2nd Trimester February 2012 - May 2012

It's a girl and an alien

Moving into the second trimester was a great event--we were through the risky period, our friends finally knew, and I felt wonderful, with the minor ickyness of the 1st tri melting away. 

I started off the second tri by run-walking my way through the Disney Princess Half Marathon with my mom and of course PAL. We were a little worried about the weather (cold/rainy), but it ended up being perfectly overcast keeping me nice and cool. The run/walk method must have worked too because it was by far the best I have ever felt after a race that distance- I wasn't even sore in the days after. Mom and I made sure to make sure to celebrate with our traditional pina coladas (mine a virgin of course). 

For me, this trimester was dominated by my thesis. I spent most of my spring break writing and this continued through April. By the time I had my final draft uploaded I had to start studying for my last final. Luckily, I also had a lot of energy for most of this trimester, although by the end of it my brain seemed to be firing at a slower rate. Of course, this could have also been "senioritis" brought on by the end of the semester. Luckily, I was able to get it all done with the help of an incredible adviser who patiently helped me make my final arguments coherent. I ended up graduating with over a 4.0 which I feel isn't too shabby!

We had a few other big events during this tri: Pearce headed to Las Vegas with Brett and Jason to celebrate the end of Brett's bachelorhood; we flew down to Jacksonville for Brook and Brett's wedding; and then immediately on to New Orleans for the American Association of Neurology's National Conference which we morphed into a good-time weekend for us. I believe that it was after my zealous eating in New Orleans that I gained 12 pounds in a month- whoops! The nurse was quite impressed (read: stunned).

My pregnancy continued to be quite comfortable. For the majority of this trimester I was still not obviously pregnant to people in public. You might think this is a good thing, but in reality was quite frustrating to me as I felt that I should be getting some preggo street cred. You know, people holding open doors, carrying your bags, etc. Alas this was not the case for me. For instance, while in New Orleans, I had a man jump in front of me to get the last seat on the street trolly. I tried to flaunt my modest belly in front of him to encourage him to give up his seat. He didn't notice.

Baby milestones in this trimester included:

-Seeing more detailed pictures of PAL and finding out the sex (female!)

Her tiny stomach (black spot)

Her tiny foot

And her alien face... 

How freaky is that!?! We are hoping she has lost this look by time of birth otherwise, we may have some explaining to do!

It was around week 18 that we first started feeling very tiny movements at the very top of my pubic bone. The movement felt like a "boop boop" if you can imagine what that feel like. Maybe it  could more accurately be described as a tiny tapping. Our OB, I think, thought we were crazy, but sure enough by week 20 we felt stronger (yet similar) little taps in the same place. PAL was officially making her presence known! What an incredible feeling that was. Over the following weeks, her taps became rolls, and shoves, and kicks.

We moved into the third trimester by the end of May.