Pregnancy diaries – the second trimester
Now baby Elsie has arrived I thought it might be useful to look back on the second trimester of my pregnancy.
Avid readers will know that we let the cat out of the bag after our 28 week scan that we were expecting our first baby in July!
For me the first trimester wasn’t exactly plain sailing and you can have a look back at the highs and lows here.
How did I get on in the second trimester?
Growth scans
As I had been diagnosed with low level of PAPP–A, pregnancy associated plasma protein, I was moved from midwife-led care to consultant-led.
This meant throughout my second trimester I had extra growth scans, once a fortnight and after each scan we had an appointment with the consultant to talk everything through.
I usually had a midwife appointment within two days of each scan too.
This was precautionary to make sure that baby was growing as it should and that I wasn’t developing any pregnancy related health issues such as pre-eclampsia.
Sickness and tiredness
Fortunately things massively calmed down in my second trimester and I didn’t have any bouts of sickness and my extreme exhaustion was also much better thankfully.
Back pain
However my back pain just continued to get worse really.
I relied on some nice massages off Steve, warm baths and paracetamol to ease the pain. It wasn’t constant but it was uncomfortable.
Getting tested for gestational diabetes
As my dad has diabetes to be safe I had to have a glucose intolerance test to find out if I had gestational diabetes during my pregnancy.
I had this test during week 19 of my pregnancy and you can read all about my experience of getting tested for gestational diabetes here.
The dreaded iron tablets
At every midwife appointment I had to provide a urine sample and have my blood pressure taken. At some appointments blood samples were also taken.
I was prescribed some iron tablets to take after blood results came back to say my iron was low.
If anyone has taken iron tablets you will know what the side effects can be – apologies if this is new to you but it’s a bit grim!
My tummy was like a washing machine for the first couple of days. They can make you either need the loo or the complete opposite.
***WARNING grim alert***
I think you should also be warned that when you’re on iron tablets they turn your poo a green/black colour, very grim. I got a big shock the first time I went to the loo I tell ya!
Pregnancy modelling
I decided to push myself well and truly out of my comfort zone and snapped up the opportunity to do some modelling of maternity sportswear.
This was when I was 28 weeks pregnant and I really enjoyed myself.
I also got some great photos of bump and I which was lovely.
Getting ready for baby
I’d been quite cautious in the first trimester trying not to get too carried away with buying things so once we’d have the 12 week and 20 week scans I started my shopping.
I utilised every supermarket baby event buying some great bargains from Aldi, Asda, Tesco and Morrisons.
I’ve been quite impressed with the George baby section in Asda.
When Steve’s parents came to stay with us over the Easter weekend they took us shopping on Easter Saturday. We headed over to Team Valley as that’s where our only Mothercare and Mama’s and Papa’s stores are.
They kindly bought us our lovely Moses basket which was a bargain from Asda at less than £30, a bouncing chair, a playmat and the cot mobile from Mothercare as well as a few other bits and bobs.
Mothercare often has offers on and we snapped up our nursery set – the Lulworth cot which my mam and dad kindly bought for us and the mattress and the matching changing table/drawers which we bought.
It ties in really nicely with the built in wardrobes in Elsie’s bedroom.
We also booked in for the Mothercare parenting event which is free and is a great way to see demonstrations of prams, cots and independent businesses and baby classes too.
Steve’s mam has been on a knitting frenzy too we’ve got lots of lovely handmade cardigans to keep Elsie nice and warm.
Decluttering and decorating
We’d started to prepare at home since January when my decluttering mission began. Here’s my 10 tips to help you declutter your home.
Our house was awash with magnolia and we really wanted to put our own stamp on it to make it feel more homely and cosy.
With both of us working full-time we decided to spend some of our savings on hiring a decorator.
After spending weeks last year getting our garden sorted I didn’t want us to waste every weekend decorating.
We decorated our living room, hall stairs and landing, kitchen and the nursery.
I’m really pleased with the Elsie’s room, it feels so lovely and it’s all come together really well.
Here’s some tips to turn your spare room into a nursery
We did the stickers ourselves and both love the woodland theme, let’s hope Elsie does too!
If you’re a first time mum I hope you find this post and my pregnancy diaries series useful.
Please do share any pearls of wisdom on pregnancy and parenting that you might have in the comments below.
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Other related posts
Here’s our experience of a hypnobirthing taster session
I ticked off most of to-do list thanks to the maternity VIP experience at JoJo Maman Bébé
See what happened at my surprise baby shower
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