I’m in the final stretch of pregnancy. Literally down the last 7 weeks. Which is nuts! I can’t believe I am in my third trimester, my body has completely transformed and I am nearing the end of this journey.
On one hand, of course I am excited to meet the little nugget growing inside me, but on the other I will be sad to be done with the pregnancy phase. I had such a positive journey, and I love how magnificent I feel and I even love the suspense of not knowing what #TUB looks like or what gender it is. There is excitement in that for sure. But of course I can’t wait until this babe is earth-side in my arms and I can see it’s sweet little face and smooch the heck out of it. We are so ready for this stage as I stated in this post, and couldn’t be more excited to expand our family.
To give you a bit of an overview of what took place during the second trimester, keep reading. We have also captured this in audio form on The Ultimate Health Podcast if you would prefer to listen to it. But for now, here is the lowdown for trimester two.
MY BODY
Of course the highlight for me was waiting for my belly to pop. This literally didn’t happen until about week 18. I felt like I was waiting forever to see a little bump surface in my lower abdomen. When it finally did, I felt huge (LOL). Well that is a small comparison to my belly today! Then at around 20 weeks, I could feel the baby kick and move. Such a surreal sensation, you can’t really describe unless you’ve been pregnant.
We’ve been soaking in every moment we can to feel and experience the movements which happen all day long but are more aggressive at night. We put our hands on my belly and talk to TUB and try and figure out what part of the body is where. The movements are a combination of hiccups, kicks, punches, rollovers and swipes.
I am also not opposed to people touching my belly to feel the baby. I find it comforting, however what I don’t like is tapping or patting my belly. That just gives me the creeps and weirds me out. So no tapping if you see my bump!
As for the ways I am taking care of and nourishing my skin, there is so much I am doing. I am very diligent about daily moisturizing with cacao butter based lotion from Joyous Health Body Butta. I am massaging my belly, my boobs and my thighs. This is hopefully going to prevent stetch marks, it seems to be working as I haven’t noticed any already.
I am also massaging my perineum ( the skin between my vagina and anus) with an olive oil salve from Olive in the Raw. I do this when I get out of the shower and at night. The goal of this is to stretch and soften the this tissue to prevent tearing during birth. Luckily I have nothing to lose by doing this.
Then I am also consuming collagen daily in a smoothie or elixir and I am making gelatin gummies (check out the recipe in my ebook A Real Treat) on the regular. In addition I also make bone broth quite frequently to ensure I am getting both of these key nutrients in my body. What both of these will do is help nourish my skin from the inside out. This is one best tips I can offer for keeping your body looking youthful and glowy.
Other changes in my body have come down to my breathing. I am out of breath ALL OF THE TIME. Even just sitting doing nothing. I feel the pressure in my upper chest and I find it hard to take a breath. So I not only do I have to take off my bra or anything restricting, but I have to take a slow deep inhale in and exhale out just to get back to baseline. I also get full from eating pretty fast despite how hungry I am, so I have to manage my portions. When we went on our baby moon to Mexico, I also felt the impact of the heat on my body. Not only did the weather have me more out of breath that usual, but my body was extremely swollen. Mostly in my ankles and feet, I just had to get off of them or put them up high to drain the fluid.
LEARNING & EDUCATION
There is no shortage of information one can take in during pregnancy. I have been pretty savvy, watching videos, reading books and just talking to so many people about their experiences. To give you the low down on what I am watching… The Mama Natural Birth Course, Love Your Labour and The Prenatal Classes from the Family Wellness Center. So Jesse and I have lots to keep us busy with on a weekly basis to get as prepared as possible.
In addition, the books I am currently reading are Birthing From Within, Ina May Gaskin Guide to Breastfeeding Real Food for Pregnancy.and Jesse is reading Dude Your Going to be a Dad & The Birth Partner.
We have also met with our doula, Jess. She came to the house to do a home visit and go through everything to expect and not expect with a home birth. So that was super interesting and we learned so much. In order to prepare for our home birth, I also booked a birth tub, as we are planning a water birth. Or at least a place for me to labour and relax.
We have also met without our midwife several times and things are progressing well. We have heard the heart rate a few times and had some palpating done to determine the position which has been an ongoing mystery. There is a chance this baby is breech right now at 33 weeks, but the good news is that I have time and apparently lots of space in my tummy. Praying for this babe to assume the right position soon!
I have decided to opt out of many of the tests and screenings that are recommended in the second and third trimester like the GBS and glucose tolerance test and any and all vaccines.
