I have a feeling that the differences between this pregnancy and my first one will become too numerous to count after a while, but one particular contrast stood out to me today.
When I was pregnant with Josiah, people advised me to be careful about lifting heavy things; and for the most part, I listened. So many people advised me so often about this that I honestly got annoyed and would spout off: "Pregnancy is a natural condition, not a sickness." I disliked people treating me like an invalid. One particular example that comes to mind is when we were preparing for a special women's outreach service, and I was involved with the music for that. As we rehearsed, I lifted a microphone stand; and someone jumped up and came over to lift it for me, chiding me that I needed to be more careful. For crying out loud, it was a MIC STAND and weighted all of--what?--5 pounds? As much as I appreciated the concern that people had for me, I did grow to resent the endless corrections: "don't lift that," "go sit down," "don't cross your legs." (And at that point, I had no extra health risks at all, had not had any miscarriages or other issues, and felt as healthy as an ox.)
Boy, have things changed (though I still feel healthy as an ox)! Today the boys and I ran some errands in town, and I watched myself lift my 36 pound son in and out of the shopping cart and in and out of our van sometimes...I lugged my other son around on one hip with a heavy diaper bag on my back, holding a huge bedspread in my other arm, into a laundromat that had an extra big washer so I could wash the bedspread...I carried numerous grocery bags into the house at one time, to minimize the number of trips I needed to make so I could get my hungry children fed as quickly as possible...I hoisted weighty trash bags (from our garage clean-up yesterday) out to the curb (though I did drive the trash down in the minivan, but once parked on Dad's parking lot, I still had to get the bags out of the van to the side of the road). The one concession I did make to my pregnancy was deciding to get the 25 pound bag of birdseed at the store, rather than the 50 pound one!
It's not that I'm trying to be Superwoman. In fact, I'm actually trying to be careful! But it's just life. My life is entirely different now that it was during my first pregnancy, and lifting heavy things seems unavoidable.
Same with sleep. When I was pregnant with Josiah, if I was tired, I took a nap--nice and simple. Now if I'm tired when the afternoon rolls around, I sometimes take a nap...but many times I don't...not that I feel guilty about napping, but I realize it's such a trade-off. If I sleep, I don't get other things done. So do I really want to spend the time sleeping, or would it actually help me feel more refreshed to do a load of laundry, go through paperwork, or keep working at cleaning out the garage? Often the projects win!
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I've only had one pregnancy, but I can totally relate to your reaction to other people during your first pregnancy. Sometimes it felt so infuriating when people tried to stop me from doing simple, every day things. I should have just told them how many times I carried heavy stuff up and down the stairs to our apartment! Pregnancy is totally a natural condition!
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