How to remove the first image of a post only in the first paragraph

I currently have the code below to remove the first image from post. but this forces me to keep adding a first image every time to a post. I would like to be able to check if in the first paragraph of a post there is an image and if there is one, then and only then, make use the code below. This way I don’t have to add a first image to a post anymore and i can use the feature image function.

//Removes the first image on a post
function remove_first_image ($content) {
if (!is_page() && !is_feed() && !is_feed() && !is_home()) {
$content = preg_replace ("/<p>\\s*?(<a><img.*?><\\/a>|<img.*?>)?\\s*<\\/p>/s", "", $content, 1);
} return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content', 'remove_first_image');
//end of remove image

thanks,