It’s surreal to think that I am nearing the end of the second trimester. Where did all the time go??!! Today marks 26 weeks and 5 days (yes, I’m counting the days, too. First-time mom-to-be here), which leaves 93 days left. WE ARE SO NOT READY (LOL). But honestly, who is ever completely ready for a baby, right?? [Pictures above: 21 weeks vs. 26 weeks]
If you ask me what we have done so far to prepare for the arrival of our baby, the answer is currently zero (lol). All we have done so far is choosing a paint color for the nursery (but did not buy the paint yet) and moved my office furniture from that room to Z’s office area. Z has an in-service exam coming up so all of his free time has been spent on studying lately. He promised me that he will paint the room in a couple of weeks. So, we made some really great progress! (lol). Surprisingly, I’m not really panicking about it. I figured one of these days, we will finally get our act together and accomplish necessary things before Baby B decides to arrive. I’m sure people back in the day greeted their new baby with far less stuff.
I wanted to compile my thoughts and experiences thus far as I’m wrapping up this trimester:
Back to my normal self! What you read online is true about getting your energy back. Right as I entered the second trimester, my nausea and fatigue went away. My appetite was back, too, so eating became fun again. Even though the bump was slowly growing, the rest of my body felt really normal like the old days. I will say, though, that I was still getting tired a little easier so I didn’t hesitate on getting the needed rest when my body signaled me.
Weight gain – Don’t hate me for this, but I honestly haven’t gained much weight. Although to this day, I am still a little confused about what my pre-pregnancy weight should be. I was consistently 112-113 lbs until I started taking Letrozole, which then I gained up to 120 lbs. When discussing this with my OB, she decided to record my pre-pregnancy weight at 120 lbs since I was at that weight for 3-4 months before getting pregnant. I’m currently between 127-128 lbs (being overly transparent here) so that gives you an idea. Apparently, it is common for women to not gain the recommended 25-30 lbs during pregnancy as long as the baby is growing healthy. So, if you feel like you’re not gaining any weight, do not worry as long as your OB is closely monitoring you. Who knows…I might gain everything during the third trimester.
Lower back/hip pain & Charley Horse– This came to me rather sooner than I expected. It certainly could be that my 8+ hour office desk job coupled with my naturally poor posture brought this unfortunate discomfort early in this trimester. I have not tried a prenatal massage yet, but prenatal yoga at home from watching YouTube videos definitely helps. Charley Horses have started waking me up occasionally around 23 weeks as well. Drinking a glass of water and eating a banana before bed has helped me (hydration + potassium).
A couple of *sorry not sorry* disclosures – Constipation is real, y’all. This is coming from me who self admits to having consistently good bowel movements. I am totally blaming on this constipation to pregnancy…100%. Oh, and CRAZY dreams. I can’t even begin explaining the types of bizarre dreams I have had during this entire trimester – a serious wtf. A lot of those dreams were not pleasant and often times makes zero sense. The only explanation is that I could be channeling by subconscious anxiety (related to motherhood, postpartum, etc.) through these crazy dreams. I really hope that it stops because there have been too many mornings where I woke up feeling like my heart was racing.
Baby kicks – I think for FTM (first-time mom), identifying kicks can be rather elusive. Now that I think about it, I *think* I felt flutters around between 18-19 weeks, but I’m not sure. I would describe my flutters as small popcorn popping. All my ultrasound scans showed that I have an anterior placenta, which is when the placenta covering my stomach. I was told that people with anterior placenta can sometimes have a harder time feeling kicks. Somewhere between 22-23 weeks, I definitely started feeling the kicks. Now, Baby B likes to perform nightly kicks in order to keep me awake. At first, it was a bit of a freaky feeling, but now it’s a sign of assurance to me. I enjoy acknowledging her whenever she kicks me 🙂
The Bump – The bump really popped around 20 weeks for me. Before then, it still felt and looked more like a post-Thanksgiving belly that just never went away. I can still see my feet, but bending over to pick something has gotten a little harder. I also seem to be out of breath more easily when taking stairs or hiking on an incline which I found out last week during our babymoon. The funniest challenge I am dealing with these days is putting on my snow boots (thanks to Midwest and its constant snow…seriously just be done with it). Let’s just say there have been a few times where I was yelling for Z’s name from the garage to have him help me take off my boots…lol
It is so crazy to think that I am entering the third trimester. Our level of excitement has definitely gone up in recent weeks as we start to feel those kicks on a regular basis and seeing the face of Baby B on ultrasound (that might be something I share soon!).
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