Now that I’m almost full term with my second baby, I thought it would be a good time to take a look at the differences between this pregnancy and my last, when I was pregnant with Angelica. Because – despite my husband saying that I moaned about all of the same things last time! – I feel as though they two pregnancies have been notably different.

Read the full set of pregnancy diaries for Baby Number One…

I’ll start by pointing out the things that have most definitely been the same for both pregnancies: morning sickness for the first 14 or so weeks (nausea, but never actually sick), an extremely acute sense of smell in the first trimester and an unshakeable tiredness which, coupled with the nausea, almost felt like continuous flu. Also, the need to wee really frequently and nothing coming out (see Wee of Disappointment post here) and a general sense of anxiety and feeling very antisocial in the first trimester.

And the things that are different? Well. I’m much larger this time around, and I thing that’s the biggest and most noticeable difference. I was “showing” at around seven weeks – bloated with a little baby bump that meant I couldn’t get my jeans on – and by twenty weeks I looked properly, full-blown pregnant. Now in these last weeks, I feel as though the bump is about the same as it was in my last pregnancy (it’s still massive, but I had a big baby last time at 9lbs 11oz and it’s likely this one will be too, according to the latest scan, so unsurprising really) but up until about week 30 I was definitely far larger this time around.

And not just on the baby bump – I’ve gained more all over, I think. Bum, arms, face. And cellulite! Bloody hell – where did that sprout from? I have cellulite near my knees, for goodness’ sake! On my arms! I daren’t even turn around and look at the back of myself in a mirror – I’m staying in denial for as long as possible. Or at least until I can do something about it… People keep saying to me “you don’t even look pregnant from the back” – if they could have seen me attempt to put on my old jeans they would say differently. I only did it as an experiment, but I could barely get the bloody things over my shins! And that was at about 28 weeks.

Perhaps because of the added weight (and look, I’m not talking drastic weight gain here at all, just in comparison to my last pregnancy where I stayed pretty trim elsewhere) I’m finding things more difficult in these last weeks than I did last time. I remember speed-walking at 41 weeks pregnant with Angelica – pretty sure I sprinted up a small hill to try and get labour started – and there’s absolutely no way I could do that this time. I get quite intense muscle or ligament pains around my bump and although they are bearable, they make me stressed because I worry about the baby, so I try to rest much more than I did last time. Or perhaps I was more rested last time because I wasn’t hefting a great big toddler in and out of a cot and bending down to pick up hazardous items from the floor and so on…

In my last pregnancy I had terrible – and I mean terrible – aches in my ribcage and in my hips. I know now that this was my skeleton shifting about inside, making room for the baby, but at the time it was quite distressing and I couldn’t really wear a bra because everything hurt so much around my chest. I found it difficult to sit up straight, even without a bra on, because my ribs ached so much, and lying down in bed was painful on my hips. This time, I haven’t had any of those aches – I’m guessing because the bones are permanently moved and so there’s no need for them to move again, but perhaps it’s because there was only a short gap (11 months) between Angelica being born and becoming pregnant again. Maybe my body just hadn’t returned to normal. Maybe it will never return to “normal”. Good excuse to buy loads of new underwear…

I would say that I didn’t have any major complaints with my last pregnancy and (so far) don’t with this one either, other than the baby’s head sitting right on my bladder. I actually rather enjoy being pregnant, apart from the nausea bit – I love it when the kicks start happening and everything becomes a bit more real. So nothing to moan about, in particular, other than the extreme tiredness – I definitely feel I’ve been more tired this time around, but that’s not unexpected with a toddler to care for. I think that your first pregnancy is something to be really cherished, if you can and you feel well enough to, because any subsequent pregnancy is never going to allow you to be as self-indulgent or to take as many naps. Pregnancy massages? Reflexology? A baby shower? PAH! Not a chance with a toddler in tow.

Ooh! I’ve just remembered something else: in this pregnancy I spent months with a really, really bad stomach. My digestive system went into some sort of crazy shutdown – I had frequent bouts of diarrhoea and various other goings on. I don’t know whether I mentioned this at all, but I worked out that it was my vitamins – Pregnacare! The ones where you get the normal vitamin and then the Omega gel capsule to take as well. Now it has to be said that I don’t get on with any of the omega supplements – even the Zita West one gave me a bad stomach a few years ago – so it could have just been that part of the Pregnacare system, but actually even when I experimented and just took the multivitamin my stomach was quite bad, so. Lots of people commented with a similar experience, so worth noting, if you’re in the first trimester (or beyond) and things are “going straight through you”, so to speak…