A Mommy Story

I’ve been told by many, many people that baby #2 suffers from not being baby #1. If this baby has a baby book at all, it will have less information in it than Cordy’s did. This baby will have less pictures taken, less attention, and less awe at each milestone reached. They say I will worry less about little bumps or illnesses, and won’t ever think a simple cold could really be bacterial meningitis in disguise.

I’m an only child, so I never got to see this firsthand. Growing up, it really was all about me. Not that my baby book was ever completed, though. My mom worked too much to have time to keep that thing up-to-date.

I’m finding this unintentional neglect to be true already for this baby. This pregnancy has taken up far less of my thoughts than Cordy’s did. I have no doubt that I will love this child just as much, and make sure this child is well cared for, but at times I even forget I’m pregnant. Forget I’m pregnant, for cryin’ out loud! When I was pregnant with Cordy, not a minute went by without my mind drifting to that little clump of cells growing into a person inside of me. I had baby on the brain back then, while now I sometimes have to stop myself and say, “Wait, no, I’m pregnant.” Were it not for the lower back pain, raging hormones, and nausea that is now thankfully easing up, I might forget entirely.

Things that are different so far this pregnancy:

• With Cordy, I could tell you exactly how far along I was: “I’m 15 weeks, 6 days, although that’s using the standard pregnancy due date calculator. I’m actually 15 weeks, 4 days because I ovulated on day 16 instead of the standard day 14.” Now? I was asked how far along I was yesterday, and I had to stop and think for a few minutes because I wasn’t sure. Without a calendar to consult, I finally said, “Somewhere near the end of the first trimester.”
• During my first pregnancy, prenatal vitamins were taken religiously. Missing one stupid pink horse pill sent me into a tizzy – oh, God, the baby will have some horrible neural tube defect because I missed this one dose of folic acid, and if this baby isn’t a genius by two I’ll know it’s because I screwed up and missed a vitamin! If that were to be the case, well, baby #2 is screwed then. Taking my prenatal has been a challenge this time. Forgetting I’m pregnant means that I forget to take the pill. I consider my track record of roughly every other day pretty impressive now.
• And speaking of ingesting things, I’m already back to my caffeine habit. Sure, I’ve cut back, but eliminating soda from my diet just wasn’t going to happen this time. Without that little energy boost in the afternoon, I’d be useless. And eating lunchmeat doesn’t worry me, either, because the risk of listeria is so tiny. Hell, if I had some good soft cheese around, I’d probably eat that, too.
• Remember the book, Your Pregnancy: Week by Week? Yeah, I read that thing every single week when pregnant with Cordy. I knew what new features she had each week, if she had fingers yet, and when she could open her eyes. All I know about this baby is that it is somewhere between the reptilian-blob-with-a-tail stage and the looks-like-a-mini-person stage. I haven’t cracked a single pregnancy book this time.
• I did show all of you the first ultrasound picture a few weeks ago, but other than here and showing family at home, no one else has seen the blob’s first picture. I didn’t e-mail it out to all my friends and distant family, and I didn’t show everyone at work. (I’m sure they’re more than thankful for that.) Cordy’s ultrasound pictures were kept in my wallet, where I showed them to anyone who even asked about my pregnancy. This baby’s ultrasound pics are somewhere in our house. I’m not even sure where. (No worries, though, I get new, updated pictures on Monday.)

Poor baby #2. Loved, but not fussed over as much as the firstborn. Then again, maybe this one won’t be sitting in a psychologist’s office some day saying, “My mom just smothers me! And she has put every detail of my life on the internet for all to see!”

Who am I kidding? Of course I’ll blog about baby #2 just as much. Guess I’d better start adding a little more money to that therapy fund each month to cover both kids.

(Those of you who weren’t firstborns – did your parents take less baby pictures of you and never finish your baby books? I’m curious if this is a myth or not.)