WHAT HAPPENS DURING YOUR SECOND TRIMESTER

Welcome back for the second instalment of my “What Happens During…” series. My first trimester instalment is over here. I feel my second trimester was much easier than my first for a few reasons, although my morning sickness didn’t disappear as many people had suggest and sometimes promised.

SHARE YOUR JOYOUS NEWS

Wahoo…you can finally tell your news to the world. Some people tell friends after the 12 weeks scan, some after their 20 week scan. Whatever works for you, enjoy every moment. It is such a lovely time. Everyone will be so excited. I spent many hours watching pregnancy reveal videos on YouTube with happy tears in my eyes haha. Just make sure you tell everyone close to you before putting in out on social media.

BUMP WATCH

My bump grew very slowly. The retorts I received were commonly, “there’s nothing in there”. While this may be their way of saying you look slim, it can definitely play on the mind of a pregnant woman so try your best not to judge her bump size. I have a long torso and was thought to have a tilted uterus so the way I started off growing my baby was rather discretely I guess. As I write this at 39 weeks and 6 days I can tell you I have definitely “popped” now. We all develop at different times.

MORNING SICKNESS

Oh how I wish I could say morning sickness disappears after the first trimester…mine definitely didn’t and it was awful. I didn’t have the dreadful Hyperemesis gravidarum I did experience being sick about 4/5x a day. It was incredibly isolating, upsetting and debilitating. I spent many days researching ways to stop morning sickness with no real result. I did find a way to a survive though and wrote about it here. I hope it helps you if you too are suffering.

PREGNANCY TABLETS

 I used these Pregnacare vitamins throughout my pregnancy. I was advised to take them by the nurses at the hospital when they found out how little food I could keep down as a result of my morning sickness. They are filled with all the fabulous nutrients you need to keep your baby growing healthily. The huge bonus to these tablets is that my nails and hair have never looked so incredible. They make my nails grow at an alarming rate. I even booked a big hand modelling job during my second trimester which I put down to these vitamins 🙂

MIDWIFE APPOINTMENTS

Your midwife appointments get far more interesting in your second trimester. You get to hear the baby’s heartbeat at every session which feels like a lovely window into your baby’s life. I didn’t understand the noise at first but the midwife let us record the sound and then I constantly played it at home with hubby explaining where the heartbeat noise was. It is so so so much faster than ours, it’s like horses galloping.

20 WEEK SCAN

Yay, it’s time for your 20 week scan. You will most likely have a good half an hour in the room with the sonographer. They check your baby to every little millimeter. As soon as the scanner spied my wriggling baby I felt chilled and excited to see more. Make sure you say if you want to know the sex or not as soon as you walk in the room. The pictures we got from our scan were our best yet. They were incredibly detailed and showed all the bones.

AN ETERNITY

Shock horror…the second trimester is not 12 weeks!! It is longer!! It felt sooo long…enjoy 😉

FLUTTERS AND KICKS

The NHS suggest that most women feel their baby start to move between 16 and 24 weeks. I felt a strange sort of bubble in my stomach around 20 weeks but didn’t feel full on kicks until a lot later. My placenta lays at the front of my stomach so all the kicks are dulled a little. If you are the same as me do not fret, the third trimester will be filled with violent kicks to make up for it :P.

How was your second trimester? Did your morning sickness continue?