My Second Trimester
Hi fam!
I cannot believe I made it to week 28, but here we are! Heading into the third trimester feels like such a victory, but I wanted to take a minute to document my second trimester experiences first. I’ll try my best to keep it short and sweet, but I want to make sure I share everything to help prepare any future mamas out there! (If you read my blog about my first trimester, you know I felt SO unprepared for all of this pregnancy stuff, so I want to be a resource for you so that you don’t have to go into it blindly too!)
Okay, let’s start by saying my second trimester has been way different than the first. The past few months have not been easy by any means; my symptoms have just evolved into new ones. I’ll list the new symptoms below, and explain how they’ve affected me.
Symptoms I’ve experienced:
Nausea- This was major in the first trimester! In the second trimester it lasted until about 16ish weeks, and then started to only hit in the evenings until about week 22ish.
Stuffy nose/allergies- This could just be a me thing (or maybe other mamas go through it too?), but my allergies have been off the charts. I usually get seasonal allergies each year, but this year my seasonal allergies never went away, and they have been 10x worse. I even went to see my general doctor to ask if this was a common pregnancy thing, and he didn’t seem to think so (???). However, I did some research and found that the increased blood flow in your body can enlarge the blood veins in your nose, causing inflammation. It’s called pregnancy rhinitis, and I think that’s what I’ve been experiencing.
Round ligament pain- I felt this a bit during the first trimester as well, but it’s been way worse during the second trimester. Basically, the muscles in my legs and hips are very tight (because, hello our bodies are stretching in crazy ways), and it’s uncomfortable at nights mostly. I have to flip sides all throughout the night to ease the soreness. Child’s pose has been very helpful for me, if you’re familiar with that yoga pose.
Brain fog- Okay, this is something I thought was so silly, but let me just tell ya….it’s real. I never used to forget things and now all I do is forget things. I keep telling Adam that if I don’t write something down, it’s basically not happening. The other day I walked out front to leave the house and totally forgot my purse and car keys…so there’s a classic example, hah!
Food cravings- Chicken nuggets, salad, starburst, cranberry juice, and orange juice have been my jam! I’m not sure why, other than I think our bodies tell us what they need through cravings.
Anemia (fatigue, light headedness)- This is actually pretty common for women to get while they are pregnant, because it’s easy to be short on iron. I’ve been taking iron supplements every night to help with this.
Shortness of breath- At the beginning of the second trimester this only occurred after a workout or a walk around the block. Now, it happens all the time. I’ll be getting ready for the day and i’ll have to sit down and take a break. Or, i’ll lay down to go to sleep at night and i’ll have to take a minute to regain my breath. It’s the craziest thing! Definitely not used to this, and it’s very real.
On a more exciting note, Adam and I did manage to squeeze in a babymoon weekend in Malibu, despite Covid and all my pregnancy symptoms. We stayed at the Malibu Beach Inn, and had a great experience there. We got a nice room with an ocean view (because hey, we aren’t doing any other traveling this year, so why not go all out for the babymoon, right? haha).
On that Friday night, we walked over to the Malibu pier and had dinner at Malibu Farms. I highly recommend this spot if you’re in the area! It’s right on the pier, the food is amazing, and the ambiance is charming. On that Saturday morning we slept in, had room service for breakfast and got ready for a beach day….or so we thought. I didn’t put much time into researching beaches ahead of time, issue number one, and let’s just say we ended up driving around town trying to get to the beach and wasted our entire afternoon doing so. It was such a letdown! There are plenty of beaches around the area, but when you’re pregnant you’re quite limited to certain ones because hiking down to the sand is not going to happen, ha. Long story short, we ended up at the beach near the Malibu pier and it was not quite the experience we had in mind. We left after 30 minutes of being there and headed back to the hotel to get food at the restaurant. This was probably our best decision all afternoon.
Saturday evening, we made reservations for dinner at a restaurant in Topanga Canyon called “Inn of the Seventh Ray.” It was a really cool spot! All the seating is outdoors (perfect for Covid), and the tables are all out on the deck nestled into different gazebos and areas that wrapped around the creek. Basically imagine eating dinner in a secret garden, and you’ve got the point. They had lights hanging on the trees outside and music going, which made for a very romantic date night.
On Sunday morning, we slept in and had room service for breakfast again and got ready to check out and head back home. It was such a great little getaway and we really loved having conversations around the baby. It created time and space for us to get on the same page around the nursery plans, labor and delivery plans, birth classes, etc. It made us that much more excited about meeting our little boy!
Here are a few photos from the trip :)
I hope you found this blog to be helpful if you’re an expecting mama! Happy to chat or answer any questions if you ladies have any. Thank you so much for all of your continued support and love throughout this journey Adam and I have been on! We are extremely grateful for this platform and for our friends and family.
Sending love your way!
xx,
Lindsey