I’m sure you imagined it the moment you found out you were pregnant with baby #2. How am I going to take care of the baby with a giant belly? Or even more in-tune, baby #3 is on the way and you remember exactly how hard it was to take care of one baby with a belly bump, and now there are 2! Well, aside from general exhaustion, which we won’t mention again because we know that you know that’s a given, there are a few things you can expect to cause difficulty when you’re managing babies and a baby bump.
Life with a Toddler and a Baby Bump
Here are a few ways in which time with your current baby/s will change when you are growing a new baby!
Cuddle Time
Yep. I’m afraid cuddle time is going to change a bit. Not only will your shape change, but so will your comfort level with certain positions. And oh, boy! That rocking chair time is going to really take a hit. There are some ways to work around this, those ways usually involve pillows or other helpful pregnant mom utilities but for a little bit, until that new baby arrives, it really won’t be the 
same. Instead of going for that full on chest laying technique you both enjoy, try the pillow in your lap, toddler semi-wrapped around that bump. Laying down cuddles? We don’t know what to tell you. By month 8 and 9 your belly will be so far out there that it’s hardly considered cuddling when the baby has no choice but to be near a foot away. Learn to face snuggle?
Cooking for Your Toddler
Especially those early morning meals in that first-trimester nausea phase? Blech. Your early morning pregnant body isn’t really going to let you cook any funky smelling foods without shoving your face in the toilet for a half an hour. Just don’t try it. Do what you can to replace some of those warm meals with fruit, pastas or other nice-smelling tidbits. Try cold cereals allowed to soften up enough for baby. They tend to smell sweeter. Just.. don’t look at it. Just remember, you’re not going to be able to feed baby anything in the hugging the porcelain position. Food aversions are normal and usually don’t last past the third month.
Doing Anything with Your Toddler on Your Lap
Let’s just get over this and not discuss it too much. Bluntly, your lap will be disappearing as the months go by. Grab a bumbo seat or another secure option and forget about it. Probably another case where not looking is best.
Putting Baby Down in the Crib
Maybe this sounds easy if you’ve never tried it but it’s not. You’ll soon realize that your belly is in the exact wrong place to ease baby into a gentle sleep. More likely than not, you’ll be going with the ‘lean over as far as possible slightly sideways, and gentle ‘drop’ baby down the rest of the way’ method. You’ll have to just hope with all hope that this doesn’t wake the baby up, but you never know. Clenching your eyes shut only helps for a second. You’ll also notice that the bigger your belly gets the higher the chance that free-fall will wake the baby. No, putting the side down doesn’t help unless your baby bump is limited to your upper sternum.
Putting Shoes on Your Toddler (Or You for that matter)
Don’t. Just don’t try that bending over thing where your littles are sitting on a couch and you try to lean over to reach their dangling feet. It’s not going to work and there’s no reason to make yourself sad like that. Also, I’ve seen more than one exhausted mom just flop right over trying this. As for you, you’ll figure out how to do that uncomfortable leg position to get your own shoes on, but I’d really suggest flip-flopping or slide-ons for as long as possible.
The good part about all of these negatives is that none of them last for very long. Soon you’ll have two babies to cuddle rather comfortably and the belly bump struggles will once again become a distant annoying memory.
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