Here is part 2 of my pregnancy update! I’m writing this at 27.5 weeks, about 3 months left to go!

CRAVINGS

The biggest clue that I was having a girl is the ravenous hunger I felt in the first trimester (fortunately it has quelled in the second trimester!) and odd, strong cravings. With Arthur, I had cravings from time to time, mostly in the Target checkout line (hello Cheetos), and I had a strong sense of exactly what I or someone else needed to eat at that very moment (let me pick your perfect ice cream flavor!).

This time, I almost left church in the middle of the service because I HAD to have teriyaki chicken!! I found a snack in my purse that held me over until the end of service, and then convinced my parents and Whit to go out for lunch. The funny thing was I never eat Chinese food and while I don’t mind teriyaki chicken, I have never once chosen it as my top choice. When I told Whit where we were going for lunch, he assumed my dad had picked the restaurant. We were joking at lunch that there must be a hungry girl in there!

One time right before leaving the house, I suddenly felt starving. I told Whit to go buckle Arthur into the car seat and I would follow them out. Immediately I started cooking an egg – I knew it would only take about 2 minutes, and it just sounded like what I needed at the time. I was laughing when I came out to the car with my scrambled egg for a snack. 😛 We were going out to a park and downtown shopping center, and as soon as we got there, I decided we should stop by a burger place for ice cream and ended up eating fries too at 4pm. I have never felt so pregnant!

Another time at Target I felt like crying just looking at all the food, it looked so delicious. I saw cooked potato wedges and I almost teared up – it was as if I hadn’t seen food in 3 months!! Just so hungry all the time.

Also, it can’t go without saying, I think this baby will be 1/10th potato chip, I have eaten so many.

BUMP

One thing that’s been hard for me is how differently my bump has grown this time around. With Arthur, I didn’t gain any weight for the first 16-20 weeks. I lost a couple of pounds from feeling sick in the first trimester, and it took a long time to start gaining. I felt so nervous the whole time about my weight gain and was worried about the baby’s growth!! I had one extra ultrasound at 30 weeks because he was measuring small. (In the end, he was born 8 days late and weighed 7 lbs 7oz, so I think he benefitted from the extra time to grow in my belly.)

This baby girl, on the other hand, has had me gaining weight from about week 8. Around week 18, we went on vacation and I looked at myself in the mirror and was freaking out how big I looked – it looked like my 30-week bump with Arthur! I know second pregnancies you pop out sooner, but it really freaked me out. Fortunately I think that was when I “popped” (even though I had a bump before that), and the bump growth leveled out for a few weeks. Now at 27 weeks, I think my bump looks similar to some people at the end of their pregnancies. It’s hard to wrap my brain around simply because that’s not how my body reacted the first time. But I’m coming to terms with the fact that this is just how my baby and body are growing!

At the beginning of this pregnancy, I couldn’t wait to wear maternity clothes and show off my little bump! We waited a few weeks longer to announce our pregnancy this time, and I was definitely already showing by the time we did (wonder how many people were guessing!). By then my belly was already looking pretty full, and two weeks later I felt huge. I feel like I totally missed the adorable tiny-bump stage that I loved so much with Arthur! It added to my suspicions that I was having a girl this time.

EXERCISE

I always wondered how anyone could possibly work out during their first trimester. I not only felt gross with Arthur, I was out of breath starting a couple weeks after I found out I was pregnant with him. In the second trimester, I was able to start swimming again, but mostly did gentle yoga and walking throughout my pregnancy.

Since I didn’t have too much nausea in the first trimester this time, and I’ve never felt too out of breath, I was actually able to run and swim a few times during the first trimester! I had high hopes of staying active throughout this pregnancy. However, once summer got started I just swam with Arthur in the pool rather than going to swim laps, which is definitely exercise but not really a “workout”.

Then, the end of July through the beginning of September was simply unbearably hot. I LOVE summer and humidity and I was on Trulia looking up houses in North Carolina. It was so, so awful. There was at least a week straight where the heat index was 115. Arthur would want me to take him outside and I had to say sorry baby, it’s too hot out. I didn’t even want to swim because I didn’t want to get overheated. I mean, I felt like I was getting overheated daily just being in my HOUSE. Overall I felt really bummed that I missed the blissful second trimester with the small bump and lots of energy, because I was restricted from moving too much or doing anything outside because of the dang heat.

