GUYS I am moving and shaking through the second trimester (and currently 24 weeks pregnant as I write this). I figured it would be more helpful and fun to share more frequent updates than just first, second and third trimester. I feel like so much is happening week to week and I am trying to keep this open diary with you all to document the process and share the highs and lows. Hope you enjoy these updates and if there is anything else you are dying to know, please leave me a comment on this blog post and I will be sure to include in my next update.
WEIGHT GAINED
As of the start of week 20, I have gained 9 pounds.
HOW BIG IS BABY
By week 20, Baby is the size of a banana (or in my other app baby is the size of a Palmier Cookie!) 10 ounces and about 6.5 inches.
HOW I’M FEELING: PHYSICALLY
Nausea: The nausea continues. I swear everyone loves to tell me, “Don’t worry! It’s all smooth sailing through the second trimester and your nausea will just disappear.” HA! It’s so crazy because everyone’s pregnancy is so very different and the nausea has been lingering for me. It’s been much better than the first trimester but I still on random whims get bouts of nausea throughout the day. The thing that is helping me most is having snacks on me 24/7. I have what I call “emergency snacks” stashed in my car, Blake’s car, and literally all of my purses. The last thing I do before I leave the house is make sure to grab a snack to bring along. I feel like being hungry and blood sugar dropping just brings it on so having snacks has been key for me.
Headaches/Migraines: The Migraines have been next level. I have tried so many home remedies and when I have these light migraines, my vision goes blurry and the only cure is to crawl into bed, put an eye mask on, and lay an ice pack on top of my forehead. After seeing my doctor, she has allowed me to take excedrin migraine (for now) at the onset of these migraines. LET ME TELL YOU. It’s been a game changer. These migraines would take me out for a whole day or two and this has been so helpful for me to be able to continue through the work day.
Growing pains: I still have round ligament pains every once in a while but it’s always a little sweet reminder that my body is making room for baby.
Skin: My skin has not been as irritated over these few weeks. I still have some bumps on my cheeks but my skin has toned down alot! I will do a full round up of my fav pregnancy skincare soon! Stay tuned for that.
Exhaustion: I am not as exhausted as the first trimester but when I have full mornings that roll into the afternoons, by 3pm… I am utterly wiped out. I always try to balance my schedule so I have some busier days and some more relaxed days. Trying to give my body the rest it needs to grow this tiny human.
Peeing my pants: Hahahah I knew I would get you with that header. So, this is very TMI but true story, alot of woman when they are pregnant pee themselves a little bit. I am raising my hands as one of them. My doctor was explaining that as your muscles begin to relax and stretch to make room for both baby and delivery, the muscles that help to hold things in… suddenly don’t. AWESOME. So now Blake and I have a running joke that we hope I “Don’t pee my pants.” A pregnant girls best friend is the pantiliner. I wear these daily and they often save me from an embarrassing scene. (Yes I just linked panty liners on my blog… you’re welcome) My incidents usually happen when I am sneezing or laughing. So let’s just say what seems to help is when I feel a big sneeze coming on, I stop and try to squeeze in my muscles. And you know what, a little pee will happen. Thanks Baby. HA!
HOW I’M FEELING: MENTALLY
I remember the day we finally hit 14 weeks and entered the second trimester I felt this wave of calm roll over me. It’s like that magic moment your are waiting to hit since the first day we heard the news that we were pregnant. While I still have tons of worry and anxiety about our babies development, it’s important that we stopped and enjoyed this very special moment. I feel from the time you get pregnant, you will always have worries and concerns for baby until baby is born. And then when baby is born, you just worry and wish the best for your little sweet munchkin when they are outside the womb. So I am working to balance my stress levels and take comfort in the fact that baby and I are healthy and will stay healthy through my pregnancy. That is my mantra. Easier said than done but Blake always does a great job of reigning me back in when I go off the deep end.
In other news, my hormones continue to RAGE. I will get more into that below but man… I am raising my hand as a crazy emotional wreck at times. GOD BLESS MY HUSBAND who deals with my crazy streaks. I continue to be super irritable and can’t stop but spew word vomit so that is something I am also working to reign in.
