Tag: #confidence

How my second pregnancy is different from the first?

Pura ChenLeave a comment

“Woo Hoo!!! Congratulations! I’m so excited for you! That’s the greatest news I’ve heard today!”

Sadly, I don’t get those anymore. Either that I’m low key this time, or that people are feeling numb about me being pregnant this soon again. Like I’ve become the lady who is forever pregnant in the office…

No more glories

I still remember how I felt during the second and third trimester of my first pregnancy. The always glorious look on my face claiming to the world that I’m not ever going to give up to the change of my body. The super hyped energy level that made me ready to conquer the world anytime. And of course, the excited and anxious feeling of how my little bundle of joy will change my life. Even during the HCG overdosed first trimester, I was relaxed enough and got to do whatever I wanted to do. Now that I’m looking at a picture of me 2 years ago, putting it side by side with a picture today, I can’t recognize myself.

No more week counts

I still can’t believe that I’m almost half way through. And yet I don’t have a single picture of my belly! During the last one, the first thing I never forgot to do every morning was to take a picture of my belly, compare it with last day and upload it to my bump album. I was checking the calendar every day and counting on the days left until the next ultrasound. When I reached a new week milestone, I check every website to see what is normal and how the baby would look like inside my belly. The time went by very slow, but I enjoyed every second.

No more travel

Not even road trips. I really regretted that I cancelled my travel plan after I found out about my first pregnancy. IT WAS A TOTALLY WRONG DECISION. I (especially my parents) was overly cautious during my first trimester. They didn’t want me to risk taking the 13 hrs flight back to China. I could have a reason because I was overly protective of my little fetus. But let me tell you something, GO WHEREVER YOU WANT TO GO while you can! But does that mean you can’t ever travel after you have kids? The answer is, Yes you can, but you just won’t enjoy it.

More Confidence

I even bought a baby Doppler to check if the heart beat still existed everyday to give myself assurance. This time I don’t even bother. I can feel the little kicks every now and then. I know that I’m doing everything I should to keep the baby safe. Faith will take care of everything else. It’s the trust that you have built with your body to believe that it will protect your baby as long as you are doing things within the boundary. My parents are still overly careful and telling me not to lift heavy weight like my daughter. Because as for her age, she is quite heavy… But I choose to trust my body that it will at least allow me to take care of my own baby, isn’t it?

Less Money to Spend

This is the beauty of having subsequent children. The more you have, the less you spend per kid. This also gave me the excuse to buy things I really wanted but not very much needed for my first baby. People, especially moms, are always very creative at finding ways to show off their love to the newly added family member. They tend to buy a lot of useless stuff that babies don’t really need. Like pairs of fancy princess shoes for newborns who barely have their eyes open. The business that sells baby stuff are really good at leveraging the market.

When you have raised a child, you also have a better idea of what you really need but you were not sure with the first one. Like a overly packed hospital bag with my husband’s PJ and shower gel in it, and some fancy and bulky blankets that my daughter only used once because what she really needed was swaddles that make her into a perfect little britto.

More Sex

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Because now you know exactly what to expect down the road until your second little angel pops out, you feel a lot less anxious than your first pregnancy where you were constantly worried if anything you do is going to hurt your baby. Sex during pregnancy was my top concern. It took me a whole pregnancy and lots of researches to finally realize that a woman with no pregnancy complexity is fully capable of this multitasking skill. How amazing is that??

Also knowing the fact that your body will be in shut down mode in just a few months. Why not enjoy the pleasure while you still can? What’s even better? Sex during pregnancy can promote your mental health by reducing stress and thus leads to smarter baby. Happy parents with a smart bean, what do you have to lose?

Being a new mom is hard. Being a mom with a bump is even challenging. Even I listed a lot of things I can’t enjoy during this pregnancy because of my little trouble maker 1 year old. I am much more happier than I ever was. Sure I miss the days where it’s just the two of us and the dogs. But my heart wasn’t fulfilled until I met my little angel. I wouldn’t know how deeply I could love someone, that how my heart was touched when I was slowly pouring water onto her little shoulder while she’s playing in the bath. I can work harder to earn the glories back, but I will not ever trade those for any second of my delightful moment.

This is motherhood, a lesson only your child can teach you.

Why do I start blogging? Hint: It’s not for extra $$$

Pura Chen4 Comments

Just 3 days ago, I would never see myself as a blogger at any point of my life. I thought about being an interior designer, a stay home mom, a restaurant owner or even a farmer with a ranch full of Great Danes if I get a chance to walk away from my boring office job. So what happened in my mind? I mean, I’m a girl who changes mind quicker than my baby changes diapers, with my help. You may ask, how would you know you will not change this mind with a snap of finger? Well, this time I’m going to write it all down so when I’m about to change it again, it will remind me.

1. To Kill Time during Quarantine in a Healthy Way

Yes. This should be the top reason that I’m actually sitting here and typing after a long day of already sitting and typing in front of a computer. But how is it healthy that you just make yourself sitting all day long? Have you heard of Einstein’s relativity theory? It all goes down to what you are comparing to. Maybe you will have a better clue if also jump onto your couch after dinner passively browsing through social media reading through useless celebrity news pop up by google suggestions. When you finally realize you should move your butt because it’s tinkling, you have already wasted another night.

2. To Think Less and Do More

Because I always had a million reasons to change my every mind. I want to prove myself that I can stick to one! To be honest, I almost changed this one again.

I will give up very soon.

I’m not good at this.

I will not have any viewer.

I don’t know what to write about.

I can’t come up with a perfect domain name.

I don’t want to spend money on it

…

I could go on, if I’m not sick of these already. If you don’t try it, how would you know that you will not be successful? How would you learn that if you are good at it or not? I actually spent 2 days thinking what domain name I should use so that it sounds cool and meaningful. I still haven’t come up with one the time I wrote this post. But I realized something more important. YOU JUST HAVE TO START IT. Anything else is just a waste of time. The dots will connect itself once you have the dots plotted.

3. To build Memories for Life

Maybe I have reached the age old enough to think about how my whole life would look like. I bought a lot of pretty looking diary books. But they all ended up becoming memo books. When I had the idea of writing a blog and owning a website, it excited me because finally I can have a pretty diary that I will be proud to share with my kids.

4. To Express My Thoughts

I find myself constantly having too much feelings and thoughts. If you are like me, when you need to sit down to study but your mind just constantly drifting away with a million ways to paint your nail, you are not along. No we don’t suck at studying, we just have too many brilliant ideas that needs to be sorted out.

5. To Share My Experiences

nowadays we have too many social media platforms to share our thoughts with friends and families. But have you ever wanted to post something about your cute little baby the 1001 times but worried that your childless best friends will be annoyed? Having a blog with only audiences down for your niche will solve this problem. They care about your opinions about how you tackle your LO’s sleep. You are sharing it because you know there are people out there with similar situation who might be able to inspire you too.

6. To Build Confidence

I grew up in a culture where I was not allowed to have free creative thoughts. Being an obedient kid and only doing what other kids were doing was the only way to make me loved, and also have my confidence killed. Learning to share my ideas and knowing that there might be people inspired from reading them will simply make me happy. no matter what kind of thoughts you have, it’s yours, so own it, confidently.

7. It Doesn’t Cost Much

Unless you have a business to promote that you will probably have to spend thousands of dollars per month to maintain multiple blogs which will generate millions of dollars per year, you do not need much to start a good looking blog. Comparing to buying a property to raise a ranch full of great danes, this one is a much more cost effective investment. They both give back happiness.


How about you? Have you also thought of starting a blog for yourself? Or do you already own one? If so, what was your original reason to start it?