Joanne shares her pregnancy journey with baby number two. Her little girls will be 11 months apart when she is due to give birth via planned c section. Read on to hear how she has been feeling this time round and how they are preparing for their next little bundle of joy!
I have a 10-month-old baby girl…so she was only 3 months when I found out I was pregnant again! I ended up having an emergency c-section with my little girl Cartier, so the hospital has recommended for me to have another c-section this time as it is so close to the last birth…so I have a c-section booked in 4 weeks’ time…I will have two little girls 11 months apart!
Baby is the size of a: Pineapple
I have been feeling: I have generally been feeling fine this pregnancy, but finding it hard looking after a crawling baby in these last few weeks! This pregnancy has been smoother than my first one so far, with Cartier I had high blood pressure towards the end and was in and out of hospital for monitoring and was also very swollen, I was on the verge of pre-eclampsia. My midwife prescribed me an aspirin a day for this pregnancy and so far, I my blood pressure has been fine, and I am not swollen yet!
I am most looking forward too: I am looking forward to having two girls grow up close together, but I know it will be hard work too! My sister-in-law has the same age gap, so I have seen a bit of what goes on! My babies’ movements are more frequent and stronger than my first baby! With Cartier I sometimes got worried that I could not feel her, but not with this baby! I am hoping this baby won’t be the naughty/fussy one as Cartier was fairly good and I have heard lots of friends tell me not to expect them to be the same!
My favourite part about being pregnant would be: My favourite part of being pregnant is feeling the baby moving inside you, other than that I cannot wait for her to come out!
I feel most loved and valued by my partner when: My husband as a parent is great, Cartier is definitely a Daddies girl and once he is home from work, she doesn’t want him out of her sight! He always checks on her before he goes to work and gives her a bottle if she is awake so I can get more sleep. He is a very busy director and salesman in his family business so it can be hard juggling the work/life balance, but I am grateful for how much he loves his girls and provides for us, before we had Cartier, he wanted a boy but now we have a little girl he thinks girls are just the best and loves being a girl Dad…apparently, he does want a boy one day though! My husband is the eldest of 8 kids and I am the eldest of 9 so we both know a bit a bit looking after babies and children while we were growing up! We will both be 34 this August and were born 10 days apart… I am from UK and he is an NZ resident, we met nearly 4 years ago and got married 9 months later!
If I could say anything to my baby right now it would be: You have no idea what you are in for!! I feel really bad that I am having another baby so close to her and don’t want her to feel neglected by me or jealous of the new baby… however I have heard from friends with similar age gaps that they are actually too young to worry and that you get a worse reaction when it’s a bigger age gap. I just can’t help feeling guilty and want to make sure we love them both as much.
Something I need to get done: Pack hospital bags. I have started filling another wardrobe and drawers with stuff for the next baby – I have SO many baby clothes! All mainly designer clothes from the UK. I need to clean the baby car seat and set up the pram for day sleeps downstairs… I have a new bassinet set up in our room and need to wash the sheets for it. I have a double buggy on order which I am waiting for… would highly recommend going to a baby show if you can before your baby as we got the bassinet and pram then just a few weeks ago. The bassinet I used for Cartier turned into a cot so she is still sleeping in that hence the new bassinet. I have to be organised otherwise I will go mad when I have two little ones! Each will have their own baby bags stocked ready in the car so there’s no panicking each time we go out.
Something I worry about: I am probably most worried about contraception after the birth… I have talked with a couple of obstetricians at the hospital now and the first one said, ‘do you remember what you were told after your baby about birth control?’ (Because after a c-section you are meant to give your womb a year’s break before the next baby) …. I laughed about it after but found it a bit rude as well!! Like I can do anything about it now! Anyway, I know I need to do something after this baby because we can’t go getting pregnant again for a while at least! I have been recommended to have an IUD put in at the time of my c-section, but I am wary of it and not sure if it’s a good idea to put my body through that at the same time as trying to recover from the birth, and I don’t like the possible hormonal side effects. I have only ever been on the pill for a short period of time, and it made me feel horrible and bloated so I am also not sure about that … I would be interested in other points of view although I know everyone is different. I’m actually not too worried about having another c-section. Cartier was a big baby, and I was induced because of my high blood pressure, the induction lasted for 4 days which ended in an emergency c-section as baby was posterior and got distressed, she was 9 lbs. I didn’t find the recovery too difficult, and I can’t face going through another long induction or going overdue with a big baby, so it is kind of a relief that I have a c-section booked in about 10 days before my due date. My family in UK haven’t seen Cartier yet, so it’s another thing I feel guilty about having another baby when they haven’t even seen the first one! Especially for my mum it is so hard for her not being able to see us and help me after the birth. I am fortunate that I have very supportive in-laws who live just around the corner otherwise it would be very hard to get by with no family support. I didn’t get on very well with breast feeding last time… only lasted about 6 weeks as I didn’t have much milk and once Cartier knew the bottle was so much faster and more efficient than me she wouldn’t take the breast. I want to try again this time but I’m not going to push it if it’s a struggle. I did have to try a lot of different milk powders as she was intolerant to so many, and I ended up with prescribed extra hydrolysed milk which she is still having until she is 1 … so far, she seems tolerant of most foods including dairy so I am hoping she has grown out of any intolerance she may have had, and we can transition her to normal milk when she is 1.
Diet, exercise, sleep, stress….! I really want to get fit after this baby… I put on lots of weight after I got married and have always struggled with my weight… this is always in the back of my mind, and I need to make it a reality and set some firm goals re food and exercise.
If after reading this you’d be happy to share your own experience of pregnancy, please email me at hello@shesaidyes.co.nz to send you one of these pages (or you can send a photo of your own pregnancy journal).