Second Trimester Time

So as you can see, I've switched things up...again. I figured the old title of this blog was super confusing so I decided to keep it simple. If I get creative I'll probably change it again, who knows. If you've been a reader for this long then you're probably used to the constant changes I've put this blog through. What can I say. I'm never satisfied.

Anyway, a lot of time has passed since I last posted. A lot has changed! Mostly my belly. Oh and we're having a GIRL! Which, I was sooo convinced we were having a boy. Shows you what I know. Either way, we're very happy. Oo, also, my nausea has mostly gone away. I have days where I'll feel a bit off, but it's nothing compared to what first trimester was like. Speaking of first trimester, I have advice for newly pregnant ladies:

There is literally nothing to help you. Legitimately. There is no trick, no tip I could give you that will give you the relief you desire. My only helpful advice is to go to the doctor and get some nausea medicine. I hate that there isn't something more that this world can offer for pregnancy sickness but that is the sad awful truth of it all. I mean, I tried those lame preggie pops, the sea sickness bands, and ginger in all its forms. There really is nothing that eased anything nearly as well as pills. And I really did not have it that bad. For those of you that suffered through months of throwing up to the point of hospitalization, I have SUCH deep sympathy for you ladies. Really though. The only other advice I could scrounge up is to really enlist your husbands help. This is no time to stick to a 'traditional' arrangement in my opinion. If he hasn't already picked up the slack then it's time to have a chat. Throw up on his side of the bed to let him know you're serious.

Just kidding.

So, yeah, second trimester. Good times for the most part. I've already forgotten what it's like to not have a belly and when I dream, I'm pregnant. There are SO many weird pregnancy symptoms that pregnant women NEVER tell you. Either that or they repress them. But I'll just give you a quick list for my non-pregnant friends. Disclaimer: every pregnancy is, of course, going to be different so this is mostly just my experience. This is also stuff that I personally never knew was a pregnancy thing so don't judge me for being uninformed.

1- My number ONE most annoying and embarrassing pregnancy symptom that NOBODY EVER mentioned is hemorrhoids. Not everyone gets them, but if you can't ever poop like me then you're in luck. Hemorrhoids GALORE. Okay, it's not that bad. But I can't tell you how incredibly unsexy I felt the minute I discovered them. There has been A LOT of reevaluating my self esteem, over and over again. I can still be beautiful despite the fact that this pregnancy is giving me hemorrhoids. Not only that, but my pregnancy app states, "most hemorrhoids disappear after pregnancy." I'm sorry...most hemorrhoids? MOST?! How come not all? What it SHOULD say is, "After pregnancy your body is restored to it's former glory and then some." Nope. Screwed.

2- Heartburn. It hasn't been that bad lately but before I was pregnant I never knew this was a pregnancy thing. When it was worse, I was popping tums like crazy, which for some reason made me feel really old. I mean, I already have to grunt when I get out of a chair, but now I've got to take tums every two seconds. Might as well throw in a glass of Metamucil. Oh, that's right, TOO LATE!

3- Tailbone pain. I sort of expected back pain when I became pregnant but I don't think I anticipated tailbone pain to be so awful. Sitting down, getting up. I have to take a couple of deep breaths before doing either. And walking, which is supposed to relieve the pain does nothing of the sort. And if it's not my tailbone hurting it's my sciatica. Pregnancy breaks your body my friends. It throws it in a grinder and spits it back out.

4- Restless leg syndrome. I know not everyone gets this but I totally did and it was weird. Every night when I would get in bed and relax it was like my legs were in an invisible race I knew nothing about. I don't have it as much any more but it will pop up every once in awhile when I'm really tired.

5- Leg cramps. Who decided this was a good idea? Or fair? Or even logical? What kind of sense does it make for my legs to randomly decide to cramp at 3 AM? I jolted awake in a panic and grabbed my leg in agony. Ryan was sure the apocalypse was on its way.

