First Pregnancy 2017 vs Second Pregnancy 2020

Well, if you didn’t know already (because I realize I hadn’t even announced our pregnancy on the blog yet, oops!) I am pregnant with our second little bundle of joy. I am due in August and obviously for many reasons, these pregnancies have been completely different but actually a lot more similar than I thought.

First Pregnancy in 2017

Daniel and I waited almost 10 years of marriage to start trying for a family. I knew this was risky because we had no idea how long it would take to get pregnant, but I knew I wanted to be very ready when we did, so we waited until it felt right. I quit being an elementary school teacher in 2016 and went to France for the summer to au pair for a wonderful family. It was the best thing after being burned out after only teaching for 9 years altogether. After I returned I was beginning to be ready to start trying for a baby. My stress levels were at a ZERO and my upcoming 30th birthday the following year made me feel that we were ready for our next chapter.

I fell pregnant “first try” with Oliver (in January 2017) and the first trimester was very easy emotionally. I was not over anxious about a miscarriage as not many people were sharing openly about them at the time (with me at least) and I was just blissfully unaware how common they were. We told my mom and step dad on the night of the Super Bowl when I was 5 weeks and Daniel’s folks on video call earlier that day. We had our first ultrasound at 8 weeks on my 30th birthday and told more family and friends at my birthday party that weekend.

Pregnancy announcement at around 12/13 weeks in March 2017

I was nauseous and tired from about week 8-14. I had quit teaching and was a nanny part time so it was great to have the slow mornings and be able to take a nap before working in the afternoons. I remember not being able to decide what to eat for dinner (the morning sickness happened in the evening for me) until about the last second at like 5:55pm and Daniel would have to go out and buy take-out for whatever it was my tummy said I was able to get down. It was usually mac ‘n cheese (even though I was vegan at the time I made exceptions as I was just trying to get anything down), potatoes, and more potatoes.

I had aversions to cooking (haha), peanut sauce (like in a stir fry), meat smells, curries, sun-dried tomatoes and any type of salad or vegetable. I loved coffee (I never drank it before), apple juice, potato chips and the Trader Joes cheese puffs when I gave in. Read a little more about how I found out I was pregnant and how I told Daniel HERE.

At our anatomy scan at week 18 (read full update here), we had a little scare when the Doctor told us our baby had a single umbilical artery. This wasn’t causing any problems at the time (everything else looked fine in the scan) but it did put baby (Oliver) at risk for so many things like kidney failure, liver and heart problems and they were going to be able to give us more information at the 24 week scan. I remember waiting those couple weeks was very hard on us. We wanted to trust God that he was in control, but we also felt helpless because everything was out of our control. Well, we were very grateful to find out that Oliver was healthy and everything looked good at 24 weeks so they weren’t concerned anymore. It was a HUGE relief.

I barely showed any hint of a bump until about week 20 (week 18 I had some round ligament pain but very mild) and started yoga teacher training at week 22. It was the BEST thing for my pregnancy and preparation for becoming a mom. I am so glad I did it, even though I’m currently not teaching.

Read my second trimester updates here:

Vegan Pregnancy Update {28 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {27 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {26 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {25 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {24 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {23 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {22 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {21 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {20 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {19 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {18 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {17 Weeks}

The second trimester was great, lots of energy and the yoga teacher training helped the weeks go so quickly, the next thing I knew, I was 34 weeks pregnant and was a qualified yoga teacher with a growing bump. I had two more weeks of assisting and observation and I was still practicing one hour power flows multiple times a week. Basically my whole pregnancy was very smooth and I honestly felt the “glow” right up until the last four weeks when it was hot and humid, my ankles and fingers were swollen like an elephant and I was wearing the same three Target tank tops over and over.

Last day of Teacher Training 2017! 7 months pregnant!

Oliver was born at 39 weeks and 5 days, only two days from his due date, probably due to the fact that I took a 9pm jog (Daniel calls it a shuffle) in a harvest moon to try get things going. In hind sight, I should have had a nap before because contractions started at 12 pm and I didn’t sleep again till well after he was born the next day at around 5pm.

