The Eventful Second Trimester

I was feeling pretty relieved to actually make it in to the second trimester (weeks 13 – 27) a few weeks back.

I was looking forward to it for a few reasons.

Firstly, it meant that we had passed some of the more scary weeks where we really didn’t know if the pregnancy was viable, and we’d had the opportunity to have a very detailed scan to make sure G5 had all his little organs, limbs, fingers and toes in the places where they should be.

We’d also gotten the results of our percept NIPT, indicating G5 was low risk in terms of all the major syndromes and didn’t appear to have any duplications or subtractions on any of his chromosomes (any that were less than 11MB in size anyway – which had been the cause of our previous 4 miscarriages).

As we had opted not to have invasive testing (such as an Amnio or CVS) we knew that we wouldn’t know whether he was a carrier of the balanced translocation until after birth, but after speaking to our OB we found out that we would be able to have the cord blood tested once he had arrived, so that we could be prepared to help him through his own journey one day in the future if we need to.

After about week 13 my “morning sickness” also went away and I felt a little more like myself again (apart from the clear tightening of my clothes and constant struggle over “what is going to fit me today”?).

I was feeling pretty comfortable with where we were at and looking forward to relaxing a little with the knowledge that the pregnancy was progressing fine and that G5 was more than likely going to be completely OK.

I think it was a little naïve of me to think that I would stop stressing over the pregnancy in general… I mean, I have been about 80% more relaxed about it than I was previously, but I still find I worry about a lot of things that I wouldn’t usually worry about.

For example, a couple of weeks back I had what resembled a cold. No big deal, really. Just a sore throat and stuffy nose. I mentioned it to Sam and he suggested I go to the Doctor “just to be sure” that it wasn’t anything serious.

I kind of laughed at him and said that there was NO WAY I was going to the Doctor just for a cold (if you know me well you can no doubt imagine all the arguments I put forward as to why that was a silly idea). At least, that was my stance at about 4pm that afternoon.

I stayed in bed being plied with hot cups of tea and orange juice for my sore throat and hoped I might fall asleep and feel better in the morning… except what actually happened was that the congestion in my face became so severe that I couldn’t actually sleep… so by about 4am when my face was throbbing unbearabley (and having spent the whole night not sleeping) and given all that spare time I had awake, of course I had convinced myself by that stage that I must have some bizarre type of infection, I called the hospital to see what they thought… they said they weren’t busy and just to come on down and get checked out.

So I got out of bed at 4am and went down there. Luckily, they were right in saying it was quiet and I got straight in. The Doctor come over, checked me out and said “It looks like Sinusitus… doesn’t appear to be infected. But I’ll give you some pain medication and it’s probably best if you sleep sitting up for a few days because laying down is what is causing the congestion and the pain in your face”.

I kind of just sighed with relief and said “thanks but no thanks” to the pain meds and went back home to bed…

On the one hand, I was SO glad that there was nothing seriously wrong, and on the other hand I was kind of feeling a bit silly for being that person that went to the hospital for basically a bad case of hay fever.

The ladies at the hospital were lovely and farewelled me by saying “Look forward to seeing you when you come back in to have the baby in September – I’m sure we’ll remember you!”

I couldn’t help but think “I’m sure you will remember me… I’m sure most pregnant ladies don’t come in all upset over blocked sinuses”… LOL!

I was hopeful that would be the end of my emergency hospital visits until G5 decides to arrive, but alas, I was mistaken.

Not even 2 weeks later I found myself back at emergency… this time with something I was seriously quite stressed about.

I had been experiencing cramps for about 2 and a half hours before calling the hospital. They were pretty good about saying come straight down and we will check you out to make sure that it isn’t contractions.

I was quietly freaking out in my mind but hopeful that nothing was wrong. It was bizarre in the sense that I had a constant dull cramp that every now and then become quite intense for about a minute and then would ease off.

I got to the hospital and there were a couple of people in front of me. The ladies took their time doing all the paperwork and then asked me to sit in the waiting area. I felt like screaming at them “I need you to check my baby NOW” but remembered I was the crazy one who went in with a blocked nose a week and a half before and thought I better try and keep myself in check.

While I was waiting I had to run to the bathroom a couple of times just to… not throw up.

The pain was becoming quite intense by this stage.

I probably only waited about 15 minutes but it felt like a lifetime before the nurse called my name. They came down with a wheel chair so I wouldn’t have to walk too far and pretty quickly wheeled me straight up to a birthing suite. They got me into a bed pretty quickly and then the midwife came over to have a quick chat to me (we worked out pretty quickly that she is the midwife I’m booked in to see at my next check up so it was nice to have that connection) and she hooked me up to a monitor to check the babies heartbeat.

It took a few minutes to find him, and then eventually she told me that she had found his heartbeat and it sounded fine.

What a relief!!

Next, she checked me over (blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, urine test) and everything came back normal / clear. She wasn’t sure why I was having the cramps, but she was fairly certain that it wasn’t contractions.

I was pretty happy to hear that and found that the cramps had eased off considerably while laying in the hospital bed.

She told me that I would be fine to go home but of course to contact the hospital if it got worse or didn’t go away… luckily, I found that once I got home and into bed laying flat the cramps pretty much eased off completely.

The next day I was fine – it was as if I had never had a cramp in the first place!

So, the whole cramp scenario is a mystery… but I have a hunch that maybe my back was causing the problem (it was aching during the cramps as well and I had endured two days of flying within the week and two days in a row on the road, so it makes sense that my back wasn’t coping well with that scenario). Thank goodness I haven’t had any more cramps since then!

I felt very fortunate to have family and friends who were very supportive during my hospital visits (and to their credit made me feel completely normal for freaking out over things that probably weren’t actually a problem).

But all the emergency hospital events aside, the second trimester is actually kind of nice.

It’s quite obvious that I look pregnant at this stage, so people tend to ask about it and will often ask if they can touch my stomach. I know a lot of people REALLY don’t like that aspect of pregnancy, but I think it’s kind of nice.

I really enjoy feeling his little kicks (which seem to be getting stronger every day!) and it’s nice that other people can feel them if they put their hands on my stomach now too.

The other thing I am loving is the cute little clothes you can get for boys. I’ve heard lots of people say that its much more fun buying girls clothes… but I’ve been surprised just how many places sell super cute boy clothes.

I have been going a little crazy but… in my defence, he needs to wear clothes, right!?

Lastly, I’m enjoying reaching each of the milestones every fortnight and having a little celebration as each week we get closer to meeting this little guy. If you’re into that kind of thing make sure you follow along on our facebook and Instagram accounts to catch the fortnightly bumpdate thanks to Big Little Creations milestone cards!

I think the anxiety does ease off slightly each week, as I feel like we get closer to the point where he “would probably be OK” even if he arrived a little early (not that I’m expecting him too, it’s just one of those things that I find comforting to tell myself).

So, here’s hoping for a completely uneventful run for my last few weeks of trimester 2 and a relatively relaxed third trimester (that milestone is only 4.5 weeks away!).

Until next time… I’d love to know:

• Did you freak out over certain things during your pregnancy?
• Did you have a few “emergency” hospital visits too?
• Or did you just sail through without any crazy hospital visits?
• What were your favourite parts of the second trimester?

It seems everyone has a pregnancy story to tell and I would love to hear yours in the comments below 😉