Yikes! I haven’t given you all a pregnancy update in forever! Sorry guys! I just don’t have the energy these days to do everything that I normally keep on top of. I’ve been waiting to finally get around to taking new photos. Yeah, I gave up on that weekly photo thing. It was a fun idea, but honestly ended up being more of a pain that it was worth, especially with the holidays. So you’ll have to put up with some occasional photos from here on out!
So this week, 27 weeks pregnant and the first week of my third trimester, I finally took a couple self-portraits. Because finding time when Josh and I both have a minute and aren’t exhausted is next to impossible. Please excuse my pantslessness, but it’s hard to show how truly enormous my belly now is with pants covering it up. Also, I’m kinda cute without any pants!
So lets catch-up! I haven’t updated you all since the last week of my first trimester. Where I last left off I was tired, having migraines, finally getting over morning sickness, and just starting to feel little flutters of baby movements!
Well, the second trimester was much better than the first although still not totally awesome. The migraines have gone away which is so, so nice! I got some energy back, but am still pretty exhausted all the time. I guess that’s to be expected with a four year old to take care, a house to keep up, and a business to run and I also haven’t been sleeping very well. It’s a pretty big change from my last pregnancy though. Last time I had a lot of energy in the second trimester, I was in school full time, working part-time, shopping for baby stuff, and hanging out with friends. Oh well, new baby, new kind of pregnancy.
The baby is also kicking up a storm these days. It seems like he is constantly moving, stretching, punching and kicking my insides. I feel him all day long. It’s really kinda fun and amazing. And always a little weird to know that there is a tiny person swimming around inside of me.
More new fun has also showed up in trimester two! I started gaining weight finally. And I started having a lot of hip, back and more sporadic sciatic pain. I didn’t get any of this until late in my last pregnancy. But they do say that everything happens earlier in your second pregnancy. It’s not miserable, but it makes it hard to sleep comfortably. My hips hurt every time I shift in my sleep, which wakes me up. It’s also hard for me to sleep on my side. I’m a stomach sleeper, and not being able to sleep normally is tough.
Okay, I’m making pregnancy sound kinda miserable right? I don’t want to be a complainer or discourage anyone from getting pregnant, BUT I do want to be honest about it. It is physically difficult. Probably much more so for me because I’m just a tiny 4′11″ and carrying the same size load as women who are much taller than me. My insides get smooshed, my belly sticks super far out causing back pain, and there is a lot of pressure on my poor hips. I’m sure that my disability makes things harder too (for those of you who haven’t been reading Cranky forever, I was born with a disability which causes lower muscle tone, some joint pain and other little issues, you can read more about it in this post). I think that average height women without disabilities have a much easier time physically with their pregnancies.
But, of course, there are a lot of other little physical ailments that every pregnant woman has to deal with from morning sickness to heartburn to labor pain. It may all sound terrible, but honestly what’s nine or so months of discomfort, and a few hours or a day of pretty bad pain to put up with when you get a baby in the end. An amazing little person to love and take care of that will change your life forever in so many amazing ways. It’s completely worth it! I swear!
Okay, now I’m rambling so I’ll leave it at that and I’ll try to update you all every couple of weeks through the rest of the pregnancy. And I might even include some photos with my head in them!
