Pregnancy Post: Second Trimester Faves & Feelings

My second trimester was pretty glorious. If only I truly appreciated it more at the time! (Third trimester, so far, has come with some different troubles & feelings!).

Pregnancy favorites

Reads: I started reading Brain Rules for Baby, which covers some cool stuff about how the baby brain develops and how to help optimize it for a happy, smart child. We also started skimming through the best baby book ever, the Baby Owner's Manual, which treats "operating your baby" like operating a new technology.

Style: Dressing while pregnant is way more fun when your belly is starting to pop out a bit! It wasn't so fun when I just felt like I'd eaten a big sandwich for lunch. I tried not to buy too many maternity items, but I got a few staples from Gap (like these pants and this shirt), that have lasted me awhile. I also received the NICEST GIFT IN THE WORLD from an old high school friend, a comfy and cute black Storq t-shirt dress. I've been wearing it obsessively. Another great purch was this pair of Allbird sneakers! Made from wool, you don't need socks, super flexible and cute...they've even taken me into the 3rd trimester and all of it's puffy-foot glory. 

Beauty: I've been keeping up with a very basic, all natural beauty/skin routine. I will admit that pregnancy-skin ain't so bad! To keep things going in the right direction I've been using a lot of nice oils, including this rose hip oil which I use on my face and neck at night. 

Other:
I grabbed some wonderful, locally made lavender all-purpose spray while in Seattle and have been loving it, especially since my sense of smell was TOO good in the 2nd trimester. It was nice to give everything a little scent-cover of relaxing lavender :). (comparable spray here).

Tums. 'nuff said.

Earth Mama Angel Baby teas! I had not one but two beautiful girlfriends gift me with variations of these pregnancy/mama teas and I've been loving them! 

Using Babylist for our registry was the best decision ever. You can shop from all over the interwebs and bring everything into one convenient place. I also loved their example registries to check out, and had a couple of good experiences with their customer service as well. Highly recommended!

Symptoms

Heartburn: My heartburn/acid reflux kicked in even worse than it had been in 1st trimester. I've tried everything I tell you! What seems to help best is having cereal or ice cream before bed...so I rolled with it ;).

Emotions: I experienced a whirlwind of emotions in the second trimester. Primarily, strong emotions of gratitude and awe! I just felt so embraced by my community and friends, and in awe of my body and baby, and so grateful for everything. And then a few anxious moments would hit out of nowhere and have me in tears. But even the tears kinda felt good. So yes, hormones were at work a bit.

Insomnia: I started being a bit less comfortable in bed, and staying up late with a million thoughts in my mind, or waking up early and unable to fall back asleep. They say it's your body trying to prep you for the sleepless nights ahead. Oh thanks, body! I appreciate that so much....

Cramps: Round ligament and sciatic pains, and occasional cramps...ouch. Symptoms of a growing tummy!

Cravings & Aversions

Cravings = Food in general. I didn't have too many cravings in the 2nd trimester, but I had a few phases where I was just famished all the time!  I also really was craving sweet things all the time...fruit, candy, fruit juice, you name it. Oh and especially cereal (still, and forever).

Aversions = Still not into vegetables, especially salad, and cooked greens like spinach, broccoli, etc. (usually my favorites!). I ate a lot of raw peppers and carrots to try to get some veggies in! The weirdest part is that I'd think it sounds yummy and it would make it all the way to my plate...and then I would just leave it there. Good enough to come close, but not all the way into my mouth. I also developed an aversion to most egg things. And avocados!! WTF? So strange that some of my favorite things have made it into this category...

Memorable Moments

It's a GIRL! As long as I live, I'll never forget the moment that the pink confetti sprayed out from that balloon. (check out the gender reveal story here!).

Feeling her move. She started getting really roly poly in there at one point, and it has been my absolute favorite part of pregnancy. Whenever she moves I can't help but look down and put my hand on my tummy and embrace the moment. She's a real person in there, guys!!

The kindness of strangers. I had so many wonderful moments of strangers chatting with me kindly about motherhood, offering advice (only some of it annoying), or offering me help in some way.

That about covers it! I'm currently at 35 weeks, sooo, way into my third trimester! 5 weeks til the due date, WHAT?! We're in shock over here a bit. But also incredibly excited :).