7 Ways Your Second Pregnancy Could Be Different From The First

A first pregnancy can be both pretty exciting and scary, and often times, new mothers expect that their experiences would be the same the second time around as well. However, you may be in for a few surprises. Here are SEVEN ways your second pregnancy might be different from the first…

• Starting To Show

During your first pregnancy, you probably anticipated the moment your bump was going to make an appearance. You may have even managed to get nearly halfway through the pregnancy before people started to notice. That was because of your stomach muscles.

With a second pregnancy, you may look 6 months pregnant when only 4 months gone.

• Due date

You probably spent your entire first pregnancy counting down the days until your due date. Why? Because you thought that was the exact day your baby would come right? And when the day itself came, you spent it anxiously waiting for labour to start, right?

Well, by the time you’re onto your second pregnancy, you’d know that a due date is simply a random date your doctor just tells you. It really has no bearing on when your baby will arrive. The second pregnancy will be much easier because you’ll expect the baby to arrive sometime in a particular month rather than fretting over a particular day that will almost certainly come and go with your baby still in your womb.

• The Reaction

The moment you announce your first pregnancy, you’ll begin to feel like a celebrity. Everyone wants to know how you’re feeling every single day of the nine months of pregnancy. You’ll receive countless text messages each day from different people inquiring about your health.

Then comes the second pregnancy. You might get a few congratulations, but that element of shock is gone. A second baby isn’t really as surprising as a first. And people probably won’t ask how you are all the time, because they know you’ve survived pregnancy before.

• The Tiredness

First pregnancies are usually exhausting. Remember how you used to spend all day at work only to fall asleep on the sofa as soon as you got home? I’m sure you must have slept so much.

Well, your second pregnancy may be worse. You’re going to be just as tired but the difference is you won’t be getting a lot of sleep. Not with your older child demanding your attention as well!

• Pamper Time

During your first pregnancy, you probably looked after yourself as though you were a delicate princess made of glass. You must have slept a lot, gotten massages, done pregnancy exercises and taken long baths daily. You didn’t lift a thing at all because your mother-in-law and husband were at your beck and call. You drank eight glasses of water a day, like you saw on that website and were particular about the kind of food you ate.

Well, your second pregnancy will be different because this time you will get your exercise by chasing your child around the house, picking up toys and wrestling your child into bed at night. You’ll get baths, but perhaps for only for 2 minutes because your older child just threw custard on the rug.

• Things To Buy

As soon as you found out you were expecting your first child, you started buying any and every baby item you saw at the shop. With a second baby, you’re far more relaxed. For a start, you know that half the things you bought last time turned out to be a complete waste of money. Plus, you probably already have loads of things you didn’t use the last time.

• Pregnancy Geekery

You could have passed a degree in pregnancy, birth and babies during your first pregnancy. You read every book you could find, talked to every mother you knew and subscribed to every mommy blog you found.

The second time you won’t bother much. Because you probably forgot everything you spent hours learning when the baby actually came. So this time, you’d be more likely to just go with the flow.