Just this past week I went to the pool twice and had a great swim! Hopefully now that it’s less than 90 degrees out I can keep up with exercise more.

MATERNITY CLOTHES

Yesterday I went through all my clothes and totes and put away tons of clothes that I’ve outgrown as of the past few weeks. As much as I wanted to start wearing maternity clothes early on, I’ve been annoyed by the tight ruching since it’s been so hot this summer. I got a few comfy, stretchy non-maternity items at the beginning of the second trimester and pretty much having been wearing those until now.

This time, I’ll have a big bump during fall instead of summer. I’ve gotten a couple of things to wear during this fall and just ordered some more cool-weather maternity clothes. It’s tricky to know what I’ll need, because we have two trips coming up in the next month to places with cooler weather, but it likely won’t get cool here until mid-November or even December (and maybe not even then). Just like with dressing Arthur for our annual October trip to Virginia, I’m trying to figure out what I’ll fit in then, but still be able to wear 2 months later!

Some purchases I’ve loved this time are this “Bebe on the way” sweatshirt I had my eye on since getting pregnant with Arthur, super comfy modal joggers that I should be able to wear through the end of pregnancy and post-partum, a big loose shirt from Aerie that I stress-bought one day that my belly kept popping out of my shirt, and this super soft, loose shirt-jacket that I can wear buttoned for a little while and then unbuttoned, and after birth as well.

NESTING

The urge to nest came on early and strong! I already knew pretty much what I wanted for a second kid and once we found out we were having a girl, I quickly nailed down our wish list for baby 2. The one thing I felt like I missed out on having a boy baby was pretty floral swaddles, bedding, nursing covers, etc.! I feel like I had beautiful, nice things with Arthur, but it will be a special treat to have some dainty feminine stuff this time.

We learned from the last pregnancy that we should try to accomplish a lot in the second trimester, before I’m too tired and slow to do a whole lot (even if I have the motivation). We made a list of a few house projects to prioritize and have made great progress! We installed a second hutch in our dining area (more storage!), I rearranged and organized a few areas, we switched out our non-toddler-friendly sink for a vanity with storage (and re-did the lighting and wallpapered the bathroom!), and swapped out our kitchen table that came with the house (and blended into the floor), got new chairs, the last project will be installing a built-in bench.

I also sorted through all of Arthur’s clothes (twice now – I organized them before we knew the baby’s gender) and have now gone through several piles of baby girl clothes. I could sort baby clothes all day… it can be stressful and annoying (why is the sizing so inconsistent??) but I simply love to sort things and get them in order…and I find folding laundry so soothing!!

BRAXTON HICKS

The most annoying, stressful symptom in my pregnancy with Arthur was how many Braxton-Hicks contractions I had. I was in my second trimester in the hottest, driest part of the year for Orlando, and I simply could not stay on top of my water intake. I started carrying around a giant water bottle (#trendsetter) and was drinking upwards of a gallon a day. Regardless, I would feel energetic one day and overwork myself and end up on the couch or in the bath for the rest of the night, trying to get the BH to go away.

Everything Google and your doctor tells you is that if you have more than 5 an hour and they don’t stop, you need to go to the hospital. My sister-in-law had my nephew 3 months early, and since he was my first baby, I felt so worried about pre-term labor, even though everything was going smoothly. When I got these BH that wouldn’t stop for several hours, having 8 or 10 an hour, I couldn’t help feeling fear. I went to the ER once and to my OB another time to check that everything was okay even though I was having so many contractions. I just wanted someone to tell me that it was fine and not to worry about it and not have to go to the ER!

In the end, I went into labor at 41 weeks, and the BH completely fizzled out the last couple weeks of my pregnancy (where did they go when I needed them?). This time I made sure to ask my doctor about it at my 20-week appointment. I am SO THANKFUL he reassured me that my risk of pre-term labor is extremely low since I’ve had a full-term pregnancy and no complications, so I can hydrate and rest but generally just ignore the contractions. That’s exactly what I had wanted to hear so many times during my last pregnancy!!

I did start to have BH around week 22, every now and then, and once at 25 weeks I couldn’t get them to go away for a whole day. At one point I started googling “Braxton hicks all day” and it came back to me how many dozens of times I looked that up last time! Generally so far they haven’t been too bad and I’ve been able to ignore them when I do have them.

