On the second one...
This pregnancy has been a lot different from my first one.
Of course, there is the physical aspect. While I was rarely sick with CJ, I'm sick almost 24/7 with this baby.
With CJ, I ate, slept, breathed, talked, studied, and meditated on pregnancy. I scoured the "What to Expect" type books and read the baby magazines from cover to cover.
I NEVER lifted anything heavy, and physical labor (you know, like walking) only happened on a must-do basis.
With this one, I don't worry as much. I lift CJ on a regular basis. I go on long walks 3-4 times a week in addition to racquetball 2 mornings a week.
Of course, sometimes I forget I'm pregnant. Since I am sick almost all the time, it's a little difficult to forget very often. But on the rare days when "morning sickness" (obviously named by a man) is nowhere in sight, I have, on more than one occasion, simply forgotten that I'm preggerz.
But it's not just that I forget I'm pregnant. You see, when the hormones are raging and the sickness washes over me in waves of nausea, how can I ignore the fact that I'm preggo? But a "new" realization hit me just this morning... there's a little person inside me. A baby. Flesh and blood with eyes and fingers and a heart beating away. In the midst of dealing with the "trials" of pregnancy, I simply overlooked the fact that it's all happening so that a little person - flesh of my flesh, and bone of my bones - can have life.
Yes, this pregnancy is different. Perhaps it is because things in life are so complicated right now that this pregnancy seems simpler. Perhaps it is because I sort of know what to expect at the end of this leg of the journey.
Either way. It's different. Not better. Not worse. Just different.
=)