We have still held strong on not finding out the sex of TUB but it is getting harder and harder as the weeks progress. We are so excited to find out what we are having.
BODY WORK
I have been extremely consistent with the all the practitioners that I have been seeing. This includes everything from reiki every once in a while, to reflexology every other week and massage therapy every month. I have seen a pelvic floor specialist early in trimester one, and I got some great tips on how to strengthen my pelvic floor. These are exercises I can do daily.
I am also meditating as much as I can, doing regular exercise through online video courses such as Tracy Anderson, Glowing Mama Fitness (use code ultimate15 to save 15%) plus Jesse and I go on regular walks with Goji. I also do prenatal yoga and yin yoga and this has felt really good on my body.
FOOD AND NUTRITION
Now let’s talk food! My favourite thing to talk about and favourite thing to do, eat! To be honest, my diet hasn’t really changed all that much since becoming pregnant. I am eating the same foods I have always eaten and not really that much more. It is a total myth that you need to eat for two. What I say is “you need to nourish for two!”
You do not have to give into cravings for bad food, I haven’t had any cravings for foods beyond what I normally eat. I couldn’t imagine eating fast food or processed foods knowing that my baby was getting a taste of that too!
However, I will confess the only things I have been eating more of that is out of my norm is healthy chips. But I’m talking chips made by legit companies using real oils like coconut and avocado. Some of my faves have been Siete tortillas, Jackson’s Honest Sweet Potato Chips and Terra Plantain Chips, you can get all of these at Thrive Market.
Other than that, I have been focusing on these nourishing foods for the most part: avocado, dark leafy greens, pastured eggs, blueberries, sheep and goat yogurt kefir and cheese and homemade bone broth. I have also been upping my protein and red meat intake to boost up my iron stores.
I am drinking lots of red raspberry leaf tea to strengthen and tone my uterus, as the theory is that it can help shorten and reduce the intensity of labour. I am sipping on The Ultimate Baby Tea Trimester 2 and 3.
I am also enjoying a matcha latte 1-2 x per week, as I just love them. I am pretty cautious and careful overall with my caffeine intake, so this is pretty much all I consume. I had mentioned in our Trimester 1 episode that I cut caffeine out completely while trying to get pregnant and in the first trimester and I think this is still important to consider for fertility. But I believe you are more than okay to have “some” in moderation in the later stages of pregnancy.
As for supplements, I have been pretty consistent with my prenatal vitamins from Seeking Health, vitamin D, iron, fish oils, probiotics, vitamin C, beef liver, magnesium and K2.
When it comes to sleep, I have consistently been sleeping on my left side since the beginning with my side sleeper pillow and pregnancy pillow. I am thankfully not getting up too much at night to pee, but the odd time I do.
WHAT I AM WEARING
Back to my growing body, which also means I have been growing out of my clothing! I really didn’t want to have buy much for this time of physical transformation, but I opted to stock up on a few essentials from Thyme Maternity so I have them. Since my pregnancy is over the winter months, I needed a warm big coat and a few other outfits for events and parties. I kept my purchasing very simple and modest. Luckily I have tons of stretchy pants and cozy sweaters at home already that I have been able to stretch out over my pregnancy. What I love most is that I am literally rotating through 10 -15 pieces which makes it so easy and effortless to get ready in the morning! Also since we are in nesting mode, most days I can just wear cozies around the house.
THE NURSERY
Probably the most exciting part of the pregnancy is getting the nursery ready. We decided to register early on just to get an idea of what we needed and what the landscape looked like for “baby goods”. I can definitely see how new parents can get easily suckered into needing everything. We came close to that but really just stuck to the essentials. We’ve been fortunate enough to receive a few hand-me-downs from friends but we truly did have to start from scratch with things like our crib, stroller, gliding chair, car seat etc. Then of course all the items and accessories that come with a new born!
Thankfully we had our baby shower right at the beginning of the third trimester so this made it really easy to get some of these gifts. We registered at a local store called Three Lambs and we love that they source eco and non-toxic products and furniture. (Should you feel the desire to gift TUB a present, we still have some items on our registry just search under “Marni”).
I will be doing a full post on all that was on our registry in a few weeks!
So there you have it. A wrap up of trimester two with some of the details of what we have been going through. If you want to listen to this on The Ultimate Health Podcast then please click here!
Otherwise, be sure to follow along on instagram @marniwasserman to get daily and weekly updates of how I am doing and regular belly shots!
