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You’ll never have a first pregnancy ever again. It is the most relaxing and quiet pregnancy you’ll ever experience. And while not every first pregnancy is easy with gestational diabetes, pre-eclampsia and some moms even having to be on bed rest for months, the difference is that with every subsequent pregnancy you might have to deal with all your pregnancy ailments while having at least one child hanging from your body and whining for juice or more Peppa Pig.
When you’re pregnant for the second or third or fourth time you don’t have time to just sleep through that first trimester. You have to deal with a toddler who doesn’t understand the concept of just resting and suddenly there is a lot more screen time happening.
The second pregnancy is also a whole lot more relaxed than the first. With my first pregnancy I rushed to the gynae as soon as she would see me; with this one I just put it off because I knew all that she would do was tell me something that I already knew: I was pregnant.
Your gynae is also a lot more relaxed because she knows that you know the drill and she will probably request to see you less often during this pregnancy.
“How many weeks are you?” Um, 10? 11? That’s another difference, if you were to ask me during my first pregnancy how far along I was it would be to the exact day: 11weeks, 5 days. Now I just round it off, to “around 12 weeks I think”. There’s no time to be pedantic when you have to remember to brush your toddler's teeth and you’re losing your damn mind because he threw a jug of water on the bathroom floor for fun.
Emily Blunt who is expecting her second kid with husband John Krasinski, knows what I’m talking about, in the April issue of C Magazine she said “The first pregnancy is the most self-indulgent thing in the world because you get massages and prenatal yoga and hypnotherapy CDs. During this one I forget that I’m even pregnant. I’m hoisting a 2-year-old around!”
And that’s so true, with a very boisterous 2-year-old son I’m always exhausted anyway so I don’t notice that I’m first trimester tired. I don’t have time to wallow in misery or even remember to take my prenatal vitamins some days. Which reminds me, I should go do that…
How did your second pregnancy differ from your first? Send us your stories to chatback@parent24.com.