THE ANATOMY ULTRASOUND
This is a BIG milestone in pregnancy. The anatomy ultrasound can last about 45 minutes and the ultrasound tech basically scans baby for everything. Measuring body parts, looking at all the organs, and making sure they don’t see any signs of physical birth defects. We had ours between 18 and 19 weeks. I was incredibly nervous for this one. All you hope is that the ultrasound goes smoothly and with nothing to note. As we moved through our scan, everything was going amazing. The tech would tell us what we were looking at and follow her through her exam. When she got to the brain, I noticed that she was measuring a small circle at the top. I asked her what it was. She explained it was a Choroid plexus cyst and that there was NO cause for concern she just had to document it. Apparently it’s very common as the brain is developing for this little fluid pockets to form and they then disappear by the beginning of the third trimester. She said multiple times that it was no big deal but on the inside, I was having a panic attack. Of course after the appointment I immediate ran to google and started looking up what this was. My appointment with my OBGYN was not for a week after my anatomy scan so I had a week to sit… and freak out. I texted all my mama friends and found that a few of them had either seen them on their anatomy scans or had friends and family that saw them but they all went away. This was good to hear but I was still freaking out.
We finally met with our Dr and she tried to reassure me a million times that I had NOTHING to worry about. She explained that since we did so much extensive testing: pre-genetic testing on our embryos, blood work testing for genetic issues during pregnancy and basically every test we could, that we had nothing to worry about. She explained that if for instance, they saw two of these CPC and then maybe enlarged kidneys, then with seeing 3 different markers for possible abnormalities, they would then consider doing further testing. But she said since we only saw this one small CPC, it was something they didn’t even think twice about. This put my mind at ease but I still wanted to make sure we monitored it.
Because we got pregnant with IVF, it’s protocol (at least where I go) to have a echocardiogram done to look at babies heart in detail between weeks 22 and 24. So we already had an appointment schedule with a high risk doctor for that ultrasound. To put my mind at ease over the CPC, she always wrote me a referral to have them check on that at the echo appointment. So my mind was put at ease that we were able to follow up with this at our next ultrasound.
I just wanted to share this bit because I had no idea what a CPC even was and I was literally so scared freaking out about this and wanted to share my experience with you.
WHAT I’M EATING
Since the nausea has calmed WAY down, I am trying to make better choices when it comes to my food. But honestly I still ate a lot during my first trimester that I usually ate before pregnancy. I am still adverse to red meats however, I am ok to eat a taco or an in and out burger oddly enough 😉 But other than that we still eat fish most nights and then supplement with chicken and ground turkey. For lunch I am still loving egg salad and sometimes eat black bean burgers in a wrap loaded up with veggies. My snacks of choice as of late: Blue Diamond Mini Nut-Thins in sea salt or cheddar, goldfish, string cheese, and I buy or make myself little “snack packs” filled with a few veggies, dip and cheese. As for more naughty snacks, my sweet tooth is like on hyper drive right now so I always have chocolate in my fridge. Even if it was just a tiny nibble. I also crave Sockerbit gummy candies, susie cakes cupcakes and cookies and basically all other sweets!! More guilty pleasures are chips because I crave the salty treats too. I have been getting baked lays and always pick up bags of tortilla chips at trader joes with some salsa. I do my best when it comes to cooking and snacking, but I don’t put too much pressure on myself either. It’s all about finding that balance.
HOW I’M SLEEPING
Sleeping has been a little bit better. I still toss and turn all night but I am limited my liquids before bedtime so I try not to have to pee in the middle of the night. I have also been taking unisom (per my doctor’s recommendation) which seems to be helping me sleep more soundly through the night. I have been avoiding bringing my pregnancy pillow to bed but I feel like it’s going to happen any day now. I end up waking up with hip pain and spoke to my yoga teacher, who is also a physical therapist, and suggest I put a pillow between my knees and between my feet to balance out my joints and help relief the pressure. That has been helping with the hip pain for now.