FUNNY STORY

One weekend my parents were out of town, and we spent the night at their house with some friends to have a mini getaway. Sunday was Mother’s Day and I was really excited to try this new game they had called Ark Nova where you build a zoo and have to do animal conservation. It ended up being SO hard and not very much fun because it took a long time to put animals in your zoo, and you had to do several build-up tasks before you could get an animal. Every time I tried to do something, I got told I couldn’t do it, or someone else beat me to it. I have always loved animals so much, and I just wanted so badly to get cute animals and do conservation efforts, but it wasn’t happening. I started tearing up several times and then eventually had to go leave to bawl in the other room for a couple minutes. I was crying and laughing because it was ridiculous how hormonal I was. I was too pregnant to play the animal game!! (This is something you should know about me – I very rarely cry, but when I do it’s usually about animals.) When I came back everyone was excessively nice to me and helped me do better in the game haha.

OTHER RANDOM THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER

• I haven’t been bitten by mosquitoes this whole pregnancy!!! They’ve completely avoided me – I’m usually the person getting eaten alive
• I have eaten gluten several times and not had any repurcussions!
• I was really weirded out to tell people I’m pregnant. I would overthink my reaction and how should I respond to their reaction. I was working from home and we didn’t know many people when I was pregnant with Arthur, so I wasn’t sure how to do it! Was that embarrassing for anyone else?
• At 18.5 weeks, baby girl got to attend her first three Phish shows in utero!! Arthur has been to France, but little sister has already been to see Phish
• Whit felt the baby move the night before our 20 week appt
• At the 20 week ultrasound, the baby was sucking their thumb as soon as the ultrasound started!!! This was seriously so adorable. At the end she posed with her hand up under chin, like she was thinking hard or taking glamour shot
• Girlfriend would NOT stop moving for one second the entire 30 min anatomy appt (but she cooperated enough to got all the images that were needed)
• At 24 weeks, I felt movement on the far right and left side of my belly, at the same time! It surprised me to realize she really was as long as an ear of corn like the app said haha! 🌽

THIRD TRIMESTER & LOOKING FORWARD TO

Now that I’m almost in the third trimester, more changes are taking place! In addition to outgrowing clothes, my stomach feels more squished. I’ve been taking Tums at night for the past month or two for acid reflux. It doesn’t feel like I need it at all until I lie down, and then I only take them to make certain I sleep well. In the past week, though, I’ve started having acid reflux during the day and sitting on the couch after meals. I had SUCH bad acid reflux with Arthur near the end, taking Pepcid and Tums and not being able to sleep for hours despite being propped up with a bunch of pillows. I hope it doesn’t get that bad this time!

Though it surprises me to say, I’m feeling relieved to be out of the second trimester and going into the third. The second trimester was so much harder than I expected, with the horrible heat and getting sick with Covid (oh yeah, forgot to mention that!), and so busy (I took a seminary class, my brother’s family came to visit for 2 weeks, I hosted Arthur’s birthday and July 4, we traveled to Atlanta to see 3 outdoor concerts, Whit’s parents visited, we went to the beach with my parents, Arthur turned 2 and leveled up in energy and emotions… are you tired yet?). I’m excited to not feel the pressure of “supposed to feeling good”, and be moving toward the end and having our baby girl here! It’s so different the second time, knowing what having a baby is actually like! I’m so excited to meet her and start getting to know her. And all the baby snuggles!! I’m feeling good now, so hoping to have a few more weeks of that before I get too giant and slow or achey, haha.

We have some fun things coming up, too. Next week is our Babymoon! We went back and forth on having one, and landed against it, but then Whit’s parents offered some money towards it and already had a weekend of babysitting scheduled. Just last week, they got sick with Covid and had to cancel their trip, which meant we would have to rethink ours! But my parents are so gracious, and value making your marriage a priority, so they said they would watch Arthur if we changed the dates of our trip. So I rebooked everything for 2 days later (and 1 one day longer, yippee!), so in one week we are headed to Vermont!! I have no idea if the leaves will be autumnal, but these Florida folk are psyched for cooler weather, elevation changes, old towns, and of course – lots of cheese!

The week after, we’ll have two baby sprinkles! I can’t wait to celebrate this baby girl with our coworkers and dear friends from church. Later in October, we’ll go to Virginia for our annual trip to visit family (and enjoy fall). After that, we are hoping to lay VERY low, get remaining projects done, and wait for baby girl to get here!