Getting Ready for Number Two

My husband Josh and I have been cleaning out and rearranging in preparation for Baby Number Two, aka Pickle. While our house is small by some standards, it is definitely large enough for a family of four – we just need to use the space a bit more wisely than we have in the past. We’re rearranging furniture, and we’ve cleaned out a tremendous amount of "stuff” — we donated over 300 books as well as several Subaru-loads full of clothes, and well…crap. We’re also moving a fair amount of furniture out of the house, and if all goes according to plan we’ll only be buying one new piece. (We love you, Ikea!) All of this purging feels good...and not just because I’ve been watching too many episodes of "Hoarders" lately.

I’m glad to be cleaning out the house because I enjoy doing something for Pickle. The imminent arrival of Number Two is our impetus for this big project and to be honest, we haven’t done much for Pickle so far. Admittedly, there’s not much to be done for an unborn baby other than avoid deli meat and sushi (DAMN!) and take my prenatal vitamins. (I should qualify that: there’s not much to be done for a yet-to-be-born baby when it comes to Josh and me. We’re not big on decorating nurseries or having baby showers or registering for said baby showers. I think we put together our daughter’s crib when I was about 34 weeks along, and we still haven’t picked a "theme" for her room. She’s sixteen months-old.) But psychologically, we were much more focused on my pregnancy with Number One (aka the Chooch) than we are on this one. Perhaps our struggles with infertility made that first pregnancy even more exciting, but I suppose it was also the novelty of it all (and the lack of a toddler to keep us busy) that had us thinking about that pregnancy a lot more.

I remember standing in front of the mirror at just eight or ten weeks into the first pregnancy, wondering if I was showing yet and trying to decide if it was time to start wearing all of the cute maternity clothes I had bought. I was reading books and websites about pregnancies. Each new development was exciting: look how nice and thick my hair is getting! I have to pee every twenty minutes – I’m sooo pregnant! Hey honey – my gums just bled for the first time when I was flossing! I totally read about that in the baby book! Any new development that I hadn’t read about precipitated a call to the doctor. "Yes, doctor, I know that I just spent eight hours in the car, but these ankles are REALLY swollen. I really think it’s pre-eclampsia. No, I don’t have any other symptoms, but I’m sure…oh, ok, will do." Like that.

Josh and I took a hypnobirthing class and actually practiced the techniques. We thought about a birth plan, and were equally proud of our goal of a medication-free birth (more about that some other time, but let me give you the short version: HA!) and the flexible, laid-back way in which we approached the whole situation. Josh talked to the baby at night, generally saying, "Baby, I AM YOUR FATHER" in his best Darth Vader voice. We reveled in it. I waddled in it.

Flash forward to my current state of affairs. I spent several weeks making due with two pairs of yoga pants before dragging my most definitely-in-need-of-maternity-clothes-body down to the basement to dig out the box I put away after Chooch was born. (I think it was catching a glimpse of my belly peeking out from beneath my T-shirt that finally horrified me into action.) I don’t even know where the pregnancy books are, and I haven’t paid enough attention to the latest e-mail updates on my pregnancy to be able to tell you if Pickle is the size of a kumquat or an heirloom tomato. There are moments when I almost forget that I’m pregnant…until I try to pick Choochie up out her crib and I find myself having to hoist my belly over the rail of her crib in order to be able to reach her. That’s a really awesome experience, let me tell you.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re very excited about this baby. There’s still nothing quite like seeing your unborn baby on the ultrasound screen, and I look forward to feeling the baby move every day. Right now it feels like a goldfish flopping around in my belly, and I love that little reminder that Pickle is doing okay.

Any way you cut it, though, pregnancy number two is different. Not just because it’s a different baby, but because we’re different people. And as a second child myself, I can tell you that being the second born is just fine. I’m really looking forward to meeting this baby, but for right now, I’m enjoying working on the house, and glad to have a project on my plate to help keep me focused on Pickle when I get a little wrapped up singing "Old McDonald" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" over and over and over again.

Author: Carla