Meghan Trainor thought she knew what to expect when expecting, having already welcomed son Riley in February 2021.
She even wrote the literal book on the subject, penning April's Dear Future Mama to help guide mothers-to-be through the wild, confusing messy journey. Then she got pregnant again "and this one's the opposite," the pop singer admitted in an exclusive interview with E! News. "So many things are different that I'm like, I've got to write another book and be like, 'Well, also, this could happen.'"
Chapter one: Early pregnancy can be scary AF.
"Not to get gnarly, but I had so much bleeding in the beginning that I didn't think I was pregnant," she shared of experiencing two rounds of implantation bleeding "perfectly right on track with my period."
Since she and husband Daryl Sabara had been trying, the "Made You Look" singer took a pregnancy test one morning "and was stoked," she recalled of seeing the positive result. "And then an hour later, I was like, 'Oh, here's my period.' It was tough."
Assuming she was experiencing a chemical pregnancy, Trainor's doctor advised the 29-year-old to continue testing "because I was like, 'I still feel pregnant. I feel like I have the flu,'" the singer explained. "She was like, 'Well, keep testing. You should be negative in the next few days.' And it was positive, positive, positive, positive every day."
Finally, she did a blood test, which checks the levels of hCG, a hormone produced by the fetus, "and it said my numbers were through the roof," continued Trainor. Going in for a scan, she assumed she was six weeks along, "and they're like, 'So that's a 10-weeker.' And I was like, 'Yeah!!'" The Nantucket native captured the moment on camera to share with fans, she said, "but I swore a lot because I was Massachusetts really excited."
She's somewhat less thrilled about the nausea she's been experiencing this time around.
"I didn't feel any sickness with Riley, I was just tired," noted Trainor. "This one, I was rocked." So she's taken to carrying around Quaker rice cakes wherever she goes. "I need a crunchy, salty snack with me because that's the only thing that helps my nausea," she said. "A lot of people get too sick where they can't eat anything, but these have saved my butt."
They were her favorite nosh even before the team reached out with their idea for an all about that base campaign, a nod to the musician's 2014 breakout hit. But now, she said, "I cannot go anywhere without them." (For the record, her go-to stack is the caramel flavor topped with peanut butter and banana.)
Morning sickness and stress aside, Trainor has been all about this second pregnancy.
Admittedly, diving back in had the musician "really in my head," she shared. "Like, 'Should I have another baby now? My career is poppin' right now. Am I going to ruin the momentum somehow?'"
But after a week shooting How I Met Your Father with a fake bump had her back in her feels ("People genuinely were like, 'Let me get the door for you!' And I was like, 'God, I miss being pregnant'"), a chat with her team assuaged any fears: "They were like, 'Go get pregnant, dude.'"
This time around she's built that proverbial village.
"I'm the youngest out of my friends who's found my soulmate," she explained of settling down with the Spy Kids alum after mutual pal Chloë Grace Moretz arranged a meeting in 2016. Married at 25 and expecting at 26, she had a cheese-stands-alone moment. "My friends were like, 'You go through it first so I can learn,'" Trainor said. "And so I felt very alone."
And then Hilary Duff reached out with an invite to one of the most high-wattage mommy-and-me classes in Los Angeles. Though she still struggles to "pretend I'm not starstruck and geeking out" every time she attends alongside Mandy Moore, Ashley Tisdale and Duff ("My husband named his hamster growing up Mandy Moore; my alias for hotels was always Lizzie McGuire"), it's worth silencing her inner fan girl.
"Now I have mom friends," said Trainor. And with a few of them trying for their second babies, "Now I'm pregnant with other people. And it's the best feeling. It's just been so much better this time around."
Part of the fun is imagining Riley as a big brother.
Having already learned the sex and selected a name they've been mulling over for quite some time, "I show my belly and I go, 'What's that? What's in there?'" Trainor said of talking with Riley about his brother or sister. "And he says, 'A baby' and then, 'Baby' and then the name."
It's just one of the many words Riley has been spouting these days. "We wanted him to talk for so long," she said of worrying her son, who will turn 2 Feb. 8, might never speak. They did a whole battery of tests to make sure there wasn't a reason he was quieter than most, "but he's finally talking a bunch, just blabbering and singing."
And, yes, she already has visions of Grammys dancing in her head.
Listening to him passionately belt out "Baby Shark," she shared, "I was like, 'Babe, that was in key.' There's something good in there. He has an ear." Fans will likely be able to hear that for themselves. "I want to TikTok it," she said, "because the effort that this kid puts in for every performance tells me he's going to be a star."
He's got quite the team guiding him, Trainor revealing that Riley lights up whenever "Guncle" Chris Olsen stops by. "He knows when Chris is there, we're going to film TikToks and he know he's going to be extra funny with him," she explained of the social media star. Among the recent content captured, "We taught him to say, 'Gay rights!'" said Trainor. "And now he runs around the whole house, like, 'Gay rights!' So when that video drops, the Internet is about to break."
Trainor's bestie Olsen was also by her side on the day she thought she'd lost this pregnancy. "He was so kind to me and helped me through it all," she detailed. "And then I was like, 'Just kidding! The baby's still here!' So he went through the big rollercoaster with me."
No word on if he's volunteering for an overnight shift, Trainor and Sabara's one worry when it comes to expanding their family.
"My husband and I have been talking about the tiredness and the bedtime routines. Like, how are we going to put the toddler to bed?" she shared. "With one, we can be like, 'It's your night and it's my night.' And I'm like, 'Babe, no nights off. It's going to be, you get this kid, I'll get this one.' That's what I'm trying to wrap my brain around."
But while she's nervous about how they'll get a wriggly Riley into his pajamas without an extra set of hands, "We'll figure it out," Trainor said. "My mom had three of us back-to-back. We can do it."
Because she wasn't lyin', lyin', lyin' when she said she wanted a whole bunch of little ones. "I'm still going for four," she insisted. "So in my head I'm like, 'I'm halfway there!'"