Letter to Unborn Baby from Mom: 2nd Trimester

 

2^nd Trimester:

Starting to Feel Normal Again…But Not Too Normal Please!

Right at week 13 I was suddenly feeling SO much better! My energy was returning, and my stomach wasn’t always upset with me. I was starting to feel back to normal. It was almost too normal though, and I immediately almost wished I felt sick again. Can you believe that?! Haha, want to know why? Because at least when I was sick I knew it was because you were growing in my belly and because I was pregnant. Once I started to feel normal again, I didn’t really feel pregnant at all anymore and that scared me!

It was so important for me to feel pregnant, so doctor appointments were highly anticipated. I loved getting to see you on the ultrasound, and see how much you were growing and moving. It was always a relief to see you were just fine and I was certainly still pregnant!

After I got my reassurance that you were fine and I was just in the 2^nd trimester and really should be enjoying the fact that I am feeling better; I started to get back into a regular routine. I started to do a little exercise each day, and made a big breakfast every morning, and got ready to tell the rest of the family the news of your arrival!

Extra! Extra! Hear all about it!

Let me tell you, it was the hardest thing in the world not to be able to tell everyone that I was pregnant with you! So hard that I definitely slipped up and told a few people anyways. The very first person to know about you was your auntie Christine. She knew the day I took the pregnancy test, but not officially until I was in Michigan on vacation with your daddy. Uncle Richard was next to know, and over the following weeks Uncle Jon and Adam also found out. I guess you could say I wasn’t good at keeping this secret of you!

The most important people to let know about you, for me, was your grandparents. I wanted so badly for it to be a special surprise! I decided I wanted to announce your arrival in the form of a gift since your grandparents live so far away, and I put together a cute a little package for Grandma Shannon, and Grandma and Grandpa Steve and Sylvia. So I wrote them a letter from you to them, and then wrapped up a picture of you in my womb and shipped it off!

Before Grandma and Grandpa Steve and Sylvia could open the package Uncle Sam called me and dug the truth out of me. He wanted to know what was in the package and he kept saying, are you pregnant?? What a little stinker huh? TeeHee. So your Uncle Sam now knew the truth too. I even told Auntie Maddy to make sure Grandma and Grandpa did not open the package until they were together so she had a hunch too. Everyone was knowing the surprise of you before the package was even opened!

Well Grandma Shannon got her package and opened it first, and she screamed with joy!

She was so happy to know you were on the way, and she said it was the best package she ever received in the mail. You are her little princess and she loves you so much! Grandma Shannon got so excited and remained so excited about you that she checked in with me all the time to hear how you were doing and how things were progressing. She couldn’t wait to come visit and see you once you were born.

Finally a few days later Grandma and Grandpa Steve and Sylvia got to open their package. I was waiting so impatiently for this to happen and it even took until late one night when grandma Sylvia was on the couch eating her dinner that the package was finally opened. Auntie Maddy was able to take a picture of the surprise on Grandma Sylvia’s face. It was so cute! She also screamed with joy! Grandpa Steve said, “I knew it!” But Grandma Sylvia was so surprised; she had no idea at all. So I guess you could say I had a little success at making you a surprise 😉

Grandma and Grandpa Steve and Sylvia called me after they opened the package to tell your father and I congratulations and how excited they were. You were the joy of the season, and everyone couldn’t wait for you to be born.

It’s….A…..GIRL! What?!

So, before this story of how your father and I found out that you were a girl sounds horribly wrong, let me begin by explaining first why we thought you were a boy….

As you now know, your father is THE THIRD. Your daddy’s father and grandfather had passed away long before you were born, and it was always so important to your daddy to be able to pass on his father’s name one day and have a boy to be THE FOURTH. So for starters it was already so important for your father and I to have a boy to carry on the family name that we automatically assumed that I must be pregnant with a boy.

With that, we looked into many old wives tales about how to determine the sex of your baby before the doctor tells you, and according to many of them it would seem that I was pregnant with a boy. First of all Auntie Christine told me that with both her girls she was very, very sick, and her breasts were really tender.

