Overall, our second pregnancy has been very similar to our first... No morning sickness and generally pretty tolerable. I think my body does pretty well pregnant (which is part of why we wanted to go ahead and have a second pretty close to the first!). In general, the first trimester I have no appetite and nothing sounds good to eat (but very little or no nausea). The second trimester I feel awesome and totally myself, except for a growing belly. The third trimester I start to slow down and have some back pain, but generally still feel pretty good (as good as you can with an extra 20 lbs to carry around).
A few things have been different this time around though! For a few weeks in the first trimester, fatigue hit me like a freight train. There were some days that all I could do was get out of bed just to lay on the couch, and not because of mental exhaustion or lack of motivation, but my physical body just could. not. do. it. I had some very sweet friends who brought us meals during this time, and I was so grateful! I will never again overlook the mama with a toddler who is in her first trimester! Thankfully it really only lasted a few weeks and then I started to feel normal again!
The second trimester, I started having some pretty significant pain in my pelvic bones (not sciatica or back pain, but truly in my pelvis). My back also started to bother me, but I had expected that from my first pregnancy. The pelvic pain was so bad sometimes that I would get stuck in a certain position if I had been sitting too long, or it would be incredibly painful to change positions. I didn't sleep well for a few weeks, until we discovered this incredible percussion massage and Stuart started doing it a few times a week. It looks so simple, but it truly made a world of difference!
I also started having some swelling in my hands and feet sometime during the second trimester (when the weather started to warm up) and this totally took me by surprise! I had it in my mind that only mamas who gained too much weight had swelling with pregnancy, and I was humbled to learn that it just happens. The midwives and Stuart told me it was mostly due to being pregnant during the summer and my body constantly fighting dehydration in a way much more significant than it did during my first winter pregnancy. So I started drinking 2-3 liters of water (or red raspberry leaf tea) a day, eating watermelon (a natural diuretic - but not before bedtime!!) and eggs (for the albumin to pull fluid back into the vascular space) and wearing compression stockings anytime I was at home and could tolerate them (they are so hot!). I also noticed that on the days I was able to get in a longer walk, the swelling was a lot better with the increased vascular pressure from exercise pulling fluid back in, so James and I tried to do 3+ mile walks as often as possible.
Surprisingly, during the third trimester, the pelvic pain pretty much went away (maybe because Stuart was regularly doing the massage?) and so I started noticing the back pain a lot more. These last few weeks, any little bit of crouching activity (like sweeping the kitchen) will knock out my back for the rest of the day. I found a great prenatal yoga sequence that I used when I was pregnant with James, and I've been doing that regularly to help with the back ache especially this last trimester.
I remember feeling very anxious about labor and delivery during the third trimester of my first pregnancy. Some of you may know that before getting pregnant the first time, I was completely terrified of giving birth. Having a baby and raising a little human seemed no big deal to me, but the physical act of moving it from inside my body to the outside just seemed too much. I had learned all about it in my maternal health course in nursing school, which was taught mostly by certified nurse midwives, so the perspective I hold to is that it is a completely normal and healthy state, and that generally women's bodies know what to do and do not need interventions to get baby out safely. But I also had heard about how much it hurts! I had decided during nursing school that if I ever had kids, I would want to do so without any unnecessary medical interventions for both my and the baby's wellbeing. At the end of my first pregnancy, I was approaching that moment and I could only prepare myself by reading and talking to experienced natural birth mamas. But there is nothing like experience itself to teach you! It was a beautiful, amazing experience and I'm so thankful for the things I had learned and the way that we had decided to approach birth. This time, I am excited and so looking forward to labor starting and experiencing a natural birth again (as long as medically possible, God willing)! So, I guess mentally and emotionally I am much more peaceful this second pregnancy, and I'm so grateful for that.
And of course this pregnancy I have gotten to experience with little James by my side :). I'm sure that some of my symptoms (fatigue and some pain...) could be attributed to spending my day with a toddler, but he has been the sweetest little dude and loves kissing my belly. I do hope that he loves his baby once it's here on the outside! These last few days that we have left (we're due in 4 days and having some signs of early labor already), I am really feeling great and just trying to just soak up our little family of 3 (with some long walks and lots of labor-ball-sitting and yoga thrown in!).
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