Photo credit: Tender Nest Portraits
This is the story of my pregnancy with my second child, Julep. I’ll share details of my pregnancy with my oldest son MaiTai in a future post.
After this post, check out Julep’s birth story here.
Category: First trimester
Preparing Big Sibling For a Baby
Not too many weeks after the positive pregnancy test, we told MaiTai he was going to be a big brother.
We wondered if he even knew what it meant to be a brother… to have a brother or sister… or even the differences between himself at not quite three years old and a newborn baby, much less one in a womb. He knows what a womb is, right?
We had a lot of work to do! Or so I thought.
14 Differences: First vs Next Pregnancy Concerns
Some worries of a first-time mother during pregnancy: Will my baby be okay? Will labor be like that again? Will I know all the answers to the parenthood dilemmas that stump me? Many worries like these plague experienced mothers, too, but it’s definitely different the second time around.
Based on what seems to be common between treatment of first pregnancies by novice mothers-to-be and subsequent ones by their older, wiser selves, I made this list of maternity concerns and progression of reactions.
(Every mother reacts to each pregnancy in her own way that’s impossible to predict. I’m sure many of you had pregnancy tales that contradict these below, but I tried to just stick to a line or two. Feel free to leave a comment about how you can relate or how you felt dissimilarly!)
Captain’s Log: Return Voyage to Pregnancy
ENTRY I
Pregnancy months one – two.
We begin our maiden expedition into the land of building second offspring. No visible change upon the breast terrain. Toddler says one side tastes “yucky” and, with a smile, other side tastes “new.”
Are You an Expert at Guessing An Unborn Baby’s Sex? (Plus 28 Old Wives’ Tales)
There are quite a few ways to guess a baby’s sex. As far as concluding whether to expect a boy or girl, you could try the Nub Theory, Ramzi Method, over-the-counter gender test kits, Harmony test or chorionic villus sampling or amniocentesis done at a medical facility, and probably some other things I’ve yet to discover.
Old wives’ tales aren’t rooted in any kind of fancy science, but they can be fun to test out. Who wants to get all technical with fun anyways?!
Think you can accurately predict an unborn baby’s sex? Here’s a rundown of many common old wives’ tales that claim to know the secret behind your baby’s sex. You can use these clues along with the comparisons between my first pregnancy with a boy and my second/current pregnancy with a… well, you make the guess and let me know what you think 🙂
I’ll reveal the answer in an upcoming post!
(FYI, it’s the sex not the gender we find out by noting what type of gonads a baby has… though I get how the term “Gender Reveal Party” caught on whereas the potentially confusing “Sex Reveal Party” never will. And another side wondering: why don’t any of these tests account for potential intersex babies?).
How Planning For a Baby Compares To Planning For a Wedding
How do two of the most memorable and symbolic events of your life compare? It turns out, planning to have a baby is just about as much (or more) work as planning for a wedding! Read on, then feel free to comment about how preparing for other milestone events in your own life compared to getting ready for your first and subsequent babies. 🙂 ❤
