Claire AndradeWeeks 14-28: July 23-October 29, 2020
The first couple of weeks of my second trimester were more or less the same as the first trimester and I felt pretty crappy most days. But I was on the rebound. I found that things slowly got worse, peaked, and then slowly got better in reverse order. So in weeks 14 and 15 I was finally able to eat hot food if I did not cook it and that slowly gave me back the energy to start feeling better (though I still had bouts of sickness a couple of times). At 16 weeks I would say I finally turned the corner and was feeling pretty much back to myself! I was able to cook (even meat) and had my energy back to clean my house and do other things I just couldn’t muster up the energy to do before.
I had my 16-week appointment and found out after blood tests that I had a Kell-Antibody in my blood. Most likely due to my blood transfusion from last year (I do not naturally have a Kell Antigen in my blood, but the blood I received must have had it, so I created anti-bodies against it). This is only a problem if you are pregnant and your baby has the Kell antigen. If they did have it, then my blood could start attacking the baby’s blood which would not be good and would require extra procedures. They decided to test Miguel’s blood to see if he had the Antigen, because if he did not, that would mean the baby would not have it as it wouldn’t have gotten it genetically from either of us. Either way, we were referred to a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist to have another ultrasound to check on baby and also get our blood drawn.
Thankfully, we found out that Miguel did not have the antigen and our baby would be okay. We also found out that baby did not have any other abnormalities from our other DNA testing. So after that scare and finally feeling better, I felt we were in the clear.
However, during my 16th week of pregnancy, our town was absolutely devasted by a Derecho storm. Almost an hour of 100mph winds completely destroyed buildings, powerlines, trees, everything. We luckily sustained no damage to our home – just had a mess to clean up outside, but most were not that lucky (a neighbor lost their roof completely). But we were with no power for 8 full days. Which was a struggle. While we were able to buy a generator the day after the storm which was big enough to power our fridge and deep freeze, our chargers and the microwave when we needed it, we were still without most things.
No hot water, no air conditioning (it was August), no lights, no dishwasher, no garbage disposal, no washing machine or dryer, no internet or TV. We were lucky we had no damage and could save most of our food (and had a means to cook it in the crockpot/microwave) it still was very challenging, especially at 16/17 weeks pregnant. We moved a mattress to the basement since upstairs was so hot and I basically slept the entire time since I couldn’t work or do pretty much anything.
After a couple of weeks of getting back to normal and a routine after being sick for so long and the losing power, we finally made it to week 20 and the anatomy scan! Going in, both Miguel and I thought it was for SURE a boy. So you could say we were shocked when the ultrasound tech said it was a GIRL. I couldn’t believe it. I always wanted a girl but always assumed I would be a boy mom. Either way we were so happy to see a happy healthy baby with no issues.
A few symptoms I had during the second trimester were major heartburn (but I got medication that helped a LOT) and then some back pain started as well as rib pain (that was really, really painful at times) but I would take that over throwing up any day.
Chewy Tums and my heartburn medicine were my best friend. I also started sleeping with a pillow between my legs and behind my back to make me more comfortable – but I was overall sleeping really well. I got my first prenatal massage and also started seeing a chiropractor to keep me aligned and pain free.
At 24 weeks we went on a mini babymoon to Branson and had a nice time. I am glad we were able to get away somewhere just the two of us before baby came. (If it weren’t for COVID, I would have liked to go to the beach but we made it work and the weather was great.)
The rest of the second trimester was pretty smooth sailing and easy, just watching my baby bump grow! My 24-week appointment also went well and was pretty standard. Standing/sitting became more uncomfortable the bigger I got. But really no complaints by this point.