Notes on Growing a Small Thing - Second Trimester

So. We're now at 22 weeks and time is moving quickly! We have about one month left before we get into the third and final trimester, so here's some reflections on the last couple of months.

I can't lie, there are a lot of times I've found pregnancy hard work, especially the first half of the second trimester - perhaps because I was partly expecting some kind of magical transition from sickness to bouncy maternal glowiness, and that just didn't happen. No energy surge here. I did have the luxury of finishing work at around 17 weeks (for non pregnancy related reasons) which, to be honest, has been wonderful, particularly as the nausea and sickness has always been worse in the mornings so not having to commute to a rigid timetable has been really useful. Nonetheless, up until around 20 weeks I was still being sick at least once a day every day, and that does get tiring. Happily since then it's died down a lot, although (as I found this morning!) the sickness does still rear its head every now and then!

Added to this, over the last couple of weeks I've been experiencing various levels of pelvic girdle pain (also known as symphisis pubis disfunction). This is a phenomenon affecting the joint and ligaments around the pelvis during pregnancy, and causes radiating pain around the same area, particularly when doing things like walking, moving quickly, turning over in bed and getting out of the car. You have to change the way you approach movements - sleeping with extra cushions, getting a bit of support and standing up slowly etc, and since I've done that it's got more bearable. Walking for more than about 5-10 minutes (particularly without a husbandly arm to hang on to!) is getting to be a bit of a no-no though - now is the time to be glad that our house isn't too far from town!

I realise a lot of the above sounds pretty negative, so I should also point out that I am finally starting to enjoy being pregnant. The bump started to appear at around 20 weeks and has popped out a little bit more the last week or so - it's fascinating to see.

We've also had our 20 week scan which was lovely as it felt like a very long time since the last scan so it's easy to let your imagination get carried away. We had the scan at 9am and MiniPearTree was not impressed by that - he was curled up in a corner as far away as possible and didn't want to budge. I did feel quite guilty having to jiggle up and down trying to get him to move - in the end I had to lie on my side so the sonographer could pick up measurements! We did get to see the tiny limbs (miniature waving fingers! eeek!) and he was opening and closing his mouth too which was amazing to see.

The scan results were all fine so we've allowed ourselves to start thinking more seriously about the nursery and buying bits for the baby. The first thing we ended up buying was a car seat (how responsible of us) and a couple of baby gros (frivolous but who can resist the cuteness of Pirate Duck (from JoJoMamanBebe) and a Star Wrap (from Tuppence and Crumble)?!). We will now buy some more sensible things... honest!
 
By far the best thing about the last few weeks has been starting to feel MiniPearTree move around. Up until now, it's mostly been just after lunch, during episodes of Pointless and in the evening as I get into bed, although the last couple of days he's been pretty active at all sorts of times of the day (hello 5am, we meet again...) with some pretty hefty kicking going on every so often. It's a strange sensation but one I've got used to very quickly, and already I think I'm going to miss the movements after October - it's rather wonderful lying in bed really early in the morning knowing that it's our baby making those movements.

As the second trimester comes to an end, I certainly feel a lot more positive about being pregnant but I'm not sure I'm one of those women who has a magical maternal time and feels like their entire purpose is to be pregnant. Much as I don't want to wish the summer away I'm looking forward to October and having a newborn far more.

[Disclaimer: I should also add that all references to 'he' in this post and any others are for illustrative purposes only - we have no idea whether MiniPearTree is a girl or a boy and couldn't have found out if we'd wanted as he kept curling up and crossing his legs, so all will be revealed in October!]