Pregnancy 2.0: the Second Trimester

The beginning of the second trimester for me, meant bye-bye exhaustion, hello teeniest of bumps!

Ready to work out... no photo is complete without a Maui photobomb

I think a lot of women enjoy their second trimester the most cos generally the nausea and exhaustion is gone by this stage and you're not uncomfortably huge yet. Also, you get to feel the baby's movements for the first time (closer to 20 week mark). Not to mention, you finally get to announce to every Tom, Dick and Harry that you're expecting! 

AND if you're finding out the gender at the anatomy scan, you can start buying more gender-specific stuff... I dunno, there's just so much to be excited about in this trimester!! 

I continued to go to dance fitness once a week and the only weird craving I had was for fresh sandwiches; lots of mesclun, tomatoes, onions, carrots, cucumbers, gherkins... so weird for such a junk-foodie like me! But I'm sure the baby appreciated it :) (Especially after pretty much only demo-ing sugar and carbs in the first trimester...)

Omnomnom!

The only major differences I've had in this pregnancy is back pain during my first trimester (none last time), very minimal acne this time (vs craters on my face, chest and back last time, esp once I hit half way), cramping in my feet and calves on the odd occasion (none at all last time) and no swelling this time (I had swollen ankles one evening last time lol). 

I grew a lot faster than I did last time but I still have a small bump overall - I think baby likes to be right up in my ribs. It makes sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time very uncomfortable - often at the end of the day, I can't stand to be sitting up at all and need to be lying down on the couch and I try to lengthen my body as much as humanly possible!

At our 20 week scan we found out we were having another boy! Yep, I was disappointed initially cos we want to stop at 2, but since then I've done a complete 180 and now I can't imagine how disappointed I'd be if I gave birth and a girl popped out lmao. Hormones man.

Now the bump progression!

Still not much at 17 weeks

18 weeks - the little plastic doll is apparently how long the baby is at this stage, almost 14cm :)

19 weeks

20 weeks - half way!

22 weeks

Front on, you can't really make out the 22 week bump!

23 weeks

24 weeks

26 weeks

Next up is the final trimester... we are so close to the end now I can feel it! (Or is just the beginning?? ;P )

Pregnancy 2.0: the First Trimester...

This post takes me waaay back to the end of last year, beginning of this year. That's not that long ago right? WRONG. It's August now - I have to keep reminding myself! No, it's not May or June, it's freakin' August yo.

Anywho. So we found out we were expecting 2.0 just after Christmas - I had a weeeird feeling, but I wasn't keeping track, nor were we making any 'proper' concerted effort to conceive... I didn't think I was technically 'late' but took a test anyway.

Well shet.

It wasn't all that hard to keep the pregnancy a secret from friends and extended family as we were away on holiday and by the time we had settled back into our usual schedule, I was about 10 weeks anyway and I wasn't feeling too precious about keeping it a secret anymore.

I had an additional scan at 10 weeks to confirm my dates. Then I was back again at 12-13 weeks for our first proper scan. Wow what a difference 2 weeks makes! Baby went from being a tiny little bean with a heartbeat and wee stubs as limbs, floating in a massive bubble, to an actual human baby with toes and fingers and everything!

10 weeks vs 13 weeks

Symptoms-wise, there was no morning sickness or nausea, but extreme exhaustion set in at around the 7 or 8 week mark til I hit around week 14 - so much like my last pregnancy! This time round was obviously harder cos I had my toddler to run around after, but I did my best to catch as much couch time as possible.

For a couple months before getting pregnant, I was running twice a week and doing dance fitness twice a week but the moment that tiredness hit, I cut it back to only going to dance fitness just once a week. 

Running every other day while on holiday in the North Island - when you're on the beach, it's hard not to enjoy the run!

