2nd Trimester!

Today is the first day of my second trimester! It is almost bitter-sweet, like I'm passing a grand milestone. It makes my pregnancy more real, especially since I'm getting this pooch. A friend looked at me intently last Sunday and set "Yep, that's a pooch." But look at it now! I can not believe how much I popped this week. I don't know what little scooter is doing in there, but I just got huge this week. I actually didn't even know I was this big until Patrick took this picture a little bit ago. It shocked even me. I really didn't think I'd get so poochy so soon, but I do have a short torso, so maybe there is nowhere for it to go but out! But I love it, I think its just a precious pooch.



I want to share my first trimester maintenance. Through trial and error I found what worked for me to ease my discomfort (mainly nausea) and what I just had to live through. Week 5 was by far my worst since I had such a wicked cold just as I started to get really nauseous. Weeks 7-10ish was off and on for me, with a nagging constant dry queasiness that I just learned to live with. Weeks 11-13 have been mostly good with only 1 or 2 hard days. So here is my maintenance routine:

1) Drink tons of water! I aim for about 100 oz a day. Since my post on water in December, I'd say this is time tested now, and it is so true that not drinking enough water makes me feel worse the next day. Much worse.
2) Never (never, never) let myself get hungry. If I was actually hungry, then it was too late and I was already queasy. This led to eating every hour at least every two hours.
3) Consistently take ginger and alfalfa supplements. I take the lowest recommended dose on the bottle. My midwife even told me to keep taking the alfalfa all throughout pregnancy because it is so good for you (and will produce "copious amounts of breast milk").
4) During Week 5 when the nausea was really bad I drank a ginger tea consisting of concentrated ginger drops in hot water. This helped a lot, but soon I equated ginger with nausea and I still hate even the smell of ginger.
5) Ginger candies. I got these at my local natural pharmacy. They helped with the dry queasiness.
6) Always eat before going to sleep, which prevented me from waking up feeling too nauseous.
7) My husband makes me breakfast every morning and brings it to me in bed. I eat before I do anything else, even before I get up to pee.

I hope, well, that a) a new mom finds my list and 2) that some of the things may work for her!