Hellobee

I am now 28 weeks pregnant with our baby girl, entering the third trimester home stretch and getting increasingly anxious to meet her! We had a follow up ultrasound this week and she’s looking good. We never had a scan this late in my first pregnancy, and it was awesome to see her with so much more meat on her bones. Her little face looked so sweet I’m now considering splurging on one of those 3d ultrasounds just to get a better look!

Things have certainly been a little different with this pregnancy, so here’s a little update on what this one has been like so far, compared to the first:

The bump: I remember eagerly awaiting the appearance of a baby bump in those first 16 weeks or so of my pregnancy with Roman… taking pictures of the ever so slight, slow protrusion of my belly, anxious to look and feel “pregnant.” This time, I took the test and then said, “oh, so that’s why I’ve looked perpetually bloated the last couple of weeks!” I instantly looked pregnant, which is just fine with me; I do still love a nice baby bump… and boy is this a big one! (Though I haven’t taken nearly as many pictures of it yet.)

The rest of my body: It aches. The major adjustment this time around has been how much less physical activity I can endure. With Roman, I was walking a couple miles a day in mid summer DC weather quite comfortably up until the day my water broke. Not this time… not since I was barely half way through. I blame it on the back strain of caring for a toddler, and the loss of core strength from the first pregnancy that I never rebuilt. I’ve had a few dizzy spells and headaches contributing to what has been what I imagine as a more typical “feeling of being pregnant.” I’ve also been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions like crazy, something I barely noticed in my first pregnancy. So far I can say I am pleased to not be experiencing any of the intense leg cramps or middle of the night “charlie horses” that were my one complaint last time! Besides that I am so very fortunate with my pregnancies, this time I had even less nausea in the first trimester… meaning pretty much none. So I really cannot complain.

My relationship with food: I feel like I’m eating a lot more of it. Or at least it feels like I am because it is showing up in my butt instead of seemingly all being consumed by the baby. I blame this on pregnancy number two being a girl, because that’s what everyone is telling me. I really like donuts all of the sudden. Cannot resist them. Also, I’m enjoying safe amounts (under 200mg) of caffeine daily with this pregnancy (I avoided it all together with Roman, because I didn’t already have a toddler to chase after.) With Roman I craved sweets, and ate lots and lots of bananas and Nutella on toast. This time I’d say I have more typical pregnancy food issues, craving certain things at certain times (especially everything I see pictures of) and losing interest in some things (mainly eggs).

What goes on in my head: I don’t worry as much. Everything, and I mean everything scared me the first time around… every little pain, every second I wasn’t feeling him kick… everything I read. Now I know that as miraculous as pregnancy and birth are, they are not impossible, and my body is capable of handling it. Also, I just don’t have as much free brain time to be thinking about it. I feel the same excitement, wondering what she will look like, what kind of baby she will be… and this time I wonder how both babies will get along, what their relationship will be like.

Birth Plan and Expectations: My husband and I did lots of reading and preparing for our first birth experience. I hoped for a natural unmedicated birth, we read The Birth Partner together, which I highly recommend, and wrote a birth plan. As I’m sure you would expect, things did not go as planned, but we still had a safe, beautiful birth experience and I was still glad we took the time to be so well informed and prepared. This time I have put very little thought into the birth, except to assume that it will go much faster (it won’t be hard to beat my first 28 hour labor). Everyone tells me second babies come quick, especially when spaced so close. We have no one here to leave our son with, and with family 4 hours away I have this image in my head of the baby coming so fast that Roman will be chilling in the travel crib in the labor and delivery room, dancing to our birthing playlist. So as much as I hope that this birth will go quick enough to avoid pitocin or an epidural, I’ll do what I have to do to avoid screaming my head off and scaring my son if that scenario becomes a reality. That’s the plan of the moment for birth number two!

This time around I get a real sense that she will “be here before we know it.” While I was pregnant with Roman I remember thinking I would take the time to enjoy my second pregnancy so much more. I had an incredibly easy pregnancy with my son, but being that it was my first I was just SO anxious for his arrival. I thought maybe the second time around, after already having a baby, I would take pause and just enjoy the amazing experience of carrying my baby inside of me. As it turns out, this one is just flying by so fast, and I am okay with that, because it is just not as physically blissful as the first, and because despite already having a baby, I am just as anxious to meet our second as I was to meet the first!

How did your pregnancies compare? Anyone end up with their older child present at the birth of their second?!