2nd Pregnancy...!

[hellojude]

As the subject suggest really...DH and I have been speaking about when we should have another baby.

How old was your 1st when you become pregnant with your 2nd child?
and
How did you find your pregnancy 2nd time around with small DC at home?

Just with childcare and going back to work etc etc.

Any advise words of wisdom would be great,

TIA

DC1 was about 14 months when I became pregnant again, unfortunately that pregnancy didn't work out and our DC ended up being 3.3 years apart.

Having said that, it is a good age gap. DC was out of nappies and was going to pre-school so it was much easier on me and now they are 7 and 3.8 they do play together.

The pregnancy is different, you have look after the other child obviously but its not that terrible, people wouldn't do it if it was.

Childcare for me was fine. I work 2 days per week, DC1 did pre-school on those days and DC2 was looked after by family.

If you do have DC2 just make sure you get a good sling that is easy to put on, then you can carry on pretty much as before.

Hope it works out for you.

I'm 19 weeks with DC2, due October. DD was 21 months when I got pregnant with this one and will be 2 years 4 months when it arrives, I think.

I worried about how I would cope as I had an awful first trimester with DD (terrible sickness, signed off for 7 weeks, on drugs) and didn't really start feeling vaguely human again till about 20 weeks with her.

This time around the first trimester was still hard (felt very down, very tired, very sick and on drugs) but it was a sort of slimmed down version of what happened last time - was only signed off work for 3 weeks and now at 19 weeks I have been feeling rather blooming/good for a couple of weeks now. I don't think I would have said I felt "good" at any point with DD, rather just slightly improved in the second trimester!

So this pregnancy has been different and easier. It was hard trying to be kind and caring to DD in the first trimester this time round, when I was still feeling pretty urgh, but you just muddle through. Now though I feel good and am really enjoying her.

No question though, it is tiring being pregnant, having a toddler and working. But I found that having DD already takes my mind off the long nine months slog and stops me obsessing about it so much - so its going faster this time. I think this is healthier as I was totally obsessive last time and I am sure it didn't help me get through the time!

How old is your DC1?

Thanks this is all good stuff..

It would be great if DD could at least put on her own shoes and coat..!!

DH and I had been thinking we would start 'trying' when DD is about a year old.

ds was 13 months when I got pg first time, but I lost that. After another mc a couple of months later, I finally got pg again when ds was 19 months old. Pregnancy second time around was fine... I don't get morning sickness, and at the time ds was still doing a 2 hour nap in the day so when I was tired I could have a sleep then.

I did find it tough from about 35 weeks. I was very tired and had just moved house twice in quick succession and found it physically hard running around after a toddler, but it really was only that last 5 weeks that were the worst. Mind you it can't have been that bad because I have very strong memories of climbing up a rope ladder at a soft play centre at 39 weeks chasing ds. I might have had a sit down and a nice cuppa after that :o

Towards the end of my pregnancy, I think around 30 weeks, I stopped taking the train to work because it was a nearly 2 hour trip on a train and three tubes. I drove instead which was expensive but at least I was sitting the whole way.

The first few months with two is hard, ds potty trained when dd was only 3 months old, it seemed like every time I sat down to do a feed ds needed the potty (argh!) Dd never really fed well during the day as ds was always interrupting, so there was a lot more night feeding to make up for it. She also didn't really nap in the day in the way ds did, but by then ds had dropped his daytime nap too, so we were pretty much on the go all day long. V. tiring. I don't think I really had time to draw breath until dd was about 6 months old and happy to sit in her bouncy chair for 30 mins or so. Before that I had to carry her a lot. A sling saved my life in that respect!

I went back to work when dd was 10 months old, because of shift working etc we had to get a nanny. It was the only way round our working hours. I only work three days a week but because of long hours it's actually pretty much full time (36 hours).