to come through. I remember feeling the spirit of at least one baby hovering over my right side. I told them that if it was their time, I was ready to love and care for them with all my heart.

So on my birthday, we decided to try one time and a few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant.

I did, in fact, develop HG, as have all the women in my immediate family. My case was comparatively mild by clinical standards, but it took me years to recover physically and emotionally.

And yet, around my daughter’s fourth birthday, the longing returned. Loving her had expanded my life in ways fear never could. I began to feel, deeply and persistently, that there was another spirit baby eager to come through.

Here’s what I did before getting pregnant for a second time: ...