Pregnancy Update... - Stephanie Rogers

March 10, 2016 Stephanie

Alright, I knew pregnancy would go by quickly….but HOW am I already at 29.5 weeks?! It seems like the 2nd trimester went by faster than the first which makes me terrified for how quickly these last 10.5 weeks (assuming baby Rogers waits that long to make his/her entrance) will go by. I find that as the due date (rapidly) approaches, a lot of feelings and emotions start popping up. I find it’s a mix of excitement, anticipation, joy, fear, unpreparedness, anxiousness and sometimes panic. When we first found out I was pregnant, I was like ‘ppshhhh 9 months??? I’ve got sooooo much time’ and now it’s more like ‘2.5 months….OMG, I have NO time left!!’. While I know all of these emotions and feelings are completely normal, they are still very real. Luckily, we have been getting some things done around the house lately like repainting the entire inside, getting new blinds/drapes, etc which has been helping me calm down a bit. All of the furniture for the nursery has arrived and has been painstakingly put together by my awesome husband. What is it about putting furniture together that makes it so annoying and always more difficult than necessary??

I found the second trimester to be overall pretty pleasant. I regained most of my energy, I was generally sleeping pretty well (with the occasional awful night), I felt like I could push myself a little more in the gym without feeling like I weighed 467 lbs. and I had didn’t have any issues with food – cravings or aversions. I will say that I got a few migraines that were SUPER horrible and anytime I sat or laid down in the evening I was welcomed by restless leg syndrome for about 5-10 minutes…never fun. Still have that going on and it seems to be more frequent now. Not great, but I know it could be a lot worse – so I’ll take it. I’ve been finding that as the pregnancy goes on I feel like I am eating less food. I get full so much faster and can’t eat large meals like I used to due to the baby taking up room/pushing on my stomach. While I am strongly against tracking calories, I would be curious to see how many I’m taking in now compared to the first trimester. I’ve been really focusing on nutrients, especially in the mornings, since that’s when I seem to be the most hungry.

Since I’m being vulnerable, I will admit that I’ve been eating some sort of sweet treat nearly every day. Most days it’s a few dark chocolate covered acai berries after lunch and then either more chocolate after dinner, a girl scout cookie or a small bowl of ice cream (if we have it in the house). It’s definitely more sweets than I’m used to eating and I do find that my judgement voice likes to come out and tell me I should ‘slow my roll’ on the sweets, but I also know it’s pregnancy and I’m not eating tubs of ice cream and that I’ve gotten my nutrients in every day and can relax about it and enjoy it! 🙂

As I enter my third trimester, I am finding that my energy is also slowly dissipating again. It’s not NEARLY as low as the first trimester (yet), but I definitely am getting SO much more tired in the gym, find I need to sit down more during the day and feel like I’m ready for a nap at about 1:30 every day. No joke – I’ve been going upstairs to get ready for bed at about 8:30 every day…. #noshame. Let’s also talk about the growth rate of my belly in the last like 4 weeks!!! It seems like after about 24 weeks it grows by the hour! The crazy/sad part is that I feel like I can’t get much bigger but I know that the baby is going to double its size in weight before delivery which means my belly is going to get a LOT bigger still. WHAT?!?! It’s becoming overly difficult to pick stuff up off the floor, bend down to tie my shoes and roll over in bed. I also find that I’m starting to have those feelings of being ready for the baby to get here! I’m not 100% mentally there yet and not 100% uncomfortable in my own skin yet, but I find that those thoughts are slowly starting to arise. I feel like I’m super excited to meet this little baby, find out the sex, name them and get to know them. I’m also excited to feel like a human again, to get crazy in the gym again and to discover who I am as a mom!

The final countdown is on and I’m doing my best to stay active, motivated and positive during these last couple of months. I know it’s going to get physically pretty rough as well as mentally. My plan is to focus on self-care, my relationship with my husband, nesting, enjoying the little things in life, preparing for the first few weeks after birth (meal prep, to-do lists for people I know will be asking to help out, organizing the house, etc.) and fine-tuning my daily rituals (i.e. prayer, morning journaling, bible time). These are the things that are going to help the chaos feel not so chaotic and that are going to get Steve and I through the first few weeks. So there you have it….the last few months in a nutshell.

POST BELOW: I’m curious – what was your third trimester like?? Any tips or advice for me?