Read my third trimester updates here:

Vegan Pregnancy Update {39 weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {38 weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {37 weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {36 weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {35 weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {34 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {33 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {32 weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {31 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {30 Weeks} Vegan Pregnancy Update {29 Weeks}

Second Pregnancy 2020

I finished breastfeeding Oliver (my own choice to wean when he turned two years old) in late October and I was a little more emotional than I thought I’d be, especially considering it was my choice. I think I kept eating at the same rate as if I was burning off a lot more calories, because I gained weight after stopping instead of losing the last little bit? Anyway, we decided to start trying for baby number two in December and got pregnant right away again. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to have fallen pregnant easily. I don’t take it lightly, given the millions that are struggling. And if you are reading this and have gone through pain and heartache, I am so sorry. I truly am. It felt like “my turn” to have a miscarriage and so the first trimester was a lot harder mentally than my first one with Oliver. I was also a lot sicker. I never actually threw up (tmi sorry!) with either pregnancy but this time around the morning sickness was ALL DAY from week 5 to 13. The fatigue was also HUGE but that might have had something to do with the toddler I was trying to keep alive and fed when I didn’t want to even see food.

My diet consisted of protein shakes, potato chips, bagels with cream cheese and my delicious Rooibos Bran Peach Cooler that helped so much. My mom helped a lot during this time, taking Oliver for a couple hours to swim indoors at the gym (it was winter) or just on a walk or something. Anything helped as Oliver was getting very clingy and wasn’t playing independently very well at this point. I did a ‘boot camp’ of sorts, to try to teach him to play by himself but that’s another post for another day.

Anyway, same cravings as 2017 (coffee, fruit juice, mac and cheese, potatoes etc) and same aversions (cooking, peanut sauce, thai and indian food etc) for this pregnancy as well. My skin has also been pretty clear in both pregnancies.

Weeks 14-24 (now) have been pretty uneventful (that’s really what you want) besides getting a day with round ligament pain at week 18 (same as last time) and then feeling baby kick (clearly) at week 20 which was 2 weeks earlier than with Oliver. I went to my anatomy scan by myself because they were restricting visitors due to COVID-19 and children weren’t allowed. We obviously didn’t have childcare for Oliver (my mom was in South Africa at the time) so I put on my big girl panties and went alone. People were delivery by themselves at this point already so I didn’t have anything to complain about. It was at this ultrasound though when we found out that Oliver had a single umbilical artery and this could mean SERIOUS complications, and I left the office crying in 2017, so it was a little daunting going in alone but I did it and everything went fine thankfully. This baby is A-ok and we can’t wait to find out if it’s a little girl or boy. We didn’t find out with Oliver so we knew it was fun to wait and find out at the birth. It also helps me not stress a lot about how labor and delivery will go, but look forward instead to meeting our surprise baby number two.

Are you a surprise person or a planner person????

Sleep is a little hit or miss. Most nights are ok/fine with me waking up once to go to the bathroom and drink water, but I have had some really restless nights being unable to fall back asleep because my mind is racing or I can’t get comfortable. I can’t complain though, it always prepares me for less sleep with a newborn so I don’t get such a shock (although it’s still probably going to be a shock!)

I’ll update this post as the weeks go by and I have more to compare! Oh yes, how could I forget the biggest difference……

I AM SO MUCH HUGERRRRRRRRRR (I know that’s not a word) this time around. I have been since my body found out it was pregnant! It’s like baby stretched out (all two cells) and was like, “Ohhhh, look at all this room in here, I’m going to spread out!”

Please don’t double in size, my back will break!

Also, I haven’t taken nearly as many photos this time around, and since this is my first update, I’m clearly not blogging about this one as much as my first. Poor second child, just has to deal with the batting order!

Here is a summary of both pregnancies. And in closing, this is why I think it’s a BOY cooking in there…

Pregnancy 2017: Oliver

1. Morning sickness: Week 8-14 at night mostly

2. Cravings: Coffee, apple juice, Mac ‘n cheese, potatoes, potato chips…(more salty)

3. Skin: Clear (occasional blemish)

4. Weight gain: Tummy only

5. Baby’s heartbeat: 142-150bpm

Pregnancy 2020: Baby Two

1. Morning sickness: Week 5-13 ALL DAY

2. Cravings: Coffee, Rooibos Bran Peach juice, potatoes, potato chips…(salty)

3. Skin: Clear (occasional blemish)

4. Weight gain: Everywhere

5. Baby’s heartbeat: 150/151bpm

But obviously I still have a 50/50 chance of being wrong! Haha. I’m really glad that I’m waiting to find out though, even in the confusion of a global pandemic. I wrote a blog post about “what I would do differently for baby number two” and I thought I would find out the gender for baby two but Daniel asked me if maybe we should keep it a surprise again and I funnily enough agreed.

Thanks for reading if you got this far! Hope you are doing well, despite the uncertainty of all this year has been so far. Sending love!

Motherhood was another story and has been so wonderful but a lot harder than I imagined. Read Oliver’s birth story here and my first two months called “Diary of an overwhelmed first-time mom.”

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