Second trimester recap

I'm sure this is the most cliche thing to say and that not a single pregnancy related blog post has ever gone up without the phrase, but where in the world has time gone?? Five seconds ago I was taking a pregnancy test and bricking it, and now we're a week and a half away from the third trimester and I have a room full of baby stuff as a result of religiously scouring Facebook marketplace at all hours of the day. This whole year has been a blur anyway (thanks pandemic) but it goes by so much quicker when you spend practically every free moment working on some spreadsheet or another, watching hypno-birthing videos or sorting the items in the registry we're building for the millionth time. Let's just say that the last three months have been extraordinarily focused and productive.

I consider myself really lucky because aside from only a few symptoms in the first trimester this pregnancy has been really easy so far, and especially in this trimester. I feel like I have maybe even more energy than I normally do? Not sure how that works, but I'll take it. My bump has only recently gotten big enough to be a little annoying while trying to sleep, but for the most part I have found myself forgetting about it entirely. We're reached a milestone however -- I can no longer zip up my winter coat. Walks are going to be a lot chillier from here on out!

In general, things are starting to feel a lot more real though. When you're in the early stages of pregnancy it's so hard to tell what is happening inside you. You can't feel anything, and if you don't have a lot of symptoms it's easy to wonder if everything is going alright or not. Even after the initial scan, when the baby is just a little blob on the screen, it was hard to translate what I could see into the reality of a new human. The 20 week ultrasound definitely make it sink in a lot more though. We saw her opening and closing her mouth,  moving her little tummy up and down for practice breathing and flailing her arms around. It's really amazing how much movement is happening when you can't feel any of it! To top it off, I have an anterior placenta (meaning it's implanted itself on the front side of my uterus, rather than the back side) which adds an extra cushion that prevented me from feeling any kicks until a couple weeks after when most people start feeling kicks. Now I can definitely feel her kicking around in there and my husband has even been able to feel her too. My whole stomach has even visibly moved a few times already! I can only imagine how much stronger it's going to be by the time we're well into the third trimester.

We've sent out (virtual) baby shower invitations, sent out the registry link and we've started putting together the nursery. It's a little surreal that it's only 3 months away, but reality is going to hit really fast. We're excited, nervous, terrified, and happy, all at once. What a ride. Here's to a smooth third trimester!