Second Trimester Recap

Ah, the second trimester.  This is supposedly the most blissful time of pregnancy, as those who aren’t feeling well in the first trimester usually start to feel better, and it’s before you get too huge and uncomfortable to do anything. 

I appear to be some sort of pregnant anomaly.  I felt pretty darn good (though worried all the time!) during my first trimester, but my second trimester found me not sleeping well and dealing with a lot of aches and pains.  I was actually more tired during the second trimester than I was during the first!  The second trimester also brought with it the apparent heat wave of the decade, with temps in the 100s multiple times and absolutely no rain.  This is a pregnant woman’s worst nightmare, but not for me—I actually loved the heat and continue to find my temperature running colder than most.  To be honest, I’m cold all the time…another pregnancy anomaly, I guess!

UPs:

* Finding out that it’s a BOY!  And that he’s healthy.  Best day ever.

* Feeling movement!  It is the craziest best feeling in the world.  I absolutely love it and I can’t wait til I feel it even more (and SEE it even more from the outside!).

* Just being in the second trimester.  I definitely still worried, but MUCH less so than in the first trimester.  It’s so nice to know that each week brings with it better odds for the baby’s health and viability.

DOWNs:

* Round ligament pain.  I have a constant dull ache in my lower left abdomen that is definitely ligament pain.  I occasionally get it on my right side too but mostly on my left.  It is very uncomfortable!  My OB actually told me to just go ahead and order a pregnancy girdle (Oh, for f*ck’s sake), as I will continue to carry out front for the rest of the pregnancy and it’s probably only going to get worse. 

* Being unable to do as much as I used to.  This has been the hardest thing for me to adjust to—that I just can’t do the things I used to do anymore, or if I do them, I have to take a lot of breaks for rest.  We moved to our new house during this trimester and I took an extra day off of work to unpack.  Normally (aka pre-pregnancy), I would breeze through a ton of boxes during that day, but I had to keep taking breaks to rest because I just did not feel up to it.  Same thing with cleaning the house—I learned this past weekend that I can no longer take one day and do a marathon cleaning session.  I need to break it up into smaller parts over the course of the week, because I was so tired and sore by the end of yesterday I could barely move—seriously!  And I am still SO sore today.  I also bought a pregnancy pillow to help me sleep, but honestly, it hasn’t done much for me. I’m going to start doing some pre-natal yoga to help stretch out all my sore muscles!

* Pregnancy brain.  I thought I would be immune, but no.  I don’t have any problems at work (I write myself a LOT of notes & reminders), but I seem to forget common sense things at home.  Like, you know, turning off the burner when I’m done cooking.  Dear God, please don’t let me burn the house down. 

Total Weight Gained: 13 pounds this trimester, for 18 pounds total overall.

Maternity Clothes:  Ugh, the bane of my existence.  I bought a few things this trimester (especially pants!) but continue to make due with mostly regular tops, supplemented with maternity tanks & cardigans.

Main Symptoms: round ligament pain, sore back, poor sleep, exhaustion.

Overall, and despite those aches and pains I describe, I continue to absolutely love being pregnant.  I know people think I’m lying, or that I’m delusional, but really—I absolutely love it.  I’ve never felt so good about my body before and feeling the baby move is just incredible.  I had a bit of a freak-out during the middle of this trimester because I was afraid we weren’t getting everything we need to get done done, but I feel a ton better now.  We’ve made lots of progress on the Big-Time Baby To-Do List, and I feel confident we’ll be ready by 36 weeks (I’ve made that my goal).

Instead of a video recap this time around, I thought I’d do a quick photo comparison of all my bump photos from the second trimester:

So, what do you think…when did I pop?  I’m going with Week 19, and again this week (week 27) actually.  Apparently from here on out my belly is supposed to grow up to 1/2 an inch EVERY WEEK, which is just bananas to me.  I feel like I am going to be freakin’ huge, haha.  And just for a fun comparison:

   

Week Seven vs. Week Twenty – amazingly, this is the only shirt that I repeated in my photos from both trimesters.  So I think I’ll have to take another one late in the third trimester for final comparison!

There you have it—my second trimester recap.  I am really looking forward to this third trimester.  Decorating the nursery, my baby shower…fun times ahead.  Uh, plus at the end of it we’ll have a BABY!  Crazy.