Well I was sick, but I didn’t know what to compare it to and figured I could be much sicker so I assumed it must be a boy! I also never had any breast sensitivity so again I thought that it was another sign that I was having a boy. Then to top it off I heard that with boys you crave sweets and with girls you crave sour, and well I could not get enough sugar!! So once again I figured hmmm, this must be a boy I am having.

Well the day finally came when we had the doctor apt. where we could possibly find out if you were a girl or a boy.

I was so excited and so was your father. I prayed to God that day that you would cooperate with the ultrasound technician and they would be able to see if you were a girl or a boy.

We arrived at the doctor’s office and the nurse was going away at checking you out on the ultrasound to see how you were progressing, and when it was time to see if you were a girl or a boy…you gave her a hard time! You kept your cute little legs crossed and made for a difficult show for both the nurse and us. She almost gave up but finally at the very end you let her have a little peak, and she said, “Ah ha! I got a little look there.” Your father said right away, “What is it?”, and the nurse said, “Looks like a Girl!” ….

A few moments passed and your father and I looked at each other and said, “What. A Girl? Are you Sure?” The nurse confirmed that she thought you were a girl, and your father said again, “What percentage?” The nurse told us she was 95% sure! Your father and I were stunned! We couldn’t believe it, and to this day I now think why the heck were we SO surprised? Haha, I mean how would we have known either way?

It definitely took your father and I a little bit of time to adjust to the fact that we were having a little girl. We were so silly to have gotten our minds set on a boy, that we had to rethink everything once we knew you were a girl! Now I couldn’t imagine having a boy first. Now you are all I could ever imagine having and you are my precious baby girl! Even in the womb you were already surprising your daddy and I at how amazing you are!

Hungry, Hungry, Hungry!

Right around month 5 I got HUNGRY! It was time for you to really start growing, because I swear everything I ate you ate and I always felt hungry! I literally could not get full, it was amazing! I finally had the perfect excuse and the ability to eat anything and everything I wanted! Well, except for the things that cannot be eaten while pregnant.

For example, I planned on ordering sushi, cherry coke, and a hot dog the second you were born! I also missed cold cut sandwiches, and WINE! Oh, but it was well worth it. The foods I craved were quite opposite to what I normally like to eat.

Typically your momma likes savory foods and starch!

But all you wanted was sugar, and lots of it! I craved cakes, and cookies, and pancakes, and candy, and chocolate, and I can go on and on! Sugar was everything for me!

Your grandma Sylvia served all my favorite cravings at your baby shower so all the guests could remember what my cravings were while I was pregnant with you. So we had a feast of mini burger sliders, pancakes, jolly ranchers, strawberry ice cream, and orange juice! Haha!

Along with all the eating, month five was my biggest weight-gaining month of all. This month; in just 4 short weeks, your momma gained 10 whole pounds! I nearly started crying on the scale at the doctors appointment. Instead I gasped in complete shock! 10 pounds?! In one month! How heavy was I going to get? Luckily, my weight gaining slowed to a steadier pace after that.

OH! Now that is a Baby Bump!

So right around the beginning of month 6 my belly finally popped out. Um, now I knew what it really meant to have a belly! And it only got bigger and more protruding from there on! At this point it become quite funny to me that back in week 12 I thought I had a bump! In month five I was SO hungry and you, little girl, you grew so much so fast! It was inevitable for my belly to be poking out by the end of that month!

Clothes started to really get tight, and having a maternity wardrobe became very much a needed thing. I even needed maternity underwear! Who would have thought you needed different underwear when you are pregnant?! I certainly didn’t and I didn’t think about bras either…

Now this is a funny story, sorry if it is too much information teehee!

But maybe one day when you are pregnant you will appreciate these stories of mine! I sure hope so anyways!

So I was at the mall one day with my friend Caitlin, and somehow decided to go look at bras at Victoria’s Secret. I did not feel like I had grown there yet, but I knew it would happen and what was the harm in being prepared, right? Well at this particular Victoria’s Secret on this particular day the employees were on their game. Maybe this is how all the stores are and I have just always had bad luck in the past?? But anyhoo, the bra department was amazing, and the moment I walked up to start looking at bras a young lady immediately asked how she could help me.

