Second Trimester

Meesh

They say the second trimester is the best one and for me… I think it was (she says questionably)?? My nausea went away but then I had horrible butt pain ha-ha. I could barely walk without feeling a pinch in my sciatica. But, if I’m being honest with you, I would choose chronic aches over chronic nausea. It’s also when the bump got to be cute, so that’s a win! I started going to a physical therapist but it didn't really help, I also tried one of those weird belly support things and it just made me feel bulky so that was a hard pass. I figured, stretching and focusing on light workouts, walking and asking for nightly back rubs helped the most.

As for cravings, strawberries were my new love. Every morning I had Moms Best Oats & Honey cereal with trader joes vanilla yogurt, a scoop of peanut butter, and sliced strawberries. I couldn't get enough, sometimes I would have it twice a day. I still was starving at Night, so I kept Bobos Oat bars by my bed in case I needed a midnight bite and sometimes  would have the chocolate  Breakfast drinks before bed, because why not.

My husband and I knew we wanted to do the basic genetic testing and we got those results back at 12 weeks. Even though everything came back normal, I was still so anxious going in for the anatomy scan, but isn’t everyone though? I kept trying to talk myself down, but it was all I could think about. I didn't know this then, but I was suffering from prepartum anxiety. I didnt know it was a thing until after I had my baby and got postpartum anxiety and started researching it and quickly realized I was having anxiety my entire pregnancy. If you’re having consuming anxious thoughts, talk to your OBGYN, mine was an angel and I wish I had talked to her sooner.

But, I digress… our anatomy scan was so cool but also slightly ruined by the sassy ultrasound tech. First she got mad at me because I didn’t drink enough water before my appointment (drink the water- don't make my mistake!) but then she was moving through everything SO FAST. I was hoping to enjoy it more. Although, I did find it comical that Thea during the entire appointment just sat criss-cross applesauce and made the techs job super difficult. Girl had my back. 

Mon

I had high hopes for my second trimester. People kept telling me how amazing they felt their second trimester. But nope. I didn’t. I still felt super nauseous and was throwing up every morning and would keep throwing up all day if I didn’t take zofran. I prefer to do things naturally and was really disappointed to have to take a prescription medication but I also could not physically work with how sick I was. 

Because I was so nauseous I barely had any strong cravings that stuck around. I really wanted gummy bears for a while but after about a week I was over it. Burgers sounded good a few times and then after throwing them up I couldn’t even talk about them. Although my cravings weren’t strong, my aversions were intense. I think my husband thought I was being dramatic but I honestly could not even talk about some foods and I hated when people asked me about what foods I was having aversions too (which people asked quite a lot). Eggs, fish and beef  were banned in the house and no one could even mention bell peppers or spinach or I would instantly throw up. 

We did all the genetic testing. I was going to the obgyn twice a week for an ultrasound and pelvic exam because I had mo-di twins which made me higher risk because they shared a placenta. I think we just felt more confident and I felt less anxious knowing everything but I definitely was super nervous waiting to hear back about the results. We also wanted to find out the genders because names were challenging enough and we needed to know what gender combo we were having instead of coming up with three different combos. Going to the doctor every two weeks was challenging because of the time commitment but it was fun seeing them squirm around and reassuring to have them check to make sure everything was ok. 

Grace

My second trimester was definitely better than the first. After about 14 weeks I started feeling better but still had my aversions to coffee, chicken and avocado. I had the most intense and random cravings ever. My husband was a champ and would offer to go to the store for me and I would send him to specific stores with the most random lists. I HAD to have the things I craved or I would lose my shit. One day I wanted Redi Whip so badly and he came home with Cool Whip and I cried about it because it is not the same even though my husband thinks it is. Safe to say my hormones were running wild too. I cried all. the. time. 

During my second trimester I had so many aches and pains. My sciatica was hurting pretty much every day and sometimes it was so crippling I could barely walk up the stairs. I also had some real bad SI joint pain pretty much every day. Around this time I got my pregnancy pillow which made sleeping more comfortable for me as I am a stomach sleeper. Sleeping on my side was so hard and my hips would ache when I woke up. I was lucky to not have insomnia but I would wake up to toss and turn from side to side, but luckily would fall back asleep right away.

When the anatomy scan rolled around at 20 weeks we were super excited and nervous. We had decided not to do genetic testing so we didn’t know the gender or anything about our baby! I had guessed it was a girl but that was just a gut feeling, so to find out I was right was exciting! I didn’t care what we were having but when the ultrasound tech said it was a girl I immediately started bawling because I was so stoked and just happy to know. Everything looked good when it came to baby but I did find out I had Marginal Cord Insertion. This means that the umbilical cord wasn’t smack dab in the middle of the placenta where it should be, but more off towards the edge. In most cases it’s not a problem but in rare circumstances it can cause problems because the baby isn’t getting enough nutrients (this is from my own google search when I was looking up MCI when I was first told I had it, my doctor was not worried whatsoever about my baby in my case). My doc said that some women don’t even know they have Marginal Cord Insertion until they have their baby and deliver the placenta, which helped ease my anxiety about it knowing that most babies with it are completely fine (in fact, she came 8 days early and was a little over 8lbs so she was fine in the nutrients department). I was told not to worry and that if I wanted, my OBGYN could order a few more ultrasounds later on to check on her and give me peace of mind. I obviously took her up on that so we could see our sweet baby girl a few more times before she arrived.