Also, I somewhat pulled my back at the start of December and it went it away for a few weeks but when I first found out I was pregnant it got mega sore again and didn't disappear til I reached my 2nd trimester. Even driving for more than 10 minutes at a time would aggravate it. For a while there I was concerned that it was just gonna hang around til the very end of my pregnancy and leave with a bang (like back labour again) but thankfully it just went away quietly at the end of the first trimester!

Bump-wise, nothing really happened but my pants did start feeling a teeny bit snug towards the end and I felt rather bloated, but nothing majorly noticeable... 

The beginnings of a baby bump or just pizza? (12 weeks)

A few items I bought from the Sleep Store - you know, in case the Master isn't keen on sharing his swaddles...

Kept up with drinking healthy juices all summer long - to health!

No weird cravings, no weird dreams, nothing really to report at all! 

Nursing Cover 'Tutorial'

As I mentioned in this post, I was supposed to post my wee 'tutorial' on how I made my nursing cover. There's not much to it but here it is anyhow!

Here's the inspiration:

Dria Cover - The Mama Maven

I wanted to buy the real deal and save myself from making one as I was busy in the middle of creating the Master's nursery (which was a crash-makeover done in under a month), but alas, I don't think they even ship to little ol' New Zealand. Boo.

I did look at buying other nursing covers but for some reason they all look like aprons and even the tutorials online for making nursing covers are all of the apron variety. No, I wanted something that could pass as a regular top. And the bonus of this particular nursing cover is that it covers all around the back so there's no fear of accidentally exposing some back muffin top sweetness.

Double bonus: it's multi-purpose, so you can you use it as a stroller cover or capsule cover as well.

Materials:

• stretchy lightweight knit fabric (I bought 1.5m from Lincraft - see pic below)
• sewing machine
• thread to match
• tape measure or super wicked long ruler
• sharp scissors that haven't been near sticky tape
• pins - a crap load

Same range of fabric just different colour to mine (which is grey)

Instructions:

The best way to describe this poncho nursing cover thing is that it's a big ass rectangle with a neck hole in the middle. 

The End.

Just kidding. Here's a helpful little picture I whipped up Paint. If you couldn't tell, I'm Picasso reincarnated. 

Sorry if it's a little hard to read - just click on it and BOOM it'll be big. 

As for the raw edges, I just roared through it with my little Singer sewing machine. If you've got some fabric scraps left, I highly suggest you do a practise run. 

Put the setting to zigzag (a MUST when you're working with stretchy fabric - otherwise there's no give), fiddle with the stitch length as well as the width. Keep running it through until you hit the magic combination. Stretchy fabrics are notoriously difficult to work with, but I found it ridiculously easy once I'd found my sweet spot with the combination. It took me 1 minute max to figure out what worked well for my fabric and I ended up whizzing around all the raw edges in no time. 

Just fold the edges over a little, pin down and whiz through. 

Yup. My sewing skills are totally pro. Of course I read the instruction manual what are you talking about. o_o;;

Anyway, lousy finished product photos!!

Tada!

Almost 6 months preggo here - seriously tiny baby bump

Here it is on the capsule - because it's stretchy, you can tie it up!

I wrote about our Maxi-Cosi capsule and how handy it was for us during the infancy stage in this post. (And actually it would have been handy if I'd used this pic for that post! I only just found this deep in the dusty crevices of old Picasa collages).

Sadly, the master refused to nurse so I can't speak from experience about it's nursing-covering abilities BUT I did use it when the Master went through a particularly bad growth spurt and the only way I could get him to nap was to carry him for the entirety of the nap. The cover helped block out visual distractions while he tried to sleep. (This is before we read that when sleep regression happens, you've just gotta enforce nap times no matter the amount of screaming - within reason of course). 

Sleeping bub

Hangin' from his sling - my arms got too sore carrying him so the sling was awesome

View from the top

As for how this performed in the wash, I just threw it in a delicates wash bag and let it go for a quick 30min cold wash and let it line dry (despite the fabric instructions. I'm a rebel!).

