Second Trimester Update
February 2021: End of the second trimester between 25 and 26 weeks
It’s hard to believe that the second trimester for baby #2 is officially over! If you’re interested in reading a recap of the first trimester, you can do that here. Looking back, it felt like the second trimester was just one thing after another, which has left me exhausted as I enter the third (and final!) trimester of pregnancy.
Nausea and vomiting continued, though I am on a no puke streak since the end of January 🎉. Oddly enough, I tried Zofran (an antiemetic) for a few days at the end of January and was really excited about it since I’ve heard lots of people have had found it helpful… guess it’s not for me. I switched from my regular Unisom/B6 three times a day regimen and ended up feeling way more nauseous than I had in awhile. Lots of dry heaving, lack of appetite, and some vomiting. I switched back to Unisom/B6 and eating small very regular meals and felt better. The nausea and occasional dry heaving still show up but they’re at a level that I can manage. So, no Zofran for me. I also experimented with proton pump inhibitors to see if acid reflux was contributing to the nausea. While I definitely had some acid reflux going on (the burning in the back of my throat is now gone), I think nausea is a permanent staple of pregnancy for me.
Because of the intensity of the nausea/vomiting during the first trimester I was not active at all for most of that time. Not being active led to a decent amount of pelvic pain early on in the second trimester. However, I’m happy to say that adding in walking 1-3 miles a day (usually on a treadmill), plus daily(ish) Spinning Babies activities has made the pain go away. I don’t remember pelvic pain while I was pregnant with Ellie, definitely lots of pressure but no sharp pains like this time around.
Another ripple effect of the constant nausea is that I’m eating/snacking all the time to keep nausea at a reasonable level. I’ve gained the recommended amount of weight and then some (currently at about ~40 pounds gained with a trimester to go). Same thing happened with Ellie, I think in total I gained about 60-70 pounds. The providers I’ve met with have all echoed the same sentiments - every body responds to pregnancy differently and this just may be my body’s response. Very appreciative to have providers who aren’t freaking out because I’m over the “recommended” weight gain.
There was an incidental finding on my 20 week ultrasound related to the placement of the umbilical cord, it’s on the edge of the placenta vs. the middle (marginal cord insertion if you’re familiar). Doesn’t seem to be a huge deal, and from what I can gather the main issue is baby potentially not getting the nutrients they need towards the end of pregnancy which could lead to problems with growth (i.e., not growing). On the other hand, Ellie was just shy of 10 pounds when she was born at 41 weeks, so they’re also keeping track of baby #2 to see if they might be getting close to that 10 pound mark (though I’ve heard ultrasound growth estimates aren’t the greatest). So on the one hand, there’s some concern that baby could be really big. On the other hand, there’s also a chance that baby could be small. We’ll find out whenever baby happens to grace us with their presence.
I got in a visit to a maternal cardiology clinic. I started noticing some heart palpitations, fast heartbeat, and shortness of breath. While I do remember this with Ellie it wasn’t until the very end of my pregnancy vs. early on in the second trimester. Because of some heart stuff that was going on prior to pregnancy the midwife suggested I be seen by a cardiologist just to make sure everything is okay, which it is! I’ve been keeping track of my heart rate and blood pressure and so far so good. Plus, when it comes time to give birth, I’ll be in a hospital (assuming we arrive in time!), so if anything goes awry I’ll be right where I need to be. Needless to say… the second trimester has left me feeling exhausted. Though the silver lining of the pandemic is that a lot of my visits have been virtual so I’m not running to and from the doctors on a regular basis.
In work life… I’m just tired, all the time. All of my synchronous teaching is in the evenings, which is really getting old. I did get a better sense of what my leave will look like after baby comes. I’ll be off whenever baby arrives in May until the end of Spring term. I go off contract for the summer in mid-June which means I don’t need to use any leave over the summer. I’ve been paying into short term disability since I started my position so I’ll use that to cover my initial leave. The rest of my leave (FMLA) will be used to take fall off. Sick leave should cover us in terms of salary during that time. At first I thought I might spread my leave out and have a reduced teaching load across fall and winter next year. However, when my university announced plans to be back on campus in fall and my general hesitation around setting boundaries with working a reduced load, I just decided it’d be better to take fall entirely off. Granted that means I’ll be teaching 5 courses across winter and spring (our full load is 8 courses…). Four courses I’ll have taught before and 1 is a course that I’m helping to develop so I’ll have some familiarity with it. Still going back/forth about my tenure pause (it’s due in fall 2021). The more tired I get, the less it feels like a feasible option. Stay tuned for that decision!