Following on from my past two posts 10 things nobody tells you about being pregnant with a Toddler in tow: First Trimester and Second Trimester.
1. The Pregnancy Zimmerframe (aka the pushchair).
Chances are the Toddler doesn’t really need to use a pushchair in every day life anymore, but you still insist on taking it everywhere you go as have discovered its new use – as a Pregnancy Zimmerframe! You can walk further, the hips and pelvis don’t hurt as much with the support, and it means you don’t have to carry the many shopping bags full of chocolate digestives back home yourself.
2. All consuming guilt.
You feel huge. So huge you begin to wonder whether smaller items will start rotating around you in some form of force field due to your gravitational pull. And you’re tired. Nay, exhausted. So following a third consecutive day in the house where all you have the energy to do is reach for the remote control and ask Ms C Beebies, the babysitter, for some help, you’re feeling like the worst Mother in the world. Your Toddler looks at you with a look of desperation that screams: “Please Mummy, not Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures again! Can we do our own adventuring?!” but you can’t. You can’t run after the Toddler as you once did, you don’t have the energy to muster up the energy, and the guilt makes you want to sob hormonal tears, mourning your once active and exciting relationship.
3. Mis-communication of geographical anatomical locations.
By now you’ve probably introduced the Toddler to the concept that you’re growing their sibling (either that or your Toddler just thinks you’ve got really fat in one place) and you’ve read a few books with them on the subject, and talked through where the baby is currently living. However, what you didn’t bank on was a mis-communication of where your Toddler thinks your baby is residing, which results in an embarrassing moment in Marks & Spencer café where your delightful Toddler pulls down your top to reveal your breasts, and says rather loudly “Mummy! The baby lives in here!”
4. Inappropriate garment lifting in public.
Along similar flashing lines as above. You’re happy to show off your bare bump at home to the Husband and Toddler, but halfway down the Highstreet when you’re wearing a dress, on a warm day, is not the best time for your Toddler to suddenly announce that they want to “see the baby” and pull up your dress, taking you, and the general public completely by surprise…
5. (Lack of) Time to prepare.
When I was pregnant with the Toddler we had bought all the essentials we might need, including newborn nappies, and packed a hospital bag by 34 weeks. Just in case. This time round there’s not a newborn nappy in sight, the hospital bag hasn’t even had consideration and my birth plan is looking rather blank. There is just no time; after a day of running around after a Toddler, all I want is a bath and bed! On the plus side, it does reduce the time spent dwelling on how child birth might go…!
6. Mama’s Little Helper.
As it transpires, it’s very useful having a Toddler around the house when you’re having a bad SPD, or generally exhausted, day as they can fetch you objects such as the chocolate digestives from the cupboard. Sadly she’s not old enough to make a cup of tea yet… or dinner… But the digestives keep you sated for a little while.
7. You have to share the cake.
Baby wants cake? Yup, so does the Toddler. I suggest hiding in a different room, or saving cake until naptime (if you’re lucky enough for the latter to still exist in your household).
Ahh, Holy Sacred cake…
8. Routine will go out of the window.
Pre-pregnancy a 4pm nap was the end of the world in our household; a catastrophe met with panicky texts to the Husband at work, mourning the loss of our evening and promising to make him a large gin when he got home. Now any naptime is a welcome break… and usually involves a cheeky self-snooze too.
9. “Mummy, we go in the swimming pool!”
On delivery of the pool for your Home Birth, your Toddler’s curiosity reaches an all time high from “very interested” to “crazy, jumping loon”… Every day is met with questions about the newly acquired “swimming pool”, and you’re reminded as to why the grandparents will be Toddler-watching in a far away location while you’re in labour (well, fingers crossed, that’s the plan anyway).
10. It’s hard. And I mean really hard.
I honestly wish someone had told me how hard it is being pregnant with a Toddler around – especially the third trimester. Your body has slowed down considerably, you can’t bend down to pick up items off the floor, and by 3pm you’re flagging and are desperate for a nap. It wouldn’t have changed my mind, but forewarned is forearmed…
Hannah
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