New Mummy Blog: Pregnant With Baby Number Two

Admittedly it wasn’t ideal that I was already expecting another child when I returned to work after maternity leave for my first baby.

Oh, we were absolutely delighted, of course.

It’s just that as I geared up to make my triumphant return, all guns blazing, to remind everyone what an asset to the team I was, I was somewhat thwarted by the persistent, urgent need to stop and run to the loo to be sick.

Plus I’m not sure following up the message of “I’m back, I’m here to work as hard as I can, please don’t think I won’t just because I have a baby at home now” with “oh yeah, by the, way, I’m pregnant again” within a couple of weeks is the best tactical move, career-wise.

But that’s how it was and there was no changing it. And we wouldn’t want to either.

Okay, so a 19-month age gap between child number one and two isn’t huge, but it isn’t remarkably small either.

Yes, I’ll have my hands full and yes, I’ll have two in nappies at the same time, but if that’s the worst warning people can think of, bring it on.

Planning To Have A Second Child
For my husband and I, the decision to have another baby was no decision at all. We’d both always spoken about having a largish family – although I do hope his jokes about enough for a five-aside team are just that, jokes.

And after we encountered some complications the first time round, we knew we’d probably get on with trying for number two fairly quickly.

So when Honor was around 10 months old, we started that pretense of ‘not really trying but just seeing what happens’, previous experience having taught us that we couldn’t plan to order exactly when it would happen.

This is evidenced by our due date: Christmas Eve. No one would plan that, surely. Resigning the poor child to a lifetime of doubled-up presents and parties.

The fact that it happened straight away for us this time was astonishing and a welcome relief. We allowed ourselves to hope to be pregnant again by the end of the year – never dreaming it would be by the end of the week.

It’s taken a long time to sink in, but my return to work, Honor starting nursery, and the reality of life with a one-year-old have meant that there has been no time to dwell on and indulge in this pregnancy quite like we did first time.

That we’re rapidly approaching the due date but have yet to decide on names or buy everything necessary for baby number two shows us that we’re approaching this new addition very differently.

Differently, but still with just as much love, excitement and nerves as before.

Perhaps subconsciously we’re banking on the fact that as we’ve done it all before, it will be easier this time round, surely.

Or are we just fooling ourselves that two won’t equal double the work?

And as for what Honor will make of the new addition, that’s another matter entirely.

How close together are your children in age? Let us know in the comments.