It’s not too long now until my due date (just over a week, to be precise), and soon I’ll have another little bundle of life to look after. I found both pregnancy and the early days (/months) after the birth incredibly difficult last time around, and I’m hoping that the experience I have had with my second pregnancy bodes well for a slightly less bewildering and terrifying beginning to the my relationship with our second baby.
Because this pregnancy has been almost exactly the same and, at the same time, completely different, from the first. Exactly the same because my symptoms have been almost identical – constant nausea for three months (although thankfully, very little actually being sick this time around), awful lower back pain, heartburn that wakes me up, very little sleep at night thanks to the heartburn and need to pee every few hours and having a little wriggler in my tummy… But in one very important way, it’s totally different.
This time around, despite the various ailments that seem to go alongside the process of growing a small human, I actually feel incredibly happy and positive, and have loved (almost) every minute of being pregnant. What a change in mindset!
I suppose it’s because this time around, I have the hindsight I was lacking the first time. I knew that the nausea would pass. I started seeing a physio to help with my back the week after I found out I was pregnant. I take Gaviscon before bed every night now instead of forgetting and then having to take it at 2 in the morning (although, having said that, it’s still horrendous and does still wake me up in agony a couple of times a week). I know that I’m waking up a lot in the night, but also know that this is significantly easier than the waking up (and staying awake) I’ll have to do once the baby gets here and I’m breastfeeding (or trying to).
This time around, I know that as much as the symptoms I’m experiencing suck, once the baby comes out, pretty much every single one will disappear, and I’ll have a whole new set of far more important things to worry about.
Maybe I’m being naive, but I’m very much hoping that in a similar way to the pregnancy feeling great, despite actually being quite shit, the early days after the birth will be less stressful and full of anxiety this time around, and therefore slightly more peaceful and enjoyable. Also, looking back at the blog from January 2015 – I was actually quite productive! I wrote loads (mostly at 2 in the morning), did do some baking and cooking, did get outside… I think the post-childbirth fug of emotions left me feeling things were far worse than they were. Maybe this time around I can see the trees for the forest.
Have you had a second child? Was the experience very different between one to the next? Who knows how things will actually go whenever this little one decides to arrive, but I’ll report back soon(ish), once my brain is in a place to write things down again! Wish me luck!