I can’t believe I just finished my second trimester! WHERE DID TIME GO?! This trimester definitely flew by and I am so excited that we are only 11 weeks away to meeting baby boy! I’m recapping for you all my second trimester, including information on my weight gain so far, symptoms/cravings, doctor visits, my favorite moments, and much more!
Current Baby Size:
Baby is as big as Lettuce (or a bunch of bananas according to another app!) He is weighing in at almost 2lbs and 14 inches.
Weight Gain:
I’ve gained a total of 16lbs so far. They say you gain around a 1lb a week during this time and for the most part I feel like that was accurate (aside from maybe having too many treats some weeks).
Doctor Visits:
During the second trimester you see your OB once every 4 weeks. These visits tell you your baby’s size & weight, you get to listen to baby’s heartbeat, and they assess you and your baby’s overall health from weight gain, blood tests, urine samples, etc. A huge visit during this time is the anatomy scan that is usually done around 18-22 weeks. They do a sonogram to see whether your baby’s health and growth are progressing normally and to find things that can’t be seen in earlier testing, such as spinal cord abnormalities, brain defects, heart defects, and other abnormalities. You can also find out or confirm the sex of your baby during this time if you haven’t taken any blood tests to detect gender early on. We did our gender test at 10 weeks just because I was dying to know what we were having!
Cravings:
I was eating so well in the beginning of the second trimester and then all the sugar cravings started to kick in. I started to crave ice cream, cookies, donuts – all the bad things. I made sure not to give in every time but it was definitely hard! Drinking a lot of water and snacking a few times throughout the day helped combat the cravings.
Best Moments:
There were SO many special moments during this trimester and it’s honestly when it all started to feel real for us. Here’s a recap of some of our favorite memories during this time:
- Announcing our pregnancy! We announced our pregnancy at 16 weeks and it was seriously the hardest secret I’ve ever kept. It was so exciting to finally be able to tell all of our family, friends and co-workers.
- Feeling baby boy kick for the first time at 18 weeks! It started off just as a huge flutter feeling here and there and then started to get more intense/consistent around 20 weeks. He is most active after I eat a meal or when I am lying down at night.
- Gender Reveal: We had a gender reveal with close family and friends at our house shortly after announcing at 18 weeks. The majority vote was actually a boy, but it was great to see how happy everyone was when the canons shot out the blue confetti! This was such a special moment for us and we were so happy to be able to share it with everyone.
- My bump finally came out to play around 20 weeks! I was starting to worry when I saw other friends showing a lot earlier on, but everyone’s body and pregnancy are different.
- We had our babymoon in AZ and it was one of the best weeks Dan and I had in a while. We stayed at a resort in Scottsdale for 4 nights, Sedona for 2 and visited the Grand Canyon. I highly recommend AZ for a relaxing babymoon. See the full blog post about our resort stay here.
- Nursery set up – We started on the nursery early on and I am so glad we did. We still have some minimal decor and organizing left, but for the most part it’s done! This was definitely our favorite and most memorable project. Sitting in the rocker definitely makes it all feel so real.
Symptoms:
The first half of the second trimester is when I felt my best and regained a ton of energy. More and more symptoms started to progress though as the trimester went on. Here are some of the (not so great) symptoms I did get during this time:
- mild headaches – After I started to increase my water and food intake they ended up going away.
- nasal congestion – this would strike especially at night, but nothing to where I couldn’t handle it.
- nose bleeds – My nose started to get very dry and would bleed a little. Using saline nasal spray and drinking a lot of water helped with this.
- sleep discomfort – It did start to get a little uncomfortable to sleep as my stomach grew, but this pregnancy pillow helped SO MUCH.
- increase in appetite – I was hungry all.the.time compared to the first trimester where I really didn’t have much of an appetite. I started to have 2-3 snacks a day at this point to help with the hunger pains.
- multiple trips to the bathroom – I go to the bathroom a lot during the day and do wake up a few times in the middle of the night. I started to decrease my water intake after dinner around 7pm and it’s helped a lot with waking up.
- varicose veins – This has also been something I’ve suffered with before pregnancy but it was during this trimester when they started to get a lot worse. I had to purchase compression stockings to help with this.
- restless legs – This symptom is something I just started to get the last couple weeks. Wearing my compression stockings, eating bananas (increase in magnesium) and taking this magnesium powder before bed has helped.
All in all this trimester was beyond special for Dan and I, but I am so excited we are getting closer to meeting our little babe in a short few months. I hope this post helped any of you that are going through a similar time and as always, please never hesitate to reach out to me with any questions!
