(Has anyone seen The Last Jedi? I was excited at first when I saw the trailers, because I wanted to see more of Luke, but I’ve been reading a few spoilers and reviews, and I’m not too impressed…I’ll wait for it to come out on Netflix)

The Saga Continues…

🤰🏻By 15 weeks in, everyone I knew, IRL and on social media, had been informed about my pregnancy. I was officially one of those girls you knew from high school getting pregnant on purpose. I was doing a lot better in the nausea territory, aside from feeling like I was running on E all of the time ⛽️⬇️💤
I
reading that the second trimester was supposed to be the “honeymoon trimester,” meaning that this three-month period was typically when you felt your best (at least, the best you can incubating a small being), and even experience a resurgence of energy. This was not so much the case for me 😪

I felt just like I did in the first trimester, as far as fatigue goes, if not even more tired, especially as the pregnancy progressed. I literally felt like my baby was siphoning the life right out of me via his umbilical cord 🧟‍♀️
Also, m
as beginning to make his presence known by reenacting Rick James on Charlie Murphy’s couch on my bladder…

I was definitely feeling more pregnant, but I didn’t feel like I was looking it, at least early in my second trimester. I kept looking up when to expect seeing a bump, because mine didn’t seem to be coming in.
At my 1
appointment, I mentioned this to my OB GYN, as I was concerned that my baby wasn’t growing, and she gently explained to me that since I’m on the taller side (I’m 5’8″), and had a longer torso, that I might look smaller this time around, as I had more room to grow. She also told me that all of my organs would be shifting upward to accommodate, which eeped me out a little bit, but the things we do for our babies, right? 😌💞
Speaking
s being shifted up, the second trimester was full of a lot of growing pains. Literally. 🤕 I went through a period of time when I thought that I had gallbladder issues, as my ribs were on fire for a good few weeks there. I learned from the NP that I had seen initially, after a blood test to rule out cholestasis, explained that what I was experiencing must have been intercostal pain, or discomfort in the muscles between my ribs as my ribcage expanded to make room for my expanding uterus. Everything just needed more room to grow 🌱➡️🌳
Aside from al
s, I was going into my second three months with pinchy, stretching, almost Charlie-horse-like pains in my sides. Naturally I was concerned, but I learned that this was round ligament pain as my abdominal muscles needed to expand to make room for baby. Pretty much my Uterus was saying “Move, b**ch, get out the way!” to all of my organs, muscles, and such.

This bothered me for a couple of weeks leading up to week 20, and then would really only act up as I tried to go for walks in the cemetery across from my apartment complex. I’d grit my teeth and walk through the pain for the most part, stopping occasionally to stretch it out, and eventually it would subside.

Gender Reveal and Anatomy Scan

Until now, I had been referring to our little one as, “Vinilli”, an amalgamation of the prospective names we had picked out for our first born. On March 24th, 2017, my husband and I made our way to the 19 week anatomy scan to find out if we would be calling our little mango baby “Vinny,” for Ramon Bienvenido Ruiz (named after my husband’s father and Abuelo), or “Lilli,” for Lillian Elizabeth Ruiz (first name for my great-grandmother, and middle name for my mother-in-law)

The night before this visit, though, I had a dream about our little one. In my dream, my husband and I, and our baby, aged up to about 1 and a half, were at Mack’s Apples, an apple orchard and flagship landmark of our little hometown. There was a fair going on, and a friend of ours had gotten hurt, so I rushed to help him. In the process, however, my baby had gone missing…the rest of the dream was my husband and I looking for our missing progeny using Pokemon Go, reuniting with our little one, and then suddenly popping up at the grocery store, cursing out Shia LeBeouf for driving his go-cart too fast through the parking lot… 😅

👶🏼All of this to say, I had a dream the night before that our baby was a boy. It was so vivid and real (the part regarding our baby, not Shia. Although, I can’t say it would surprise me if he did something like this IRL) that I wrote all of this down in my phone so I would remember it. And so while I was at our appointment, my arm linked with my husband’s, eyes glued to the sonogram screen, I sat breathlessly waiting for the technician to mention the gender.

My heart skipped a beat when the ultrasound technician confirmed that we would, indeed, be calling our baby Vinny. I guess dreams have a way of coming true.

💙Somehow I had always known in my heart that my first child would be a boy. I looked at my husband in my peripheral, his eyes gleaming, staring at our little boy on the screen. He looked at me, and smiled, the shine of the screen reflecting from his eyes. I returned his gesture with a nervous grin. I kept staring at the tiny baby, stretching and jabbing from within me. I kept waiting for tears of joy to run down my face, but they did not come. I just stared at the screen, feeling overwhelming love and terror–I couldn’t wait to hold him, and yet I was so afraid of not being what he needed…I watched him continue to wriggle, praying that he’d be healthy, and that I would be able to be the Mom he needs and the Mom he deserves 👩‍👦💞

The technician continued taking pictures of all of the vital anatomy, the screen pausing for brief seconds at a time as she did so. When she stopped on our son’s still developing face, he looked a lot like Skeletor 💀 because at this point, babies haven’t really started putting on that baby fat that makes them cute yet, so his face looked a little sp00py, a face only mommy and daddy could love. But love him we did.

We were happy to learn that our boy was healthy as could be, and left the appointment to slowly reveal the news to our family and closest friends. I decided that I wanted to keep it a surprise for extended family and our outer circle, and have a gender reveal baby shower (I’ll talk more about my arcade/retro gaming themed shower in the next blog)! This drove my Facebook friends nuts, and I kind of loved it 😂🤣

I had also begun taking lots more pictures once I finally discovered my bump at 20 weeks in.