“Well, I am pregnant…”

“Congrats!” she said.

“Thank you, and well I know my breasts will be growing so I am kind of looking at getting a comfortable bra with no underwire to wear when I do grow.

“Of course!” she said in an excited and high pitched voice.“ Let’s measure you!”

At this point my arms were swung up over my head and she was already wrapping a measuring tape around my bust in the middle of the store.

“Ah, ha! 32 Double D.” She said matter of factly, and began grabbing some bras for me.

I literally stood there with my jaw on the ground…

A DOUBLE D?!? Nooo, I have never been bigger then a B! As in BARELY THERE! How on earth did I go up 3 cup sizes??? I was in compete shock and then quickly denial laid in.

“Ma’am”, I said. “That is not right. I am a B.”

“Oh, honey. Yes it is right I am afraid! Go try this on.” As she handed me a purple DD cup bra and pointed to the dressing room.

Well, suffice to say…the bra fit perfectly, and I was officially knocked off my feet at how quickly my chest had grown without my noticing. After a while I began to calm down and get kind of happy.  I mean, common I was a Double D! I had to own that at least a little bit while I could!

As months went on I fit better and better into my much bigger bras, and even though I wasn’t guaranteed that they would stay, for the first time in my life I got to have big breasts!  I was soon to learn once you were born just how important and annoying these would become…

Get Ready Mode (Take 1)

At the halfway mark of being pregnant I suddenly got my first wind of nesting. It can be common for that to happen I guess, but for me it was strong. All the sudden I noticed things around the house, and in the world in general, that were dangerous. Things that really never would have occurred to me as dangerous before.

For example, the staircase… Stairs now terrified me! What if I fall when I am pregnant and crush my belly and hurt the baby? What if once the baby is born I slip and fall down the steps while I am carrying her?! Oh my goodness, and pointy furniture like shelves, and corners on tables! What about high wall landings that little kids can crawl up onto and then fall off of! What about drivers on the freeway, or on any road for that matter! AHHHHH!

Suffice to say I got a strong urge to start prepping our home for you, and making it safe and livable.

Your wonderful daddy put up with all my nagging concerns and helped me get ready. One day I asked him if he would join me in the garage just for 20 minutes to move a couple boxes around…. Tee Hee!  …well, it ended up being a full 8 hour day of cleaning, sorting, and reorganizing the garage! Why was that important for your arrival? Well, I do not really know. But now it was so clean and organized that I felt more prepared.

I guess you could say any little thing that was out of place, messy, haphazard, or unorganized just really bothered me. There was not going to be any peace of mind until it was taken care of! I also started making lists of things we needed to buy, and things we needed to do to get ready for you. Like picking out your crib, buying you clothes, and picking a hospital to have you born at!

All of these things would take time to get done and get just right, and eventually the strong urge to have everything done right did start to fade away. As I entered the 3^rd trimester fatigue took over me again, and I suddenly was too tired to do much for a while again.

Getting Excited & Baby Shower

Your Grandma Sylvia and Auntie’s Christine and Maddy, and Great Auntie’s Mary and Irma all took the time to throw me a big baby shower for you! I was so excited for this because not only did I get to travel back to Minnesota and see all my family, but I had a whole day dedicated to celebrating my soon to be little girl!

The shower was beautiful, and so special.

We played games and ate all the foods I had been craving all throughout the pregnancy! Everyone got such nice gifts for you, and lots of adorable clothes! Your auntie Christine spoiled you with so many cute outfits and even a swimsuit! Your Great Auntie Irma put together a really sweet gift with a photo album filled with pictures of me when I was little, a framed picture of me as a baby, and even a card that my grandma (Your Great-Grandma Valeria) had saved for me for when I had my first baby! HOW SWEET!

The rest of the trip was so fun, it would be a while before I would be able to travel to Minnesota again, so I sucked up every moment I could with everyone! The day we left to fly home, your dad and I drove down to Minneapolis to catch a Vikings game together. It was nice to do something like that together, the next time we would get to go to a Vikings game would probably be with you in tow!

…. 3rd Trimester coming next!