A Third Pregnancy After Two Miscarriages

I’m finally saying it out loud: I’m 15 and a half weeks pregnant with baby three. After two miscarriages, I didn’t expect to ever record this kind of announcement, and I definitely didn’t expect how complicated it would feel to share it. Pregnancy after loss changes you. It can take away the innocence, replace excitement with vigilance, and make every symptom and every quiet moment feel loaded. 

I walk through what 2025 looked like for us: drawn-out miscarriage management, the pressure of working and traveling while holding a private heartbreak, and the grief of losing my mom. That combination reshaped how I think about family planning and what I imagined our future “table” would look like. Then a Valentine’s Day oopsie turned into a positive test, and I was shocked, anxious, and honestly not ready to trust my body again. 

We also get practical about early pregnancy symptoms, why this first trimester felt harder, and what helped me feel more supported this time around. From choosing a provider who truly hears me to getting a dating ultrasound, NIPT planning, and the reassurance that comes from respectful timelines, I share what made a difference after a missed miscarriage. I also talk from an active pregnancy and pelvic floor perspective, including using supports earlier so I can keep moving in a way that feels safe and sustainable. 

If you’re navigating miscarriage, fertility, pregnancy after miscarriage, or the messy overlap of grief and joy, I hope this conversation makes you feel less alone. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more active moms can find Barbell Mamas.

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Transcript

Welcome And Medical Disclaimer

SPEAKER_00 0:11

My name is a public forces of the researcher and exercise and fight with the model of the two who has completed in classic or we'll see five minutes postcards or both women's podcasts. We want to talk about the realities of being a mom who loves to exercise. Whether you're a recreational exerciser or an athlete, we want to talk about all of the things that we go through as females going into this motherhood journey. We're going to talk about fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum topics that are relevant to the active individual. While I am a public floor physical therapist, I am not your public floor physical therapist, and know that this podcast does not substitute medical advice. All right, come along for this journey with us while we navigate motherhood together. And I can't

Announcing Baby Three At 15 Weeks

SPEAKER_00 1:05

wait to get to Hello everyone and welcome to the Barbell Mamas podcast. Christina Preva here. And today I have a very big announcement. Um, one that I never thought that I was going to be given to you. Um, on the time that this recording goes live, um, I am announcing that I am actually 15 and a half weeks pregnant with baby three. And my previous miscarriages and my previous pregnancies and my journey around trying to get pregnant with baby three is something that I have been very open about. And you may know that me having this podcast episode at 15 weeks is a very different vibe and switch for me. And so I wanted to do this podcast to open up a little bit about this pregnancy, um, talk about, you know, signs, symptoms, um, and all that type of jazz. Um, but just also kind of go to the emotional side of this pregnancy. So for those that have been following me for a really long

