I'm back with another trimester recap, this time a couple weeks early (I'm 25 weeks as of yesterday but couldn't wait to share this kind of long post with you guys)! The second trimester has been interesting because I finally feel pregnant, which sometimes means I feel completely normal (plus 20 pounds) and other days I can barely get out of bed.

Cravings:

• mac and cheese (I would buy the gluten-free boxed junk from the store and it was great)

• breakfast sandwiches (especially sausage egg and cheese on an everything bagel with mayo or GF toast with egg and cheese and mayo--seriously, it was mostly about the mayo)

• rice cakes with cream cheese and Everything But the Bagel Seasoning or some mayo and sliced tomato

• McDonalds...I would get a "You Pick Two" like once a week. My go-to order is a McChicken and a McDouble. So gross but so incredibly good.

• milkshakes or vanilla soft serve

• really cold ice water--I'm talking more ice than water in the glass

• hash browns

• Greek food

• peaches and watermelon

• "5 year old dinners" ie cheesy burger skillet things over GF noodles, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, or GF pasta with butter and parmesan

• I made a reservation at 10PM from bed on my phone one night to go to Benihana later that week and dreamed of hibachi

Symptoms/Week-by-Week:

• Started experiencing what's called round ligament pain as my lower abs started expanding.

• Tailbone pain--so bad that I would sometimes gasp a little when I rocked back on the floor at the barre studio.

• I think I might have some slight ab separation but I'm not 100% sure.

• Headaches

• Heartburn

• My hips are starting to hurt--when I walk or stretch I can hear and feel them creaking/popping. I've read that it's from hormones that release to open up your joints and get your body ready for labor and delivery, which is pretty freaky if you think about it, but I'll take all the help I can get!

• My skin has never looked worse--my nose and chin are breaking out like crazy into this rash that's half acne, half just dryness and irritation. It's gross and it kind of hurts and I'm not sure if it's because of hormones or a new face wash I was using or because I'm eating a lot more dairy than usual. My lips also feel really dry (especially the bottom one) and I can't seem to drink enough water or use enough lip balm.

I was so excited about the second trimester because I had heard so many things about being less nauseated and having more energy, but on day 1 of week 12 exactly I started throwing up, which was kind of frustrating--I was really hoping to feel better and stop eating so much junk food. Before that point I had been really nauseated but only actually puked if I coughed too hard or accidentally gagged while brushing my teeth...cute, I know. But suddenly I was so nauseated that I would just vomit. Finally around week 21 the nausea passed, but my cravings went from "I have to eat this hash brown or I'll throw up" to "I want to eat this hash brown/McChicken/ice cream cone and I'm not throwing up so let's do it!" 

Week 16-17 I started feeling the baby move. It felt like a tiny twitch at first and I thought I was making it up, but after a few weeks it was getting stronger and happening at the same time every day. I think it was around week 21 that we could start seeing the kicks from the outside and Rob was able to finally feel them with his hand on my belly. So fun.

20 weeks we found out it's a girl!

At 22 weeks I wondered if pregnancy brain was a real thing because I totally blanked out twice in one day teaching Pure Barre classes. It was pretty funny but also quite embarrasing.

Around 24 weeks I felt like I finally wasn't sick at all and hadn't been for a while, most days my energy levels were normal, and I could start eating whatever I wanted, so I started cutting out some of the processed junk I had made part of my diet every day. I'm nothing close to keto but definitely taking a step closer to Paleo--I'm trying to incorporate some greens into every meal and cut back significantly on the McDonald's.

Exercise: 

I'm still taking Pure Barre 3-4 times a week and walking Ender almost every day. I was teaching 8 classes at the studio every week in July which felt like a lot but now I'm teaching 4, which is a nice break and gives me more time to actually take class myself. I feel like I want to start swimming because lately I've been missing running but I don't think I should start that now. We're coming out with a new cardio class at Pure Barre so I've been taking practice classes with some of my teacher friends and I'm excited for that to launch next week. We're thinking about buying an erg so I can start rowing after the baby comes--Rob goes to the gym at work and he's been rowing a bit as well, so it'd be fun to have one at home.

Other Stuff:

• We decided to use Babylist for our registry, and it's been really fun--I like that you can pick stuff from anywhere online. You don't get the perks of registering from certain stores, but the flexibility has been really great for us.

• I got a Snoogle (affiliate link) and it's the best. Ender is also obsessed with it and sometimes I come into my room and find him napping in it.

• My belly button is starting to pop out and it's bizarre and hilarious.

• One night I randomly started thinking about our daughter going to college and Ender not being alive anymore and I totally lost my shit, sobbing into my pillow like a little kid. It was ridiculous.

• I bought this dress (affiliate link) for my baby shower and I love it so much. It's so different from a lot of the stuff I wear (ie neutrals), but the print is gorgeous and it's really flattering on. I can't wait to wear it.

• I got a prenatal massage the other day because my back was bothering me and it was pretty enjoyable--I felt like the pressure wasn't enough but the massage therapist was very adamant about staying away from pressure points and stuff like that, which I guess makes sense.

• We know what names we like but can't seem to pick one--I actually think we might narrow it down to two or three names and then wait until she's actually here to pick something. With 15 weeks to go I feel like I could change my mind so many times that naming her now doesn't even mean anything yet.

• I still want a cold turkey sandwich more than anything. I started making grilled cheese sandwiches with hot turkey but it's just not the same.

