The second trimester started in the beginning of December and anyone will agree that reaching the 12 / 13 week mark of pregnancy is a huge relief. It’s the point where the risk of miscarriage becomes much lower and many people start telling everyone about their news. It’s also a time where symptoms such as sickness and tiredness are alleviated and you start developing the famous pregnancy glow!
I’d already told a lot people about the baby face to face due to my 40th birthday but as with Oscar I wanted to wait until after the 20 week scan to tell the wider world. Speaking of which you might be wondering if we’d yet told Oscar about the happy news. Well I told him as soon I knew myself and then began showing him scans but it was still too early to understand. But now I have a bump he’s started to understand that there’s a baby in there and that he’s going to have a younger sibling. He’s even decided that the baby will be called ‘Hello’.
One of the major milestones of getting to the second trimester was meeting with our doctor for the first time. I felt in such safe hands with the Dr that we’d seen while pregnant with Oscar that I was keen to go with her again. Fortunately, she was available for our dates and it was really lovely to see her again. It felt like she was just as excited as we were to be delivering Oscar’s sibling. We visited her again at 16 weeks to check the baby’s growth and this time we bought Oscar with us, it was quite amazing to have Oscar, now 3.5 year meet the doctor that delivered him.
Of course December brings Christmas, Christmas parties and New Years, also slightly less fun that usual when you can’t drink alcohol, your diet is more restricted and you’re so tired. But I was so excited to be pregnant again that those things don’t really bother me. We had a brilliant Christmas day with Mr S’s family and mine, following our tradition of lunch in a restaurant rather than at home.
So how was I feeling? Pretty normal which was how I felt with Oscar at that point and honestly it’s a pretty disconcerting feeling to not really feel pregnant. But now the nausea has returned with avengeance and I miss that feeling normalcy! Bump-wise, I was generally much ‘thicker’ than I was with Oscar from about week 14 but I’d say my bump began to show around week 20. And overall I’ve been much bigger than I was with Oscar which is apparently quite standard for a second pregnancy. Mentally actually having a bump made the pregnancy much easier. My pregnancy with Oscar was riddled with anxiety as I had no bump, no symptoms and couldn’t feel him move until week 24 – and even then movement was infrequent. With my bump and nausea firmly in place and feeling movement from around week 17, I definitely felt a lot more pregnant this time which honestly really helped my mental health. I had terrible anxiety before every scan with Oscar whereas my 16 and 20 week scan this time felt so much easier as I could feel like bean bumping around in there. When I was pregnant with Oscar I didn’t need maternity clothes – partly because the time of year meant I could wear floaty dresses and didn’t need a coat. But this time I ‘invested’ in some more comfortable maternity dresses, a coat and a dreamy pair of pyjamas. All of which can be used for breastfeeding too afterwards.
For me twenty weeks is a really reassuring spot to hit, and it’s when you go for the anomaly scan. We had our anomaly scan just after the 20 week mark and it all went according to plan, save an inopportune fire alarm and baby being in an awkward position! Fortunately, we were able to get the baby in a good position with the help of a drink of hot chocolate. All the measurements were as they should be and we were on track!
The reassurance didn’t last for long though as when we returned at 24 weeks our doctor went very quiet when taking the measurements on ultrasound. When she finished she advised us that the baby’s growth had slowed and on the last scan the baby’s size was around the 50th centile where as this scan the weight was now on the 7.5 centile. She said doctors become concerned when they are less than the 10th centile. Her advice was to return in two weeks time and take measurements again when she said it could have all changed. Obviously it was a very worrying two weeks which passed by very slowly but when the appointment finally came, our little bean had jumped back on the to 20th centile and we were back on track!
A couple of days later we were due to leave for our ski trip. I’d had some nerves about this trip as though I wasn’t planning to ski (I can’t anyway, I’m rubbish!) I was worried about ice and slippery conditions. I didn’t have to worry as it was super sunny and there was no ice around our hotel. The whole trip was actually really relaxing as Mr S would take Oscar skiing in the morning while I watched, we’d have a relaxing lunch and a bit of play time and then Oscar would have some time in kids club and I could have a lie down! It was seriously perfect.
Just before this I’d announced my pregnancy on social media using a short video made for me by a family photographer and I loved sharing this online, particularly as it took the pressure off keeping it all a secret on my blog. The pictures in this post and the previous one are all from that shoot!
I publish this from the future and the third trimester and I can’t wait to fill you in on the final days!
