2nd Trimester- Start Preparing your mind and body for a baby

WELCOME TO THE SECOND TRIMESTER 

The second trimester is roughly defined as 13/14 weeks - 26/27 weeks. It's viewed as the "easiest" part of pregnancy because you hopefully are starting to feel better after the first trimester but the baby isn't big enough to make you super miserable like in the third trimester. While I never felt 100% my old self there were times that I felt semi-normal during this time period. 

This is a guide regarding many things to research and consider during the second trimester. I tried to do as much work as possible during this time knowing that this was the best that I was going to feel before the baby came. 

Announcing your pregnancy

If you haven't announced by now and you have successfully made it to the second trimester you are pretty safe. Always remember that this is your baby and you can tell anyone you want to in anyway. You don't have to put anything on social media if you don't want to. 

One thing that I wasn't  prepared for when I publicly announced my pregnancy was that some people who I hadn't talked to in a long time somewhat "came out the woodwork". I wasn't on bad terms with any of these people but it just kind of shocked me that some of these people who had basically been ignoring me for a few years all of sudden started acting like we were super close because they found out I was pregnant. It threw me for a bit of a loop. 

How we announced our pregnancy to family and friends 

Start researching what you need 

I did a whole separate blog post about this (see this blogpost https://craftytravelgirl.blogspot.com/2022/09/things-to-consider-when-creating.html) because there was so much information. Figuring out what you need and creating a registry can be very time consuming so I would recommend starting as early as possible. At the end of this post I have a list of a bunch of resources that I used. 

Start researching and learning about birth and taking care of babies 

- You are going to get a lot of advice and information thrown at you from all angles. It is important to do your own research and understand what is going to happen to your body in order to make informed decisions for yourself. 

- It is also important to involve your partner in some of this research and have discussions about your birth preferences and parenting styles. 

- In addition to researching you preferred birth/feeding method you should also be familiar with other methods. For example- how to recover from C-Sections or best types of formula in case you have a lot of issues with breast feeding.   Having information in your arsenal will help you if things don't go as planned. It's a lot easier to research things objectively before your emotions get involved. 

-At the end of this blogpost I have a bunch of resources that I utilized while I was pregnant to learn about everything I could possibly think of. 

-I also found this very time consuming- there is so much information to sift through so the earlier you can start the better. Also I found the earlier I researched and made decisions the easier it was to field people's "advice."

Acquire some maternity clothes

For some reason I fought this so hard and I'm not really sure why. First of all if you can borrow clothes from a friend- do it. There is no need to spend a ton of money for a temporary wardrobe, but at the same time you want to be comfortable. At somepoint your pre-pregnancy clothes just aren't going to cut it. 

Things I would recommend purchasing or getting from friends:

- At least one pair of jeans- again you don't need a ton 

- At least 1-2 pair of yoga pants (if you live in yoga pants at home like I do- and sometimes go to the grocery store in them as well) 

- Some basic shirts. Maybe 10 tops? Enough to get you through a weeks worth of laundry.  Amazon sells some multi-packs that I found to be the most helpful. 

-Nursing bras- if your breasts haven't already increased in size- they will. I just went ahead and purchased some comfortable nursing/pumping bras. I knew I would need them postpartum so I figured why not start using them now. 

-Consider if you are going to need some more formal clothes-like upcoming weddings and showers. I found maternity dresses to be rather expensive. I ended up buying two overall but otherwise I borrowed a few from my friend. Keep in mind that you can "double dip" dresses like if you have a wedding and a baby shower to attend. 

Things to consider: 

-What season are you going to be the "most pregnant" in? I had a July baby so I got a few "light dresses" that helped me stay cool. If you are going to be most pregnant in winter you may want to consider getting some larger coats/sweatshirts 

-Depending on your husband you may want to steal some of his stuff. Towards the end if I wasn't planning on leaving the house I would wear one of my husbands t-shirts. They were just nice and comfortable for me and I wasn't dipping into my stash as much. 

