Second Trimester - The Honeymoon Period?

I entered the second trimester right before Thanksgiving and my all day/all night long nausea continued strong. I did get a small reprieve on Thanksgiving enough for me to bake rolls and eat a decent Thanksgiving meal. But most of the time, it stayed with me and I didn't eat much until right after Christmas while we were on vacation in San Diego.

Week 16

Just like everyone said would happen, I woke up one day after Christmas and realized that I didn't have that nagging nausea on my stomach. A Christmas miracle! I felt so good I went out for a 3 mile run - yes, a run - something that I had given up on because I always felt like running brought me one  step closer to vomiting. 

Finally got some energy to finish Matt's t-shirt blanket which I had started in April 2014

I enjoyed food again and didn't go crazy eating all the time but I didn't hold back if I was hungry either. And it didn't help that Matt's family loves sweets and dessert.

By the time I got home from vacation and went to the doctor, I discovered that I had gained 11 pounds since my last visit a month before! 11 pounds! Yep, both my doctor and I were amazed. Crazy what your body does when it can process food again. Since my doctor wanted me to keep my weight gain during pregnancy to 25 lbs, she was happy to see that my body was now where I should be at this time 

I'm not going to lie - this made me a little nervous about gaining too much weight and I worried this 11 pound per month trend was going to continue on in my pregnancy. But it really didn't. The next month I only gained a pound.

Week 19 - really looking pregnant now

After a few days of feeling good in San Diego, I entered a new phase of pregnancy and that was sickness of a different kind. I got a cold. This may not sound so crazy but for someone with limited medicine options and not being at home, this was not fun. I remember laying in bed for hours a couple nights because I really couldn't breathe. And I was so nervous to take any medicine so I suffered through it miserably. Luckily this hit at the end of our trip and we had done most of what we had wanted so I was able to chill in our hotel room and try to relax for a couple days.

But by the time I went back to work, my cold turned into a horrible cough that sounded like a had the black plague - not exactly something you want to have when meeting with people. I kept taking off work and getting extra rest to get better but it didn't seem to fix anything. And the cough lasted more than a month as usual! It probably didn't help that I had to go on two business trips within two weeks during this time.

Week 20 - back at work again

After a month, instead of improving, my cough started getting worse and all of a sudden, the head cold came back along with a lovely urinary tract infection!

I have to say I was pretty defeated by this point. My honeymoon period that every one promised I would find in the second trimester was turning out to be less of a honeymoon. Now that my pregnancy nausea was gone, my appetite went away again too since my body was drowning in mucus!

By the time the second cold came around, I was beaten down. I remember being in tears one day on the couch and telling Matt that I just couldn't do it again. And I really thought in my head, I could not feel any worse. I've never felt so helpless - and this was after months of nausea!  Even my doctor, the nurses and my OB looked at me with pity and genuinely felt sorry for me.

I went to Urgent Care for the UTI and the cold and found that indeed I was just unlucky to get a second cold. I called my OB who told me the same thing and no one really had an explanation or a solution for me on how to get better except to let it run its course. I couldn't bear the thought of going through the cold again and spending another month coughing up my lungs. Having only a couple more months of work left before maternity leave and much to do was also making me anxious. 

So back to bed I went - frustrated and angry. Matt was my rock during this time doing anything he could to take care of me and make my life easier. He was constantly reminding me to find joy in the journey and helped me to stop feeling sorry for myself.

My doctor suggested that perhaps I should cut back on spending my Sundays around a lot of children as this may be why I got the second cold since young kids get sick every 6-8 weeks. It seemed silly to me since I was only around the kids for two hours a week but I did think about it. Matt agreed with the doctor and encouraged me to ask to be released but I brushed it off since I enjoyed teaching the kids and didn't want to leave my partner hanging.

Finally I emailed my allergist around week 24 and asked him if he thought there was anything else I could do to get better. He had me come in to see him and he suggested something so simple... but something that changed my life :) - taking an allergy pill every day. Yep, I already had a bottle of them at home and so I did this every morning and within a couple days, my cough started improving and cold went away. Love that man! He thought since I couldn't take my anti-fungal pills during pregnancy that perhaps my body was overreacting and he was right!

I mentioned the advice from my doctor about staying away from the little kids at church and he said he doesn't like to tell people what to do in those kind of arenas but he did say it made sense if I could avoid it easily. So I debated and prayed feeling guilty about abandoning the children and my partner for what felt like such selfish reasons. And finally I called my sister who helped me see that if I could take this one stressor away from my life through pregnancy, it would be worth it since I already had work and my health to deal with. So I finally asked to be released and am without a calling now for the first time in a very long time. It feels awkward and I miss Primary after having been there for the last four years without a break, but I must say my health has never been better during pregnancy.

During our time in San Diego, I entered week 19 of pregnancy which meant I was able to do our second ultrasound and find out the sex of the baby. Since we didn't want to wait another two weeks until we got home, I found a place near Matt's parents house that we could get this done at. And as you already know by now, we discovered that despite my own feelings of it being a boy, we are having a little girl.

Week 19 - our second ultrasound

Week 19 - The big announcement that we are having a girl!

I'm so glad we found out when we did because I know Matt was nervous about having a girl and he wanted a boy, but we got to spend time with two of his nieces while in San Diego and he had such a blast with them. I really think Heavenly Father gave us that time to help Matt appreciate little girls and give him the confidence that he will be a great father for boy or girls. 

I didn't care if we had a boy or girl but once we found out we were having a girl, I got so excited thinking about all of the fun we were going to have together with a little mini-Keri.

Christmas date with Matt's niece Calay - Perfect timing for Matt to practice being around little girls 

Christmas date with another niece, Carys

Around week 19, while sitting in Matt's parents house, I felt the baby move for the first time. And the weird thing is that it was not just a little flutter. It was enough that Matt could feel too when he put his hand on my stomach. It was the most alien and at first, creepy feeling for me because it really reminded me that this was all real. For me, the feeling was kind of like how your stomach feels when you have gas :) but it moved and obviously, there was no gas. It was so weird! I just sat on the couch for the next hour in awe - and maybe a little shock - at what I was feeling.

Once I got over the initial shock, I have come to really enjoy feeling the movement of the baby. It is such a special experience that she and I get to share and I love the constant reassurance that she is still in there and healthy.

Another new thing I experienced at the end of the second trimester was leg cramps while sleeping. After spending an exhausting day in high heels at a Go Red for Women fashion show at a local mall, I woke up that night at least five times with the worst leg cramps - or charlie horses- I have ever had. At the time, I didn't know this was a normal thing to experience in pregnancy. The only thing I could do to make them go away was to get out of bed and stretch my legs while yelling in pain.

The next morning, I struggled out of bed due to my legs feeling like noodles. I felt like that guy in Weekend from Bernies :) having no control of my leg muscles. It took me a couple hours before my legs started to feel normal again. Since then I haven't had as many leg cramps in my sleep, but I do get them especially on days where I exercise more or don't drink enough water.

By the time I started feeling like myself again, I was just coming out of my second trimester. So overall - as with the first trimester - I had more lows than highs it felt like. I really don't like to complain - and I would love to be one of those women who love being pregnant - but for someone who has been pretty lucky with good health, my body has taken a big hit with so much change. I am so grateful to be pregnant and to experience sharing my body with a little one. There is nothing like realizing that my body has truly not been my own - and learning humility.

I'm curious to see what the last trimester has to offer... both the good and the bad :)