20 Week Bumpdate

robe | bra | Ava Bracelet | bed | duvet | duvet cover

This week we’re officially half way through our pregnancy with baby #2! This pregnancy has been flying by. Everyone says it’s because I have a toddler, but I think it’s a combo of that and I’m just not hyper-focused on every detail of this pregnancy like I was with my first. Having gone through it once before, I don’t feel the need to google every little thing, check my pregnancy app daily (or even weekly…I think baby is the size of a banana this week?) and I feel more confident about how to handle everything.

We had our half-way anatomy scan and everything looks great so far! (Huge relief.) The little babe was kicking, squirming and hiccuping in there. Baby is on the move all the time now, I definitely missed those little kicks when Wyatt was born, it’s nice to have them back again! We did not learn the gender at our anatomy scan, but had the doctor write it down….we’re planning a gender reveal for next weekend, so stay tuned for that!

This pregnancy has been different than my first. During the first trimester I was SO much more exhausted and sick than I was when I was pregnant with Wyatt. (Read about my bumpdate from the first trimester here.) Now that I’m well into the second trimester, things have been going much better and I feel like myself again.

One thing I have been struggling with this pregnancy is weight gain. I have have had weight and body image issues for as long as I can remember, but pregnancy takes it to a new level, and as it stands I’m on track to gain way more weight than what I’m comfortable with during this pregnancy.

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Body Talk

I have a naturally athletic body, but I gain weight very easily. I, like a lot of women I know, struggle with keeping up with a regular exercise routine…and that has become even more difficult as a mom, and now as a pregnant one. I go through phases of being really active and then weeks or even months where I don’t workout at all. As I get older I have been able to appreciate more and more what my body can do for me, I can throw on a pair of gym shoes and go for a three mile run after not working out for months, or train for a half marathon in a few weeks and get my PR, I usually feel strong and sufficient to get done what I need to when I need to. More importantly, my body has allowed me to create one healthy, beautiful baby boy and half of another baby (gender unknown at the moment!)

I try to fuel my body healthily, but have the same struggles with eating. As an adult who dealt with some eating issues in the past, I have learned how to eat healthily, but still go through phases of eating really well and others of eating basically whatever I want. All of this probably feels like “tale as old as time” for a lot of people.

Pregnancy Weight Gain

My body puts on weight SO EASILY when I’m pregnant, like all over. And again, I am learning to appreciate that my body is putting on weight FOR the baby, but there also seems to be a fine line between healthy weight gain and excessive. I don’t want to cross that line and have my baby’s health be negatively affected because of it, and also real talk…I don’t want to feel like a whale.

After the first trimester of constant nausea and exhaustion, I felt like I had lost control of my body. I’d eat anything to try to make my stomach feel better and that was often times crackers, toast, or really any carbs. I was so tired all the time and working out was just not happening. Winter also set in so even getting steps during a walk or at the park became less appealing. The first trimester rolled right into the holiday season and more often than not I’d say “F it” and go ahead and eat another cookie. I felt like I had lost control of my physical health and it was starting to take a toll on me mentally and emotionally. Even my maternity pants started feeling tight, which is extra depressing. I’ve been wearing a lot of sweater dresses lately and my husband has commented a time or two about how “fancy” I look to go to the library or the museum…my normal “thanks” response was finally replaced the other day by, “dresses are the only things that fit my butt and thighs right now!!” (For real though, dresses are way more comfortable than pants during pregnancy in my opinion.)

It’s not only about how my clothes fit or what the scale says, but my body just felt BLAH. I didn’t feel strong or in shape, I just felt exhausted. I had a very quick labor my first pregnancy (7 hours) and only pushed for a short time (30 minutes). I was out of the hospital after one night and went for a 5 mile walk the next day. I felt like my body was strong and was really able to do it’s job partly because I was active up until I delivered. (We even had plans to go on a 5 mile hike the day Wyatt decided to come.) But so far during this pregnancy I don’t feel healthy at all, I just feel like a slug.

Time to Make a Change

I decided I needed to turn it around. For my own body’s sake, but more importantly, for my baby’s. I finally looked at the scale and was disappointed, but not that surprised at what I saw. Before I was even half way through my pregnancy I had gained 22 lbs. For reference, most doctors recommend a woman of average pre-pregnancy weight, gain about 25-35 pounds during the course of her entire pregnancy.

If I were to keep this pace up, I am on track to gain about 50 lbs this pregnancy. Not only do I NOT want to gain 50 pounds at any time, but I also know that’s not healthy for my body or my baby. I gained 35 lbs during my first pregnancy, which is still on the high end, and was luckily able to get rid of it pretty quickly after, but who knows if that will be the case with round two.

Not that the first trimester sickness and exhaustion is any excuse, but now that I’m into my second tri I feel much more in control of what I can put into my body and how active I can be…like I said, I feel more like myself.

I started wearing an Ava Bracelet to help me track important info about my body so I can have a better handle on my health. I just have to wear it at night which is amazing, and it tracks my sleep, physiological stress, body temperature, and resting pulse rate. I can also compare my weekly weight gain to standard recommendations. Actually logging my weight over the past few weeks has helped me stay accountable and cognizant of what is going on with my body. And making sure I get enough sleep at night has been key for keeping up my energy during the day.

If you’re trying to conceive or thinking about it, Ava is also an amazing tool for tracking fertility. We became pregnant pretty quickly this round and weren’t really trying yet, so we didn’t get to use Ava for conception. But it tracks different parameters to identify your 5 most fertile days and other insights about your cycle, no peeing on ovulation sticks, just wear the bracelet at night! You can read more about it here.

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I’m not overhauling my whole life or taking drastic measures, but I’m going to try out what has worked with my pre-pregnancy body for keeping my weight under control for the next twenty weeks- actually focusing on eating healthy and getting active. I am also going to be realistic, my hormones are still out of control and I AM pregnant, so having a treat or a lazy day is going to happen, I just want to be in more control and FEEL better.

Fruits and veggies weren’t exactly my friends during the first few months of pregnancy, so I plan on working them in whenever possible now. Baby needs those vitamins and so does mom! I’ve been doing more smoothies with veggies & trying to eat a lot of smaller meals so I don’t get ravenous and want to snack on junk.

I’m also trying to get 10k steps a day, which again in the winter seems to prove a little more difficult, but we bought a treadmill and I’ve been logging a few miles of running/walking a day on that. During my first pregnancy I stayed somewhat active the whole time, even just walking every day. We were living in San Francisco so the weather allowed us to be outside all year, and we didn’t have a car so my legs were my main form of transportation up and down all those hills. Now that we’re in suburbia I find it harder to get my steps in, but I’m making it my goal to try for that 10k a day, and I already feel better a week in.

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This post isn’t meant to make my weight gain seem like the end of the world, I realize there are FAR bigger issues during pregnancy, and so far my weight gain hasn’t negatively affected my baby’s health. My heart breaks for any women reading this who aren’t able to get pregnant or who have been trying without success yet and wouldn’t mind if they gained 100 pounds just as long as they could carry a child. This post is just to share my own experiences for any other women out there dealing with pregnancy weight gain that feels out of their control and it’s preventing them from enjoying this beautiful time as much as they’d like to. And to let moms know who are feeling like they’re doing something wrong when they see another mom who has seemingly only gained weight in her stomach and not in her thighs, butt, arms or just happen to put a nice thick winter coat all over her body like I have…that we’re all different and you’re not alone. At the end of the day there’s a miracle growing in there and that’s pretty damn amazing.

Thank you to Ava Women for sponsoring this post. The opinions and text are all mine.