Pregnancy Chronicles: A More Energetic Second Trimester!
General warning: this post discusses pregnancy—if you don’t want to know about it then don’t read it!
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My first trimester wasn’t so bad (read about it here), but I was really looking forward to the second trimester. A promise of more energy and no nausea was just around the corner!
For those of you who don’t know, the second trimester starts at week 14 of pregnancy and lasts until the end of week 27. So another 13 weeks out of the total of 40 weeks!
Nausea
For those of you who read my first trimester review, you will know that I was plagued by nausea starting in week 4. Eating certain foods and eating fairly often tended to help, however I had a few close calls in the vomit department. It was in week 13 that I finally threw up. I was feeling fairly miserable.
In my OB appointment that week, my doctor gave me the synopsis of what to expect in my second trimester. I was absolutely crushed to hear that the nausea would probably abate around week 16, rather than in week 14. I didn’t want an extra two weeks!!
Turns out my doctor was startlingly accurate in her prediction. Around week 16 my nausea disappeared, but not before having to go through a terrible week of vomiting and diarrhea. Nothing stayed down and I lived off Gatorade for a few days. With some help of prescription medicine things got better…and then sorted themselves out with time!
Nausea would not return until the very end of the second trimester…and then still much better than the first trimester!
Exercise
When I first announced my pregnancy, quite a few people were a bit worried about my continuing my exercise routine. However, according to my doctor it is recommended to continue an already established exercise routine during pregnancy—minus any contact sports of course! I already went running 3-4 times per week, mixed with some Pilates and strength training. Once aware of my pregnancy I simply slowed down the running to half effort so I would not restrict blood flow to the baby.
While I otherwise continued this routine unhindered through the first trimester, during the second trimester I had to make increasing modifications. By 14 weeks any Pilates that had me laying flat on my stomach was modified or changed. By 18 weeks I also started avoiding any Pilates that had me laying flat on my back, along with any exercises directly targeting my abs. Running gradually got slower and shorter. Some days my abdominal muscles just couldn’t take the running impact pressure, which resulted in my walking in lieu of running. Running finally stopped completely in week 27 due to illness (I caught a head cold) and I was advised to give it up for my third trimester.
Sleep
Sleep was fairly unaffected for me, except for needing to switch my sleeping position around week 20. On average a woman’s uterus gets heavy enough at this point to hinder blood supply to the baby if she sleeps on her back. Ideally, the expecting mom needs to sleep on her side or propped up in some way. As a habitual back sleeper, this was personally annoying and uncomfortable for me. Many of us have heard the jokes about pregnant women propping themselves up with hundreds of pillows, but there’s definite truth in them.
After several weeks of sleeping with a large handful of pillows and constantly rearranging them, I was ready to splurge on an actual pregnancy sleep pillow. I knew what I needed: something long that I could wrap myself around and that also had some back support to stop myself from rolling to my back. In essence, I needed a long horseshoe shaped pillow. And I found just that in the Queen Rose pillow. It made side sleeping so much easier and more comfortable. And I felt like my body alignment wasn’t out of whack either!
Maternity Clothes
I started purchasing maternity clothes in my first trimester, just to make sure I’d have something to wear when it came time to make the switch from regular clothes. On average it seems that women have to change over to maternity by week 20, but it does depend on how the woman is carrying. Basically, everyone has a unique story!
I definitely was starting to show before week 20…not too obviously but enough to wear increasingly loose clothing. I did end up wearing maternity dress pants before week 20, but I stubbornly refused to wear other maternity clothes until week 20. Thankfully, I had enough larger-size regular clothing (you know the clothes that are honestly too big to begin with) to get me to that point.
My maternity clothes consist of multiple pairs of black leggings, 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of black dress pants, 5 maternity tops, 2 hand-me-down large flowing tops from a friend, and 5 maternity/nursing camis. Most of these were purchased at A Pea in the Pod. I also have two regular summer dresses that still fit due to a nice empire waist band! A few looser regular tops still fit throughout my second trimester as well.
For women who are looking for maternity clothes, I highly recommend looking for pieces that mix and match to get the most wear out of them. For example, black dress pants can be worn with any shirt to mix up a look (much more economical than purchasing a fancy dress!). I’d also recommend looking for clothes that will help with nursing after the baby is born, as you will have specific requirements at that point. Many nursing-friendly tops (like my camis) also have room to double as maternity gear. My last tip is to try to continue to use as much regular clothing as possible. Examples include empire-waist summer dresses and cardigans layered over nursing camis. With these tips you should be able to save yourself quite a bit of money and still have enough choices for those few precious months!
General Discomfort
Sometime in the middle of this second trimester I started having random hip pains, feeling much like a sharp muscle spasm. Nothing particularly seemed to set them off. I could be walking around the neighborhood and suddenly wonder if I could get home! Running did not affect it. In any case, I decided it was time to find some sort of support belt. I chose this one on Amazon and started wearing it toward the end of the second trimester. It provides light, but noticeable support and doesn’t show much under clothing. I found it helped me a good deal with my daily activities and I wish I had gotten in a bit sooner. In the third trimester, however, I would have to find something even more supportive.
Second Trimester Tests
There are two big medical milestone tests that pregnant women go through in the second trimester. The first is the anatomy ultrasound. This ultrasound goes through a long list of body parts that the baby should have grown. Everything from different views of the brain, kidneys, and the four chambers of the heart are photographed for review. Basically, everything is checked for appropriate growth progress and for a heads up if something is going wrong.
Due to this long list, of course, this ultrasound takes a long time—and is rarely completed in one appointment. The baby is constantly moving and just doesn’t always want to pose in the correct position! In fact, I had to go back three times to finish the list!
The second test, usually completed in the middle to second half of the second trimester, is the glucose test. It helps tell whether the expectant mother has developed gestational diabetes. This condition is only during pregnancy—the mother should not have diabetes after giving birth! During the test, I had to quickly drink a very sugary orange-flavored beverage (thank goodness it was chilled!) and then have my blood drawn an hour later. This blood was tested to see if I processed the glucose well. If I didn’t pass this first test, then there would be a second, and even longer 3-hour, test. Thankfully I passed and am still enjoying sugary treats! I think my friend’s advice to eat a high protein breakfast (I had an egg white and cottage cheese omelette) beforehand helped. Just keep in mind that you cannot eat for at least two hours before the initial test, so try to schedule the test with that in mind! It’s nice not to have to cook breakfast at 5am!
Overall, the second trimester probably was the easiest trimester of the pregnancy. Of course, I’m writing this while still pregnant, but I’m confident that this judgement will hold. It’s true that I had more energy, much less nausea overall, and therefore felt like I could continue my activities more normally—albeit with a growing baby bump!
