Its hard to believe it but I’m now a few weeks into my third trimester and past the honeymoon stage of the second. I didn’t get much of a honey moon phase with this pregnancy, but I still enjoyed the bliss while it lasted.
The second trimester spans from weeks 13 – 27 and I’d say the second half of that was pretty easy for me. You may have read my first trimester blog post (if you haven’t, you can check it out here), in which you would have learned that I had a ROUGH first trimester, as many women do.
The nausea that was 24/7 somehow just kept on trucking through week 18 before it finally subsided. I seriously don’t know how I functioned through that except that I feel like all Moms are basically super heroes and we just muddle through the best we can because… we have to!
Having two kids to take care of, school drop offs and pick ups (I certainly wasn’t going to be late to grab my kids!), appointments, work, cooking for the family, laundry, and so on …. life goes on, and you just have to do it. The diclectin made me incredibly groggy so I quit taking that and just dealt with the nausea by making lots of ginger tea, and laying down whenever I was able. My Mom was an awesome help, as always, and would play with the kids, encourage me to take naps, etc. whenever she could, which helped a lot.
At week 19, I suddenly got a massive migraine. Pre-pregnancy I was always prone to migraines but, like my back pain, they had been pretty much cured by regular visits to my acupuncturist. I hadn’t had one all pregnancy (the odd headache, but no migraines), and it threw me for a loop since I had JUST started to feel less nauseous.
I took extra-strength Tylenol, used heat packs, ice packs, and ALL of the essential oils… I tried massaging my neck, taking naps, drinking gallons of water, but nothing helped. Days went by where I was in a total fog.
I tried making an appointment with my acupuncturist but he was on holidays (this was around Christmas time). When he finally saw me I was about 5 days in and the migraine hadn’t subsided at ALL in 5 days. The acupuncture always helps but this time it did not. The migraine persisted. On day 6 I phoned my OB. I was due to see her two days later but I needed to know if something was wrong with me. She prescribed me Percocet and I said I’d pick up the prescription at my appointment. By the time I went in to my appointment, my migraine had finally gone away. Guys, it was an 8 day long migraine with no relief. I took the prescription home in case it happened again but thankfully (knock on wood), I haven’t had one since.
So there went half of my second trimester. Finally around week 20 I felt good. I had plenty of energy and I started going into power Missy mode. I’d say I was nesting, but nesting is something I kind of do on a regular basis. I’m like Marie Kondo on steroids without the nesting instinct, so put me into the second trimester and watch the tornado whirl around the house. I finished the nursery, was patching holes and rehanging pictures. I did about 478 loads of laundry, including all of the boy, girl and neutral baby clothing we have for the first 6 months of Squirt’s life. I was cooking, cleaning, organizing every drawer and closet. I purged and donated half of our lives away, and of course that’s a job that never ends.
By the evenings I was drained and would crash around 4pm. The kids would watch a show while I made dinner and then I’d be counting the minutes until Trey got home to give me a hand. I found during the second trimester that my anxiety levels were down, but so was my patience. I’m always a bit sensitive to over-stimulation from noise, but every afternoon I’d start to lose my patience a bit with the kids and all of the constant noise that comes along with… having kids. Some days I wanted to run away just to sit in the car and hear silence!
As the second trimester neared the third, I definitely started to get round ligament pain and back pain creeping in. I knew it would, as I had these both really badly with Noah and Georgia’s pregnancies. Both of my kids were 9lbs 1oz at birth (the exact same size), and I’m only 5’6″ and pretty petite so its a LOT of weight to add on and it is hard on the back!
Anyway, I’m surviving, and actually really enjoying being pregnant. It seems like I complain a lot and I’m sorry about that. This pregnancy has been the hardest on me by far… BUT I know that we are so blessed and so lucky to have a healthy family and healthy pregnancy, which is so much more apparent once you’ve had a loss. I enjoy having the big belly, feeling the kicks, and definitely the good skin! haha – and I’m trying to soak it all in before its over.
Let me know what blog post/YouTube video you guys would like to see next: packing my hospital bag, what’s in my diaper bag, newborn must-haves, or recent purchases for the new baby? Maybe even a cleaning video? I promise the nursery tour is coming very soon, too – we just have a few paint touch-ups left and then I’ll have it done!
The most exciting parts of this second trimester have been getting to see the baby during our 20-week ultrasound (his little nose and lips!!) and feeling closer and more connected to him every day. In three months’ time, his movements have gone from feeling like bubbles in my abdomen (easy to confuse with gas pains) to full-on rolling, wave-like motions and kicking that even Daniel can feel. It’s as sweet as it is somewhat startling.