I do own a snoogle body pillow and recently posted to IG stories… and I hate it. So to give you some background I am and always have been a side sleeper so I don’t have any issues worrying about sleeping on my stomach or back. But, I do try to sleep mostly on my left side but I also swap and toss between sides at night. What I don’t love about this pillow is that I am forced to put my head on it. Really, I love my own pillow and this big twisty monster is just too big for me personally (at least right now in my pregnancy). I want something I can easily move from side to side and this one just isn’t cutting it for me. Once I buy a new pillow, I will share it with you all.
EXERCISE
I’ve been LOVING my prenatal yoga class and look forward to it every Friday afternoon. It’s my time to connect with baby and STRETCH. It’s not a very physical class like regular yoga but I have been learning so many valuable ways to stretch and help my body along the way. It’s also been so fun to connect with other moms-to-be in the class and grow along together.
Since I am finally feeling alot better, I have been back at the gym! I usually walk on the treadmill at an incline of 3 and speed of about 3.5 so I am power walking up a hill. I always monitor my heart rate and it’s been a good way to break a light sweat. I have also been doing some very light weights and machines for my arms just to mix things up. I will say it feels REALLY good to be doing something… even if it’s minimal. It’s always a constant reminder that I was not in a fit place when I got pregnant because of my IVF treatment, but it is what it is. I think I feel more self conscious about it with Summer coming and my body changing but hoping that I will start to grow into loving my new shape and working to keep my body and mind healthy along the way.
CHALLENGES
Body image: I always feel guilty about mentioning body image insecurities but it’s honestly such a real part of the pregnancy process. I have always been relatively thin (thank you good genes) so when the initial pounds started to pack on, it was very noticeable to me. Hello love handles, hello back fat. Hello a lot of body changes that I would catch walking by in the mirror and be like, omg is that really me?? It’s crazy how we all picture ourselves in our head and how you see and feel your body as it grows and makes space for baby. Every pound important. But every pound is hard.
I stayed pretty small bump wise for a while. I would wake up in the morning with a relatively tiny little something and as I would eat each meal, the bump would grow. Then the next day, it would be back to square one. We are all so anxious to see “THE BUMP” and every day you kind of wait so you can show it off and let the world know, “Hey!!! THERE IS A BABY IN HERE!” It wasn’t until week 19 that all of sudden, it seemed to happen overnight. Baby boy decided he wanted to be seen. You probably remember the little IG story video I posted where I shared it! (I saved it to my IG story highlights if you missed it). Such a special day. It’s wild though because without clothes on, I feel huge, but then I put clothes on the the bump doesn’t really look like a bump. So I basically just look like I packed on weight in my stomach but not a baby. So it’s been a struggle to dress myself and feel good about myself. I know this sounds like I am whining but man, when you have these hormones running through you, every small battle can turn into a big one. I have talked about guilt in the past and I find myself feeling guilty for having these feelings of frustration because I should just be so happy from everything we went through. But the reality is that it’s a hard things to go through watching your body change and that is ok. No matter how big or small you are, everyone goes through these challenges and it’s totally normal to feel either way about it. I remember one day I literally tried on 5 gym shirts before I found one that made me feel comfortable with my little burrito belly. I hysterically laugh cried through it while Blake was laughing watching me find something to wear. We laugh alot in this house and I think that is a very good thing.
Hormonal meltdowns: OH hormones. Blake and I were in the car driving to the gym one day and we pulled into the parking lot and I just started to melt down. I started to cry hysterically and Blake must have been thinking to himself, “WTF is going on?!” He quickly pulled the car off and asked me what was wrong. I hysterically sobbed as I told him how hard it was being pregnant. The I just wasn’t feeling well, and it was frustrating to never feel like I could catch a break and feel more “normal.” The hysterics quickly stopped as Blake talked me down off the ledge. It’s a reminder that we all work so hard to grow a human and these hormones… are next level. God bless all the supportive partners, friends, and family out there that support the pregnant people in their lives. It’s a wild, wild ride and it helps to have a support system when you are feeling down and out.
