Baby Number 2 Q&A
I posted a Q&A over on my Instagram stories but wanted a permanent place to save all my answers! If you have any more you can drop them in the comments below!
How did you know you were ready for another baby?
This is hard to explain in text form but basically with our long term vision for our family, we decided this would be the best time for us to have a second baby! For awhile I was nowhere near ready and I knew I definitely did not want 2 under 2 especially since I breastfed for 19 months. 15-19ish months was a really hard age for me and I could not have imagined being pregnant then. Now that she is 2 I feel like she is much more independent and things are getting easier in general.
Also, I currently work part time as a nurse 1-2 nights per week, mainly on the weekends, which has allowed me to stay home with her for almost all of the time. However, Tatum will be starting preschool part time in the Fall and will go full time the following Fall of 2026. If our circumstances were different, I probably would have preferred to wait another year. However I plan on returning full time Summer/Fall of 2026 which would allow me to stay home the first year with this next baby. And then this baby will go to the daycare at Ryan’s school at that time, and I will likely switch to a job with daytime hours.
Night shift is also getting SO much harder for me and I don’t know how much longer I can do it… but now that I know there’s an end in sight (even if its not for another 1.5 years) I feel more confident and comfortable with this decision! I really wanted to have a “plan” for the next couple years first and felt this made the most sense for us!
Will this be your last baby? How many kids do you want?
I’ve gotten this question a lot! I pray this is not my last baby… if it were up to my husband we would have them all back to back… but I think I will need a good 4-5 years before the next one. Basically I want to have a few years to adjust to life with multiple kids and be more settled with our house, my job, and I will probably need a new car to accommodate all the car seats so more than 2 kids sounds like A LOT anytime soon. We also really want to move first. We love some aspects about the city for sure, but our house is not *ideal* for raising kids and the location is not the most convenient for us.
We think we would love 4 ideally but we will see!
Are you moving soon?
No plans to move super soon! I would feel more comfortable waiting until I’m back working full time. Thankfully we have a third bedroom so it is definitely doable to have a second child in our current house. We love the Sparks area so hopefully in the next 2-3+ years we will be back up in the county!
Do you know the gender?
So originally I wanted to wait until birth to find out the gender of this baby! But Ryan always wanted to know, so I figured he could find out and I would wait. But then the night before I got the results of my blood test back I felt so anxious I looked at the results for the genetic testing to make sure everything was okay and ended up seeing the gender by accident (which was totally my fault – I should have waited until the anatomy scan and had them put the results in an envelope for him!) So I didn’t find out the way I wanted and I think part of me may always be a little sad about that. But at the same time it is nice that we both know now and I say the next baby will be a surprise for both of us!
We have not shared the gender with anyone yet, I think doing a gender reveal for friends and family this time around will be fun since we didn’t do one with Tatum!
Do you have a name picked out? Will you be sharing the name before birth?
Baby has a name! We had both a girl and boy name picked out before finding out the gender and am super excited about Baby’s name! We will be sharing after Baby is born!
When did you find out you were pregnant?
I found out pretty early because I was taking tests almost daily… the first 3 during the days leading up were negative. I found out on December 4th at 4 weeks and 1 or 2 days!
How has this pregnancy compared to last time?
So I have definitely felt more anxious this time around after I lost the last pregnancy. I remember feeling anxious with Tatum too but not to this extent! More just worrying if Baby is fully healthy! But I know there’s not much I can do to control that, just try to remind myself that the scans and bloodwork have all looked fine so far.
This pregnancy has been so much harder, probably because I have been getting way less sleep and am also taking care of a toddler now. The first trimester really took a lot out of me, and it still is, but I have felt a bit better the past few weeks so I am hoping I have turned a corner. I still throw up most days but luckily I’m not quite a nauseous as I was earlier on. It has still been pretty rough though, I keep thinking I cannot possibly feel more tired and then I do. I will say I did finally fire a sitter (so now I’ll only be staying up 21 hours instead of 27 like I have been doing with night shift). So of course my schedule with night shift definitely adds another layer of difficulty.
I do feel like I have more support this time around. I have SO many more mom friends than I did when I was pregnant with Tatum! So that has been super helpful. I also have a lot of friends who are currently pregnant with their second babies and have several friends who are already second time moms so I feel like I have a lot more people I can turn to this time. And I feel like the more time that goes on, the more mom friends come into my life which is always a blessing!
How did you tell Tatum?
We just told her there was a baby in Mama’s belly and she said, “kiss baby?” and gave my belly a kiss! She knows there’s a baby in there, but she’s still so young I know she doesn’t fully comprehend it yet.
Did you use anything to track while trying?
I was trying to track my cycles with ovulation strips but ended up getting pregnant towards the end of my normal monthly period. We were going to wait a few more weeks before officially trying again but of course were still happy it happened when it did!
Do you have a nursery theme?
To be honest I have barely given any thought to the nursery! We will have more time to work on it once Tatum is in school in the Fall so we’ll probably give it more thought when it gets closer and I will definitely keep you posted on this!
Will you have the same feeding plan?
I almost exclusively breastfed Tatum for 19 months! I did supplement with formula for a day or two before my milk came in and she was having latching issues. I also pumped a lot more in the beginning and ended up having an oversupply. I will say next time I would only try to pump when necessary for work, otherwise I will try to avoid it as much as possible. And with my supply and fact that I breastfed for as long as I did makes me think I won’t need to supplement this time or pump as much. Exclusively breastfeeding as much as possible is my goal because pumping is so much work!