Consider planning some sort of getaway or baby moon 

I would recommend planning some sort of getaway or baby moon trip. Just give yourself designated time to be with your partner before both of your lives change very drastically. It's a great time to focus and strengthen your relationship and perhaps have some good conversations about how you want to raise your future child. I think society has put a lot of pressure on the perfect baby moon but it really doesn't have to be that. I would recommend trying to do it between the end of the 2nd trimester and early 3rd trimester. We did one when I was 36 weeks and while I did enjoy it-I was slightly more miserable and wished we would've done it a bit earlier. 

Consider starting yoga 

I started doing yoga when I started grad school in 2018 as a stress reliever. I've done a few public classes but mostly I just do home yoga on youtube in my living room. I used to do it every day but I'll admit that since moving and having to get up for work super early it doesn't always get done. It's my go-to in a stressful situation for sure. You can use whomever or find public prenatal yoga classes- I continued with my favorite "Yoga with Adriene" on youtube. I would recommend starting to practice yoga early in the 2nd trimester and getting used to some of the poses- I found as my baby bump grew and I became more uncomfortable that I naturally gravitated towards yoga positions to help my body. Obviously as you grow take modifications so that you don't put unnecessary pressure on your uterus (such as going from downward dog to cobra- I would typically just go to upward facing dog to prevent laying on my stomach).

Yoga with Adriene homepage: https://www.youtube.com/c/yogawithadriene

Specific yoga poses/positions that I found helpful: 

Downward dog, wide angle child's pose, cat cow- All of these are inversion type poses and really help with 1. taking pressure off your pelvis (so especially if you've been standing all day at work) 2. stretching the round ligaments of your uterus and helping with and preventing round ligament pain. Also towards the end of the pregnancy they help move the baby down into position. Wide angle child's pose is also really helpful for strengthening your pelvic floor.

Pigeon variations, cobblers, yoga wide squat- Any type of hip openers are going to be your best friend. They help prepare and strengthen your pelvic floor as well as obviously open your hips and pelvis. 

Breathing: Yoga also helps with utilizing breath to reset and ground you. Even if you don't plan on doing an unmedicated birth this is something that can help you navigate stressful/painful situations. 

Start thinking about names

This can feel like an easy task but it can also be quite daunting. It can be hard because you might have a specific name picked out in your brain and then you talk to your partner about it only to find out that they hate it and you think their pick for a name is stupid.  

Names- like everything else that has to do with parenthood and pregnancy everyone is going to give you their opinions on what you should name your child. The best piece of advice that I received about names is to do one of two things: 

1. If you have a name picked out and you are 100% sure that this is the name you can tell people (if you want to) before birth. Be prepared for peoples dumb reactions but most people-if you tell them that it is for sure the name will not react poorly when you tell them. 

2. If you are not 100% sure on the name don't tell anyone or only tell 1-2 trusted people. The moment you say "we're not totally sure...." is the moment that you invite everyone's opinions into the conversation. 

Things to consider when choosing a name: 

1. Potential nicknames.  For example if you name your child Joseph are you ok with people calling them Joe, Joey etc? 

2. Spelling- Alternative spellings are on trend right now but consider how that will impact your child down the line. If you choose a not as common spelling it is more likely that their name will be spelled wrong throughout their life. 

3. Popularity- if the name is #1 in the country are you ok with them having the same name as multiple kids in their class. For example the most popular girls name in the 90's was Katie. I specifically remember having at least 2-3 Katies in every grade and was super thankful that I wasn't named Katie. 

Milestone 20 Weeks

This is considered your half way point! I remember it feeling like such an accomplishment but also like "I have so much more to go" Around this point is when my bump started showing a little bit more so it was starting to feel more real. If you have a posterior placenta most people can start to feel their baby around this time but I had an anterior placenta so I didn't start to feel him until closer to 22 weeks. My husband reminds me on a regular basis how upset I was about this- don't worry you will feel them eventually! Especially at the end sometimes you wish you didn't feel them because you just want to get some sleep!

Sleeping Recommendations

Around this time is also when it is recommended to stop sleeping on your back and stomach if you are still doing this. I would recommend if you don't like a pregnancy pillow (like me) to sleep with a small pillow between your knees. This will help ensure better alignment and will make you more comfortable. If you wake up on your back don't panic just make sure you roll to your side to go back to sleep. Also now is a good time to start practicing rolling completely to your side and pushing yourself up to sit up and get out of bed- rather than sitting straight up. This helps prevent breakdown in your abdominal wall muscles as your uterus begins to protrude out. Also as your baby grows it becomes very hard to sit up from laying flat. 

