12 weeks with Caleb                             12 weeks with BB2

Many women have told me that each of their pregnancies were different. I was so lucky to have such an easy pregnancy with Caleb that I was hoping for the same scenario with the second one. Sadly, I was wrong. Within a just a few weeks of being pregnant with my second child, I could not believe how different this pregnancy already felt. Below are the major differences I have had thus far and I am sure there are more to come since I just have started my 2^nd trimester.

• Morning Sickness should be called All Day Sickness-I did not have an ounce of morning sickness with Caleb (I know I was incredibly lucky!) However, with this one, sure enough from about 4-10 weeks I was very nausea and not just in the morning…pretty much all day. I know again that this was a fairly short time as I know some people are sick for many more weeks, but this was new to me. I was lucky to be able to keep food down but did not feel well most of the day. I also struggled with this as I generally feel pretty good physically so to not feel good day in and day out for weeks was a challenge for me. I literally was eating ginger candy minutes before I had to teach a class just to get through the class. 🙂  Luckily, the nausea has pretty much completely subsided.

• Energy Levels-I did have bouts of low energy with Caleb but nothing like I had in the first trimester this time. Now, I am not sure if it is the pregnancy or having a toddler that made me so exhausted  (I am sure it is a little of both) but I felt like I had to peel myself out of bed most days. I was just utterly exhausted. I am feeling  a little better now that I am further along.

• Food Aversions and Cravings-Again with Caleb, no strong food aversions or crazy cravings. I mean some days coffee did not sound amazing like it usually did but nothing really turned my stomach. My biggest craving with Caleb was cheese (which ironically is one of his favorite foods) but nothing crazy. This time around, there were days I could not eat eggs, or drink coffee or meat or high protein foods (which I usually love).  Two of my favorite things are protein bars and gum (HA! I know…weird) and I could not stomach either. Because of my nausea, I wanted carbs and not really the clean kind…usually straight up bread. I tried to find a somewhat healthy alternative so I was not just eating loaves of bread all day which usually ended up being a ½ English muffin with cream cheese or nut butter or some oatmeal in the morning. I usually do not eat starchy carbs at dinner but noticed if I didn’t during this time, I was hungry shortly after dinner. My cravings were crazy specific too as in “I want frozen yogurt with this kind of topping.” My food aversions have mostly subsided and cravings come and go but I have noticed my hunger levels are increasing again in my second trimester.

• Physically Harder-At about 6 weeks pregnant, I ended up hurting my back. I believe it was during a strength class I was teaching, though I had been teaching it for over a year and did not do anything different. It is possible that the increase in relaxin in my body (a hormone produced during pregnancy that relaxes ligaments) contributed to this injury or I just tweaked something. I was in quite a bit of pain for a few weeks. After I finally felt better, I started having SI joint pain (the sacroiliac joint, the joint between the sacrum and the ilium of the pelvis). I just have not felt as physically strong or good this time around. I feel much older than just 2 years since I was pregnant with Caleb.

• More Overwhelming–For many the first pregnancy might be overwhelming as there are so many unknowns. However, for me this one has felt a little more overwhelming. We were just so thankful to get pregnant with Caleb that I was pretty relaxed and stress free during his pregnancy. This one has just brought up so many more questions and fears. How will we be able to afford child care? Should I go back to work full time when I have 2 little ones? How will I handle the mornings all by myself? Should we move into a bigger house or finish our basement? Though I am much less anxious about the rest of the pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and all the things that come with first time motherhood, there just seems to be more to think about this time around.   We will also not be finding out the sex this time around, which is obviously by choice but there is a little more unknown when it comes to that too! 🙂

As I said, I am sure more things will continue to be different with this pregnancy but these are the major differences I have noticed already. I would love to hear what other mom’s experiences were with 2^nd and 3rd pregnancies. Were they significantly different? What was the biggest differences you noticed?

I would love to hear from you!

XOXO Sara