Life has been so busy and I’ve been so tired with pregnancy (unfortunately it wasn’t just a first trimester symptom). So much so that I just haven’t had it in me to write about my second trimester with baby number 3! However, now I’m nearing the end (eek!) I think it’s definitely time I should document it!
Morning Sickness
I really could not wait for the second trimester to come round! Nausea was still a huge struggle, although being prescribed Xonvea helped a lot. I hoped that as the second trimester moved in, the morning sickness would vanish. It did, but it wasn’t until maybe 19-20 weeks that I’d say it properly went away (much later than with Autumn and Reuben). I was hoping once the morning sickness had gone that my appetite would come back, but actually it never really did!
Getting Out More
I was so pleased to be able to start getting out of the house a bit more after a few months of only really going out to work, to do the school run or to see close family. I’d just been in a bubble of nausea and sleepiness prior to mid-late March.
At the end of March, I took part in Swimathon raising money for Cancer Research UK, Marie Curie and the Swimathon Foundation. I managed to do 23 lengths of a 25m pool, with my team doing the other 2 for me. I was very pleased with that…although I did have a crash in blood sugar when I climbed out which wasn’t ideal.
In early April, I had my first proper day out going to Wingham Wildlife Park with my family. We had bought Autumn a capybara experience for Christmas and there was no way I wanted to miss out on seeing her enjoy that! Although I felt queasy and tired the whole day, it was more than worth fighting through.
Announcing On Socials
We also decided to announce that we were expecting baby on our socials at Easter. It coincided perfectly with the sweets theme I had in mind, which was inspired by me craving lots of sweets. I particularly enjoyed Swizzels Fizzers and Love Hearts!
Gender Scan
I uhmmed and ahhed a lot about finding our our baby’s gender, although I felt as though I was probably expecting a girl. I liked how it was a surprise with Autumn and kind of wanted that again for my last baby. However, Dave and the children all wanted to know. Plus, it made sense as it would allow us to sort out the baby things we already had. I also hoped it would help the children to get accustomed to the idea of their new sibling more. Autumn had wanted a girl, while Reuben wanted a boy. Fortunately, when we told Reuben we were having a girl, he was disappointed for less than a minute and then had cake and suddenly all appeared to be right in his world again!
Mini-break to the Isle of Wight
During the Easter holidays, we went on a mini-break to the Isle of Wight that we’d booked back in January when I assumed I’d be over the nausea and tiredness by then (hahaha!) In spite of having to fight through these, I had lots of lovely quality time with my little family hunting for fossils, enjoying Blackgang Chine and at the Donkey Sanctuary amongst other things. I just wished I could enjoy food more than I was at that point in my pregnancy, as we went lots of places with delicious food that I could barely eat much of.
Nosebleeds
As May came round, I got another pregnancy issue I really didn’t appreciate. Nosebleeds! With Autumn, my nose would be a little bloody sometimes. This is very normal in pregnancy due to increased blood flow and hormonal changes. I had it this time round too and just shrugged it off.
However, one evening we went to watch Autumn in a gymnastics and dance show. As we left and I was talking to other parents, I felt my nose start to run, which I put down to going from the hot hall to the cool air in the car park. It turned out to be a nose bleed, which really took me by surprise as I’d never had one before in my life! I followed NHS advice, but it took over an hour to stop which was quite concerning. The following morning, I had another one which took 40 minutes to stop. I managed to get a doctor’s appointment and they checked my blood pressure, which was fine. Then strangely that was that for nosebleeds until the third trimester!
20 Week Scan
A better part of May that I’d been looking forward to for WEEKS was the 20 week hospital scan. Although I felt more nervous as the date approached in case something was wrong, I was so excited to finally see our baby girl again! Fortunately, everything looked as though it was going well with the pregnancy. I have an anterior placenta this pregnancy, so all I had felt was a few little flutters rather than any definitive movements. This was later than in my previous pregnancies. Therefore, it was extra lovely and reassuring to see her moving around on the screen.
Cravings
In terms of cravings, I sometimes intensely felt like eating something in particular one day, but it didn’t continue to the next. More often than not, I didn’t feel like anything but Weetos! My craving of sweets dipped as the second trimester continued, but the Weetos craving did not.
4D Scan
I’d read that with an anterior placenta, the optimal time to have a 4D scan was between 26 and 30 weeks. This advice varies depending on who you go with for it. I went around the 28 week mark and was really happy with the imaging. We went with Expectancy Scanning Studios who I used a lot during my pregnancy with Reuben. Our baby girl looked so sweet and we saw her holding onto and chewing on the umbilical cord. Our sonographer even managed to record it!
Heatwaves
It was towards the end of the second trimester that one of my biggest hurdles this pregnancy began…the heatwaves! When I was expecting Autumn, I said I’d never plan a pregnancy to be in the summer again because I struggled with the heat. Hahaha. Summer 2016 had nothing on this one, let me tell you! I stayed indoors as much as I could, in the living room with an air conditioning unit my brother lent me. Some days the heat was still a bit too much for me, laying on the floor in my underwear next to it. I actually don’t know how I would have lived without the air con and my Shark Flexbreeze fan. Dave had to drive me to work as my car has no air con and I loathed the times I did have to be out in the sun!
So, that was the second trimester. As baby girl is due in September, I should probably start writing about the third trimester too. Watch this space! 🙂