Hi! At the time of this post, I am 28 weeks, 5 days… so I just finished up the second trimester. For most, the second trimester is the ‘easiest’ in the way that you aren’t AS nervous anymore, you’re not feeling AS sick, and you tend to get a bit more energy back. But for others, new symptoms crop up. Today, I want to share my symptoms, how I managed them, perinatal anxiety, favorite clothing, makeup, NURSERY IDEAS, and other essentials in my baby #2 second trimester recap.
ICYMI, first trimester recap can be found here.
But for those who are new to my blog, I am a second time IVF mama. My first IVF baby is currently 4 years old. Our IVF journey for baby #2 can be found here.
Now that we are all caught up… let’s go through the baby #2 second trimester recap.
During these weeks, I was still very much struggling with nausea and occasional vomiting.
My biggest trigger was my prenatal vitamins and when I tell you I tried EVERYTHING, I really did. This issue was not something I dealt with in my first pregnancy with my daughter, and I was happy to take my prenatal tablet through the entire time with no issues.
But this time around? I went through it. I spent so much on different prenatals… some capsules, some gummies, some with iron, some without. It didn’t really seem to matter. They all caused tummy upset.
I ended up tolerating gummies (Olly or VitaFusion… whichever were in stock at my Target at the time) better than the others… mostly because I think gummies do not contain Iron (as far as I found). However, that ended up becoming a problem in a few weeks when I had recurring low platelets/low iron on my bloodwork and needed to take an iron supplement, lol…
I also was still pretty anxious about the health of the pregnancy, as eight years of infertility will take its toll on anyone. So I purchased a fetal doppler as soon as we passed our 12 week NT scan. This is something I also did with my first pregnancy, and I tried really hard to only use it on Fridays with my husband home. We called it “Fetal Doppler Fridays.”
However, my anxiety this time was at an all time high from the bleeding scares I had in the first trimester. It became debilitating and something that was interfering with my every day life.
I did end up spotting again around week 16/17, and ended up at the OBGYN for bloodwork and an exam. Baby was fine, but as was an issue in the first trimester, my Rho Gam antibodies were negative again so I needed a second Rho Gam shot.
For those who are Rh-, if the baby has Rh+ blood (which my first baby did, also), particularly with proceeding pregnancies, you may have bleeding issues. Since my antibodies had run out from the first shot I had, we needed a second. I was told this may continue to happen every 6-8 weeks for the entirety of the pregnancy as the antibodies in the shot ‘run out.’
Once I got my second Rho Gam shot, the spotting stopped within a day or so.
However, this just continued to trigger my anxiety and worry. I was just a ball of nerves 24/7 and felt like I couldn’t even enjoy the pregnancy, or be present for my four year old daughter as well as I wanted to be and needed help.
I contacted a therapist who specialized in perinatal anxiety/depression and loss and began weekly appointments with her around week 18. By week 21, I was discharged and felt incredibly better after a couple of EDMR sessions. If you have anxiety or trauma and haven’t found someone to help you with EDMR treatment, highly recommend. I was a little unsure if it would help me, but my therapist assured me she felt I would be a “quick treatment” and be able to process this trauma fairly quickly. She was correct.
It was very interesting what came up and why my lingering anxiety would NOT leave me alone just from the bleeding scares I had. So grateful to have found a therapist quickly and that we resolved my worries way faster than I expected!
Around this time, I also started to let myself get excited for the baby, which meant I started brainstorming the BABY NURSERY!
With my first daughter, I knew exactly what I wanted and how the room would look. I knew I didn’t want any pink, the room would be lilac/lavender and have some touches of baby elephants.
But with this second baby girl, I was at a loss. Really. As someone who doesn’t love pink, what other colors can you really do for a baby girl!?
All I did know, is throughout my IVF journey with this particular egg retrieval, transfer and waiting period, I saw a lot of deer. Deer kept appearing physically SUPER close to me when I would take walks, and even bunnies and other nature/animal life. I knew I wanted to incorporate that into the room in some way without it being a total woodland theme (those tend to lean either more boyish or very pink).
My other expecting friend told me about a company called Havenly that helps you design rooms/spaces based on your preferences, styles and budget. So I decided to work with them. This is NOT sponsored, I paid for the design services and any items for the room myself 😉
I LOVED my designer! She totally nailed the room for me without going too pink and too boyish. We were able to keep pieces I wanted to re-use from my older daughter, too. Everything she pieced together was perfection.
