I know everyone says every pregnancy is different but I didn't realize how true that saying is until I experienced it myself. Everything about this second pregnancy is different.
The conception story itself was pretty surprising, even sort of miraculous. Last year we visited Indonesia and traveled to the surrounding countries for a period of 6 weeks. At the last leg of our trip, as we were preparing for our flight back to the US - our daughter, Grace, fell sick. She started having cold like symptoms and running a fever a day before our supposed return flight date. If you don't know her - Grace is like an energizer bunny. So when she hardly can sit at breakfast on the morning of our scheduled departure and showed zero energy level - we panicked. My husband called the airline to postpone the trip right away, and we tried to give Grace some medication we brought from the US. Long story short - by the afternoon, she started feeling better. Her energy was back and she was eating pretty well too! We still decided to bring her to a doctor in Indonesia and she confirmed that Grace might just had a common cold.
Unfortunately, the next available flight was in a week from our original departure date. So we have to find a room in a new hotel to stay for one more week. Little did I know that one week might be the reason for this embryo to survive in my womb <3
Fast forward to the end of December, closer to Christmas time. I noticed some weird cramping but I was due for my monthly period so I didn't really fussed about it. But because my period came late, and somehow I had this nagging feeling like something was off, we decided to just buy a pregnancy check kit just to be sure ... and you know the rest of the story :)
So in a nutshell, here are some notable differences between my first and second pregnancy (4 years apart):
The conception story itself was pretty surprising, even sort of miraculous. Last year we visited Indonesia and traveled to the surrounding countries for a period of 6 weeks. At the last leg of our trip, as we were preparing for our flight back to the US - our daughter, Grace, fell sick. She started having cold like symptoms and running a fever a day before our supposed return flight date. If you don't know her - Grace is like an energizer bunny. So when she hardly can sit at breakfast on the morning of our scheduled departure and showed zero energy level - we panicked. My husband called the airline to postpone the trip right away, and we tried to give Grace some medication we brought from the US. Long story short - by the afternoon, she started feeling better. Her energy was back and she was eating pretty well too! We still decided to bring her to a doctor in Indonesia and she confirmed that Grace might just had a common cold.
Unfortunately, the next available flight was in a week from our original departure date. So we have to find a room in a new hotel to stay for one more week. Little did I know that one week might be the reason for this embryo to survive in my womb <3
Fast forward to the end of December, closer to Christmas time. I noticed some weird cramping but I was due for my monthly period so I didn't really fussed about it. But because my period came late, and somehow I had this nagging feeling like something was off, we decided to just buy a pregnancy check kit just to be sure ... and you know the rest of the story :)
So in a nutshell, here are some notable differences between my first and second pregnancy (4 years apart):
- Nausea. When expecting Grace, I started feeling the nausea from 7 weeks and it ended at around 12 weeks. It was pretty mild - I experienced the struggle especially when brushing teeth and or when someone with a strong perfume smell was nearby. I remember going into the office cafeteria at lunch was not a pleasant experience due to the strong food smell but that's about it. With the second baby - my nausea lasted longer. It started at around 7 weeks mark as well but ended at around 18 weeks! There's so many things that I "can't" eat, and I resorted to only swallowing a small amount of rice and dried pork floss for lunch/dinner for weeks. It was either that or rice and some kind of bland soup.
- Ligament pain. Maybe because this is the second time, my muscles are already loose so I experienced pretty bad ligament pain from my first trimester! It's also interesting how this time around the pain is more concentrated on the left ligament area, versus with Grace sometimes I experienced mild pain on the right side instead.
- Braxton Hicks and Pelvic pain. When I carried Grace, I often wondered what Braxton hicks was. Up to my 41 weeks, I didn't really experienced contraction, pelvis pain, or spotting. The entire pregnancy was very smooth up until I swallowed a box of pineapples at 41 weeks as a desperate attempt to induce labor *lol* This time, I started experiencing Braxton Hicks at 30 weeks! It's interesting how the wave sensation was almost similar with the real contraction but without the pain of real contraction. As I'm getting to the end of my 3rd trimester, I also felt more pressure on my pelvic area to the point that sometimes going to relieve my bladder feels like a scary experience. When I brought this up to my doctor, she mentioned how the second time our body is much more sensitive / responsive to all the changes happening so the "annoying" part of pregnancy is more pronounced.
- Sleep. When I carried Grace, up to my 41 weeks of pregnancy I could still sleep soundly through the night. But with this second pregnancy, I started having difficulty sleeping even on my 2nd trimester! As I'm getting closer to the finish line (36 weeks by the time of writing), getting an enjoyable night sleep is getting harder. I always woke a couple times during the night, if not because of my full bladder, it was due to my body aching because I have been sleeping in one position for too long :( One of my friends just shared a pregnancy myth - they said the sleep pattern during pregnancy might indicate the baby's sleep pattern later. We'll see if this is true!
- Food aversion and cravings. I can't really remember if I had food aversion when I carried Grace, except on my first trimester. I avoided garlic, fried shallots, and shrimp due to nausea but that's about it. This time, I have zero interest in eating broccoli and eggs (which are healthy and good stuff for baby) and reflux/heartburn every time I drink milk! My husband joked about how unhealthy the food I've been eating for the second baby - but hey, I can't really control the food aversion :( To add to that, what I've been craving for this second time were also unhealthy foods like Boba milk tea and Instant noodle(!).
It's mesmerizing to think how pregnancy experience can differ so much but I'm excited and looking forward to meet with our 2nd baby. I really want to see how different this baby's personality are with Grace and looking forward to see if some of the myths I heard re: pregnancy experience indicates the baby's personality are correct!
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