And as for how I got the small fart to go back to napping at his usual times, I just put him down, tucked him in, ignored the screaming for 30mins, went back in, picked him up and consoled him. Rinse and repeat. If after 1.5hrs he was still up, I just brought him downstairs to try again for the next nap. After just 1.5 days, he went back to napping no probs. It may have helped that I'd previously done sleep-training with him twice before. So this was our 2nd refresher course.

His sleep pattern has changed once again since (rises later in the morning, later naps that are shorter) but it was nowhere near as difficult as that sleep regression phase. He still goes down happily and lies in his crib till he falls asleep. Or if he's not tired, he just plays in his crib until I get him. 

(Every baby is different. I personally chose a more 'tough love' approach, but don't let others tell you what to do. You know your baby best, you do what suits you and your baby best!).

A.V.

Maternity Wear: Old OOTDs & Baby Bump Progression

These are a bunch of super old OOTD shots from 2 years back when I was preggo (I'm not sure of exact dates till the last few shots sorry).

8 weeks roughly (almost 2 months)
Warehouse merino sweater, Jeans West jeans, Witchery necklace

13 weeks roughly (3 months, end of first trimester)
Country Road top, Cotton On belt, cheapo jeans from Korea, Michael Kors watch, Belle Noel bangle

19 weeks
Wish dress, Glassons cardigan, Cotton On belt, Belle Noel bangle

21 weeks (4.5 months-ish)
Kmart tank top, Jeans West jeans, Witchery jacket, Alexander McQueen scarf, MK watch, Belle Noel bangle

22 weeks roughly
Witchery silk shirt, Jeans West jeans, MK watch, Belle Noel bangle

24 weeks roughly (5 months-ish)
Country Road colour-block dress

30 weeks (6.5 months-ish, in the last trimester) - deceptive angle btw
Just Jeans sequin top, Cotton On (men's) chambray, Pumpkin Patch jeans

34 weeks
Temt top (XL), Esprit shorts

37 weeks (8 months-ish)
ASOS dress, plaited trim from Lincraft worn as belt lol

38 weeks
Supre tank top, Pumpkin Patch skirt, Witchery silk tank

39 weeks
Supre tank top, Zara tank layered on top, Pumpkin Patch skirt

40 weeks (9 months)
Mango cowl neck top, Pumpkin Patch

Hehe. My OOTDs weren't that inspiring back then (especially towards the end where it was the peak of summer and I could only bear to wear a skirt and some tank tops) but that aside, Memory Lane's sure a funny thing. It's funny thinking that the toddler that runs around right now, demanding my attention and squawking and doing all sorts of adorable things, was just a lil bun back then. Just a squishy lil nugget, growing in my belly.

Anyway. I remember when I got pregnant I was super excited about all the maternity clothes I could wear, but actually, most of the time, I just wore my normal clothes. My belly didn't grow as fast or as large as I expected it would... every woman is different, but I noticed as a whole, most first time mummies don't get a noticeable baby bump until at least 20 weeks. I remember trying to justify myself to people, "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant, I swear!!" Kind of annoying when it's not a 'proper' bump and just extra squishy-ness.

That top I'm wearing in that last shot, that's no maternity top; just an ordinary cowl neck top I got in Nice the year before. In fact, almost all the tops I'm wearing in the above photos are ordinary tops - bar the first photo with the black sweater and the white tank top where I'm 21 weeks (the navy striped Temt top was just a super large ruched t-shirt that looks like maternity wear). I just happen to own a lot of flowy, roomy, stretchy tops apparently. 

I like Kmart and The Warehouse for plain-coloured ruched maternity tank tops. Pumpkin Patch Maternity sometimes has some decent bottoms like jeans and skirts and tights - they also have frequent sales. Also, ASOS has a fantastic range of maternity wear. I particularly like the items from the brand New Look; chic and great price point.

No doubt, one day, when I'm preggo again, I'll be writing about new finds that are a tad more fashionable and chic. (NOT YET!)

A.V.