Second Trimester: Boy Mama Era Begins
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Hellooo second trimester! There’s definitely a freeing, more relaxed feeling once you hit week 13. I was hoping for me that would be like the flip of a switch with my sickness but unfortunately that didn’t go away for me until week 22. Yikes! But even still the second trimester was my favorite!
I started feeling flutters then kicks and movements, Wy feeling those too, got to really see our sweet babe on ultrasound, we found out the gender and had our gender reveal party, started shopping for him like crazy, went on our babymoon, I finally felt like a functioning person again with a little more energy and feeling a little more like myself and just getting so amped up that October was getting closer and closer!!
The second trimester was also my favorite for finding cute bump outfits because once that bump really starts to pop it’s just so fun to style!! And before ya get a little miserable towards the end and just don’t even want to wear clothes. Mamas ya feel me??
My least favorite part of the second trimester was that it was right in the heart of the heat of the summer for me and at times it was just a little bit too much to be out in it because I just felt so much warmer in general.
I was also finally able to eat broader food choices (most of the time) and get back to some healthier choices too! There were like 4-5 weeks in a row where huge salads were my jam! If you read First Trimester: Sickness, Sleepiness, and the Sweetest Blessing then you know first trimester I lived on very minimal food choices and the fed is best motto to get by.
While I started not feeling so nauseous and getting sick as often, I still went to bed every night very early! And now being a new mom I’m so grateful I prioritized rest when I could. It was hard at times to just give in but I’m glad I did. I hope your pregnancy is full of all the rest you need!
On the other side of that rest though I finally started to feel like I could be a little more active. I started very slow with 5-10 minute walks in my backyard. And when I got winded or tired I took a break. I wanted to be active again so badly, but knew I couldn’t overdo it and basically had no stamina to rely on after being down for the count for a solid 3-4 months.
In these pregnancy blog posts I divided them up by trimester because it just felt like there was so much to share! Hopefully the headings will help you navigate in case there’s a specific topic you want to hear my experience on.
I was also finally able to eat broader food choices (most of the time) and get back to some healthier choices too! There were like 4-5 weeks in a row where huge salads were my jam! If you read my previous blog post then you know first trimester I lived on very minimal food choices and the fed is best motto to get by.
While I started not feeling so nauseous and getting sick as often, I still went to bed every night very early! And now being a new mom I’m so grateful I prioritized rest when I could. It was hard at times to just give in but I’m glad I did. I hope your pregnancy is full of all the rest you need!
On the other side of that rest though I finally started to feel like I could be a little more active. I started very slow with 5-10 minute walks in my backyard. And when I got winded or tired I took a break. I wanted to be active again so badly, but knew I couldn’t overdo it and basically had no stamina to rely on after being down for the count for a solid 3-4 months.
In these pregnancy blog posts I divided them up by trimester because it just felt like there was so much to share! Hopefully the headings will help you navigate in case there’s a specific topic you want to hear my experience on.
Tell People in Your Own Time
During the second trimester is when we announced our big answered prayer to the world! The social media world that is. At 17 weeks I think it was. This was so much fun! People’s words of excitement even from people we hadn’t talked to in a while were just so special. I felt the love for our sweet babe already from so many.
While this was so much fun I feel like it’s something you have to do in your own time. Don’t feel pressured to do it any earlier or any later than what feels right. Everyone will have opinions about the ‘right’ way or time to do it, but you just have to drown out the noise of other people’s opinions. This is a lesson you will have to learn in your pregnancy and motherhood journey anyways, so you might as well learn it early on!
This is truly one of the most special times of your life and you should be able to celebrate it with who you want, when you want! We told a lot of people in person along the way leading up to our big social media announcement because that’s what felt right for us. I share more about why we waited a little longer in First Trimester: Sickness, Sleepiness, and the Sweetest Blessing.
Flutters and Kicks
This is easily the most incredible thing about pregnancy. Getting to feel that little life inside of you is simply indescribable!
The first time I felt flutters I didn’t really know what they would feel like of course, but then when they continued to happen I knew. And it was so cool to feel those movements progress from light flutters to kicks only I could feel, to kicks big enough for Wyatt to feel, to what became feeling like baby Hulk was in my belly! LOL
I feel like I got to form such a special bond with him and get to know his little personality through all of his movements, playing knock-knock back and forth between my belly, and the way I would feel him move so big when he would hear Wyatt’s voice.