A Brutal Year Of Loss And Grief

SPEAKER_00 2:15

time, um, I'm gonna try and get through this podcast without crying. I'm not making any promises, but I had a really hard 2025. Like we found out that my mom had stage four small cell carcinoma in March and her life expectancy median was 14 months. Um, that was around the time that I was having a really tough time with my first miscarriage. Um, I had persistent, I had done expectant management where I just kind of did this wait and see because I had had so much bleeding at seven and a half weeks. Um, but it was not until April, May, like right after my mom's diagnosis, that finally my HCG had gone back to zero. So from kind of November when I had had that loss to May, like six months, I was managing my first miscarriage. And I've talked to you all about why I thought that miscarriage happened. I had an IUD in, I took the IUD out day five of my cycle. I got pregnant day 15 of that cycle. And I think I just had a slight injury from the removal of the IUD. That was no fault of my clinicians at all. Um, was just a, you know, when you they pull it out, there's potentially a blood pocket that was there. And so I had a lot large subcorionic hematoma. I was going for constant blood work, like you're dealing with that loss. I travel and I'm on the road. So I was, you know, in the throes of this miscarriage while I was on courses. And like, you know, I had people who were willing to cover for me, but I am the sole uh earner in my household because Nick, my husband, is predominantly a stay-at-home parent. And so there was just a lot that was going on early 2025 that really like set it off with a bang, you know? Um, and so I was um, you know, trying to deal with my mom's diagnosis. My miscarriage management was a nightmare. In July, my dog dies unexpectedly. Like we had literally walked him down the to the bus stop that day. And then we thought he had a bit of a cold because he was kind of like like gurgling with and he ended up having this huge mass in his chest and his heart and lungs were deviated, and he seemed fine, and we had to put him down. And my daughter screaming, I don't want to say goodbye to my dog. We'll live in my nightmares forever. And so that was our July. And then we thought we had some positive news, and I got pregnant in August, just as I accepted an adjunct teaching position for the fall term, um, which was gonna be kind of chaotic being in the first trimester and also teaching a new course, but seemed like it was all good stuff. Um, and then in the turn, like the throes of my busiest um, you know, between, you know, traveling for coursework, et cetera, I had my second miscarriage. My mom went into hospital at the end of November and she died beginning of December. And so 2025 sucked. And with that, like when you're going through really tough moments and you're going through a lot of grief, there's a lot of reflection that happens. You know, my kids now are seven and four. And Nick and I had gone back and forth a ton about do we want this third baby? And, you know, for me, it was this table, like this idea of what our table was going to look like in 10 years. And for some reason, I just could not get it away from my mind that there was this third child that was at this table. But after a year of legitimate hill from, you know, from obstetrical-related factors, but then, you know, also, you know, my worst nightmare where my mom made it nine months instead of 14 months. And we just decided, you know, I'm not gonna force this. You know, we have two very healthy kids at home. Um, I kind of put a cap on myself that, you know, 35, 36 was when we were gonna kind of finish up our family planning because I had started at 29. And it was not that you cannot have babies later. It was just that I kind of put this time zone in my mind about NYX and my family planning journey. And I told my mom that, you know, when she was sick. And, you know, she said, you have two hands and you have two healthy babies. It is okay. And I think that is, oh gosh, that is the part that has crushed me a lot in this journey. And so, you know, 2026 happens and we are starting to be okay with that decision. And we're like, you know what? We are good, our kids are healthy, we are a family of four. We might try and prioritize traveling a little bit more because traveling as a family of five is possible, but a little bit more challenging. And, you know, we were kind of in this active grieving of everything that 2025 was in 2026, and we're and we're still in that grief zone, right? My mom passed away less than six months ago, and so then I feel like we're every literal cliche where a um Valentine's Day oopsie leads to a pregnancy test positive pregnancy test at the beginning of March, and I am in complete shock,

Unplanned Pregnancy After Miscarriage Trauma

SPEAKER_00 7:18

right? And and I I want to be aware that you know we Nick and I have never had a problem getting pregnant. Um, and I'm very thankful for that. Um, but I have my own traumas of like not being able to stay pregnant um over 2025. And so when you get pregnant and it is unplanned, you tell your mom on her deathbed that like this baby wasn't coming, um, and you don't trust your body anymore to stay pregnant. Um it is it is such a weird experience to have. And somebody said, you know, after loss, you lose the the innocence of pregnancy. And my goodness, do I feel that in my soul, in my bones, um, about about what that experience is. And so I didn't say anything because one, I did not trust that my body was gonna stay pregnant. Um and two, I was still in such an active grief spot that the thought of sharing that with anybody um was a huge challenge for me. And I am a person who is very open, but like, gosh, I just felt like there was just so much sadness around my page, like around 2025. And I wanted to be very open about that, but with that also become so much vulnerability, like so much vulnerability, and you know, it it was just it was just tough. And so until I felt like I had processed everything, I just didn't say anything. Um, and you know, people who knew me, people who see me day to day, you know, fifth pregnancy, third baby, it is tough to hide. And that had its own challenges because, you know, I'm showing so much more this pregnancy than my previous losses, which just showed that I had had that loss and I had had a missed miscarriage with my second, where the baby had stopped growing at eight weeks and I didn't start bleeding until almost 13 weeks. I was like 12 plus five when I lost the baby the second time around, which you think you're in the safe zone and then you're not. And I had a lot of feelings because my midwife team missed the the dating ultrasound, which would have found that miscarriage. And so I felt like there was a lot of um dismissiveness of my loss and in my obstetrical care. And, you know, there was a lot to unpack. Um, but I felt awful and I was showing. Um, this was my hardest first trimester, which you know also has its own conflicts because when you feel like trash, like you feel like you're still pregnant. And so I was exhausted from week four. Like literally as soon as I found out, and I said to my husband, I'm like, am I just making this up? Like I know that symptoms in the first trimester tend to peak at week six, but I legit peed on that stick and it was positive before I had even flushed the toilet. And so we he because it was so positive so fast, my husband thought it was a false positive. And, you know, um, you know, there was a lot of joking that it was twins because um my HCG was just rising so beautifully and so intensely, which caused me to have really early um first trimester symptoms. And so my peak first trimester symptoms were week four to week 10, 10 and a half for the fatigue piece. And then my I actually threw up this pregnancy, which I have had nausea, but I have not been throwing