Diagnostic Ultrasound 

This is the big ultrasound that typically happens around week 20. Because I'm a nurse practitioner and have seen so many things in my career I was honestly more nervous than excited about this. I was worried that they would find something that would complicate the pregnancy. Thankfully all was well- once I found that out I was able to enjoy the experience. 

Basic information about the ultrasound

-You need to come to ultrasound with a semi full bladder in order to get the best pictures of the baby- this makes it slightly uncomfortable- especially because at points they are literally pressing on your bladder. 

-Plan on the exam lasting 45min-1hr. 

-Remember the point of the exam is to get measurements of your baby- not to watch your baby swim around (as much as thats what you want to see). 

-We really wanted to take a small video during ours but the the policy at our center wouldn't let us. If you want to do a video ask-some places let you do one. 

-One thing I didn't realize is that in order to get the profile shot that are the most common picture they literally have to stab you with the ultrasound wand in the side 

-This is typically the ultrasound where you can most accurately find out the sex of the baby if you didn't get the blood test. 

2nd half of second trimester 

Glucose Tolerance Test

I was slightly nervous about this test. Not because it was hard by any means but it's really a test that I have no control over. Being a gestational diabetic typically has nothing to do with your diet during pregnancy- it's all genetic based and how your body responds to pregnancy. I was nervous about it because I didn't want to deal with blood sugar checks and insulin. Also if you develop gestational diabetes you are at higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. 

Basic facts about the glucose tolerance test: 

- It is typically performed between week 22-24 

- Depending on your results the first time will determine if you need to complete step 2 

Step 1: Drink a glucose drink on a mostly empty stomach (I'll admit I had some coffee in mine). I heard alot of mixed results about this glucose drink. Mine tasted like a flat orange soda. I let my husband try the last little bits of it and he agreed with that assessment. You have 5 minutes to drink the drink and you are supposed to note what time you finished it. I tried to do my best to start drinking at 9:00 so I could remember that I finished at 9:05. This drink can make people queasy because it is so sugary. I was ok at first but towards the end of the hour I was slightly queasy. It didn't help that my husband was literally running through Home Depot and I was trying to keep up with him. You're blood must be drawn 1 hour after completing the drink so make sure you go to the lab roughly 15 minutes early in case there is a line. If you don't get the blood drawn within the hour (plus or minus 5 min) then you have to do the process all over again- or if you throw up the drink then you have to do it again as well. 

- Normal value for this test is under 140. If it is above that then you have to do step 2. 

Step 2: This one is definitely more of a commitment. This time you must not eat or drink anything before drinking the glucose drink. They will draw your blood before you drink it and then every 60 minutes for three hours. 

- Normal fasting blood sugar is 95 or below, normal after 1 hour is 180, 2 hour is 155, 3 hour is 140. If you are high on any of these it is considered diagnostic for gestational diabetes. 

Milestone- 24 weeks- viability 

This is generally considered the earliest that a baby can survive outside the womb. I felt a little sigh of relief when I got to this point. Obviously I wanted to keep him cooking but I felt a little better that if something really bad happened there would be a decent chance that he would at least survive. 

Pictures 

This is a good time to consider if you want to do maternity pictures and or newborn pictures and get those scheduled. Both of these tend to fill up months in advance depending on the photographer and it tends to be less of a financial burden in the second trimester rather than the third when you are trying to get everything else you need. Neither of these things are required but if it is something you want to do now is the time. 

-Maternity Pictures

Plan on doing them around 34-36 at the latest weeks. This seems to be the cutest time that you have your "bump" and also the safest before you risk going into labor before getting them taken. After 36 some people can develop swelling specifically around the face. Also pro-tip: I used one of the maternity dresses that I bought for both the maternity shoot and a baby shower. 

-Newborn Pictures

Decide if you want more of a lifestyle session in your house or a studio session. Again these tend to fill up months in advance so it's better to get it done in the second trimester. Plan on having these done when they are around 1 week to 2 weeks old- don't worry they will still be squishy and adorable. If you are breastfeeding most photographers want you to wait until your milk comes in before doing the pictures. This is to ensure your baby is well fed and adequately milk drunk to have the best session possible. 

