I’d noticed it at first in the meditations-for-each-week-of-pregnancy book I’ve been reading. During the initial phase of gestation, say, up to week 12 or so, things change fast. Hormones are raging. The brain is spinning and on fire. The cells of the baby-to-be are dividing, new organs and systems are being added almost daily, growth is exponential. Boobs hurt.
Second trimester shows up and the world gets decidedly quieter. Nausea abates, the what-have-I-done?-panic wanes (ever so slightly). Even the gait gets a little wider, a little slower. Bones start to shift. Ligaments stretch. Feet splay. Just the tiniest hint of the waddle-to-come in tri-3. The little book starts to have less and less to say because baby2B is now basically formed. All he has to do is grow.
Even the stories are more exciting in the beginning. Deciding to get pregnant, finding out one is pregnant. This is the stuff of literature. Deciding on a crib, painting the nursery, this is the stuff of ordinary life. If anything, tri-2 for me has mostly been about shopping — which thing to buy or register for, how much research will I do into the health and safety of said items before making a choice.
Thus I found myself creating a tri-2 bumper sticker this morning, in an email update to my cousin: Just gaining a little weight, waiting for my whole life to change.
Because that’s really the thing, and every parent loves to remind me of it. In 13 weeks, my life is going to CHANGE. Wait, that wasn’t loud enough. Try this: CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNGE!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t even fathom it.
Right now, I focus on right now. As in: Right now, he is kicking more. A lot. Sometimes, I can sit back and watch as parts of him push my belly skin outward; fascinating and soothing like watching aquarium fish. In the next few moments, I will drink a cup of mother-to-be tea. With honey. Today, Scott might paint the moldings in the nursery.
That thought jumps me ahead slightly. What if we do all this preparation and then something… happens?
Stop self, reset to present.
Husband has entered kitchen, brushing teeth. Asks me if I want my tea. It’s getting cold.
Yes.
An apt description of tri-2. Good luck with the next 13 weeks, waddle and all!
Yes, best of luck to you darling.
Boring is good. We want your second trimester to be uneventful, boring and normal. Have fun with the nursery (you know I never asked you about the theme)
Come on! The second trimester is the best!
You finally start to look pregnant and not like you ate one too many biscuits, toward the end you get to feel the kid kicking around in there, and you’re not to the “I feel like a whale” stage yet.
Happy second trimester!