Honestly, this pregnancy has flown and I’ve genuinely loved being pregnant, especially this 2nd trimester. I can’t believe we start the 3rd trimester this week. Wait, what!? It’s still confusing to me whether the 3rd trimester starts at 27 or 28 weeks, but we’ll just go with 28. I feel like I just found out I was pregnant and now all the sudden we are getting paperwork from the hospital about paying for her delivery and signing up for baby classes. Here’s an update on what I’ve experienced in my second trimester, how I’ve been feeling and things I’ve been learning along the way. I can’t express how grateful I am for the Lord’s blessing over this time and our family as we prepare to bring this new little life into the world. I literally cannot wait to meet her. I just keep waking up every day thanking God for the blessing of getting to be this little girl’s mother. 
15 weeks! This is the week we found out it’s a girl!
Symptoms/Health Update: My morning sickness went away around week 16 and I got most of my appetite back. I’ve still had a little lower back pain here and there, as well as a bit of tiredness which causes me to need a nap about once a week. Sleeping through the night has gotten a bit trickier, my belly button is slowly disappearing and I’ve been applying coco butter religiously to help prevent stretch marks. Otherwise, the second trimester has been pretty symptom free to the point of me sort of forgetting I’m pregnant at times. If you’ve been following along on my pregnancy journey, you know I’ve had a health scare or two, but both are totally okay and not causing any issues. The one we dealt with during this second trimester was a heart murmur. Fun fact: heart murmurs are somewhat common/normal while pregnant due to your excess blood. I experienced heart palpitations that I knew weren’t normal, so I went to a cardiologist just to be safe. I want to encourage anyone who’s pregnant and feels any weird symptoms to get them checked out. It’ll give you such peace of mind just knowing you’re being monitored and all is well. We are so grateful for modern medicine, AMAZING doctors and access to some of the world’s best health care here in Atlanta. God has provided in such a cool way throughout this pregnancy. Also, I passed my glucose test, which was nothing to be afraid of at all. I was worried about it, because you hear a lot of horror stories. But, it’s really just like drinking a sugary sports drink and then getting your blood drawn an hour later. My doctor didn’t even make me fast beforehand.
16 weeks & feeling her move for the first time.
Exercise: As with the first trimester, I’ve tried to remain active. I’m already a pretty active person, but even on tired days, I’ve tried to power through. Honestly, I think staying active has helped tremendously with my physical and emotional health. I walk several times a week, stretch daily and do yoga or other power barre type workouts at home. If you really don’t have time to exercise, trying to squeeze in a few 5-10 minute strength or stretching sessions.
Cravings: Lots of fruit, smoothies, cheese and frozen yogurt or ice cream. And baking. I’ve been obsessed with baking cakes, cookies and just about anything…and then eating it all. I’ve still been trying to eat pretty healthy, but obviously I’m not against treating myself. 😉 Most recently, I’ve really just wanted peanut butter and cream cheese bagels.
18 weeks taking sunflower maternity pictures with one of my sweet friends. It was a hot summer, but we made the best of it.
Baby name: Still keeping that a secret, but some loved ones have guessed it already! It’s a name we’ve loved for a long time, very vintage and its the name of one of my favorite children’s literature characters. Also, with being a teacher, finding names can be difficult because so many names get ruined for you. But, her first initial is a vowel…I’ll give you that. 😉
18 weeks and definitely noticing the belly getting bigger!
What I’m reading: “Bringing Up Bebe” and I should be reading all the doctor’s office packets…but I’ve been a bit of a slacker. 😉 We’ve also been slowly getting through “On Becoming Baby Wise“. I’ve been reading through some pediatric baby books about their development and what to expect as far as that goes. Also, we went to marriage counseling to talk with our counselor about parenting and how to still put our marriage first. We’re huge believers in going to counseling whether you have “problems” or not, so we go once to twice per year. We definitely wanted to be proactive about how we want to approach parenting and marriage with these new life changes. So, I highly recommend going to some sort of counseling just to talk through things.
Favorite memory: Our gender reveal party and hearing our loved one’s reactions when we found out we are having a baby girl. Feeling Baby Girl move for the first time around week 16 and then feeling her every day since has been so surreal. I’ve also loved putting together the nursery with Matt, doing all kinds of nursery projects and seeing her healthy anatomy scan at around 18 weeks. It’s been fun to see my belly grow (realllly growwww) and become this big basketball attached to my body! It’s still a little crazy to me to see myself pregnant. I also really enjoyed taking another adventure with Matt to Utah before our little travel companion enters the world. It’s been SO sweet to see Matt during this time and experience how our relationship has taken on this new adventure in such a deep, genuine and loving way. I absolutely adore him and am so grateful he’s this little girl’s daddy.
Our last big trip before baby’s arrival. She’s been on 8 flights while in my belly!
20 weeks & halfway there!
Least favorite part of being pregnant: Overall, I’ve still really enjoyed being pregnant and would definitely do it again (maybe talk to me in a month or so about that…haha). As with the first trimester, the worst part of being pregnant for me is worrying about the baby’s health (welcome to parenthood!) and my health. I’ve been surrounded with a great community and Bible study this summer that has helped so much in dealing with the anxieties that come along with pregnancy. Also, after I started feeling her move and we went to the anatomy scan, I felt way more relaxed. Oh…and I would say one of the other downsides to pregnancy is having to pee all the time…especially when traveling or exploring a national park. 😉
23 weeks and growing like crazy!
What I’ve learned: As with the first trimester, I’ve learned that it takes a village and life is so much sweeter when you experience it in community. I’ve learned a lot about planning and making decisions for our family that everyone may not agree with…and this is hard for me at times because I am a “recovering” people pleaser when it comes down to it. I’ve been learning a lot about trusting God with His plans for our girl and our family, because there’s just so much that’s out of our control when it comes to pregnancy or babies. I’ve also already started to learn about this deeper sense of love that people talk about having for their children. I want the best life possible for our daughter and it’s been really awesome to talk with Matt about how we can do that as her parents. Speaking of community, find yourself some mama friends and be there for each other. This has been one of the most precious gifts to me.
23 weeks for me & 19 weeks for my friend, Amanda who’s due with a baby boy this winter. Having several pregnant friends to walk through pregnancy with at the same time has been such a fun experience. :)
Looking forward to: I can’t wait for my baby showers in October! I also can’t wait to go on our hospital tour and baby essentials class with some close friends who are also expecting a baby this winter. I’m really excited for cooler weather and the Christmas season, because that will mean she’s almost here!!
Favorite maternity finds: My last post can be found here and I talk all about dressing the baby bump, as well as my favorite maternity/non-maternity finds so far.
2 days shy of 28 weeks and end of 2nd trimester!
Baby items I’m loving at the moment: I spent some time tweaking my registry and exploring some local consignment shops for baby items. I love the idea of consignment shops for baby clothes because they don’t wear them very long at all and you can find some really great stuff in those shops. When you register with Amazon and buy $10 worth of items off your list, Amazon sends you a welcome box with awesome items like bottles and swaddles. But, here are a few things I’ve really had my heart set on…
I’ll be sharing our nursery photos and favorite baby item list in the coming months…can’t wait! Hope you enjoyed my second trimester update.
Yay for sweet babies and the gift of life!
Aubrey