Maybe everyone feels this way, but I truly felt like I could just tell he had a silly and ornery spirit in the way he would move so big! I couldn’t help but laugh and just fall completely in love with him. My nephews heard me refer to him as baby Hulk and that’s what they called him throughout my pregnancy too!
The first time Wyatt felt him move in my belly was so funny because it scared him and I couldn’t help but laugh. But then It got to the point where he would react to Wyatt’s voice and they would play knock-knock and again the beauty of this just feels so indescribable. Those movements are amazing!!
I wish I had written down what weeks in pregnancy I started to feel those flutters and bigger kicks and when Wyatt could feel them too so I could share with you, but I just can’t remember.
Take the Bumpdate Pictures
We didn’t start until week 16 when I was definitely showing. So if you want to take cute bump pictures but haven’t started yet, it’s not too late to capture these memories! Go for it girl!!
This is one of my only regrets from my pregnancy is that we didn’t take pictures before my belly ‘popped’.. I bought the dress I wanted to take pictures in each week and everything. I had it ready to roll, but I was just so sick in the first trimester I didn’t want my picture taken.
I now wish I had just sucked it up and had Wyatt take the pictures each week earlier on. I’m grateful we started at week 16, but wish we had started at like week 8! So it’s not too late just do it, take the pictures of your growing body/belly because it all starts to change quicker than you think. And I know that God-willing I get to do this again, it will be much trickier to take the bump pictures while keeping up with another little one.
OB Appointments
I don’t know that the setup is like this at every OB office with the appointment schedule but for anyone curious I wanted to share because I had no idea. Appointments were every 4 weeks until 7 months, then every two weeks, then weekly for the last month. We had our anatomy scan at 20 weeks and that was the last time we saw Easton until he was born as the office we ended up working with keeps scans at a minimum which I appreciate! While I would have loved to see him every day, in my opinion there just isn’t enough research on the effects of all those ultra sound waves on unborn babes and how constantly exposing them to that can affect them.
The OB I was originally working with was fine, but I wasn’t feeling 100% comfortable with her nurses in the office. And even felt very dismissed and pressured by the nurses. I didn’t feel like I had many options though because I wanted to go somewhere where someone I knew had a great experience, but also not too far from home.
Finding out that a hospital not too far from us had a mother/baby unit that was incredible and came with reviews from multiple people we knew, along with having the option to work with an OB or a midwife was just even better. We ended up making this switch at 28 weeks which was scary, but once we were there we knew we were right where God needed us to be! I talk more about this switch in Third Trimester: The Homestretch.
Anatomy Scan
I was so antsy before this appointment! Knowing we were going to get to see our baby on ultrasound was so exciting, but I knew how important this appointment was. I knew he had to be cooperative in my belly, but also knew they had a lot of info to gather on the babe about very vital things during the ultrasound and I just wanted all to go well and for everything to be great with him. My nerves were on 10!
Luckily, he was super cooperative- other than moving his arms and legs a little too much- and all was well with everything they checked! So many answered prayers.
This appointment was done at 20 weeks and this was the last time we got to see him until he was born! The office we were with didn’t do any ultrasounds past this point unless there was reason for concern, which I really appreciated because there isn’t a lot of research on how extra ultrasounds can affect babies. I would have loved to see him more, of course, but ultimately I wanted to limit the amount of things that could negatively affect him.
Gender Reveal
We always knew we wanted to find out if we were having a boy or girl whenever the time came for us to have a babe. Nowadays you can find out so early through a blood test and we were given that option, however we chose not to do that blood testing for a variety of reasons.
Just like we waited a little longer than most to announce our pregnancy, waiting to find out the gender until our 20 week anatomy scan also felt like this fun little excitement for us! Those 40 weeks are a lot to get through so finding out the gender at 20 weeks was like a little gift to us for being halfway to meeting our little one!
When I would lay in bed not feeling good I would constantly think about who our babe would be. From the moment I took a test I just knew we were having a girl! Oh to think about that now LOL. And from the moment I told Wy I was pregnant he just knew it was a boy! He took entirely too much pride in the fact that he was right! It wasn’t until about a week before we found out that I started second-guessing myself and thinking boy. Easton James really has kept me on my toes from the very very beginning!
We wanted to do a special gender reveal party with our closest friends and family! We knew family would plan baby showers for us and we appreciated that more than anything, but this got to be something we could do to celebrate our babe!! And also something I could work on planning from bed- I would lay there in my cloud of nausea and dream of this party and how perfect we wanted it to be for our babe!