Just sat down after work and there it was

We’re all dressed up and ready for our friends’ wedding–21 weeks

Found an ancient computer system at Sears–but dat bump, tho–20 weeks

Starting to pop out a little–23 weeks

Getting ready for Taco De Mayo with some friends–25 weeks

🦋I started vaguely feeling little flutters, like gas bubbles popping inside my belly, probably close to 19 weeks, and definitely felt stronger little nudges around 21 weeks. I was able to actually feel definitive movement, and even sort of see it through my skin (so creepy 😨👾 but so wonderful at the same time🤩💖) towards the end of my second trimester, and my husband was able to feel his movement right around 25 weeks. I can’t forget how his face lit up and his eyes glistened when he felt his tiny son respond to his hand over my belly 😍😭💏

The only other major symptom I experienced in the second leg of my pregnancy journey was heartburn ❤️🔥 I had never before in my life had heartburn, and to anyone who experiences it on a fairly regular basis, I am so sorry 😰 It was like I was breathing fire 🐲 it hurt so much. Everyone I mentioned this to said that this was because my baby was going to have a lot of hair. I silently wondered if I was gestating a human baby or a wookie…

👗During this time I had also discovered and had fallen madly, head-over-heels in love with consignment shopping! I found the most adorable consignment store that sells maternity clothes in Amherst, New Hampshire. This place is e v e r y t h i n g 🤩😍 It’s all about repurposing ♻️ environmental friendly products 🌎 and local business 👨‍🌾 I was able to find my whole summer wardrobe for around $75 (including two new maternity shirts I’d ordered on sale from this adorable site,  PinkBlush which I currently use)! This was such a blessing because being in the third trimester over the summer is rough…but I’ll tell you more about that next time! ☀️😩💦😵

Second Trimester Hax

So I didn’t really have as hard of a time during my second trimester as I did in the first. So I only have a few tips here. Hope this helps!

😴Fatigue: Despite this being the honeymoon trimester, and most sources saying you might have a resurgence of energy during these few months, I felt almost as tired as I did the first trimester, if not more so. I would literally be falling asleep on customers over the phone, and barely be able to hold conversations without dozing off. But there were times when I needed to get it together and pay attention. When I needed an extra boost, I would get a decaf iced coffee. Decaf actually still has traces of caffeine in it, and as someone very sensitive to caffeine, was usually enough of a boost for me prior to becoming pregnant. Plus just having a coffee in my hands was enough of a placebo effect to make me believe I had more energy. I would also do some stretches, or take a brief walk outside around my office building to get the blood flowing so I had a couple more hours of focus ☕️ 🏃🏻‍♀️ 🧘🏻‍♀️

🔥Heartburn: When I had my cholestasis scare, the OB I saw at the time suggested that heartburn could have been the cause of my upper abdominal discomfort in addition to the intercostal expansion. He told me I could take some off-brand Zantac to relieve this. I didn’t want to rely on this, but a couple of pills did get the job done. I would drink a ton of water after two of them and just lay on my side and wait for the fire to be put out. Consult your OB if you think this might be what you need. I didn’t try too many homeopathic remedies like I usually do, but this is what really helped so I stuck with it ❄️

🤕Round Ligament Pain: I was lucky enough that my RLP wasn’t super debilitating like it is for some women. For me, walking it off was usually enough to help with the pain. What I would do was put my hands on my hips and kind of move them in a semi-circle as I was walking to stretch out the sides of my lower abdomen and give me a little bit of relief until the pain subsided. Of course, this may not be enough for some of you littler ladies who don’t have as much room to grow. For more tips on how to deal with Severe RLP, visit my sister-in-law at Becoming Rivera, as she can give you the lowdown on this brutality 😔

What I Wish I’d Done Differently

💪🏼Work out more. Just like in my first trimester, I wish I had found a workout routine that I stuck with. I wasn’t in the best shape in my third trimester. I was very much mobile, and I didn’t have any health problems, but I just felt uncomfortable and like nothing fit (which I know is to be expected, but…). Again, I feel like if I worked out even just a little my stamina and balance would have been better towards the end.

🍎Eat healthier: I did pretty well with this for a while, but towards the third trimester, I got insatiable, and all I wanted was salt. I pretty much subsisted exclusively on pickles (I know, basic af), cheese, peanut butter, and taco bell for a brief stint 😋 This was because I was starting to get depressed and sought comfort food. However, this just kind of made me bloat and exacerbated my heartburn (though I was in denial because diablo sauce is seriously everything, tho 🤤), and just wasn’t good for me, especially because I was a slacker when it came to drinking my water most days. Pretty much, I wish I’d been better about getting my 64 ounces of good old H2O and gotten some more veggies in there 💧🥗

☔️Had my baby shower. I know that most people don’t have their baby showers until their third trimester, but my whole third took place in the summer months, and I was pretty swollen, uncomfortable, and just plain didn’t feel attractive. I ended up having my baby shower a little over three weeks before I had my actual baby. I was so sweaty and swollen. I feel like I would have been a lot more comfortable if I’d had my shower at the end of the second trimester instead of waiting until the third. Of course, when you have your shower is completely up to you, but I feel like I might have enjoyed myself a little bit more if I’d had mine a bit earlier. But if any of you ladies are going to be due in the summer, it might be a good idea to consider having your showers a bit earlier 🌦

So that was my second trimester! How many of you are enjoying the honeymoon stage? What symptoms are you experiencing? Hang in there! Not too much longer! ❤️❤️❤️

Thanks for reading, my gals (and d00ds)! Stay tuned for my third trimester stories, labor and delivery, and more! I promise we’ll get into the upcycling and mom hax soon! 😘😘