Loving pregnancy: I debated about how much I would share on this topic because I know it’s a bit taboo… but hey. It’s all about honesty here and I want to always be sharing how I am feeling through this process. When you are pregnant, everyone literally just asks you all the time, “How are you doing? How are you feeling?” etc. The honest truth is that because we went through IVF, I feel like people expect me to be all unicorns and rainbow about my pregnancy. Cooing about how beautiful it is. And in all honestly, pregnancy is really f*cking hard. I am not one of those people that love being pregnant. There I said it. It’s something I have immense guilt about. So many of my friends that struggled to get pregnant were in love with being pregnant. I am just not that person. I have had alot of symptoms even through the second trimester when things are supposed to mellow out so that is likely a factor on not being so in love with the process. It’s just wild because from the second you become pregnant, the judgement from all people, and all areas in your live start to pour down and from what I have heard, it only continues as you make decisions on how to raise your child. The reality is, I am sure some people will be judgemental that I don’t love being pregnant. But, it’s how I feel and from what I have heard, many others feel the same way. Being pregnant is a really important, but tough job. And some woman have easy breezy pregnancies, and others go through incredible hardships. I am nowhere near the the end of either spectrum but it’s a process we all learn through in our own ways. My hope is that, as baby continues to grow, so does my understanding, patience, and tolerance for this incredible process. I am not perfect and like anyone else, I am just trying to figure it all out as I go along. What I will say is, don’t for one minute take my “not loving being pregnant” as me not being grateful. There is not a single day that goes by that I am not still shocked that we are in this incredible lucky place to have a healthy miracle baby growing stronger each day. I could not be more in love and connected to this baby. Baby Lapides, I would do it all again in a heartbeat to get to you. You are loved.
WHAT I’M WEARING
Still obsessed with these cozy maternity leggings from Gap and wear them a couple times a week when I want to lounge or hit the gym. They are kind of my go to “comfort” outfit that doesn’t make me feel like I am growing out of everything I own. I have still been picking up both non-maternity and maternity pieces as I am figuring out how to dress this changing shape. I recently purchased this pair of trousers from Hatch as well as this lounge pant to travel and lounge in. I also finally did a bigger shopping splurge on some asos maternity pieces. I couldn’t help myself and bought this shirt because… man it’s good to buy something that says that. I also bought this, which is NOT maternity, and will be perfect for a coverup during the summer. I feel like after this trimester… I am totally needing this shirt. HA. I also finally bought some maternity denim because it was so necessary. I am obsessed with this Paige denim pair I picked up at A Pea in the pod here. I also scooped up a pair from Dl196 and this pair of shorts. I am all about the under the bump styles and these are some go tos. Another dress I picked up at a local OC boutique, Common Thread, has been a BIG favorite. A bonus is it’s non-maternity so if can be worn both pregnant or not! Love finding piece that will carry into my postpartum closet life. Other than that, since the weather is warming up here, I can get away with wearing a ton of non-maternity dresses and just sizing up or buying silhouettes that are looser (which I normally wear anyways!).
SELF LOVE
I am finally got my first prenatal massage in celebration of my friends birthday… and it was epic. Never underestimate a little bit of self love time to reset the body and the mind. FYI the prenatal massage at the Montage Laguna Beach was EPIC. Expensive, but epic. So if you want to shell out the bucks for it, plan to spend the day by the pool. I promise you… it’s so worth it. Other self love treats, I continue to read my slew of pregnancy books and treat myself to the occasional mani pedi. I don’t do them weekly or even biweekly but whenever I find some time, I try to schedule that for myself. Other things I am doing is to not bulk up my schedule. I know this is not typical self love… but making sure to balance my daily schedule with down time, gym time, or schedule in date night is so important to maintaining a healthy work life balance. Also, this body sure gets tired from working so hard making a baby so I plan accordingly and always schedule some lighter days to rest.
