The second trimester of pregnancy is probably the easiest. Thankfully my migraines had started to finally ease off a bit and the morning sickness was at last getting less and less. By the way "morning" sickness is a myth, it can strike at any time of day. The worst thing for me was tea, it just started tasting wrong! Anyone who knows me knows I NEED caffeine or I simply don't function and I end up like a bear with a sore head. I like a nice cup of black earl grey and the only way I could stomach it was putting two spoonfuls of demerera sugar in it! Someone offered me a tea with milk in it when I was about a month pregnant and the smell alone made me sick.
Thankfully by week 13 my head and stomach had stopped giving me such a hard time. The second trimester is when the next amazing thing happens - you get kicked!
I thought it was indigestion the first few times. It was an odd sensation, not dissimilar to the mild discomfort that tends to herald an IBS attack. It was only a bit later that I realised it wasn't as I usually felt those sensations far to the left or right of my abdomen and this had been much more central.
I was lying on the sofa when I felt it for sure. I was seventeen weeks pregnant and I happened to have my hand resting on my belly at just the right moment when he decided to kick me. It's strange, despite my increasing waist size and the magical 12 week scan, it was only now it began to feel real. I send Andy a message to let him know what was happening. Later that day, Joseph rewarded Andy with a most definite and strong kick.
At week 20 you get your second scan. This is where you find out important things like the general health of the baby and the sex. I wanted to know, I really wanted to know! Why not? I wanted to pick a name for my baby, so I could say "Him" or "Joseph" rather than "them" or the horrible "it". We were told we had a boy and my baby turned from a mystery into a real person - Joseph Andrew Card.
On the day of my 20 week scan there was a heart specialist doing the rounds and she wanted to look in on our scan, which I was quite happy about. This meant we got quite a long time looking at Joseph's heart in close detail and it was incredibly fascinating, seeing all four chambers, the valves flicking away and the blood flowing through.
They check all over for potential problems, they even take a look up his nose to check for cleft lip and palate! All the while, Joseph was having a good old wiggle and kick, just to make it difficult! He hasn't changed.
Oh, and you have to give your employer your MATB1 form to prove you are pregnant, as if the increasingly swollen belly wasn't enough of a clue. There's something about pregnancy and ever increasing piles of paperwork.
It's also around now that your bump really starts to show, although I kept getting accused of being too small, something my midwife refuted. I had a "perfect" bump, according to her, just the right size! It was my strong abdominal muscles, she told me, holding it all so neatly in place.
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