When you work with Havenly, after you finalize your design and layout, they give you shoppable links (and similar alternatives) to design your room. Obviously, your designers earns her commission this way. I have purchased many of the items she linked, but some things were just toooo pricey still and Havenly couldn’t link a cheaper alternative, so I would use the design as inspo for a better financial fit (e.g.: not buying $400 ceiling fans haha…). The good news is though, Havenly honors price matching if you find the item cheaper on another retailer they work with… and they honor coupon codes from retailers, plus they often run sales themselves on your purchases!
At the end of the day, the nursery leans more Boho-inspired with a slight woodland touch 😉 More to come on the final product soon in a separate blog post!
By this point, we completed the 20 week anatomy scan and I was feeling better about a lot of things. Even getting excited!
I also started struggling badly with acid indigestion/heartburn. I was feeling like I had burning pills stuck in my throat 24/7 and especially at night. Even sleeping with 4 pillows wasn’t helping. Neither was prescription Pepcid. I ended up being sent to a gastroenterologist to manage this and I’m now on prescription Prilosec and Pepcid every day. It’s about 75% improved (no more burning)… but I am counting down the days until this baby girl is born and this goes away (God willing)!
I also was really starting to show and needed to purchase a few more bump friendly pieces.
With my first pregnancy, I was giddy to buy maternity clothes and it was a novelty/fun. But wisdom starts working in your favor with second pregnancies and now I was determined to buy as little maternity clothes as possible and stick with things I can wear during and after.
This included basically LIVING in my three pairs of Vuori joggers (maybe even more than my leggings?!). I’m almost 29 weeks writing this and still wearing my pre-pregnancy size Vuori joggers. They’re so soft, lightweight, stretchy and stylish… especially if you are 5’5″ or shorter.
I also purchased the (pricey) Bumpsuit. But MY GOODNESS IT’S AMAZING. It’s a double lined, but buttery soft and ultra stretchy material full body jumpsuit. Meant to be worn both while pregnant and not, it’s a style staple that can be worn in so many ways. I swear the day I put this on, the stretchiness and softness relieved my indigestion immediately. It was so so comfortable I wanted to cry of happiness, haha. Since then, I ordered a second Bumpsuit in a romper/shorts style because I know I’ll be living in this in the spring/summer.
As for a couple essential maternity pieces, I scored the Abercrombie straight leg maternity jeans – which are A MUST if you are a newly pregnant mama trying to remain trendy/stylish in a world of florals, ruffles and just overall not flattering styles. Definitely get your true before pregnancy size/measurement, unless in between sizes (then size up just one).
I also still had/enjoy my maternity Old Navy Rockstar skinny jeans from my first pregnancy. They’re a great maternity jean, too, if you want a skinny and stretchy style.
I also picked up a three pack of the Bodily nursing bras. If you’re in between sizes, I’d size down. These are like a modal/cotton material and great if you have an average/smaller bust. I prefer their thinner straps compared to more traditional nursing bras, and the softer material (compared to that poly blend most are made of) is just dreamy!
Lastly, since it isn’t QUITE hot enough for sandals/flip flops yet but not cold enough for my winter boots, I picked up a pair of Birkenstock slip on dupes from Amazon. These are great for running errands and not having to be bending over and tying a pair of sneakers.
At this point, things have just been coasting along. Slowly purchasing pieces for the nursery, fixing up stuff around the house, and staying busy/active.
I do plan to write a separate skincare post soon (it’s already in drafts/half written), but there have been a couple beauty purchases made that I’m loving to enhance (fake?) the preggo glow! The DIBS stick in High Road Highlight has been on constant rotation every single day, as well as, these two blushes from Patrick Ta (She’s Blushing and She’s So LA). I actually wrote a blog post exclusively for these you can check out here, but … ESSENTIALS.
OH! I also finally was able to stop using Gummie vitamins and switch back to a tablet form. Somewhere along the way, I read that women who struggle with the indigestion the way I have may do better taking a whole food formulated vitamin (naturally, these are more expensive… because WHAT HAS BEEN EASY/AFFORDABLE FOR THESE IVF BABIES lol)… but settled on and have continued doing well with the Garden of Life Whole Food Once Daily Prenatal. I take it with dinner, alongside my preferred strawberry DHA.
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Ok, that wraps up the long and extensive Baby #2 Second Trimester Recap and Essentials! I hope if you’re just following along on my journey, this was interesting… and if you are also expecting, it was helpful 🙂
See you here soon with some pregnancy skincare updates AND the full nursery reveal!
-Steffanie