RECENT PURCHASES
Hatch Bra I actually bought another one of these because it’s been very comfortable
Paige Denim from A Pea In The Pod in love with this cropped spring denim
Storq Dress great everyday piece
Ingrid and Isabel dress great everyday piece
BABY PREPARATIONS
We have started taking pregnancy/birth classes at our local hospital which is pretty cool!! We only went to one class so far which was basically an introduction to the hospital. Sitting in a room with over 50 pregnant woman… SO FREAKING COOL!!!
I am in full nesting mode and that means planning for the nursery. We haven’t bought any furniture yet but I am working to come up with a plan and get the ball moving. I don’t plan to do a typical “themed” room. More a chic elevated room that Baby Boy can grow into. Think neutrals, textures, and california cool. We currently just gutted the closet in the room and have California Closets here installing our dream nursery closet!!! I can not wait to share that with you guys.
We finally settled on a car seat and stroller and thinking I might do a dedicated post on how we decided on some of these larger pieces if that would helpful for you guys. I got a TON of questions when I shared a sneak peek on IG stories so thinking to do post sharing how we made some of those decisions.
As for things I am lusting after, I am currently DROOLING over the Snoo. Have you guys heard about it?? Some of my mama friends have them and literally swear by them to get their babies to sleep through the night. What I know from my mama friends is that while it comes with a hefty price tag, you can only use it for a certain time frame depending on how big baby is. BUT, every one of my friends that has it RAVES about how it soothes a crying baby to sleep with motion and sound. It’s all I can think about and I am trying to convince Blake that we need one.
Another tech item that I am currently lusting over is the Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor. Its a tiny sock you put on baby to monitor both heart rate and oxygen levels. It’s a little bit helicopter parent but I really love this idea that I know baby has his little heart beating and all is well.
WHATS NEXT
So so many things happen weekly now in terms of baby development. Upcoming is my glucose test and our baby moon to Maui!!!!!!!!!!!!! Literally could not be more excited to take some time with Blake and get away. We haven’t been on vacation for more than 2 years because of all our IVF treatments so this is going to be such a treat. So I am prepping for that trip as we speak ordering a lot of online things so will report back what I bring on the trip. That’s all for now! Leave me a comment with any more questions you might have. Happy to answer!
Amy - Love your honesty! I’m so excited for baby boy Lapides. I’m blessed to be a part of your journey! Literally lol about peeing your pants. u
eat.sleep.wear. - HEHEHE. LOVE YOU.
Emme - I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU- ENJOY/DON’T LOVE PREGNANCY- IT’S NOT THE PROCESS, IT’S THE END RESULT-BEST WISHES FOR A WONDERFUL MOTHER’S DAY…YOU ARE A MOTHER ALREADY
Amanda - I did not have IVF but I did a lot of the genetic testing I believe you did after getting pregnant. To ease my mind but also because I have a family history of health issues. At my anatomy scan the ultrasound tech marked 3 CPC in my son’s brain. I say all this to let you know that I’m watching my now 2 year old son chase his father for an Oreo . Pregnancy is scary no matter what but worth it. I will say my kid was over due a week and ended up being over 10 when he was born so if you’re scared of anything be scared for that
eat.sleep.wear. - You are so right. It’s all so scary but will all SO be worth it :))) xoxo
Docdivatraveller - All the best with your pregnancy!
http://www.docdivatraveller.com
eat.sleep.wear. - Thank you! xo
Eve - Glad you’re doing so well. Good to hear you got relief from the migraines too. I hope I’m not giving unwanted advice here but I also had pregnancy migraine a few times & have found spraying pure magnesium oil on my neck & should on the side where I get the pain to be very helpful. It also helps me to sleep a little more. If you do want to try it make sure you get a pure one as most have essential oils that are not recommended for pregnancy in them.
So happy for you that baby is doing well. X
eat.sleep.wear. - Thanks for the thoughts! I did try magnesium and it didnt help with my migraines but really appreciate the tip! Thanks so much for the well wishes. xo
Margarita - Totally love your honesty and thanks for sharing! So happy for you and wishing you the best!
xo
Margarita
eat.sleep.wear. - Thanks so much Margarita. xoxo