I can’t believe I’m already writing a recap of my second trimester. Saturday started my 28th week and also the third trimester, so I guess this post is due. CRAZY.

It really hasn’t been a bad three months. I’m going to attribute the lack of symptoms to the fact that I continued being active throughout, but I’m not sure if that’s the entire reason. Whatever it is, exercise has DEFINITELY helped.

Symptoms

As you can tell from the picture above, I got a few maternity-type pictures taken when I was shooting some content for the site. I figured it would be good to get a couple shots in there and they turned out so nice. I’m still not sure if I will get any in this third trimester when it’s more evident that there’s a baby in there, but if I don’t I at least have these.

Thankfully, I still haven’t experienced much of the exhaustion that people talk about with pregnancy. It was only during this last week when I HAD to lie down because I felt like I was tired in my brain, my body, and my bones. I’m not sure if that had to do with being pregnant or the fact that I have been working overtime to get things in place for when baby comes.

• Aversions: nothing? My appetite pretty much went back to the way it was before I got pregnant and I could eat all the things I ate on a regular basis.
• Cravings: EGGNOG. ALL THE EGGNOG.

I started to feel him move around 17-18 weeks. A friend of mine had described the feeling as a goldfish bonking up against its tank, and that’s exactly what it felt like. I also had some of the flutters that people talk about, but mainly it felt like someone saying “hello, can I please come out?” and poking me from the inside. Now at 28 weeks the movements are stronger and I can see them through my shirt and on my stomach, which is so crazy!

We traveled to LA and Banff during this time and both trips were great. I was a little further along for LA and developed a burning pain in my rib that required me to either stretch out on the floor or over something so that I looked like a crazy person half the time. Of course it only lasted while I was there, so my in-laws probably think I’m nuts.

My sleep had its ups and downs. I’m normally a very sound sleeper and have no problem falling or staying asleep. I realized early on that if I didn’t eat something close to bedtime, I would wake up in the middle of the night starving and have to make myself something.

Neil got me a Snoogle for Christmas, and although I used it for about two weeks, I felt like I didn’t really need it yet and it was actually complicating sleep a little for me. We have a big bed, but with Neil, me, the Snoogle, and Donut trying to wedge herself between my legs and the pillow, it didn’t make for easy movement if I had to readjust. I spent a few nights on the couch and had some insomnia nights, but they usually corrected themselves after a few days and especially after I stopped using the pillow.

One adjustment I did make, though, was to add an extra pillow for my head because there was a period of 24 hours where I had the worst heartburn ever and thought I was dying (HA). I went and bought a giant bottle of Tums and many smaller rolls for my purse, only to have it happen only that one time. On and off recently I’ve just felt cramped around my ribs and very mild heartburn symptoms, so I’ve been glad to have Tums on hand, but it’s been nothing like it was that one night/day.

We had our 20-week ultrasound where we discovered I was going to give birth to the Terminator.

Aside from that great development, everything looked perfect and was progressing normally. I also passed my gestational diabetes test and celebrated with candy.

Exercise

If you remember from the first trimester, I was on the serious struggle bus when it came to exercise. I could never catch my breath and it felt like my heart rate would never come down. I went from an average 4-5 days a week down to 2-3 — really whenever I felt like I could make it.

Literally as soon as I passed the 13 week mark, I felt like my normal self again. I got back into the regular routine of my workouts and even though I had to decrease the weight I normally do, I was able to continue most of the movements without any problems.

The only movements that I had to either scale or cut out were crunches and anything swinging on a bar (pullups, toes to bar, etc). Most days box jumps were still fine, unless I had just done something like rowing that exhausted my legs. Then I switched to stepping up instead.

As my center of gravity gets more off and my weight continues to go up this last trimester, I may have to adjust more things. I’m not sure that any box jumps are in the cards for me anymore and I’m just taking each workout as it goes. For the post I wrote on pregnancy and exercise, head here!

Emotions

I’ve generally been pretty even emotionally, except for a random freak out here or there. Now that I can feel him move consistently, I’m not plagued with all of the terrible fears and thoughts about miscarriage that I did the first three months.

I still cry like I always do at previews for kids movies or animals, but nothing out of the ordinary. The only real change I’ve noticed is if Neil and I get into an argument, I’m quicker to cry and then once I START crying, it’s really hard for me to stop. It escalates really quickly and I think about every negative thing in the world and have to leave the room to just sob and sob. It feels strangely good and cathartic to cry like that, which I think may actually be beneficial for me as I’m used to not letting myself do so as much as I should in life.

The first couple times he was like “what’s wrong with you?” which then prompted me to get more upset and remind him that I’m pregnant and I don’t know what’s going on (ha), but now that he’s been exposed to it a couple times, he knows to just leave me alone until I’ve gone through my crying tirade.

Donut

Oh Donut, precious as always. She stopped being quite as clingy as she was when I first got pregnant, so maybe she’s over it. There are still a few times here and there where she will lay on me, but it’s not as frequent as before.

She’s been interested in the baby things that have been slowly accumulating such as a crib and clothes, but she’s like that with anything new that comes into the house. I’ve had to move the clothes because she tries to chew the tags off of them like she does with any clothes she can get access to, but other than that she’s been her same goofy self.

Hopefully I covered everything, but feel free to ask any questions if there’s anything you’re curious about!

For my first trimester recap, head here!