My Pregnancy Story: 2nd Trimester

Just as everyone promised it would be, my second trimester was the best one of all. I finally started really showing and I just loved my basketball belly. Plus, all the hormones made me feel literally better pregnant than not pregnant! The 2nd trimester was the best of both worlds — big, but not so big that mobility was limited, emotional, but not so emotional that life insurance commercials brought me to tears, and tidy, but not so tidy that I had to organize and reorganize everything in my path, including the attic. (All of the extremes would later take place within the 3rd trimester.)

I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the attention and friendly smiles I got from strangers in the grocery store and pretty much everywhere I went. Being pregnant is truly like nothing else, isn’t it? For one thing, it’s a small, yet noteworthy, symbol of the cross. Jesus sacrificed his body so that we might have life. And He designed women’s bodies to be sacrificed (it will never be quite the same again, I am told), so that one might have new life, through God. And there are many more parallels if you delve into it. I found myself getting lost in the holiness of pregnancy and the excitement that comes along with knowing that God was knitting together a miracle within my womb. “For You created my innermost being: You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, Your eyes saw my unformed body.” How cool is that?! God did and does just that, whether the mother is a believer or not, every single time a baby is born.

My maternity clothes fit me well in this trimester (which cannot be said about the 1st or 3rd trimester) and maternity jeans became my best friend (and they still are by the way – who doesn’t love a stretchy waistband? Besides the high comfort level, it reminds me of my stretchy, stirrup pants days of the 80s and that makes me happy.)

Here I am beginning the 2nd trimester, at 12 weeks pregnant

14 weeks

Here I am with my best friend, Shelby, when I was 15 weeks and she was 24 weeks, I believe. Roy and I drove to Louisville to visit them over Labor Day weekend…Ha!–Get it? I remember feeling one of her twins, Tamsie, kick my hand while we were out on a shopping trip. At this point, my little boy’s movements were just beginning to feel like butterfly wings, which was so amazing and special. 16 weeks

Ah the infamous 18 weeks — Here I am at the doctor’s office right before we found out the gender…

…And here’s the Roy boy smiling as he wonders if it will be baseballs or ballet shoes for us!

Taken just after our sweet Dr. told us “It’s a boy!”

I’m almost embarrassed to say we thought we wanted a girl first. I thought I would be a better “girl mom” and Roy has 3 brothers and wanted to have a girl first to experience something very different from what he’s known. What were we thinking!? Thank God He had other plans because now we KNOW we were supposed to have our sweet baby boy. There’s a great country song, “Sometimes I thank God…for unanswered prayers…” AMEN BROTHA!

So I went home and finished my “reveal cake”

I would have done a blue cake, but I literally forgot before putting the cake in the oven (Ha! Chalk another one up to baby brain, I guess..) And so I decided to do a secret middle layer of blue frosting instead. The orange frosting thing on top is a question mark, by the way.

We have my inlaws over for chicken and dumplings and we made them wait the ENTIRE meal until they could cut the cake and see what we were having. Some would call it mean, but I call it building suspense. When they saw the blue frosting, they were like “A boy! We know how to handle boys! We have a little experience…)

18 weeks — This is around the time that I felt his first big kicks as I was laying down to sleep one night. It was so surreal and special to feel his kicks and punches–yet another big highlight of the 2nd trimester!