Before having my first baby, I was filled with all the feels - excitement, nervousness, love, impatience, anticipation; the whole shebang.
But before having my second baby, those feelings amped up a thousand or so notches.
While I thought I had felt it all before, now there were new feelings and worries.
A lot of them were focused on the physical: How would I cope with two children? How would I manage with both a toddler and a baby? When would I ever sleep? (Years later, I'm still wondering about that one.)
But a lot of my concerns were emotional, too.
You see, for the first two years (and three months) of my daughter's life, it was just us. Just her and me (oh yes - and her daddy, too).
My first baby gave birth to me as a mother and I treasured our years of togetherness. When she arrived, my whole world changed forever.
While our second baby was very much wanted, I wondered if I could love another baby as much as I loved my first.
Would having another baby effect my relationship with my first baby? Would our bond - the world where it was just the two of us - be over?
It seems like I'm far from the only mum to have had such concerns. My friends have shared similar feelings with me, and now a photo has gone viral because it captures all those feelings so perfectly.
The photo was taken by Laura from Crowned Photography. She shared it on her Facebook page and captioned it with this message:
"Pure sweetness. Last hugs before saying goodbye to momma & the last time she would sit on that big round belly with her sister still inside."
And oh, if your eyes are filling with tears right now, you're not alone.
Commenters have flocked to Laura's Facebook page, saying things like they bawled their eyes out upon seeing the photo, and that the image is both "sweet" and "precious".
One astute commenter noted, "A big moment ... when an only child becomes a child that has to share their mummy."
And that's what the photo captures so beautifully: a moment before a new beginning, certainly; but also a moment of goodbye.
Because, when you give birth to your second baby, you inevitably need to say goodbye to the world consisting of just you and your firstborn.
While I was keen to open my arms to my new baby, I was also sad about our one-on-one time ending.
Unlike the mother in this photo, I never had a single 'farewell' moment before the arrival of my second and third babies.
(I went into labour with both those babies in the middle of the night, and had no inkling the night before that the next time I would see my 'babies' would be after my new baby was born).
I never had that distinct moment, but I felt awash with all the feelings in the lead-up to that time.
It's been almost six years since we welcomed our beautiful second baby to the family (and over two years since our youngest joined the club). And after each of my babies' arrivals, my world changed.
Sure, one or two of my fears were well-founded (like that little 'sleep' thing I mentioned), but most of them got swept aside in the sheer magnitude of love I felt for my babies - both the new ones, and their older siblings.
Saying goodbye to that one-on-one time with your first baby can be bittersweet. But, to me, what comes after more than makes up for it.