A New Parent Truth

Surviving the 2nd Trimester






I wish I would've written this post while I was actually in my 2nd trimester but alas... I'm backfilling. I say this because now that I've experienced the third trimester, I have a different perspective of the 2nd trimester and that perspective is... 2nd Trimester = Best Trimester

Allow me to share a few highlights of weeks 14-27 (and actually for me the range was really more like weeks 14-34)...

1. Goodbye nausea, hello food! My nausea subsided and I could finally eat normally again, thank goodness. Although, I will say, I had a hard time eating a lot at one time because it made me feel really full on top of being pregnant which is kind of uncomfortable. 

2. Everyone oogles at your super cute pregnant belly and it really is super cute during this time. Just big enough to show but not big enough to steal the show. I will admit, getting dressed was tricky during this time though. The belly wasn't "hard" enough yet to hold it's own so any waist line that interfered with it made it look lumpy. This was where I found the full panel maternity waist line to be a good friend to me and I didn't mind that it went up to my boobs because it made for one seamless bump instead of lumps. Yep, lumps.

3. You can still move around comfortably! You can shave your legs, you can move from the floor to the standing position easily too (if you're a teacher of small kids you know how valuable this is). You can sink into the couch and still stand up with a reasonable amount of grace... it's just lovely. This is actually why I decided January would be the best time to start putting together the nursery. I knew I wouldn't regret doing to the more labor intensive parts during this time while I was still relatively agile.

4. You start to feel the baby move! It's subtle at first but very exciting to finally have reassurance that things are actually happening in there.

5. 20 week ultrasound! Even though we didn't find out the sex at this time, this was still really exciting. We got to spend 45 minutes or so exploring every nook and cranny of our nugget which was quite fun.

So, there you have it, 2nd Trimester = Best Trimester. All things considered, I suppose the 3rd trimester could be considered the best because when that's over you have a baby but, to me, the 2nd trimester wins because in general you feel quite energized and well during this time.

I will say that somewhere around 28 weeks-ish (which is technically the 3rd trimester but close enough) I did start to experience some weird-crazy back pain. It felt like a side ache but was localized to the left-middle part of my back. If I sat for too long it'd extend to the entire middle of back (picture drawing a line from the bottom of my shoulder blades and that's where the pain was) but once I stood up, it went away completely. This lasted maybe for 3 weeks or so and, although it was painful, it wasn't too bad. Since it went away I'm completely convinced it had something to do with how baby was laying.

The funny thing about pain in general when you're pregnant is that you can't do too much about it. You obviously can't take anything stronger than Tylenol but that's not what I mean... the kind of pain you experience isn't due to anything pills can fix anyways because it's caused by a tiny human taking up space in your body! A chiropractor however may be a better alternative for pain like this. I personally didn't see one but am sure they could've remedied the situation with a little adjusting. Just my two cents.