Second (or subsquent) pregnancies - size?

[OceanPrincess]

Starting off with a vent...

If I have one more person ask me "How are you feeling?" in an extremely sympathetic voice, or "You must be tired, not long to go!" then look surprised when I say I'm only 26wks, which is inevitably followed by "But you're so big!", I am going to explode!!

Then there is the discussion/speculation on how big this baby is going to be

Yes, I know I've popped right out the last few weeks, but really, I'm not even into the third trimester. What is the deal???

So my question is, am I appearing bigger because it is my second? Has this happened to anyone else?

Last check I was measuring a little bit ahead but not much - why do I apparently look like I'm about to give birth???

Arghhh!

[~me~]

Yep, I am hearing you. I had the same. I am only 5ft2 and very petite.
Your stomach muscles have already been stretched a little, you probably showed a little earlier too. Your body just knows what to do 2nd time round.
So it's normal for the second one to appear bigger even if they are not.
People don't mean to be insensitive and unfortunately that's how it comes across especially when you are probably feeling a little sensitive anyway?
I got 'look at the size of you!' how can you have a baby that big! DD was inbetween the the two boys for weight and length. So I actually showed bigger
with her than DS2 and he was quite a big baby.

[westy]

Hi darl ,

I know what you mean about everyone feeling the need to comment on your size...if they aren't saying 'wow,you look small' they are saying 'wow,your huge you must be due any day now'....dont know why people can't just say ' your looking beautiful' and leave it at that.

I am currently 37w1d pregnant with my third bubba and yes i think it's safe to say that the more pregnancies you have the quicker your belly becomes noticable ..... well this is the case for me. Either way darl be proud of your bump and just try and ignore the comments.

[OceanPrincess]

Thanks ladies!

I am quite proud of my belly - I haven't put on much weight anywhere else and most people do generally move on from the size to comment that I look really well and healthy, so that's good!

I was just getting paranoid today - seems the number of comments has really increased over the last few days, which I was stressing about whether that is proportional to the size of the belly or not!

[Salsa]

I got a lot bigger alot quicker with my 2nd. But baby came out very close in weight in length as 1st.
I am definatly not one of those mums to be who just gets a big bump, I get big all over when pregnant.

[A+X+Me]

My 2nd and 3rd pregnancies I thought I looked heaps huge compared to my first, my last pregnancy (4th) I always measured 7 weeks ahead from 21 weeks on wards but I never got any comments about my size, which I thought was werid, I got one man 3 days before I was due ask me how long I had left and when I said I had 3 days he said "wow I would have thought you had a few months!"

I think people comment on size because they are trying to interact with you, trying to start a convo maybe?

[Cassius2]

...i feel your pain. i went for my 12w NT scan and the sonographer looked at me as i walked in and said: 'are you sure you're not here for the 20w morphology?'

i was mortified lol.

i am just over 16w now and am HUGE. just cant be in 'normal' clothes anymore.

[OceanPrincess]

OMG Cassius!!!!!! I would have been mortified too!!!

With my first pg I hid it until 16wks at work, no one knew until then... don't think I would have gotten away with that now!!

Makes me wonder about Lynette on Desperate Housewives: I know, I know, it is just fictional but really, do they expect us to believe that she would be looking like that at 4mths pg with twins, her second set of twins and her what, 4th or 5th pregnancy??? Seriously...

A&X&Me, you are probably right - it is something they can safely (or so they think ) talk about with me...

[Trillian]

It really varies. You could have more fluid this time, or the shape of your belly could look more 'poppie', like a basket ball under your top LOL. Sometimes I think too that people have an expectation in their mind of how a pg woman 'should' look at a particular gestation kwim? With my 1st and 2nd pg's I had the exact same fundal height with both of them at the same stages of pg, but with #1 I looked a heck of a lot bigger because i was a different shape. I was a lot more rounded with #2 but with #1 it was pointier.

[Cassius2]

hmmmm you may be right there Trill. this belly is def a 'pointer'...so maybe that's why i am showing so much (please, anything other than dealing with the knowlege that i have zero abs LOL!).

[Feueriosa]

That is almost word for word what people are saying to me at the moment..

I honestly don't think I am that much bigger than I was at this stage with DS, but hey.. who am I to know.. apparently everyone else is an expert on how big I 'should' be at this stage..

Hang in there, not long to go and you will have a new bubby to distract people from the size of your butt! (that is my theory anyway!)

[OceanPrincess]

Maybe it is a shape thing - its a boy this time and every old wife knows that you "carry differently" when its a boy/girl

I honestly don't think I am that much bigger than I was at this stage with DS, but hey.. who am I to know.. apparently everyone else is an expert on how big I 'should' be at this stage..

Hang in there, not long to go and you will have a new bubby to distract people from the size of your butt! (that is my theory anyway!)

Thanks, I definitely agree!

[DaintreeDream]

I definately got bigger faster with #2, it did however slow down but I did feel bigger with DD2 right until the end. My DD1 weighed 2987 grams and DD2 was 2900 grams, so not much difference in my babies weights, DD2 was actually a little bit smaller.
Oh and I thought I would add I lost weight quicker second time around too. I fit into pants one month after DD2 was born (by 2 months they were to big!) that I didn't fit into until 5 months after DD1s birth.

[skybie]

i got bigger quicker with DD2 aswell, at ten weeks i was getting are u sure its not twins comments!
DD1 was 3650 full term and DD2 was 3550 4 weeks early, but i honestly believe she was that big because of diabetes (wasnt diagnosed with GD, but found out i have type 1 after she was born)

With DD1 i put on about 35kgs when i fell pregnant with DD2 i was 10kgs heavier then when i fell with DD1, and with DD2's pregnancy i only put on 8kgs, then lost 12kgs by the time she was 4 months old (diabetes related)
i carried both the girls the same but everyone thought i was massive with DD2, i must admit i was big and all out infront, but i didnt think the massive comments were necessary!

in one day i was told by the petrol station lady that i was huge and must only have a week or two left (nope still got 6!) and then i left there and went to the shops and was told how tiny i was!

[DaintreeDream]

You just reminded me Skybie, I weighed in at 79 kilos on the day I delivered both girls so I obviously I was the same by the time they were born, DD1 was born at 38+2 and DD2 at 37+6 only 3 days difference.

[kungfubecca]

before I finished at work, I was quite promptly told how large I was, and that this would be a large baby.

My doctor at the next visit made the comment he thought bubs would be small,

My measurements have been spot on the entire time, but I think first bub for me was carried more inside, and this one due to the previous one stretching everything poped out sooner.

I also didn't get any new stretch marks until very recently, so I think the size is in the eye of the beholder.

[Gabrielle&Emersyn]

I started showing with Emersyn, at 12-13 weeks - and with Gaby I didn't start until 26 weeks - so I am definately showing earlier with this pregnancy! I compared photos last week, from the same point of pregnancy with Gaby, and I look like a house compared to how I was with Gaby!