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April 19, 2005
Two Down, One To Go
Two trimesters down, and one more to go. Monday heralded week 28, which is roughly when the third trimester starts (somewhere around 27-28 weeks depending on where you look).
It's odd how 9 months can be such a long time, yet before you know it you're looking at that final leg, and instead of having some 30 odd weeks ahead of you, you're almost in the single digits with weeks to go. Roughly 12 weeks to go for me at present if the baby keeps up with the estimated due date. Seeing though that I was 5 weeks early, and I know PreZ's sister was 3 weeks early, and I think he was a week or 2 early as well, and ditto one of my brothers I believe, and 2 of my friends were 10 week preemies, I'm definitely going to be prepared for anything.
When they say that the second trimester is the best one, I think they're definitely onto something. Contrary to the first trimester, I had no more "morning" sickness, the sleep-all-day fatigue went away and I felt like a normal human being again. I took karate back up in my second trimester after I stopped feeling sick and tired, and have managed to keep doing that throughout this trimester. Well, in ever more adapted versions, as it is just getting a bit harder all the time, but physical activity nonetheless. I'm pretty proud of having been able to keep doing that so far.
The belly obviously isn't big enough that I'm really encumbered yet, so that also hasn't given me a lot of discomfort. That said, I have had periodic discomfort though. Heartburn made an entrance in this trimester, though usually nothing too major, and that was usually contained with one or two antacids (the berry ones are much nicer than the tropical fruit ones).
Ligament stretching/pains also stepped up to the plate for a couple of swings at me. To clarify... your pelvis is not one continuous piece of bone. It's made up of loose bone segments that are held together by tough ligaments, ligaments that start stretching up during pregnancy due to relaxant hormones that get produced that also stretch out various muscles. This is what makes pregnant women get more of a swing in their gait as they walk as pregnancy progresses (though in later pregnancy that's also due to the baby moving low in the pelvis too). One of those ligaments is in your pubic bone, right in the middle holding two parts of your pelvis together, and that's the one that's given me the most grief. Usually it's been lots of walking, or a very active kicking session at karate that's made that hurt. Funnily enough, walking is often worse than lifting the leg up to make that ligament ache. So there have been quite a few days dominated by "groin" pain. As a result, I've been looking at a maternity sportswear manufacturer that makes supportive undershorts to get a couple of pairs, to wear both under my karate do-gi and my regular clothes. Sometimes supportive maternity gear looks like really weird belts and straps, and is almost reminiscent of a torture device, but that company makes it look like you're just wearing bike shorts, so bonus. Anything that supports the ligaments and belly, and claims that as a result the urge to pee gets lessened a bit gets my vote, and someone else recommended them from personal experience, and she's running 5 miles 3-5 times a week at a couple of weeks more pregnant than I am, so I think they work.
Occasionally the ligament thing has meant that my hips hurt too. Usually that doesn't happen until I sleep, where certain positions mean that my legs and hips are at a certain angle and exert pressure that makes things ache. So far pretty rare, but I expect that to increase more and more as the ligaments, muscles and other tissues stretch and prepare for the grand finale. Backache has only happened a few times, and it's not the usual backache you'd expect either. I think this morning I finally figured out how it was that I'd feel this dull pain in my back around the bottom of my ribs/midriff... it seems to be due to accidentally rolling onto my back and sleeping in that position for a little while. I think it puts pressure on a particular vertebrae that makes the bottom of my ribcage feel squeezed by a vice grip for a little while after I wake up. So another reason to avoid back-lying (the other being that after about week 20 the weight of your uterus can rest on and potentially block the inferior vena cava, which is a major blood vessel that transports blood from your lower body back up to your lungs and heart).
I knock on wood while I say that so far I have no stretch marks. But with the most growing to be done in this final stage, I am certainly not out of the woods yet. The baby will be growing about a centimeter a week until the end, and between weighing an estimated 1-2 lbs at roughly 27 weeks, it'll be packing on the other 5-6+ lbs over the next 12 weeks also (up to an average of 7.5 lbs, or beyond). So that's almost half a pound and a centimeter a week of just baby that'll be added, and as such the belly size will start increasing much more rapidly along with that stretchmark potential. I still rub on the body butter in the morning and the body oil at night, not that I think it will really help against stretchmarks, seeing as they occur on a deeper skin level than oils and lotions penetrate, but it smells and feels good, and itchiness is also a symptom of pregnancy with the rapid expansion of skin, so it does have other benefits (though I'm not itchy yet, thank $deity).
The kidlet remains very active. Around week 17-18 I started to feel definite little kicks and at week 19-20 PreZ could feel it through my belly. At week 22 he could even hear the kidlet's heartbeat through my belly which is very cool. I expect some of the movement to start tapering off a bit now that the room to do so is running out, I'm already noticing that more and more it's moving and rolls rather than kicks and punches. Yesterday afternoon PreZ amused himself for a while by prodding my belly in various places, and seeing the kidlet kicking back in the spot he'd just pressed. It was funny to watch. Whenever he listens to the baby's heartbeat, it'll still kick him in the head... it takes invasions into its personal space very seriously, even those invasions that come from my own organs. One afternoon it found my bladder, and spent a good 5-10 minutes stomping on it until I'd gone to the bathroom to empty it out, because $deity forbid I use some of my own abdominal cavity space... Other than some kicks to the bowels and intestines, it hasn't really stomped on anything that causes me much discomfort, so I'm happy.
So, the second trimester has definitely been a good one, with no major complaints and very few minor ones indeed. Hopefully the third trimester will be equally uneventful.
Posted on 01:48 PM to: Pregnancy