Second Trimester Recap

In the dull of winter the second trimester went by slooooow.

It was an excessively icy winter so falling on ice was my newfound fear. To heighten this fear, a pregnant friend of a friend fell on ice and the impact ruptured her placenta and a pregnant friend of mine ended up at emerge after an ice fall and luckily there was no damage. I wore these “no slip” pads over my boots every day with great paranoia and success...but then one day stepping off the bus I still slipped and fell anyway. I called the midwife who reassured me falling on my bum was unlikely to have injured the baby. After an uneventful few days following the incident I started to relax again.

Prenatal aquafit was my saving grace for not becoming completely sedentary in the dull of winter. It was Wednesday evenings at Bob MacQuarrie for 45 minutes and it also provided some good social time with other local moms-to-be.

The second ultrasound was more exciting than the first due to discovering the baby’s gender. Liana and I were rooting for a girl, while Darcy and Caleb prefered a boy (“girls are too messy” said my freakishly tidy little man). I had no gut feeling either way, just like the last two, but Darcy thought it would be a boy. The technician was either a little weird or having some fun at our expense. She asked what gender the kids were hoping for, said “he” at one point, and “beautiful” at another (I was searching for clues!). Eventually she said “your daughter’s going to be very happy.” The ultrasound pictures we got looked even more abstract than those at 12 weeks. I can’t relate to how excited people get over these photos, other than the piece of mind that comes from knowing your baby is progressing well.

Another piece of news that came out of the ultrasound was that I had an alterior placenta, which until that point I had never heard of. Placentas normally form at the back of the uterine wall but sometimes, as this case, they form at the front. When formed at the front the placenta creates a cushion between the baby and the outside of my tummy, which prevented me from feeling any movement. It was a relief to see the baby moving around in the ultrasound, even though I couldn’t feel it, and it was a relief to start feeling regular baby movements a few weeks later. Until feeling the baby move, I felt sick and fat rather than pregnant.

I felt just as faint, nauseous and tired the second semester as I did the first. My general dislike of how it feels to be pregnant prompted my mother-in-law to gift me this funny book called “Pregnancy Sucks: When Your Miracle Makes You Miserable.” It was funny in a schadenfreude way (“happiness at the expense of others”). The author suffered through way, way worse that I was. Bizarro stuff happened to her body - I didn’t even know a woman could temporarily (or otherwise) grow a third nipple. Needless to say I felt pretty lucky after reading her experiences.

Darcy and I took a two day labour and delivery course through the Childbirth Association Centre. It was informative (despite the mediocre instructor) and covered stages of labour through to post-birth recovery and some newborn care. Some exercises separated dads and moms into groups to discuss expectations and concerns and bring them back to the group anonymously. For the most part, it seemed the women in labour and post-labour wanted the men to do anything and everything they needed and the men wanted the women to tell them what to do. My favourite part of the course was when both men and women were listing things dads could do for mom after the baby’s born (run errands, clean house, make meals, bring baby to mom, host guests, etc) and Darcy whispered in my ear something like “I plan to help but I’m kind of hoping to spend time with the baby once she’s born” - valid point!

 

Photo of Darcy and I in which I'm soberly enjoying my 30th birthday party while four months pregnant.