Your second pregnancy differs than your first one in many aspects. One of the significant difference that you may take into account is your weight gain.
When you get pregnant for the first time most probably you might have had a fit and fabulous body. The weight gain will be a methodically and a slowly progressing process during your first pregnancy and you will always make sure that you are inside the normal range by tracking your pregnancy weight weekly.
All these circumstances change when you get pregnant for the second time. Tracking and worrying about the pregnancy weight and trying to regulate the weight may be impossible when you are busy with the responsibilities of your toddler or your preschooler.
Why Is The Weight Gain During Second Pregnancy More?
Some of the reasons that give you a head start on the weight gain and appearing bigger during your second pregnancy are:
Being overweight before second conception. There are not many women who face the second pregnancy with a body as fit as the first pregnancy. Shedding the extra kilos gained during the first pregnancy and delivery is not that easy. Getting back to the pre-pregnancy shape takes quite some time.
This demands a lot of time, which most of us can’t provide with a child to taken care of. When the pregnancies are closely spaced, the chances of having a physically fit body are very low. Hence, when you start off your second pregnancy with being somewhat overweight, your weight gain will obviously different and more than the first pregnancy.
Hormonal and metabolic changes. Several changes occur in hormones and metabolism during a pregnancy. Some factors that contribute to weight gain disparity in the second pregnancy are:
- During your first pregnancy, all the physiological changes occur will be the first experience for your body too. So the body will take its own time to react to the hormonal and metabolic changes and the outcome of those changes, like weight gain, will progress systematically.
- During your second pregnancy, the body has already gone through all the hormonal and metabolic changes during the first pregnancy and will react to all the changes faster when compared to that of your first pregnancy. This can result in gaining weight faster during your second pregnancy than your prior pregnancy.
Showing earlier. You may even feel that your baby bump starts to show earlier during your second pregnancy. And here is why:
- Even though the rate of growth of your baby remains more or less same during your second pregnancy, your waist thickens and gets bigger comparatively faster in the second pregnancy. As a result, your belly grows faster and shows earlier when compared to the first pregnancy.
- Another reason for this occurrence is already stretched out muscles. The rectus abdominis muscle of your belly and the skin is already stretched during your first pregnancy and will be comparatively weaker during the second pregnancy. When the pregnancy hormones kick in, it will start to round up faster.
- Also, the uterus never shrinks back to the pre-pregnancy size. The loosened muscle of the uterus also tends to round up fast once the pregnancy hormones start to act.
All the above situations make you look bigger than you were at this time of your previous pregnancy.
Negligence
- You may not be able to take care of yourself properly during your second pregnancy. The watchful eyes you keep in maintaining a healthy diet and keeping the pregnancy weight inside the normal border is less likely to happen with a toddler or a preschooler around. It is quite natural that your priorities change this time.
- You may get hungry more often during your second pregnancy as you are not getting enough rest this time and more energy is needed to spend on your first baby. Obviously, the nature of the stored food might also change this time. Now, you may not be too concerned, or careful regarding the nutritional value of the food you have, since now you will take your first child’s wants into account as well.
- This carelessness towards your diet will reflect in your weight, causing your weight to cross its limits before you aware of it.
- When you are hungry, you probably will not be able to stick on to healthy food items such as fruits, vegetables or other healthy snacks. Instead, you may want grab whatever is given to you.
- The ideal method of consuming food during your pregnancy period is to have small quantities of food, in small interval of time. However, when other responsibilities chase you, you may remember to have food only when you feel hungry. This will make you eat more food than needed which leads to gaining more weight.
The weight gain during the second pregnancy will be faster, instead of showing a slow and steady progress like the first pregnancy. Compared to the first pregnancy, more weight is gained during the second pregnancy.