I know there are more symptoms that I didn't expect but I'll post those later. For now, I want to focus on happier things. For those of you not up to date with belly pictures I've combined a bunch up to now to give you a little sample.

In some of the pictures I look more pregnant in the one before than the one after but whatever. I don't know whats going on with my body. And my 10 weeks definitely looks like one of those pictures I have mocked in my previous blog posts but whatever. I needed something to represent first trimester.

Other than looking bigger on the outside, baby is doing really well on the inside. She has all her vital parts and everything is measuring great. She has a strong heartbeat and moves like crazy all the time! Tomorrow we have another doctor's appointment so we'll find out if everything is STILL okay, but I feel like she'll be just fine. In fact, here's the best ultrasound of her that we have, thus far.

Isn't she so cute?! Gosh, I love that little profile.

In other news, Ryan and I went to St. George at the beginning of July and it was amazing. I got to see my family and some friends. My mom threw me an awesome baby shower that had a pretty good turn out considering I haven't lived there in years. We got a ton of great stuff that I'll have to take pictures of later. I should have taken more pictures of the shower but I totally spaced it. My sister snapped a few but I look ginormous in like, all of them so no soup for you.

I really felt so loved at that shower though. Thank you to everyone that showed up or sent a card. It made such a difference and it made me feel like I was at least going to have some basics for my sweet baby girl. I've really been struggling with the idea that we can't offer her a lot because of our financial situation. I mean, we're doing okay. But it hasn't been easy lately. Ryan was working at BabysRus for awhile but they couldn't give him a full time position because they didn't want to offer him benefits (thank you Obama). Besides that, even if he was working full time it was like crap dollars an hour. He still wants to join the Airforce but because of the sequester (again, THANKS OBAMA) all their offices except for one are closed down and there is a waiting list to even sign up. Things have definitely been challenging wondering how we are going to have a baby with noooot that much money.

But, things started looking up. Ryan just got a job as a morticians assistant for good pay and the promise of maybe getting even better pay while we wait for the Airforce to free up. It sounds like a super creepy job but Ryan is amazing. He can literally do anything thrown his way so I'm not worried about him losing his breakfast over it. A lot of the stories he comes home with are incredibly fascinating. I had no idea how much went into preparing a body. Not only that, but you can really take pride in doing something like that in my opinion. You're making sure the family gets to remember their loved one in the best way possible. Rough job, but an important one.

Aside from all the financial struggles, we've been doing our best to spend time together and have some fun. Our alone time with one another and Penny is limited so we've been spending some time at the lake when we get a chance. Penny has become quite the swimmer! She splashes in every time I duck my head under the water. I'm not sure if it's because she thinks I'm drowning or what, but she can't seem to let me swim by myself.

I love it though. She's the funnest dog a girl could ask for.

Since we found out the gender, it's all a waiting game now. I hate it. It's weird how the first trimester flew by even though I always felt sick. Now that I feel better it seems to crawl at an agonizingly slow rate. I shouldn't complain really. Once baby gets here everything changes but I still can't help but feel anxious to meet her. How could I not be?

Anyway, I hope I can continue to keep updating this blog and not be too lazy or tired. I've made a secret goal to update you guys every week till the end so I guess I'll see you next week. I can't decide how to format this but I've decided to put together some silly facts at the end about how pregnancy is going week by week so here you go:

Week: 26

Total weight gain: 15 lbs

Cravings for this week: Potatoes, milk

Major symptoms: Tail bone pain, fatigue. My skin has also been super dry. It's usually normal but something about pregnancy just dries me up.

Products used: Palmer's stretch mark oil which is probably not working and Mary Kay mint energizing lotion which feels sooooo refreshing after a long day.

Emotions: Mostly lethargic and weepy. Some guy stuck his tongue out at me on the road the other day and I could hardly answer the phone when I got to work because it hurt my feelings. Haha, really? My coworker seems to think I'm going soft because the baby is sucking the evil out of me.