Symptoms And Getting The Right Support

SPEAKER_00 10:52

up um except for this pregnancy until you know 11 and a half weeks. And so um we decided to go with my family doc. My family doc was on maternity leave in can in Canada. We have 12 to 18 months, and so she was on maternity leave, which is why I went the midwife route. And I, this is not anti-midwife at all. Um, I love our midwives. I just um tend to have I just had a provider that her and I just didn't, I don't I just didn't think that we jive, which is fine. Um, but I know that I jive with my family doc. And in that, um, I got my appointment to see my doc positive pregnancy test literally at four weeks on the day. Um, saw my provider confirmed pregnancy test for them four and a half weeks, got my blood work done the next week, got a confirmation of receipt of referral for my ultrasound, dating ultrasound by the time end of day, four and a half weeks in. I got that appointment for eight weeks on the dot, which was post my first miscarriage, so that you know, I had that confirmation and then got my NIPT second ultrasound booked for 13 weeks, which was directly after my second miscarriage and loss. And I will never be able to fully express how having that support and just knowing that those timelines were there and that those previous losses and where my stress and anxiety was around having previous losses was respected. Um, it is just such an overwhelmingly positive experience when you have that. And so um I said I wasn't gonna tear up and now I am. But anyways, so my first trimester was there with like tons of symptoms, not really trusting in my body, trying to be excited, but having a hard time being excited, having processed that we were not gonna have baby three, and then unexpectedly unplanned being pregnant with baby three. It has, you know, its own set of emotions, like telling my mom that I wasn't gonna get pregnant, and now my mom's not here for this pregnancy, like has its own like set of emotions. And like it's it's so interesting now. Being in the second trimester, we had our 13-week ultrasound and everything was perfect. Um, and I hope that everything stays perfect, and I am not naive now to think that like I'm out of the woods completely, but I I am in a safer zone. Um there was just a lot to process, and so I am in a place now where I am incredibly excited that I am ready to share this pregnancy with the world. And I I've had kind of a bit of

