The Second Trimester with Baby no.2 has flown by! Where Trimester One seemed to last an eternity because of my severe morning sickness, it feels like I’ve blinked and it’s now over. It has been so much more enjoyable and problem free and I’m hoping that Trimester Three continue just as smoothly.

Keeping Active

I’ve been determined with this trimester to keep active for not only my health but the baby’s too. In order to do this, I bought a Fitbit after my husband got one earlier in the year. It monitors your daily steps and sleep activity and with the app, you can add and control your calorie and water intake. I’ve set a relatively low goal in terms of movement as I suffered with hip and knee joint pain during and after my last pregnancy. It hasn’t been too bad this time around but some of my friends have been concerned about SPD so I thought I’d start with an easier target and increase it if I regularly beat it. The Fitbit will definitely be more useful postpartum although saying that, I won’t be competing with my husband who exceeds 60,000 steps per week.

Eating Well

Although I used the calorie counter on the Fitbit app, I’ve not been too concerned with what I’m eating at the moment. I’ve regained all the weight I lost from the Hyperemesis Gravidarum but I think I have a fairly healthy diet. I just seem to eat more of the usual things rather than lots of unhealthy food. On a typical day, I will eat:

Breakfast: Porridge with berries (and sometimes banana) with a soya milk Nespresso latte
Lunch: Cheese with carbs, such as a sandwich, pasta or jacket potato. It is often meat-free at lunch but I have really been enjoying ham recently.
Dinner: Meat or fish with salad or vegetables and sometimes some easy to digest carbs, such as brown rice, cous cous or wholewheat pasta.
Snacks: My snacks are quite bad as they are high in sugar. I’ve been eating a lot of fruit (often a punnet of cherries, a couple of nectarines or apples) but chocolate, ice-cream and lattes are my most craved treats.

I’ve recently been told that I’m anaemic, which explains by cravings for beef burgers. I’m a strong believer that your body craves food that you need when you’re pregnant. In my last pregnancy I craved sweet things and I think it was as I needed energy boosters. As well as iron tablets prescribed by my doctor, my husband has ensured that I’ve been eating spinach, broccolli, cashew nuts and steak.

Blooming Bump

The Second Trimester is known to be the best of the three. You’ve got a lil bump to tell the world that you’re expecting and it isn’t a secret like it is in the first trimester. The sickness has passed and you can enjoy eating again and as well as seeing the baby in the 20 week scan (where we found out the gender) you can begin to feel the baby move before it gets too big in the last few months.

The only negatives I experience during this time is mood swings and discomfort. I can get really irritable when my clothes don’t fit properly, they can be tight around my ribcage and bikini line mainly. I had a funny moment the other day when I thought my vest had shrunk in the wash. I quickly realised that it was my bump that had grown!

The worst thing for me with the mood swings are if I find myself getting irritable about nothing. I feel awful as I’m just less tolerant than my pre-pregnancy self… Or just a bit sleep-deprived!

Generally, I’ve felt pretty normal in Trimester Two and there have been times where I’ve momentarily forgotten that I’m pregnant but this quickly change that…

I hope your pregnancy journey has been good too. Let me know how you’ve been feeling and any similarities you may have had. For my Trimester One story, please click on the link. Bx