I can’t believe I’ve made it through another trimester! Two-thirds of the pregnancy are now complete, and the little nutter in my tummy is fast approaching her birthday. I’m so excited to meet her, but there’s so much left to do before October! 
My Body
Bump is definitely showing now. So far, I’ve gained around 6 kilos (8 if you go by my lowest weight during my vomit-filled first trimester), and everything is measuring just fine. So far, I haven’t got any stretch marks, but I think those will be showing up in the next ten weeks or so. I have a little bit of water retention, but nothing too dramatic, and my rings still fit. I’ve been doing lots of exercise and eating as healthy as possible (follow me on Instagram for workout and food pictures), although I’ve also been letting myself indulge every so often. I’ve definitely upped the amount of calories I eat. Although all the advice I’ve read says that you don’t need any more food in the first and second trimester, and only an extra 300 calories in the third trimester, I’ve been starving all the time. Despite eating more than I feel I should, my weight gain has been exactly as expected, so it must be more or less right.
The Baby
Gnocchi has been kicking like mad, especially in the past few weeks. Not an hour goes by without me feeling a good boot or six. At our 25-week appointment with the midwife, she even kicked the doppler that was being used to listen to her heart off my belly! She mustn’t have liked that. I did go for about a day without feeling her move at all, and ended up leaving work early and in complete hysterics because I thought something terrible must be going on. Our midwife checked me over and listened to the heartbeat again, and it turned out that everything was absolutely fine. She was just having a little rest. I was terrified though, and I’m so glad that I was able to get reassurance so quickly!
She’s now about the size of a Papaya and weighs around 700g. Everything is going so fast, it seems like only yesterday that she was the size of a blueberry!
Getting Ready
A few months ago, we moved into a more suitable flat for a little family, since we were having issues with our old place and needed an extra room. At the moment, the baby’s room is more of a storage space, but I’ll be using the next few weeks to sort it out and make it perfect for our little one’s arrival! We’re very lucky to have lots of clothes and equipment from Jake’s niece and nephew, but we will need to buy a bigger cot when she’s around 4 to 6 months, and we have yet to buy a car seat and pushchair. We spent some time in Mothercare this week and have finally figured out which models to go with – we’ve settled on the Mothercare Orb pushchair, as it’s suitable from birth to around 3.5 years and doesn’t have tonnes of extra clutter, and the Maxi Cosi Cabriofix, along with an Isofix base for it. If you’d like to have a nosey into what I’m planning to buy for the baby, you can follow my Pinterest board dedicated to Baby Accessories!
While I still have a lot of aches and pains and have started feeling nauseous again quite frequently (although not on the scale that I was, thankfully!), I’ve been enjoying my second trimester far more than my first. I’m both excited and apprehensive about what the next three months will bring!
