In case you missed the announcement, we are pregnant with our first baby! I’ve moved into the third trimester now so here is a look back at the second trimester.

The second trimester is considered Week 14 through Week 27. The second trimester is described as the “honeymoon” trimester because it often has fewer disruptive symptoms than the first trimester. Morning sickness typically decreases in the second trimester and although the baby bump is growing quite a bit in the second trimester many pregnant ladies are energetic and feel more “normal” than they had during the first trimester.

Baby F is a boy!

Second-trimester Symptoms

Disrupted sleep cropped up fairly viciously at week 14 and 15. Nikki sent me a care package that included a restful sleep lotion. I slathered it on during week 15 to combat my sleep troubles and I do think it helped! Possibly too much, since I slept 12 hours some nights. Other than the weeks in the teens I have not had as much trouble sleeping, but around week 27 that seems to have crept back some. The lotion is so thick that it really helped my dry, cracked hands, too!

I have had acne appear toward the end of the first trimester and into the second, but it has mostly subsided throughout the second trimester. Just a spot here or there with a few whiteheads on my nose.

I have been SO hungry. I want to eat basically all the time but still struggling to get enough protein in my diet. Baby has been drawn to green food- but not good green foods. Instead he likes green frosting, green cake pops, m&ms, and green marketing on products. I’ve also been into dried kiwi lately, which is a good choice for my diet! I have just been sooo hungry.

I started feeling baby move at about week 17. I thought I felt movement one evening with my hand on my stomach then agitated my stomach to try to feel baby again with my hands. Around week 19 I thought I could feel baby moving within my stomach without having my hands on my belly.

I could really feel consistent kicking and movement by week 20. Throughout the remainder of the second trimester, the movements were sometimes strong and uncomfortable but usually just slightly jarring. I was listening to instrumental lullabies and baby was very active. He typically moves more when I sit in weird positions. A client, who is also pregnant, told me that research shows that the theme song to shows mom binged during pregnancy will calm baby once outside the womb. Baby F will have quite the affiliation for a handful of my favorite podcasts if that’s the case!

I told my chiropractor about my pregnancy so now I can no longer receive the tens machine treatment prior to my adjustment.

I got a massage from my usual Massage Therapist, Tim. He is certified in multiple kinds of massage, including Sports Massage which touts the awesome stretches that do a lot to relieve my typical back pain, but he cannot do many of those methods while I’m pregnant. Luckily, he is certified in Prenatal Massage, too. The massage I got definitely helped and made me feel much more relaxed and gave my body the care it needed. I am definitely looking forward to getting another massage, prenatal or otherwise, ASAP.

Fitness during Pregnancy - Second Trimester

The bump has begun starting to get in the way during my workouts in the second trimester but it is completely work-around-able. I have still been getting tired more quickly than pre-pregnancy and don’t have quite the endurance I used to have. I do think lifting prior and during pregnancy is a good thing in the style in which we train because pushing the weight until failure is a feeling you start you get used to overtime when lifting. I imagine labor will feel a lot like that last rep before failure over and over again from the way people talk about labor in hindsight: “I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore!” That’s very similar to how lifting to failure feels.

Week 14 was a good one for my deadlift. We had been training sumo deadlifts hard for at least a month and that training made my conventional deadlift stronger. I pulled 165 pounds, a personal best. Although this wasn’t my intent with pregnancy it happened naturally and without pain. We then turned to polishing our squats. They were still a work in progress by the time social distancing began, but before the quarantine, we utilized long loop bands on the bar to make the bottom of the squat feel lighter so we could focus on form and it was a very successful method. I am anticipating this will be really helpful postpartum, as well.

Screen Shot 2020-04-08 at 12.53.10 PM.png — B-Stance Hip Thrust with a Landmine

Hip thrusts are a challenge in themselves but are a real challenge to set up while pregnant. I love landmine b-stance hip thrusts during pregnancy because they are so much more comfortable and good for mentally focusing on the glute.

Week 27 we switched to doing the Glute Guru’s free workouts via Skype. This situation will be a change but any safe movement at this point is a good thing.

The State of the World

Starting week 26 Covid-19 really started to impact my day-to-day life. My state, Pennsylvania, ordered that all non-essential businesses close and we have stay at home orders. So far there is not a ton of info on pregnancy, the fetus, and Covid-19 but as of writing, the current discourse doesn’t believe it is a huge concern for pregnant women having a low-risk pregnancy. I have canceled my baby shower, scheduled for May 3, and am instead doing a virtual shower on Facebook. Emotionally, this really sucks. My husband and I are staring down a season generally referenced as one where “it takes a village” with a major possibility of not being able to have that village’s help for the foreseeable future. I wish I could have a more positive outlook, but it just isn’t available to me right now. This is really isolating, sad, and scary. I want to be hopeful that things will improve this summer and that by the time the baby is here we won’t have to worry about this constantly, but I just don’t know. This is a completely unprecedented pandemic without a playbook. I won’t go into all the ways my pregnancy and my baby’s young life could be impacted by this virus - there are too many unknowns… and it is fucking depressing. I’ve come to the point where I think I just need to grieve what I expected my first pregnancy would be like, how I thought my labor and delivery might go, and a lot of the things I was looking forward to for Baby’s young life.

While I have your attention, I’d like to remind you to vote in the primary and general elections. I am sure you are seeing how much impact the government can have on your life, now more than ever, and I hope that inspires you to make your vote count in local, state, and national elections. If you are not registered to vote you can register here.

To wrap this up, I’ll dry my tears, put a damper on my own pity party, and look at the positives. Pat and I are home together ALL the time now so he’s not missing another second of this pregnancy by being at his pesky workplace. I don’t have to put uncomfortable pants on for a while and forget bras- I might swear off them for good once this is all over! Our kitchen is cleaner than it has ever been since we actually have to keep up with the dishes instead of eating out when we run out of clean pots to cook spaghetti in. I’ve had even more time to populate my baby registry so it is full of adorable clothes and well-researched baby gear; it is ready for my virtual baby shower. If you’re curious about what I’ve registered for here’s the link to my registries. Because I do get to be home indefinitely I’m sure my third trimester will be as comfortable as I can possibly make it. I can still see my toes so I am sure my belly has more growing to do!

What I have accomplished:

Created my baby registry
Scheduled our Maternity and Newborn photoshoots (subject to change based on restrictions from the virus)
Finished the basement updates so my office can move there
Canceled my Baby Shower and reconfigured to do it online
Picked a car seat and decided against registering for a stroller