Lea Michele Details How Her Second Pregnancy Is 'Incredibly Different' Than Expecting During COVID (Exclusive)

Lea Michele says her second pregnancy is vastly different from her first.

In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE, the actress and singer, 37, opens up about how being pregnant with her son Ever Leo, now 3, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was nothing like her current pregnancy with baby No. 2, who is due later this year.

"It was an incredibly different experience, being pregnant with Ever. We were in California, and we were in a pandemic," Michele says. "So it was a lot of just hanging out at home and very minimal activity. And now, it's New York, it's the busy streets. I'm working, I'm a mom, and it's very different."

One specific thing Michele — who is partnering with Children’s Tylenol — says she is grateful is different this time around is that she gets to share her pregnancy with her loved ones.

"None of my friends saw me pregnant, ever," she explains. "You know, my best friend, Jonathan Groff, never saw me pregnant. He wasn't with me, and my dad was in New York, he was on the East Coast during the pandemic. So to be able to have this experience and share this time with my friends and family has been really wonderful, and not something that I got to do before."

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Michele announced that she and husband Zandy Reich are expecting their second baby — a girl — through an Instagram post in March.

"Mommy, Daddy and Ever are overjoyed. ????," the Glee alum wrote in her caption, sharing a series of photos of herself posing in a white shawl and underwear while cradling her baby bump.

With her current pregnancy, Michele says that it isn't necessarily easier the second time around, given that "it's been four years, so it doesn't feel as fresh in my brain."

"I think a lot of this experience, it has felt very new to me, because I've been in a lot of new scenarios and new environments pregnant," she continues.

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Michele also says that having her son around to experience the joy and wonders of her pregnancy is an experience like no other.

"He's really excited," the Scream Queens star says of Ever, who will turn 4 in August. "He's so sweet, just rubbing my belly and talking to the baby. I think he's going to be a really, really great big brother."

Overall, the Broadway star adds that she feels good while expecting, explaining, "I am so grateful to feel as strong as I do, and grateful for my body to be giving me this strength."

"To have adapted to this different experience in pregnancy as well as I feel like my body has is really wonderful," continues Michele.

While she knows that motherhood and raising children is full of amazing moments, Michele is also realistic and knows it's made up of uneasy times as well, like when her children are sick.

Through her partnership with Children's Tylenol — which is the No. 1 pediatrician-recommended brand of pain and fever relief— the expectant mother says medicine from the company, including the Dye-Free Cherry Liquid, makes those moments more bearable.

"I definitely feel like when our son had his first ear infection or fever, I was a lot more nervous than I felt that I would be," Michele tells PEOPLE. "But luckily, knowing that we had everything on hand right there for us, it was such a relief for me."

"It was the best comfort that we could have for a quite uncomfortable situation, and I think that we can do as much as we can as parents to protect our children from getting ill, whether it's constantly washing our hands or eating well, taking vitamins, all the things like that, but at the end of the day, they're going to get sick. So all you can do is just try to be as prepared as you possibly can," she continues.

Adds Michele: "Children's Tylenol has become a staple in our home, and now, in preparing for baby No. 2, we're making sure that we have all of the same necessary items to just make sure that we are as prepared as we can possibly be."

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