Surviving Pregnancy …With Toddlers And Pre-schoolers

When I was pregnant the first time around, I started an exciting, but overwhelming journey. Even though I suffered with every pregnancy, I had a huge luxury that I took for granted: spare time, as is the case for most first-time mums.

- Lucy Holmes

With your first pregnancy, you have time to go to bed early or sleep in, wallow in self-pity as you nurse a sick bucket, choose to have a lazy day or get a massage, etc. It was lovely: I slept, became spoilt and spent a lot of time watching TV.

However, when I got pregnant the second time around, I had an energetic and demanding first child to run after who simply didn’t understand the concept of Mum being pregnant and needing to ‘take it easy’. He also suddenly became clingier, as he understood that massive changes were about to take place for our family unit.

I was looking forward to more cuddles, but it became difficult to cope with the extra attention when I was running to the bathroom every few minutes. So how do you manage? Everybody does it, but it can seem like a challenging task when you’re racked with fatigue and nausea, and your beloved first child just wants, wants, wants, wants everything.

My mum had three children under three and I’m still in awe of how she did it. When I asked her how she coped, she told me: “At the end of the day, I used a broom to sweep all the toys into the playroom.”

There are a few other ways to make your life a little easier when you’re pregnant and have a toddler. Here are my top six picks.