Signs Healing And The Double Rainbow

SPEAKER_00 13:34

a shift of reflection. Um, I think I told you all on a podcast about my second loss. When I was going through my second loss, my mom was still with us. There was a double rainbow that went over our house and framed our house. We've never we've been there for three years. We've never seen a rainbow at all. And there was this double rainbow that literally looked like it was on either side of our house, just framing our house. And I sat out there with my kids, and it was a really like healing moment, you know, being in the throes of a second miscarriage to, you know, just see this beauty. And I don't know if anybody uh who is listening to this is spiritual or religious or believes in universe signs, but you know, for me, it just felt like this this sign, like this healing sign from the universe. And but it was an interesting sign because if you are in the birth space, you know that a rainbow baby is having a pregnancy after a loss. And a double rainbow baby is, you know, you're having this pregnancy after a second loss, like you have had two losses. And so this double rainbow is a signal of pregnancy after. And I remember thinking at the time, like, oh, you know, signs aren't always perfect. We're not gonna try for another baby, but you know, it's just showing that these babies are okay. Um, and again, like you're gonna think that I'm really insane, but um, I actively started miscarrying the same day that Jane Goodall died. And I just think Jane Goodall was just like this saint on earth who just did so much good for the environment and grassroots stuff. And so, you know, I'm like, well, maybe, maybe there's there's these people here that are overlooking my my my babies that are up in wherever they go. Um and so where I guess I have shifted is one, the universe was telling me something different, and the side really was as clear-cut as uh I thought. And um there's I guess just this belief that my mom was like the one who knew, and like my mom was looking over this baby, and like as much as I had a lot of trepidation, there was just this deep-rooted awareness that this baby was gonna be okay. And it's so interesting, right? To to have that. Um, like you can be on such opposite sides of the pendulums where you know, you have had these losses, but somehow, like in my bones, there was this piece of me that was like, I really think my mom is looking over this baby, and I think that this baby's gonna be okay. And so I have this 13-week ultrasound, and um baby was acting perfect, like it was so easy for her to grab the measurements and like babe was being all cute and like stretching out and like kicking out and just look like it was just so cozy in there, and you know, there was just so much um healing that happened

Second Trimester Plans Due Date Details

SPEAKER_00 16:34

in both of those ultrasounds. My husband's obviously been with me for a lot of these now. Third baby, you're just like kind of going through the steps, but third baby after two losses is such a different dynamic. Um, and so we are now in the second trimester. All right, so baby is due in November, and I'm really excited about that. Um, it puts all of our kids in very different times of the uh calendar year, right? My daughter was born in April, my husband, all right, my son was born in uh August, August, and then uh this third baby will be a winter baby in November. There's gonna be a much bigger age gap. My daughter just turned seven, my son will be five, and this baby will be caught into the mix um of dogs and chickens and and a very chaotic life. Um, but that means that this baby's gonna be surrounded by so much love. And so um I am sharing all of my thoughts and opinions um about this from a public floor perspective. It's definitely felt harder this pregnancy. Um, I have used supports earlier, like pessaries for running and things like that, to keep myself as active as possible. Um, but I am still incredibly thankful for everything that my body is doing. Um, I'm filming this a bit early because my husband and I are in Greece right now for a baby moon when we got our confirmed eight-week appointment. So this is a really quick turnaround. Um, one, we're like, oh my gosh, we're gonna be a family of five. Um, and traveling is gonna be really tough. Um, two, we thought that we were just gonna take the trip. My mom was supposed to go on a Mediterranean cruise. And literally an hour before um they were supposed to leave on their vacation, they got an imaging report that said my mom's um cancer kind of metastasized to her brain, so they had to cancel her appointment or her their vacation. And she was um, she was dead three weeks later. And so um

Babymoon For Mom And Closing Thanks

SPEAKER_00 18:46

this one's gonna be for my mom. It's like a grieving trip. Um, and it's also a baby boom. And so just trying to, now that we're kind of in more of the safer zone, not safe, but safer, um, we're gonna try and just pour all the love we can into this pregnancy and just uh try and hold the anxiety at bay as much as possible and um be able to just uh feel joy in this pregnancy because it will be my last one. Um and yeah, start to be able to share the journey of this pregnancy with you all a little bit more. So um for those that have been with me for my entire journey this past couple of years, I am just so thankful for you all. I have had so much outpouring of love um for those that are on their own miscarriage and loss journey, and the thought of my pregnancy announcement is uh one that it has pain with it. Um I'm sorry. Um, and and feel free to kind of mute my account, though my account does talk about pregnancy a lot, and so um that there the change in my content is going to be minimal. Um, except you're gonna see my pregnant belly in my pregnancy content now. Um, but yeah, um thank you all so much for following with this journey. Um, more to come. And we'll talk to you all soon.