• The hardest thing to get used to is having what I've started calling "throwaway days" where I'm either too tired or just don't feel well enough to get much done. I'll feel really good for a while and then be kind of thrown off when I wake up groggy or achey. Working primarily from home can be a challenge, especially when you have a headache or just want to eat some popcorn and watch TV all afternoon. Sometimes I'll set my alarm for a 30 minute nap and wake up an hour and a half later like a zombie. I'm trying to learn to give myself a little bit of a break and rest when I need to, even if it means my to-do list gets pushed back a few days. Teaching, blogging, and working on another cookbook definitely keeps me busy and I have a bad habit of biting off more than I can chew sometimes because a lot of the time throughout the year I feel like I'm not doing enough professionally, so I try to make up for it whenever I can, whether I'm also growing a human or not.

As always, let me know if you have questions or comments! I'd love to hear from you if you've had a similar (or totally different) experience!

I promise not to make this blog entirely about my pregnancy, but I've really enjoyed reading a few posts from other bloggers about theirs, so I hope you'll indulge me as I share a few details about my first trimester! I'm almost 19 weeks now but started taking notes as soon as I began feeling changes in my body--I want to be able to look back on this time and remember it well!

Cravings:

• lemon La Croix

• green juice

• acai bowls

• yogurt, especially lemon or peach

• Chinese food of any kind

• everything bagels with lots of cream cheese

• chicken tenders or nuggets

I was mostly excited about my cravings at first because for a few weeks, they were pretty healthy: fresh fruit, lots of sparkling water, green juice, and smoothies. This was in March and the weather was getting really nice and I thought it would be so easy to eat really well throughout my whole pregnancy.

Then week 8 hit me and I started getting super nauseated--all I wanted/could stomach was carbs. Noodles, toast, crackers, rice--you name it, I wanted it. Rob made hot dogs on the grill one night (one of my favorite dinners) and I couldn't even be near them. That evening I had Cheetos, an orange, and ginger ale for dinner. Luckily I wasn't actually throwing up (yet) so I could usually drink some soda and have a few crackers and it would subside enough for me to continue with my day as planned.

Symptoms:

• so sleepy--I took a nap every day at 2PM whether I wanted to or not

• my boobs grew immediately and really hurt (this was the first thing I noticed and the thing that made me wonder if I was pregnant in the first place--it was probably only at 4-5 weeks.)

• I think I peed every 25 minutes for several weeks

• had some cramps that freaked me out at first but then read were normal at the beginning

• started feeling nauseated around week 8

Exercise:

• I was still going to barre 4-5 days a week, and tried to incorporate Platform (Pure Barre's extremely difficult version of a cardio class) once a week. My nausea was really intermittent at first, which was great because I was able to work out regularly for a really long time, and I found that even if I did feel nauseated before class, once I started moving I would feel a lot better. I even went to Pure Barre teacher training in Colorado during week 9 and felt pretty good!

• Ender and I walk at least a half hour almost every day, so even if I don't get to the studio for a workout we're at least getting up and doing some exercise very regularly.

Things I Thought I Would Miss But Didn't:

• Caffeine: I knew I would miss coffee but I thought switching to decaf wouldn't be satisfying. Turns out I don't need caffeine as much as I thought I did and really just like the flavor and ritual (although let's face it, decaf doesn't taste as good as regular). I was also doing some tea, and after a few weeks the smell of hot coffee really grossed me out so some chai or Earl Grey in the morning was exactly what I wanted.

• Poke Bowls: I surprisingly haven't been eating much sushi since we moved to California, but I did have an almost-weekly poke bowl habit. Lucky for me, the thought of raw fish those first twelve weeks didn't sound appetizing at all and I didn't miss it one bit. (Ask me about it again now though, I dream about them daily!)

Things I Didn't Think I'd Miss But Did:

• Lunchmeat: Deli turkey is kind of my go-to lunch and snack thing, and I didn't realize how much I loved it until I couldn't have it anymore. I love it in a lettuce wrap, on a rice cake with a bit of mayo, even just on its own. You can heat up deli meat to a certain point and then it's safe to eat during pregnancy, but since I don't really eat bread, a hot turkey sandwich just didn't sound good (and sort of defeats the purpose of a lettuce wrap or open-faced rice cake sandwich to me). I keep saying that all I want is a cold deli turkey sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayo and Rob laughs at me, saying I'm going to overhype it and be disappointed when I finally get it; it's become such a thing that now my brother jokes that he's going to order me something from Jimmy John's and have it delivered at the hospital as soon as we let him know I'm in labor. (He better not forget.)

Weirdest Thing I've Eaten So Far: a frozen Indian dinner from Trader Joe's...for breakfast.

Silliest Thing I Googled: "Can you go trampolining while pregnant?" 

Feelings: 

• Wanting to tell people but also wanting to wait. We felt like it was too soon, but when we went to Charlotte in April I was 8 weeks and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to tell some of our friends in person.

• Not actually feeling pregnant and wondering if it was all a misunderstanding.

• Feeling guilty because it happened very easily for us and we have so many friends who have struggled to get pregnant.

• Being excited but also scared because we're on the opposite side of the country from my mom and friends. I would love to be in Charlotte for this.

• I was cautiously optimistic at 4 weeks when I found out, then got really excited for a few weeks, and then at 7 weeks I felt this completely overwhelmed sense of "holy shit, now what?"

• This cosmic sense of returning or "meant to be" because I was also born here in the Bay Area.

Other Stuff:

• My friend Shawna sent me a Bump Box (it's like Birch Box but with pregnancy stuff) and it was so sweet of her. There were these little hard candies called Preggie Pop Drops and they helped so much with nausea. It was such a nice gift and I would totally send it to a pregnant friend.

That's all for now! Let me know if you have any questions! Looking forward to sharing a few more posts like this with you in the future, and I'd love to hear from you if you've had similar (or different!) experiences.