Pregnancy the second time around

So I bet you are wondering how my current pregnancy is going. Well, it’s going great! I mean, I don’t FEEL great, but the pregnancy itself is good; baby boy is healthy & very active! I’ve not had any medical problems thus far, thank God. My only woes are physical, the kind that come with a typical, healthy pregnancy. Like my poor back, especially my lower back. My tailbone aches something awful, but my midwife tells me it’s due to the hormone Relaxin produced by my body; it relaxes my joints and bones, and so my tailbone has started to shift. It’s incredibly painful to sit, and even more painful to go from a sitting position to a standing one. But I know it’s just part of being pregnant and it won’t last forever. I also sometimes have a hard time catching my breath, but that’s because my growing baby is pushing up on my lungs, compressing them. Plus I have 50% more blood volume in my body. I’ve noticed that working out helps with my shortness of breath tremendously though! Those are my main physical gripes.

I’m also incredibly tired this time around. I remember being tired and fatigued when I was pregnant with Nathan, but I didn’t have children already, so I could rest and nap when I needed. Not so much now! My eyes burn a lot from being so sleepy, and having bouts of insomnia at night only exacerbates the problem. Little baby boy has some strong kicks, which I love, but he keeps me awake at night! Plus it’s hard to get comfortable. So I end up tossing and turning, and I feel so exhausted by the time morning rolls around. Being pregnant with my second child is definitely different from the first! But, with all that being said, this pregnancy is all-in-all MUCH easier than Nathan’s. His was awful. I ached horribly, down to my very toes. I could baely walk, and couldn’t stand up without help. I attribute all that, however, to being physically inactive. I didn’t exercise one bit because I had no idea the toll pregnancy takes on a woman’s body, and I paid for my laziness with a lot of muscular and skeletal pain. I also gained over 60 lbs, which added even more pressure to my already stressed joints and bones. It was awful.

This time around, however, things are different. I’m extremely healthy and don’t gorge on foods just because I’m pregnant. I work out 3-4x a week, and I still weight train to keep my muscle tone. My midwife told me whatever I do, do NOT stop working out. Since I had been exercising strenuously for 1 1/2 years before I became pregnant, my body was used to it, therefore it was good for both me and the baby. Now I’m not some body builder or anything… I just do the weight training to stay tone. Now that I’m 25 weeks along, I’ve had to cut back some since I fatigue easily, and I don’t do any actual lifting or anything that could put strain on my uterus. And this time, I’m right on track with my weight gain! At the rate I’m going, I will have gained exactly the amount doctors and midwives recommend for a healthy pregnancy. Which feels really damn good. Especially when a number of people have insisted pregnancy will make me “pack on the pounds.” Nope, not here! I’m in better shape now than I was when I was in my early 20’s. I look fabulous, feel pretty good for being pregnant, and am so grateful that this pregnancy has been much easier than Nathan’s thus far.

This time around, I am seeing a midwife and giving birth at a freestanding birthing center as opposed to seeing an OB/GYN and giving birth in a hospital. I’m sure there are plenty of women who have had great experiences with a medically managed birth, but that’s what I had with Nathan and it was AWFUL. I’ll talk more about that in another post. Suffice it to say that I believe OB/GYNs are great for those times when a pregnancy developes medical issues. But in normal, healthy pregnancies, going the medical route is overkill. Using interventions, in my experience, is a slippery slope which has the potential for serious outcomes for both the mother and baby.

After such a horrible birth experience with Nathan, I am actually really looking forward to this one. They do things there the way I’ve instinctively felt birth should be for a long time… I think the difference is going to be night and day and this time, I won’t feel so helpless and unheard but instead strong and empowered.

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