We made it to the second trimester after quite a journey, as you'd have read about it in an earlier post. Week 14 it is then, and we have another 14 before welcoming the last trimester with wide open arms.
The changing symptoms
The belly that grew and grew the way my appetite increased, not humongously but I was eating at two hourly intervals. My meal plan had morphed into a completely different animal from the first couple of weeks.
9am - Breakfast of fruit, nuts and oats
1030am - If I am lucky, I sustain till 11am...A packet of spicy seaweed and a sour plum sweet
11am - A packet of Meiji crackers
12noon - A carby lunch usually - kolo mee or a meat wrap!
2pm - After lunch ribena
3pm - Pork floss bun
5pm - A handful of nuts or wasabi crackers
630pm - A bowl of extra spicy kettle chips and milk
730pm - Dinner
930pm - Last drink of water
Somewhere in the last 3 weeks of the second trimester, I was diagnosed positive for gestational diabetes so a mealplan like that was completely thrown out of the window and...well, another post to address this completely!
Puke fests has gotten alot worse this trimester - dinners usually hit me hard. The worst case was having me bending over the toilet bowl and regurgitating milk. The mere thought is so gross. Current no-nos include too oily food.
The pee breaks are getting insane, I wonder if speckie has an equally small bladder like I do. My record stands at waking thrice in a single night to pee - 1245am, 4am, 6am.
Pelvic pain and pressure that lasted all of three full days, utmost uncomfortable and at some point I thought my cervix was opening (no joke).
Heartburn hit me so bad one fine saturday, until I could not even stomach dinner properly. What happened to the joy of walloping food in gusto?!
Leg cramps - gosh these are horrific. Waking up to them are even worse.
Gas, good lord I hate this. The belly swells up by several inches after dinner and I sport what looks like a round and hard belly full of fart. Yes, farting is my favourite post dinner activity these days which completely makes hanging out with friends super duper uber very embarrassing. Then I find out my BFF, ginger, causes jaundice in newborns. And all I had was barely one week of happiness with my daily intake of grated ginger honey citron tea. BOO.
The glow? I suppose Hubba said it out of comfort, I certainly did not spot the glossy hair or dewy complexion - I only have chanel compact powder to thank.
Lights off at 11pm if I am not so sleepy but otherwise sleep has gotten alot better this trimester! No more counting sheep, hoooray! Sleep was interrupted once before my detailed scan and I fretfully thought it was the start of insomnia as most curse at third trimester for. Thankfully I succumbed to a pregnancy pillow that helped with better quality sleep!
Constipation is no child's play, neither is blood after bowel movement. Clearly something tore and pain aside, I relied on stool softeners for a wee bit, kiwis until they got so ridiculously overpriced and over ripe (bitter kiwis!?) and finally prune juice and prunes saved my day.
I got warded for palpitations in the cardiac ward. BOO. Being pregnant and warded made things so tricky, doctors were extra cautious which meant more tests, less medication and potentially a longer hospital stay. Being the youngest in the ward also raised some future health worries - time to get healthier!
Emo nemo I was mostly and it didn't take alot to spark off a meltdown. BOO. Can I have my normal not so weepy self back already?
Weight gain was exceptional this trimester and having a weighing scale at home was no joke either - it reached a point of being scared of stepping on the scales even because the weight kept going up no matter what and how much I ate. Keeping it within 10 kg by end of third trimester is becoming less of a possible deal now. RAWR. Can week 28 come already?
The Maternity Wardrobe
While I started out declaring I was not going to get any of those maternity wear that I can only use just once - plans are huge to resume a normal lifestyle with exercise and I even have a massage lady booked in the first trimester to massage the fats away!
First it started out with my normal shorts fitting more than a glove. And the dresses got uncomfortable at the belly and I caved into Asos and taobao. Trying to keep my shopping list short and hopefully no more ridiculous lustings until the birth!
The Pregnancy Pillow
I never believed in these things, no matter how many raved about it online and being a penny pincher - I did not cave into the original version, turning to Taobao instead for what looks uncannily like the real deal but costing a fifth of the price. Thank god it worked like magic on me and I slept like a baby - hooray! Shan't curse it but my sleep quality improved so much during the second trimester, I hope things remain the same all the way to the end!
Spot the BELLEH!
By Week 16, a permanent belly was spotted. Still at a fat-or-pregnant phase. I was hopeful about keeping things under wraps still, for a while more...#hidethebump became the challenge every other work day. So it grows, and grows..and GROWS. I have had my plump days but this takes the cake for being as wide and round as one can get - where's my waist to speak of? I look like a barrel sideways and still a barrel frontways. HAI, someone...hide those mirrors already.
It moves...it MOVES
First kicks felt sometime during week 18 and thereafter, it has been a whirlwind ride of movements. This baby moves SO MUCH, our gynae quipped that we better hope it doesn't move the way it does at night only. There is always a dilemma of feeling the baby move - when you don't, you rely on scans and pregnancy signs to know that you are progressing but when you do, you rely on these movements alot, to the extent I end up disturbing baby on occasions to know how its doing. Asshole parenting.
The detailed scan
Done usually at week 20 or 21 by the sonographer who will scan every inch of the growing baby to spot abnormalities - so Oscar at week 14 is just the tip of the iceberg. I held my breath throughout that 45 minute examination and was really more interested in the gender than anything else - whoops. Praise God everything looked normal and then, the great gender reveal. For sure someone between both of us had to be happier, I shall leave that to another post. :P
Speckie decided to be playful and not cooperate for the spinal examination, I had to go for a walk and a pep talk before it cooperated and that was another 45 odd minutes before I made my way out of the fetal care center.
Can July come already?
