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2nd trimester Pregnancy: How’s it going?

pilatesandprints

Updated: May 1, 2023

It’s been fab!!!

No kidding. I’m definitely feeling the best (and most normal) that I’ve been while being pregnant. It’s still different compared to not being pregnant, for sure. My body is constantly changing in ways that I can’t quite comprehend at times. There are moments when I can almost forget that I’m pregnant. Haha although the round belly is certainly a good reminder 😛

Gender Reveal!

Hehe so if you haven’t heard, we’re having a baby girl! :))) Did our gender reveal with our family (and then announced it to friends) with a virtual gender reveal zoom “party” during our baby moon staycation. How times have changed right? I’m bummed that we can’t travel at all this year – my grand plans for having 2 babymoon holidays flew right out of the window thanks to covid19 since we’re all grounded in this little island. But thankful that I could take a weekend off (for the first time in forever!) to just chill out and relax. Slept SO MUCH during our stay and it felt so good. We got cupcakes with baby’s gender hidden in the icing colour inside and we got everyone to guess before revealing it! We’d actually found out the gender almost a month back already, and it was sooooo hard keeping it a secret when everyone kept asking! :p had to really zip my mouth shut haha. We had an overwhelming number of guesses of baby being a boy, probably due to the shape of my belly (it’s pointy!), but HAHA shows that these old wives tales are really not accurate at all huh? Baby turned out to be a GIRL 😀 To be honest, I was a little doubtful, thanks to everyone’s guesses, that I double-confirmed with my gynae that the sonologist indeed saw baby’s gender correctly xD haha!

I can fly!

In my previous post about my 1st trimester symptoms, I shared that unlike what the articles online tend to generalise, most of my symptoms actually lasted beyond the 14 weeks and into the early weeks of my 2nd trimester. One significant area of improvement though, were my energy levels. I did feel my energy returning once I hit my 2nd trimester – and once it returned to 100%, I felt that I was bouncing off the walls and I could flyyyyy~ Haha. That was a huge difference for me, compared to when I was dragging my exhausted body around in the 1st trimester and it was literally impossible to walk any faster than a crawling pace. I’ve started climbing steps (or rather, escalators) daily as much as possible because I’ve heard that it’s supposed to help with the birth? Haha. Also glad that my job allows me to stay mobile, even though social distancing measures and having to be confined to my own mat space does reduce the movement by quite a bit. Nonetheless, I try to walk as much as I can whenever I head out for classes!

Appetite & Digestion

My appetite & digestion was still pretty poor, especially in early 2nd trimester. But knowing that baby is beginning to get her nutrients from me through the placenta made me more conscious of my eating habits. Up till that point, my gynaecologist was reassuring about my diet habits (mainly carbs-centric dried food like crackers and bread) in my 1st trimester while I worried about feeding my baby junk. As I eased into my 2nd trimester though, I began to miss eating my healthy meals! I was very, very apprehensive about cooking again. But I decided that I’d start with the simplest meals, mainly using steaming as a cooking method, with minimal flavouring (my spice cabinet is still making my stomach flip). Balsamic vinegar became my go-to (it’s always been one of my favourites, and it’s so appetising!), and I actually managed to begin eating vegetables and plant-based proteins again!!!! HURRAY. I felt SO GOOD after each healthy home cooked meal, knowing that I was feeding baby good stuff. Yippee! And I certainly felt lighter and less sluggish compared to all the carb-heavy meals that I was eating previously.

I also noticed that my digestion had started to improve gradually! It’s a slow process – and it’s really not entirely back to normal. I’m still pretty cautious, sticking to food/cuisines which I know would be “safe” for me – Vietnamese and Japanese being the mainstays. I have yet to venture back to zichar (unfortunately a nightmarish incident of terribly painful bloating has scarred me for quite awhile), but I’m gradually expanding the list of food that I’m trying to get back to. Being able to finish a bowl of fish noodle soup without any digestive mishaps was a huge score – finally I can feed baby fish again! But in general, I’m careful not to overeat for each meal. In fact, where possible I usually bring along a takeaway container when I eat out and divide a meal into 2 portions, one of which I bring home to eat later in the day when I start to feel peckish again. There are some rare days when I feel ravenous and constantly hungry throughout the day, and many others where I simply don’t feel like I can eat anything. I just listen to my body and eat accordingly, but I try (the keyword is try haha) to keep it as healthy as possible.

Growing belly

It was so timely that I started to feel better in my birthday week, and I totally gorged that week!!! I shocked myself to be honest, at the amount I was eating. It was probably a shock to my poor digestive system too, but somehow it managed to tolerate all the food and sweets that I was chugging. Standing on the weighing scale gave me a shock, as I probably gained 2kg in 2 weeks! Yikes! Okay I don’t know whether that’s a good or bad thing. Everyone has been telling me that I need to gain weight, but that was a little too quick eh? Correspondingly, I noticed that my belly exponentially increased in size too!!!! Suddenly, I REALLY LOOKED PREGNANT. And people started offering me seats on public transport and asking me about my pregnancy haha. I do need to be mindful of my sugar intake though!!! Praying hard that I don’t end up with gestational diabetes after all those sweets from that week.

I feel like I’m huge already! Though it’s probably nothing compared to what’s coming in the 3rd trimester. Although I’m not really feeling any weight from baby, but my belly has been feeling so stretched, sometimes I feel like my belly button is going to split. I started feeling this needle-prick feeling at my belly button since the 1st trimester, and while it was mostly sporadic then, I’ve been feeling it more often in my 2nd tri! To be honest, it scares me, but it seems like it could just be my uterus expanding at a rate that is entirely new to my body which causes the pain. Also, most days I feel full all the time because the belly is just so big and swollen. Trying my best to moisturise, moisturise & moisturise! I’m getting rashes on my tummy, which I’m not sure whether it’s because my skin is dry, or due to some other cause.

Overall, I’ve been loving this new roundness though. It’s been liberating to flaunt the belly. I’m definitely losing the muscle tone that I’ve painstakingly built up over the past year of teaching full-time, but I’m embracing the change knowing that it’s inevitable. Of course it doesn’t mean just letting myself go! Thankfully I still get the chance to exercise while I’m teaching and I do try to move around especially while I have the energy now. Enjoying this “honeymoon period” while it lasts! Pregnancy has already made me aware of how much I would give, just for my child. Exciting (but difficult) times coming up! Thank you for joining me on this journey (: Feel free to reach out if you’d like to connect! I’d love to hear about your experiences too. Catch you again soon!

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