And it did end up being absolutely perfect…not what we had planned due to weather…but nonetheless absolutely perfect!
We decided to go with a ‘love you to the moon and back’ theme because that’s what I’ve always said to friends and family, and especially Wyatt! We thought about switching up the typical pinks and blues but pink is my favorite color and blue is Wyatt’s favorite color so it didn’t really make sense for us to! I do think purple and green gender reveals are super cute though to switch it up!!
We found out he was a boy the day before the party and had previously bought confetti poppers of both colors so we would be prepared!! It was so much fun to find out he was a boy just the two of us and then make a big deal of it to celebrate with our friends and family!!
Here’s the thing….there’s a lot of talk about how gender reveals should and shouldn’t be done or how they’re overdone or cliche and here is my take. You have an absolutely precious life growing inside of you and if you want to find out what you’re having and celebrate big- do it! If you want to keep it small- do it! If you want to sneakily reveal to everyone what you’re having at a family gathering- do it! This is YOUR babe and your experience should be exactly as you want it to be not what you think everyone else wants it to be. That goes for social media too! Forget all that noise and just focus on what you and your hubby want!
Pregnancy Pillows
In my first trimester I enjoyed using this wedge pillow. I didn’t need to use it but it did make me feel better to use it. Then during my second trimester I upgraded to the Frida cooling pillow. Which was in my opinion- amazing. The cooling aspect was fantastic.
And then by the time we got to the end of second trimester and into the third, I used the frida pillow, wedge pillow, a throw pillow between my knees and of course my pillow for my head. To turn over during the night or get up to go to the bathroom was a whole ordeal with my pillows! But you just have to do whatever makes you and your growing bump and changing body comfortable.
Maternity Clothes
Okay the lovely topic of maternity clothes! Some people can get by without having to purchase a single piece of maternity clothing and I think that is awesome and also makes me a little jealous, even still! LOL
I feel like it’s all in how your body is naturally built and how you carry your pregnancy. I am shorter and I was pretty much all belly and have naturally wider hips. So I really did need the types of clothes made to cater to the belly. Luckily, my sister saved all of her maternity clothes for me, some of which she received as hand-me-downs too. This was such a blessing!
Second trimester is when I really started to need maternity clothes. If you read First Trimester: Sickness, Sleepiness, and the Sweetest Blessing then you know I was able to use a jeans extender as long as I possibly could to be able to keep wearing my regular jeans for work.
Having a stash of maternity clothes on hand was so helpful and allowed me to not have to purchase as much, while still feeling confident in outfits. I have kept everything and once our family is complete someday I look forward to paying it forward in the ways this favor was done for me. You need these clothes for such a short period of time and it’s nice to have options, but you don’t want to break the bank.
If you don’t have anyone in your life to save their clothes or pass them down for you, I also found Poshmark, Mercari, and thrift stores very helpful!
Registry
Okay, I found the registry to be very difficult!! I thought it would be so much fun and it did have some fun aspects but I feel like I overthought every little thing and no matter how many different blog posts I read about what you should put on your registry I was very overwhelmed. So I don’t really have much insight on this piece but I wish I did.
The one thing I do recommend is using Babylist.com because you can link to all different stores/retailers and it allows the person shopping to see prices for different retailers. So it’s not only friendly for you as the user putting together the registry, but for the shopper too! A win, win. My friend used Babylist and it was so helpful when shopping that I knew that’s what I wanted to use to put mine together too when the time came!
I think it is so difficult because every mom and baby are different and when it’s your first you truly have no idea what life is going to look like after your babe is here. And when your exhausted pregnant brain tries to help you think and plan ahead, sometimes it fails you!
So talk to your other mom friends, read blog posts, try to envision life with a babe and don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
They need so little when they are first born, prime and order pickups will be your best friends, and if you get things you don’t end up using you can always return. They need so little, but also if it gives you a greater piece of mind to have more, then I think do what will put your pregnant mom brain at ease.
Unsolicited Advice and Unfortunate Opinions
I will say I feel very lucky when it comes to the whole unsolicited advice part of pregnancy and now motherhood, because I simply didn’t have to deal with a lot of it. I know this is a struggle for some mamas though!
What I unfortunately dealt with more so were people’s opinions and things they would say about me. When you are pregnant your body is changing at what feels like rapid speed and at times it can be a little hard to adjust to. For the most part, I felt pretty confident for most of my pregnancy, but when people would make comments about my size it was hard. And those are simply things you don’t forget.