Second trimester done, I am ready to take on the baton for third trimester and sprint to July!
The changing symptoms
The belly that grew and grew the way my appetite increased, not humongously but I was eating at two hourly intervals. My meal plan had morphed into a completely different animal from the first couple of weeks.
9am - Breakfast of fruit, nuts and oats
1030am - If I am lucky, I sustain till 11am...A packet of spicy seaweed and a sour plum sweet
11am - A packet of Meiji crackers
12noon - A carby lunch usually - kolo mee or a meat wrap!
2pm - After lunch ribena
3pm - Pork floss bun
5pm - A handful of nuts or wasabi crackers
630pm - A bowl of extra spicy kettle chips and milk
730pm - Dinner
930pm - Last drink of water
Somewhere in the last 3 weeks of the second trimester, I was diagnosed positive for gestational diabetes so a mealplan like that was completely thrown out of the window and...well, another post to address this completely!
Puke fests has gotten alot worse this trimester - dinners usually hit me hard. The worst case was having me bending over the toilet bowl and regurgitating milk. The mere thought is so gross. Current no-nos include too oily food.
The pee breaks are getting insane, I wonder if speckie has an equally small bladder like I do. My record stands at waking thrice in a single night to pee - 1245am, 4am, 6am.
Pelvic pain and pressure that lasted all of three full days, utmost uncomfortable and at some point I thought my cervix was opening (no joke).
Heartburn hit me so bad one fine saturday, until I could not even stomach dinner properly. What happened to the joy of walloping food in gusto?!
Leg cramps - gosh these are horrific. Waking up to them are even worse.
Gas, good lord I hate this. The belly swells up by several inches after dinner and I sport what looks like a round and hard belly full of fart. Yes, farting is my favourite post dinner activity these days which completely makes hanging out with friends super duper uber very embarrassing. Then I find out my BFF, ginger, causes jaundice in newborns. And all I had was barely one week of happiness with my daily intake of grated ginger honey citron tea. BOO.
The glow? I suppose Hubba said it out of comfort, I certainly did not spot the glossy hair or dewy complexion - I only have chanel compact powder to thank.
Lights off at 11pm if I am not so sleepy but otherwise sleep has gotten alot better this trimester! No more counting sheep, hoooray! Sleep was interrupted once before my detailed scan and I fretfully thought it was the start of insomnia as most curse at third trimester for. Thankfully I succumbed to a pregnancy pillow that helped with better quality sleep!
Constipation is no child's play, neither is blood after bowel movement. Clearly something tore and pain aside, I relied on stool softeners for a wee bit, kiwis until they got so ridiculously overpriced and over ripe (bitter kiwis!?) and finally prune juice and prunes saved my day.
I got warded for palpitations in the cardiac ward. BOO. Being pregnant and warded made things so tricky, doctors were extra cautious which meant more tests, less medication and potentially a longer hospital stay. Being the youngest in the ward also raised some future health worries - time to get healthier!
Emo nemo I was mostly and it didn't take alot to spark off a meltdown. BOO. Can I have my normal not so weepy self back already?
Weight gain was exceptional this trimester and having a weighing scale at home was no joke either - it reached a point of being scared of stepping on the scales even because the weight kept going up no matter what and how much I ate. Keeping it within 10 kg by end of third trimester is becoming less of a possible deal now. RAWR. Can week 28 come already?
The Maternity Wardrobe
While I started out declaring I was not going to get any of those maternity wear that I can only use just once - plans are huge to resume a normal lifestyle with exercise and I even have a massage lady booked in the first trimester to massage the fats away!
First it started out with my normal shorts fitting more than a glove. And the dresses got uncomfortable at the belly and I caved into Asos and taobao. Trying to keep my shopping list short and hopefully no more ridiculous lustings until the birth!
The Pregnancy Pillow
I never believed in these things, no matter how many raved about it online and being a penny pincher - I did not cave into the original version, turning to Taobao instead for what looks uncannily like the real deal but costing a fifth of the price. Thank god it worked like magic on me and I slept like a baby - hooray! Shan't curse it but my sleep quality improved so much during the second trimester, I hope things remain the same all the way to the end!
Spot the BELLEH!
By Week 16, a permanent belly was spotted. Still at a fat-or-pregnant phase. I was hopeful about keeping things under wraps still, for a while more...#hidethebump became the challenge every other work day. So it grows, and grows..and GROWS. I have had my plump days but this takes the cake for being as wide and round as one can get - where's my waist to speak of? I look like a barrel sideways and still a barrel frontways. HAI, someone...hide those mirrors already.
It moves...it MOVES
First kicks felt sometime during week 18 and thereafter, it has been a whirlwind ride of movements. This baby moves SO MUCH, our gynae quipped that we better hope it doesn't move the way it does at night only. There is always a dilemma of feeling the baby move - when you don't, you rely on scans and pregnancy signs to know that you are progressing but when you do, you rely on these movements alot, to the extent I end up disturbing baby on occasions to know how its doing. Asshole parenting.
The detailed scan
Done usually at week 20 or 21 by the sonographer who will scan every inch of the growing baby to spot abnormalities - so Oscar at week 14 is just the tip of the iceberg. I held my breath throughout that 45 minute examination and was really more interested in the gender than anything else - whoops. Praise God everything looked normal and then, the great gender reveal. For sure someone between both of us had to be happier, I shall leave that to another post. :P
Speckie decided to be playful and not cooperate for the spinal examination, I had to go for a walk and a pep talk before it cooperated and that was another 45 odd minutes before I made my way out of the fetal care center.
Can July come already?
Second trimester done, I am ready to take on the baton for third trimester and sprint to July!
