Pregnancy: The Second
Well, I am in my 34th week of pregnancy and this might be a bit of a surprise to some of you if you haven't physically seen me in person.... (If you have seen me in person, I'd hope by now that you have cottoned on...unlike a year 10 student who mistook my beach ball stomach last week as 'being left over from having your other baby!' He defended his thinking by saying, "Well that's what happened to my Mum!" I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this whole conversation. Maybe I should be pleased? I think I got the better end of the deal? His poor Mother. I don't know.)
But we are super excited and very happy. However, time has just gone SO quickly this time around.
Being pregnant whilst having a toddler has certainly meant I've been kept busy. With work too, I think we're only just getting our heads around the fact that we are soon- very soon, in fact- to become a family of four!! Whhaattt.
Talking of work, there have been a couple of 'entertaining' incidents lately, mainly involving confused students in relation to my pregnancy.
As I was saying before, unless you spell it out, some students do seem to be unsure of a teacher's growing stomach size. This was confirmed to me when I returned to my car one day after work to discover the extremely original and overly hilarious words, 'I LIKE PIE,' scrawled in the (slight) dust on the back of the car! Bit harsh! I was only a few weeks from having a baby!?
I'm quick to blame here, but I am going to assume it was students. Maybe it wasn't. The estate I had parked in that day screamed out: 'Elderly-only cul-de-sac' (bungalows; climbing vines; Nissan Micras; cat flaps...that sort of thing.)
Unless an overprotective Boris, avid member of the 'Neighbourhood Watch,' thought graffitying a car was one way to ward unknown, pot-bellied women from parking near his premises, then I'm going to assume it's the sort of thing 14 year olds are liable to do.
(Not the best pic here, but it had rained by the time this was thought about for the blog!)
I've also been asked several times by rather excitable students what they should do if I 'have the baby in their lesson.' I'm sure they must've covered elements of this in science, but for want of not discussing the in-depth details of dilation in an English lesson, I usually have to ease their strange minds with a, "That won't be happening. Don't worry."
Crikey- is it even worth imagining the chaos that would ensue if my waters went whilst covering the complexities of commas with subordinate clauses?!
Anyway, that slightly traumatic thought aside, the majority of students and definitely all staff have been very kind and helpful with offering to carry books and so forth for me. There is a sense of irony the second time around though- in that, at home, I am still picking up a 17mo toddler who probably weighs double the amount of my book boxes...but I just hoist her up above the bump. It kind of looks like I am partially doing a fireman's lift with her- and where I am just over 5ft and quite petite in frame- looks pretty ridiculous.
Pregnancy first time around was quite different: it's not that we are not being careful the second time around, we are. It's just that this time I'm finding I have to 'get on' with it a bit more. First time I had my husband hoovering by this point (because the vacuum was 'too heavy' to carry.) First time I did a lot of resting and reading after work, because everybody told me to. First time around I didn't touch prawns. This time around- I will admit- I have eaten three prawns.
Talking of food, some of you may remember I started this blog just before our first tot was born, and I talked about the cravings I had experienced (one of which had resulted in a trip to the GP- my 'popping candy tale.' That's no euphemism- I quite literally OD'ed on the stuff...)
The only thing I can really say I've craved this time is chicken nuggets again, which was the same as the last bit of my first pregnancy- body wants a bit of the old protein for growing the babe? That's what I'll tell myself anyway....maybe I should 'write back' to those kids who scribbled on my car and put, "IT'S CHICKEN NUGGETS, ACTUALLY!"
One of the things that is becoming increasingly a little challenge, however, is keeping track of our tot whilst my body only wants to move slowly. A prime example of this was recently, whilst in TK Maxx. Our daughter had been walking around holding our hands beautifully. We were stood by a huge display table unit, which she was bent looking underneath. I thought I'd just take a second to stand up straight and stretch my back out, so I let go of her hand for a second. Terrible idea. She shot underneath the huge display unit (I'd guess at 3mx3m?) and started crawling about as if it were an in store play park! And believe me- when heavily pregnant there was no way I was going to even attempt getting under there to get her out. Instead, I started hissing at her, "Come on, hold Mummy's hand! Out you come!" I was unsure whether people could hear me, wondering if they had witnessed the start of this or whether they thought I was having some really strange maternal turn, by hissing at packs of Calvin Kleins. My biggest worry was a Pac Man style turn of events: this unit was large- which side would she come out?! Would I get there in time?! Gosh, the moments of stress!
Fortunately, the anecdote ends well. She responded relatively well to being hissed at, which I think is promising for the future of having two children under two....
She popped out my side of the display, proud as punch, ready to go again! Luckily, I had a hold of her before given the chance again....and....we've since invested in reins.
All in all, pregnancy second time around has definitely been just as exciting, but just different in lots of ways. The thought of spending my evenings lounging- part-zombie, ploughing my way through books- now seems almost laughable! Evenings are now prime lunchbox packing and toy tidying times (with my marking thrown in too!)
Anyway, enough waffle from me. Clearly I am not currently lunchbox packing or toy tidying (did the marking though #oneup!!)...when I probably should be...so I'll leave it there- who knows- maybe baby 2 will be here by the time I write my next blog post....?!