I was told I looked bigger than how many weeks pregnant I was. I was told someone saw a photo of me and said ‘wow she’s gotten really big’. These are things you do not say to a pregnant mama. Ever.
Also, if you are feeling this way about yourself- please no. Please please love this body that is doing something so incredible. Find the beauty in yourself for being able to do such an awesome thing in growing your babe to bring them into the world. You are a rockstar, Mama! What you are able to do is literally a miracle and God’s handiwork.
Preparation Mindset
If you came over to this post from First Trimester: Sickness, Sleepiness, and the Sweetest Blessing then you may have already read this little blurb about having a preparation mindset, but in case you didn’t i wanted to share it here too. I feel like it was truly what helped me get through some of the harder days of pregnancy.
This is honestly one of my biggest pieces of advice for your pregnancy journey— It was immensely helpful for me to think this way.
From First Trimester: Sickness, Sleepiness, and the Sweetest Blessing:
“Every up and down of pregnancy was preparing me for motherhood- God was preparing me for motherhood. While that sickness and living in nausea was incredibly difficult, I had also never come out of something feeling so darn strong. I’m stronger now than I ever was before and I am so proud of what my body went through and the ways it fought for my baby and myself.
People loving me up prepared me. People treating me like garbage prepared me. Losing all sense of strength and having to rebuild prepared me. Watching my body change literally overnight, prepared me. Growing closer to God and feeling my faith strengthen prepared me. Changing and maturing as an individual prepared me.
I kept this preparation mindset throughout pregnancy, and I urge you to do the same in this season of life. I pray I can carry this mindset into all future seasons of my life too!”
Books I Read
I have mentioned before that I’m a nerd that loves to learn, and in this season I especially wanted to learn as much as I possibly could.
I read two books that were recommended to me and I not only enjoyed them, but they taught me alot and gave me some different perspective. I highly recommend both.
Babymoon
Let’s chat about our babymoon!! If you’ve never heard of that it’s basically just a getaway with you and your partner before your baby arrives. We always go away and do a little something special for our wedding anniversary so we just decided to combine the two and get away for a whole week. I knew I wanted to just relax and be in the water so we found a house on Airbnb with its own pool in Cape Coral, Florida and it was absolutely perfect. We discussed going to the beach to relax, but I knew it would be harder for me to rest and enjoy that because I couldn’t just lay out comfortably or get up and down easily and it would’ve been harder for me to fight the waves in the water so we settled for a house with a pool.
Side note- pregnant mamas this summer get in a pool!!! Truly the best and most comfortable I felt all pregnancy was when I was in the water and just felt weightless.
Our babymoon was so special too because for us, we didn’t get to spend alot of time together for months- which if you read First Trimester: Sickness, Sleepiness, and the Sweetest Blessing then you know i was living with a preparation mindset and so this really foreshadowed new parenthood for us and not being able to spend alot of time together. But anyways we didn’t get to spend much time together because Wyatt was traveling alot for work so he could be home on baby watch starting in october and then he would be on paternity leave for pretty much the rest of the year. So he was traveling a ton for work and when he would be home, I was still pretty much rocking with my 7/8pm bedtime which didn’t allow for much time together in the evenings. Needless to say, our babymoon was a great way for us to really reconnect and spend great quality one-on-one time together as well as make so many plans for our babe and chat about the million lists in my head of things we needed to do before he made his arrival.
We swam, we ate ice cream, we had date nights, we saw dolphins, we slept in, we relaxed, we soaked it all in. That trip is one of my favorites we have ever taken!
I highly encourage a babymoon even if it is just one night in a hotel in your city! It is so nice to just block out the noise and stress of day to day life and be with your hunny in a time when you both are so hyper-focused on the baby and the to-dos, or like us barely even seeing each other to do those things!
And that pretty much sums up my second trimester of pregnancy and we are rolling right into the third with Third Trimester: The Homestretch. I hope there was something here to support and encourage you in your own pregnancy journey!
Lord, thank you for the blessing of moving into the second trimester for these mamas. Please continue to keep them and their babes wrapped in your love and protection. Please give these moms confidence only You can give in their growing and changing bodies and hormones, as well as confidence in their abilities to keep going even when it may feel difficult. Lord, we thank You continually for the gift of life and Your perfect design to allow us as women to be able to carry these babies in pregnancy. Thank you Lord! Amen.
All the love,
