Big/small babies

With DD1, I has a good pregnancy, I worked till 32 weeks, other than that no stress and ate well and went by every rule in the book. She was perfectly healthy and born at 9lb 2oz.

I am 34 weeks preg with number 2. I have had an extremely stessfull pregnancy and to be honest havent been looking after myself very well. DD1 is only one and I am very focused on her. I don't eat well, I rarely take vitamins or iron pills as I am so forgetful and I dont follow all those strict rules I did in pregnancy number one. I had a scan today and I am bang on for dates (which is good) and this baby is on it's way to be 7 or so pounds.

I can't help but think because of the stess, lack of sleep, vitamins, iron pills and good food I have somehow caused this baby to not get what it needs. Even the dr. was surprised to see such a different in weight ( I am sure this baby is fine, like I say it's perfectly average in size...I am more curious I guess)

Has anyone else experienced having babies that are such different sizes? Were your pregnancies different?

you still have 6 weeks to go... I would have thought baby no.2 will weight about the same as No.1 by then... in the last month don't they gain about half a pound a week....

oops sorry just reread ya post... your saying will be 7 pounds right??

Edited by freckle

I don't know I sometimes think its just luck of the draw really.

My first was 7lb 4oz and second was 6lb 10oz and there was not alot different with either pregnancy.

this is an intresting thread, I will be watching it closely as i was told by a specialist that I should opt for a CS (I know off topic but i'll get to my point haha ) for number 2 as DS was 8lb4oz and 'way too big for my small frame' I had an emergency CS with him. He said that babies only got bigger...i'm glad some of you ladies are proving him wrong as I want to try a VBAC   

So sorry cant help you're question, but thanks for asking so I can watch the answers hehe

Edited by noodle

Interesting noodle, cos there is quite a bit of info out there now talking about the uselessness (limitations) of fetal scans in predicting size and in the "myth" that many women are unable to VB bigger babies and that CS should not be indicated just b/c of predicted size.

Sorry for the TJ pekay!

My first(boy) was 9lb 11oz and my second(girl) was only 8lb 1oz. The only thing i can think of is that one's a boy and one's a girl.

I pretty much did everything the same with both pregnancies. So yeah i think it can just be a pretty random thing.

Honestly Kate, don't even stress yourself about it!

When I got pg with #2, I lost 10kg cos I couldn't eat, then DS was hospitalised and I lost weight thru stress, then DH left so I lost even more weight. I gained 2kg the whole pregnancy. #2 ended up being 8lb5oz, whereas DS (although he did stop growing for a while for some reason in utero) was 7lb10oz.

Baby is a parasite, they suck everything out of you. I rarely even ate a meal a day during my 2nd pg (I know, bad but I was a zombie) and she was a perfectly healthy size.

Also, in our family the 2nd children have always been a pound lighter than the first for no reason (other than maybe they realise if they're less noticeable they won't get the sh*t kicked out of them by their siblings before they even reach the outside world!)

I do feel better after hearing from others. And all I can do now is eat better for the next month or so.

I love the way babies are 'parasites' ...sounds so alien like..haha!

And on the positive side..maybe this baby will 'slip' out a little easier, lol!

Ask your midwife/ OB to do a GROW chart (they can find the programme on the internet). It gives a very accurate estimate of weight at birth (better than scans) and is very good at picking up if there is some kind of growth restriction. I had one for my daughter, which is why I was not surprised that she weighed less (even given that she was early) than my first daughter

dont worry it is very normal for babies to be different weights, my babies like to surprise my with their weights.
ds1 was 7lb2 at 38wks which is of course a very normal weight and ds2 was 8lb 8oz a bit bigger but he was 11day overdue. ds3 surprised everyone only 2days overdue he weighed 6lb 14oz i thought he might have been small but not that small mw thought he would be about 8lb, i wasnt there when he got weighed so when my sister told me his weight i thought she was kidding or they weighed him wrong but no.
ds4 was my wopper 9lb 5oz but he was exactly 42wks.