Dare to Compare

Now that we've had the anatomy scan, everyone wants to know if this pregnancy feels "different" since we're having a boy after having a girl.  Well, I have noticed several differences, even though these would be specific to me, and probably not to the general population.  And no, the heartbeat has never been an indicator for me--it was the same for Emily and this baby from the get go--175 at the start, dropping to 150-ish by 15 weeks, and around 140 by the 20 week mark. 
And the thing is, I have known without a doubt that this baby is a boy from the minute that test showed me 2 lines on Valentine's Day.  Mother's intuition?  Probably.  Because it's not that I was hoping and praying for a boy--believe me, with all the girl stuff we have, I would have been great with another girl--it's just that I never wavered from the absolute truth that this baby would be male.  So maybe I noticed the differences between the pregnancies more clearly because of knowing that I was having a different sex before the technician waved her magic wand.
I can sum up the differences in three words:  hair, smells, and crying.
1)  HAIR:  With Emily, I had that "glow".  My hair grew 3 feet in those 9 months (not really, but it seemed that way!).  It was shiny, silky, never frizzy.  With this pregnancy, my hair is falling out at a rate that would equal baldness in about a year and a half.  It's not that shiny, it's in a ponytail most days since it's not that lustrous, and there's no "glow".
2)  SMELLS:  With all of my pregnancies, some smells were commonly bad, whether it was a boy or girl:  no meat cooking, no burning stuff, and....did I mention the meat?!  Bacon, hamburger, sausage, it was ALL bad and sent me running to the toilet for some quality bowl hugging time.  But with Emily, those aversions started to calm down by 15 weeks and pretty much stayed away.  With this one, I can smell a brush fire from 5 miles away and it completely shuts me down.  In the car, I'm like "Tim!  Do you smell that?!  Oh, god, that's awful!  Oh, I can't take it!" and he usually responds something like "We drove past the county dump 17 miles ago, you gotta calm down".  Let's just say that my sense of smell has become (and stayed) extremely sensitive.
3) CRYING:  Yes, I was emotional at the beginning of my pregnancy with Emily because of the rush of hormones.  But with a boy, I am off the charts.  Every commercial causes me to tear up:  the Beneful commercial with the black lab chasing the tennis ball, the Pampers "every baby is special" one, previews for "A Baby Story", etc.  Country songs on the radio get me going, and don't get me started about the "love that got away" songs....I am a disaster.  When Emily skins a knee or gets her booster shots, I have had to leave the room in tears.  It's just pitiful!  And I'm dehydrating!