Second Pregnancy Bump Comparison, Part 1

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Second pregnancies are so different than first pregnancies.  With the first one, I had so much free time to obsess over being pregnant and expecting a new baby.  I researched everything—the best stroller, the safest crib, the top breast pump, natural birthing positions, baby name meanings.  I knew exactly what fruit my baby was comparable in size to and every developmental detail of each week.  With this second pregnancy, I’m so busy looking after my first baby that sometimes I forget I’m even pregnant!  Don’t even bother asking me how many weeks I am because I haven’t checked in a while, and I have hardly anything to buy because we already have everything we need (mostly in navy blue, my favorite baby neutral colour).

But one thing that I am curious about and have spent much time Google Image Searching is the difference between the baby bump with the first and second pregnancies.  Everyone says you will show sooner, but I wanted to know how much sooner, and how much bigger.

Now that I’m past the half way point and actually have a bump I can say it has appeared a few weeks sooner, and I felt baby kicks a lot earlier, too (I think I felt them around week 22 with Baby #1 whereas more like week 19 with Baby #2).  But other than that there haven’t been a lot of differences between the pregnancies.  I’ve read that some people have just glittery sparkling pregnancies with one baby and absolute disasters with another, but I have been very fortunate (so far!) to have wonderfully easy pregnancies with both babies.  No morning sickness, no bloating, no swollen ankles, no acne…I still have a few months to go but so far so good!

So, I thought I’d share my own second pregnancy bump comparison pictures in two parts rather than weekly updates so that you can actually see the difference as time goes on.  Plus here are a few little tidbits about both pregnancies:

Cravings: I had a lot more cravings in the first pregnancy, but the two that stand out the most in my memory are cheese and cherries.  This time around I am also craving cherries (and of course they are not in season, so it’s been maraschino or chocolate covered or jammed or frozen), but also soft pretzels—which I got to eat while on the Babymoon in Vegas—and lately white chocolate chips.  Otherwise nothing unreasonable, no midnight runs to the gas station for my Hubby!

Weight Loss: As you can probably tell from the pictures, I lost quite a bit of weight in between the two pregnancies.  Baby #1 was 10 months old when I fell pregnant with Baby #2, and I had not only lost all the pregnancy weight but also an additional 20 lbs!  Not bad, eh?  I am planning some really exciting things for my readers to go on a post baby weight loss journey with me after this baby comes (including videos!) so be sure to subscribe now so you can do it with me starting this summer, it’s going to be great!  I used to be a bikini competitor and while I don’t think I will be going back to that lifestyle until we are finished having all our babies, it would definitely be nice to fit back into some of the beautiful clothes in my luxurious closet!

Weight Gain:  I didn’t gain very much with Baby #1, somewhere in the 15 lb zone, and as of week 20 with Baby #2 I was still under 10 lbs so it’s looking like it’s heading in that same direction.  I exercise every day and I do not “eat for two,” so the weight gain has been really reasonable.  It’s definitely a different challenge to exercise with a baby at home.  In the first trimester I was waking up before her to go to the undeveloped basement to do weights and cardio, but I am finding sleep to be too precious these days and am not willing to wake up early.  So now I exercise in my yoga room (yes, I have a yoga room!) twice a day while baby girl plays.  It’s a safer space for her to play in and she is so used to me doing it she just ignores me, so it’s going great.  I can’t tell you exactly how much I weigh or how much I’ve gained because I don’t weigh myself anymore.  The number doesn’t matter and I find it bothers me despite knowing it will be going up, so I just don’t look.  Gotta protect the mental health too, right?!

Bump: I didn’t really show with the first pregnancy until after the 20th week, I think week 21 is really the first inkling of a bump.  With the second pregnancy I started seeing it at week 18.  So a good 3 weeks sooner (though admittedly that loose dress doesn’t help to show it much).  The 20 lbs weight difference shows the most in my face, but I was really fortunate that I never got bloated or swollen or anything like that, it was mostly belly weight gain (phewff!).  I’m happy to be showing and feeling kicks sooner, it’s absolutely wonderful!

So here is the first half of pictures (link to the second half coming in a few months!).  And I realize I never posted our baby announcement on here, just on Instagram, so that’s included at the bottom.  And if you want to see the gender announcement and read about our Vegas Babymoon just click here! 

Ps: I gotta say, I definitely prefer the natural hair colour, don’t you agree?  The bright orange was fun but my strawberry blonde is definitely the way to go!  And one of my Beauty Resolutions for 2017 was to up my eyebrow game, I think I’m nailing it!

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First Pregnancy Dress: Olian Cary Empire Maternity Dress

Second Pregnancy Dress: John Zack for Asos.  It’s not maternity, just stretchy, and I got it on eBay years ago to wear to my bridal shower so I can’t find it any longer, but here it is in black.  I also found a listing for the maternity version here, but it doesn’t come white, either.  This one by Seraphine Maternity looks really similar.

Camera used in the second Pregnancy pics: Olympus O-MD E-M10 Mark II with 14-42mm IIR lens