My Review on Pregnancy: Part II

2^ND Trimester

Walking into this trimester felt a lot like walking into school on the first day of my senior year. On one side it felt like, “I made it!,” and on the other side it felt like, “Dang, I have two whole semesters left!”

This part of pregnancy, as I’ve heard it described previously, was definitely my Honeymoon Phase. I know that this is not always the case for everyone. Every pregnancy, even for the same person, can be different. For me, one of the reasons it was so awesome was the fact that morning, afternoon, and evening sickness magically disappeared. In addition to that (which was enough), this trimester was when I received my ultrasound!

Apparently, depending on where you live and the type of pregnancy you have, you may have had several ultrasounds by this trimester. During my pregnancy, I only had one, which was at my 5 month check-up. This was also the appointment to determine the anatomy of our little one.

I really wanted a boy but would not have loved a daughter any less. A large part of me feared a little girl. This fear was rooted in the thought that my little girl would be just like me, which ironically aroused a deep sense of horror.  I wasn’t necessarily a “bad” kid. I’ve just  always been very “strong-willed” and I wasn’t exactly sure how I was going to deal with a little replica of myself. I could just imagine her looking at me with a blank face and saying, “Well Mom, I’m going to do it like this anyway.”

On the day of the ultrasound, I was so anxious. We knew it wouldn’t matter but it was a HUGE secret that I really really wanted to know. After checking for hands, feet, toes, elbows, and every single body part you can imagine, the nurse asks, “Are you ready to find out the sex?”

 I wanted to scream my answer but I held it together with a smile and a nod. I looked at my husband, who was cool, calm and collected and within seconds, there it was in all of it’s little glory! I smiled and said, “Oh, wow babe,” to which my husband responded, “What?”

The nurse followed with, “It’s a Boy,” and my husband searched the screen with a very big smile on his face and said, “I don’t see it.”

Once we knew the sex, everything picked up. My baby bump came in, which was cool because people finally could tell I was pregnant. I created a baby registry, planned for a shower and began to panic! 

The not so enjoyable part of this trimester was that after the sickness, I developed Ptyalism, which is a fancy word for excess salivation.  Yes, for those of you who were not aware, I literally spit for 6 months straight. A lot of people had advice for how I could make this better but there was really no end to it. It also seemed like all the solutions were more for other people than they were for me. No matter what I did, any solution I tried would only last for as long as I was doing it.

I would apologize for those of you who were exposed to this, but since I not only hated doing it AND had no choice in the matter. . . I won’t. I might add that this in conjunction with growing rapidly, hormones, swollen feet, and a very active baby made me slightly cranky and sensitive to this little problem.

At the end of this trimester, I was a strong mix between, “Lord, am I ready for this?” and “Please get this little person out of me.” It was awesome.

3^RD Trimester

This trimester snuck up on me. Like, I literally didn’t realize I was in it until my little phone app told me. This, again, brought on a surge of panic (Notice the continual theme of panic, which is not at all recommended).

For some reason I didn’t realize that I was actually going to have to get this baby out of me in a REAL way. I’ve seen A Baby Story and 16 & Pregnant a million times but the labor and delivery part just didn’t really click for some reason.

In addition to this new actualization, I’m very much skeptical of modern medicine and “The Business of Being Born” documentary did not help this fear . . . AT ALL (Side note: I recommend this documentary for expecting parents to be educated on your options,  not matter what you decide is best for you and your family). Thankfully my best friend and my belly partner were there to help me get mentally and physically prepared.

I watched documentaries, read books and blogs, talked to mothers, watched YouTube, did exercises, and prayed, heavily. My mother was also a big help because she had four children au natural sans meds, and she assured me that it could be done.

Although, this trimester is for resting, nesting, and waiting, it was a little more stressful than I’d hoped. My husband and I moved into an apartment to have a more tranquil space during my second trimester, which was very challenging. Unfortunately, we soon realized that our new apartment was more like Hell’s kitchen than a tranquil resting place. This translated into extreme stress and discomfort for me, along with an additional very stressful move.

Some of the joys of this trimester were my baby shower and setting up all the cute and wonderful gifts. It was also cool to dream of his face and imagine what kind of person he would be. Pregnancy, in general, brought on some pretty intense, vivid dreams. At the end, they were more centered on the baby but man, did I have some crazy dreams.

Some of the “not so hot” moments were baby gymnastics in my stomach at inopportune times, NO SLEEP, waddling, hip spreading, shortness of breath for little to no reason at all, the struggle of getting up and everyone asking when the baby was coming before my due date. After being the one pregnant for 9 months, it was really hard to hear people say that they couldn’t wait any longer for my baby. It was even more frustrating for people to see me and say, “that baby didn’t come yet!?”

Believe me. . . No one wanted him out more than me.

At the very end, I was so anxious. I knew he was coming for two weeks straight. All of the information I read said that you would know when it was time and that was true. I definitely knew.