My 2nd Trimester: The great, the Bad and the Uncomfortable

As I approach my 30th week of pregnancy, it’s time for another trimester pregnancy update (bump-date 😍).

The Great: Energy galore ⚡️🏃‍♀️✈️

If you remember anything from my first trimester update, you know I was incredibly tired and incredibly nauseous the whole time.

It feels like the second I stepped into my second trimester, the nausea stopped and my energy levels spiked: I went from not being able to walk around in my room without running out of breath, to regularly hitting 15k+ steps a day. I went from barely being able to comb my eyebrows (lol) to regularly doing at home blow outs.

This was also the trimester that had me travelling a lot: I went with my mom to Berlin for a weekend, and then with my mom and dad to New York for a week. My boyfriend husband Ermir 🤵🏻‍♂️ and I also went to Thessaloniki for baby gear shopping.

Overall, this trimester has been magical in terms of energy levels and me feeling like myself again! I felt like a little bee buzzing about life and getting things checked off of my todo list. 🐝

The Bad: Trouble Sleeping 🥱

One slightly unexpected “bad” symptom towards the end of the second trimester was this odd period of pregnancy insomnia I went through. For a few weeks in a row, I would routinely:

• Wake up at around 2:50 am / 3:00 am for a bathroom run.
• Try to go back to bed.
• Toss and turn and “forget” what position I could best sleep in (remember, in your second trimester, you can’t sleep on your stomach or back, so the sides are your only option; except, after a while your hip bones hurt from the extra weight pressure – fun! 🤩)
• Baby was tossing and turning all night and I’d have this tickling sensation in my stomach that maybe made it difficult to relax and fall asleep as well.
• By around 4:50 am I think (still tossing and turning at that point), I would hear the call to prayer from a local mosque, which would make me sigh and remind me that I’m getting no sleep at all tonight I guess.
• By 5:30 am / 6:00 am I would fall asleep again until 8:00 am when my alarm rings for work.

In the beginning, this routine would freak me out. I had to take a a few sick leave and work from home days to recuperate from my sleepless nights. But after a while, it was like my body got used to the little sleep (maybe, my body is also preparing for what it means to have a baby … sleepless nights here we come!) and the sleepless nights didn’t even bother me anymore.

Now, as I’ve entered my third trimester, I luckily don’t seem to have this issue anymore. I suspect two things:

1. First, maybe my bump is big enough now to where it can support me as I “side-sleep” more comfortably. Hence, I can fall asleep better because I don’t have to hold myself upright – the bump does it for me. 🤷‍♀️
2. Second, at my last pregnancy appointment, my doctor confirmed that the little girl is already head down in position and ready! 💝 My first thought here was “oh my gosh! My little girl is ahead of deadline with her deliverables, just like her mom! No procrastinating here! 🤩😃🤭”. My second thought was that maybe the extra tossing and turning as baby Curlita (yes, we call her that, as she’ll likely have very curly hair! 💓) was moving from a head up to head down position was what was keeping me up. Who knows! 🤷‍♀️

The Uncomfortable: Read on … TMI! 🤫

One (unpleasant) surprise this trimester – again, towards the end of it – was my first confrontation with piles. If you don’t know what they are … well, good for you! Turns out, they’re incredibly common in pregnancy and every woman I’ve talked to has had to deal with them either during or after pregnancy.

Needless to say, it wasn’t great. In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t that bad. But, they did catch me off guard. 😳

In the end, lots of resting, fibres and getting comfy with pillows did the trick without any medications or creams (when you’re pregnant, you’re really limited on what medications you can use anyways). While it was weird to go through this, seeing and feeling things get better on their own, without any medication, was a bit of a fun experience for me as well. It reminded me of what a powerhouse the human body really is, and I was amazed at how it could heal itself in this case.

* * *

Anyways, these are my second trimester updates! I am now in my third trimester, and baby Sweeta will be here soon! 💓 I’ve been upping my baby book reading game … however, what can I say … it just ends up freaking me out lol. Seems like the start won’t be as easy as I imagined, but everyone seems to agree that despite the difficulties, it will be incredibly magical! I look forward to it 🙂

Thank you for reading!

Rrita