Pregnancy - First vrs. Second

One question I have gotten a lot with this pregnancy is how it compares to my first. I have broken out my experience with the comparison of the two below.


First Trimester - First

• Found out at five weeks, I handed Craig a whiskey on the rocks with the pregnancy test.
• Super nervous the entire time
• Traveled lots and was required to create and present several presentations in front of large audiences which was very challenging. I think I traveled ten plus times in my first trimester alone.
• Terrible headaches
• Walked three to four miles three plus times a week.
• Exhausted, I would fall asleep on the couch at seven then move to bed around nine.
• Sick to my stomach only once when I rode an elevator at seven am with someone who had just enjoyed a cigarette.
• Spent the entire holiday season pretending to drink or avoiding situations where my cover would be blown.
• At 13 weeks told family and friends

First Trimester - Second

• Found out at five weeks, emailed Craig a picture and told him to call me before opening which of course he didn't.
• Mildly nervous the entire time
• Only traveled for work once, so much better. When Reece was a year old I moved to a flexible part time schedule working 32 hours a week in the office only three days.
• Terrible headaches
• Did very little physical exercise
• Exhausted, but Reece did not allow the blissful couch sleeping I enjoyed the first time around.
• Mild nausea
• Now that I had been a Mom for a year and a half peoples expectations of my ability to be fun were lower, I didn't really have to hide my not drinking people had come to expect me to be boring.
• At 13 weeks told family and friends

Second Trimester - First

• Started buying everything the baby lists told me I needed, loved shopping for the baby even before I knew if Reece was a boy or girl.
• Mildly nervous the entire time
• Terrible headaches
• Walked three to four miles three plus times a week.
• Super hungry all the time, I did not miss a meal.
• Mild nausea
• At 17 weeks told work
• Found out Reece was a little boy
• Went on a babymoon to Maui for nine days it was bliss.

Second Trimester - Second

• Didn't buy anything until I found out that baby Miller was a girl.
• Not that nervous
• Mild headaches
• Obsessed with prenatal yoga, seriously looked forward to the next time I would go as I was leaving my sessions.
• Not that hungry
• Mild nausea
• At 13 weeks told work
• Found out baby Miller was a girl, love shopping for girl clothes
• Went on a family trip to San Diego with Reece for four days.

Third Trimester - First

• Super uncomfortable
• Walked three to four miles three plus times a week.
• Sciatica from weeks twenty eight through thirty three, I still walked but with a limp.
• Super hungry all the time, I did not miss a meal.
• Beautiful baby shower thrown by my friends, very fortunate.
• Very Grumpy, I didn't feel like myself.
• Lots of summer partying everywhere we went, very few friends has started their families yet.
• 90+ degrees my last month, record breaking temperatures that summer...lucky me.
• I followed all the checklists, hospital bag packed with everything I needed and more, car seat in the car early, pre-made frozen meals and my house was spotless.
• Stopped working at thirty seven weeks, spent the last four weeks enjoying the calm before the storm with matinees, massages, reading trashy novels and sleeping.
• Delivered Reece nine days after his due date after 32 hours of labor via c-section.

Third Trimester - First

• Pretty comfortable
• Prenatal yoga weekly was my only form of exercise.
• No Sciatica!
• Not hungry, constant heartburn after my first bite of anything.
• Beautiful baby shower thrown by my friends, very fortunate.
• Babies everywhere, a lot of our friends now have families of their own and the partying days are a little softer.
• I followed no checklists, hospital bag still isn't packed, I have no frozen meals and the house cleaners are coming the day I have her because our house is a mess.
• Stopped working at thirty seven weeks, spent the last three weeks enjoying the calm before the storm with museums, toddler tantrums, short stories, cozy naps cuddled up with my little boy and sporadic night sleep depending on Reece's mood and health.
• Scheduled to deliver baby Miller on her due date via c-section.

So there you have it the good, the bad and the ugly, I should state that with both pregnancies I have gained almost the exact same weight to the pound, which I am happy about. The first time around I was told I looked more pregnant then I was, this time people say I look little both I have measured a week under most of the way...?

I knew this time would be so much more pleasent no matter what happened, I had a different perspective. How can something that ends with the below be anything but beautiful?