Second Pregnancy 1st Trimester Update and Q+A

All of the pictures in this post were taken by Lindsay Price from Price Life Photography.

I almost can’t believe I’m writing this, but we are expecting our second son in March 2021! At the time of writing this I’m already nearly 21 weeks. 😆

I’ve been planning to do this as a video but things are a little chaotic over here at the moment so a post it is.

My husband and I are over the moon. I think Benjamin is coming around. He knows where the baby is when I ask him – ha. He points to my stomach or his stomach. And sometimes he will give the baby a kiss. We ask him if he’s excited to meet his brother and sometimes he says yes and sometimes he says no.

Overall I have been feeling pretty good! I’ve never had morning sickness with either of my pregnancies but I did have terrible food aversions both times. It was was definitely worse than I remember with Benjamin this time around. For a few weeks the only thing I wanted to eat was toast and mac and cheese.

I’ve also had more joint pain this time. I think I’m more sensitive to the hormones, especially when Baby2 has big growth spurts.

Pregnancy Q & A

I also asked on Instagram if there were any specific questions I should answer and I got some great responses!

What were your earliest symptoms?

Basically I was extremely tired. Like taking several hours-long naps tired. I’m not usually a napper so that was definitely a sign to me. At first I was nervous the exhaustion was from getting sick but thankfully it wasn’t!

I was also starting to feel very bloated. As soon as I found out I was pregnant this time, I switched to my maternity leggings. I didn’t have to do that last time until I was 24 weeks pregnant but it was much more comfortable to switch earlier on.

Is there anything you plan to do differently this time around?

In terms of being pregnant, I was way more active in my first pregnancy that I have been this time. I think mostly because of the pandemic, I’m not getting out of the house as much. We live in a fairly decent-sized apartment right now (though we are moving soon!) and it’s just been something falling to the wayside. I’m hoping once we move it will be easier for me to get into a routine for the next half of my pregnancy.

As far as having a newborn goes, the main thing I plan to do differently is to explore the Thompson Method for breastfeeding. I did breastfeed for 15 months with my first son but we had a lot of struggles with his lip and tongue ties, distracted nursing, etc. We made it work last time but I want to be more prepared and have more knowledge on that front this time.

I also plan to start solids a little bit later. My son’s doctor said to start around 4.5/5 months but in retrospect I don’t think my son had all the signs of readiness. This time I plan to wait until 6 months.

Other than that, right now I don’t have any plans to do things differently. Benjamin was a great sleeper and we used the SNOO until he was 6 months old. I plan to do that this time too. Hopefully Baby2 will also be a good sleeper!

Is there anything that surprised you this time that didn’t happen with Ben?

The biggest surprise to me this time is probably how much bigger my belly is sooner. I didn’t show for a very long time with my first pregnancy – a real bump showed up around 28 weeks. This time around, I felt like I could see my belly growing around 8 weeks. And now at 21 weeks, I feel like I look how I did at almost 32 weeks pregnant last time.

I think my body just knows what’s going on this time and got into position more quickly 😂

Also this time I had heartburn! I had no idea what it was at first because I’ve never had it before. At first I could manage it with diet but now I take Pepcid and almost never have it anymore.

Do you have any concerns balancing a toddler and a newborn?

I feel like for the first 4-6 weeks we will mostly be in survival mode. My mother-in-law will be helping us a lot those first few weeks but I’m hoping we can get into a routine more quickly.

I’m not *really* concerned about balancing two children. I know we will figure it out and get into a routine eventually. I also know we will be extremely tired for a few months but it should eventually get better. Mostly I want to keep my toddler’s routine as normal as possible for him!

I am nervous to balance all of my businesses along with two children. Most likely, I think I’m going to have to outsource more. I am planning to take 6 months of maternity leave but will probably start slowly coming back to work sooner and figure out a game plan.’

I think it will be key to manage my expectations and time, especially. I’ll have a lot less time to myself now so I’ll have to time block as best I can.

Are you just as excited to have a boy the second time around?

YES! I love being a boy mom. I feel very grateful to get to be a mom to sons and help shape them into feminist men who are taught to respect women from a young age and who can identify and cope with their feelings in a healthy without shame.

And this leads into the next question…

Are you going to try for a girl in the future?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: If we decide to have a 3rd child down the road it will be because we have the capacity to bring another child into this world and will love them as they are.

Are you feeling/carrying differently with Baby #2?

I mostly just feel like my belly is bigger sooner. I had a lot of hip pain going into my second trimester with Benjamin. This time it has been more in my tailbone but I also have some tricks up my sleeve to combat it earlier on that have been helping a lot!

How is being pregnant and having a toddler?

I’m more tired than I was the first time but overall it’s not been that bad. We will see how it goes for the rest of my second and third trimesters, though!

I do get round ligament pain every now and then which can be painful and exacerbated by picking up a 24lb toddler all day but that’s been the worst so far.

How did you know you were ready for second baby?

I don’t know if you’re really every ready but we knew we wanted to try for a second baby. Our “plan” was to start trying at the end of 2020 but with everything going on, and since we pretty much stay quarantined anyway, we felt it was time to try now since we will be stuck at home and not traveling for awhile.

What really surprised me was that I got pregnant in only 1 month. With Benjamin it took 3 months. I wasn’t expecting it to happen so quickly.

But as far as being ready, I don’t think I would be any more ready in a year or two than I am now. The timing felt right for us so we went with it.

Are you more or less stressed this time?

I wasn’t particularly stressed with my first pregnancy. In fact I was probably the most relaxed I’d ever been. But I did end up having an umbilical cord complication (called an Umbilical Vein Varix) around 24 weeks that made managing the rest of that pregnancy hard. I had to eliminate as many other stressors from my life as possible.

Someone told me not to let anything take away from the joy of being pregnant… and that’s pretty much the mantra I live by now.

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And that’s it – so far!

I’m 21 weeks pregnant now, so about halfway through my second trimester! I’ll try to get my second trimester post up sooner next time.