Second Trimester

During the first trimester, it seemed like I was coming up against a new symptom or strange thing every day. But now that I'm in to the second trimester, I seem to have settled into pregnancy. My belly is starting to grow, which is exciting. And I'm definitely moving slower and have less energy towards the end of the day. For the most part, this whole pregnancy thing remains pretty easy.

The never-ending butt pain I was dealing with towards the end of the first trimester seems to have finally cleared up entirely. It will reappear if I have a particularly active day (> 15,000 steps), but I've mostly cut back on those, too. I've got some new aches and pains - round ligament pain is, surprisingly and specifically, a round pain. Those are mostly only triggered by sudden movements, though. So long as I move slowly and deliberately, everything is fine.

Of course that means that I'm moving a lot slower. Getting off the couch at the end of the night has become a process. Regular chairs, and even my bed, are still fine though. That may be because I can more or less roll out of my bed and catch myself. That's harder to do on the couch, especially when the cat and dog decide to get in my way.

I'm falling deeply in love with our bed. Even moreso than when we first got it. This is the point where I'm supposed to start to have difficulty sleeping, but it hasn't happened yet. I get up once or twice a night to pee, but other than that I'm sleeping soundly. I credit the Sleep Number bed entirely with this. It's like sleeping on a combination of a cloud and a hug. It perfectly cradles and supports me so I'm not tossing and turning trying to get comfortable. And when it stops, I can adjust to a different number and get my support right back.

The other, related symptom I'm supposed to be experiencing is particularly weird and vivid dreams. Which has half happened. When I wake up to pee it's often in the middle of a dream, and I'll think that dream was weird or frightening. But by the time my alarm goes off in the morning I'll have forgotten all about it.

And then there's the lightheadedness, but that's mostly past, too. For a couple of weeks, I'd start to feel dizzy right after Kina's morning walk. It could continue for an hour or two, until I'd been sitting at my desk at work for a while. It made metro rides particularly uncomfortable, especially when they decided to turn the heat back up. But now Kevin's home and I'm not walking Kina in the morning, so this has basically gone away. Metro rides still aren't my favorite, but as long as I get a seat everything is fine. With my growing belly, I basically always get a seat. We'll see if that's still the case when single-tracking leads to over-crowded trains in a few weeks.

All in all, this whole pregnancy thing has basically been a breeze so far. I'm excited for the next couple of week. I should start to feel the kid moving around pretty soon. And we're going to find out the sex in a few weeks, which means we'll finally be able to nail down a name. In the meantime, I need to do another run for some work-appropriate maternity clothes. Everything is so exciting while still feeling not entirely real.