Acquire a breast pump if you plan to breastfeed

As you get closer to the third trimester you may want to order your breast pump through insurance. I would recommend looking at Karrie Locher on Instagram for more information on breast pumps. She does a really good job comparing and contrasting between multiple pumps. You need a prescription from your provider in order to order one through your insurance company.  Most insurance companies will let you order a pump whenever you want during your pregnancy but some are stupid and won't let you order it until 36 weeks- just make sure you check with your insurance company before ordering. 

The two main breast pumps are made by companies called "Spectra" and "Medela" A lot of people have opinions and pros and cons on both of them. This is where Karrie Locher is really good if you want a good comparison. Also it is recommended that you purchase a second pair of pump parts for whichever pump your choose (you can find these typically on Amazon). Something else to consider if you are a working mom is investing in a portable pump. These are nice because you aren't chained to the wall but the con to them is they tend not be as powerful. However they are coming up with new ones everyday so maybe soon they will be just as powerful.

Pro Tip: when you order your desired pump you might also want to order a pumping cooler (a small cooler that comes with an ice pack to hold bottles) or put it on your registry. 

3D/4D Ultrasound 

If you don't have a high risk pregnancy and you want another chance to see your baby before birth you may want to consider a 3D/4D ultrasound. If you have a high risk pregnancy you will most likely get one for medically necessary reasons. This is completely optional but it was something we did and enjoyed. They recommend doing it around the end of the second trimester and early third trimester but you can do it all the way up until birth. The won't turn on the 3D part until closer to 26-27 weeks because the baby still somewhat looks like a velociraptor until that point. 

Pros: 

-It's a great way to see your baby more as a baby and begin to bond. It was so cute to see our little baby yawn and move his hands and feet 

-Family can come to this- often these centers allow 4-5 people to attend and some will stream it for others to watch. I think this would be a great opportunity to show an older sibling and help them to realize what is going to come to their house in a few months. 

-They often a give you a video and photos. 

Cons: 

It's not the cheapest thing and be prepared they will often try to get you to upgrade or buy more things. Only do what you want to do or buy what you want to buy. 

Resources 

Evidenced based birth- this was a website recommended to me by my midwife. It gives an objective look at many aspects of labor and delivery https://evidencebasedbirth.com/resources-for-parents/

Hey Shayla- My favorite mom youtuber. She is based in Minnesota and she used to be a full time traveler. She is a little more hippy than me but she is hilarious and is really good at giving a lot of evidenced based information to consider while also validating feelings and keeping it real. She also has a podcast- also called "Hey Shayla" where she interviews different experts on a variety of topics. If you look at nothing else from this list look at her. 

Channel Mum: this is a british youtube channel that has a video that goes through week by week of pregnancy. Sometimes I watched these just to see what other people were experiencing or what was developing that particular week. Plus I'm a sucker for british accents 

Loeppkys Life- this is a minimalist canadian mom's youtube channel and she also does a lot on pregnancy/ breastfeeding and caring for babies. Again she is slightly more hippy than me but she is really good at providing a lot of useful information. 

Big Fat Positive- this is a podcast of two women who are friends who found out they were pregnant around the same time. They do a quick weekly podcast throughout their pregnancies. I enjoy listening to it because it's more of a relatable and validate some of my feelings thing-rather than gaining a ton of information. 

Mommy Labor Nurse- this is a podcast from an L&D nurse who is also a mom (I'm sure you could figure that out from the title though). I kind of picked and chose topics from this because there are a lot of episodes. I found she kind of dumbed down the medical stuff which I didn't need but there were some things that I found helpful. 

Karrie Locher- this is an STL mom on Instagram. She is also a postpartum/nursery nurse. She has alot of info on breastfeeding/pumping and has a whole course on helping bring a newborn home. She doesn't do much about pregnancy but I found her helpful with learning about the breastfeeding world and all the stuff that comes along with it. Also she helped with the whole "what do I need for my registry and to set up my house/car to be successful" 

Alliy Scott- another mom youtuber and instagrammer. I found some of her videos helpful for creating a registry- especially for suggestions for things for older children.