Now the proud mom of three adorable boys, I look back on my pregnancies and realize when they say, “every pregnancy is different,” they aren’t joking. Each pregnancy is indeed different. My first pregnancy was basically symptom-free, minus basket-ball-shaped weight gain. My second pregnancy was plagued with constant back pain and heart burn along with gestational diabetes. My third threw the ringer at me, resulting in basically every pregnancy symptom under the sun from nausea and migraines to itchy skin and excessive thirst. The question then becomes, why is each pregnancy different?
You are different
I was 22 during my first pregnancy and 26 during my third. The primary reason each pregnancy is different and you experience different pregnancy symptoms is because you are different. You’ve grown older. Your hormonal balance has shifted. Your mental state isn’t the same. The time between pregnancies ensures that you will not be exactly the same in a plethora of ways, so it’s logical that your pregnancy won’t be either.
Your baby is different
My first baby weighed 7.1 lbs. My second 8.15 lbs, and my third 9.47 lbs. The first and third are both slender boys, and the second is stocky and muscular. They have different skull shapes, body builds, and body chemistry. It doesn’t matter that all three are male, they are still quite different. The size and body chemistry of your baby can affect your pregnancy, likely more so than gender being that there is very little evidence to support the suggestion that your baby’s gender can cause different pregnancy symptoms in most cases.
When you consider that you and the baby are your pregnancy, and both of you are different, you would think that the drastic differences many women experience between pregnancies would be less shocking, but not really. Even after recognizing how different my first and second pregnancies were I worried throughout my third that something was wrong. My advice to those once again expecting is to take it as it comes. Treat each pregnancy like the first, and you’ll be far less confused and possibly concerned.
You may also find interesting:
Can Pregnancy Symptoms Determine Gender?
Can You Lift Your Other Children While Pregnant?