Second trimester: the (only slightly) less rhapsodic version

Don't get me wrong - I remain practically giddy with relief and happiness that the second trimester has been such a cakewalk compared to the first. But I think I can now talk about it without bursting into spontaneous odes or songs. :)

I continue to highly enjoy eating, like, all the time. Although as things get noticeably more stretched out in the abdomen area, I find I can eat less and less at a given sitting, which has been a hard lesson that I've had to learn - repeatedly - after too many dinners that concluded with me moaning piteously and rubbing my resultant extra-distended belly in woe. So, lesson learned: frequent, SMALL meals, self. I am still on board with virtually ALL foods, too. I've started to crave sweets more often than salty, but don't get me wrong - put just about anything in front of me and I'll happily hoover it right up. No specific cravings or aversions yet, just a continued blissful enjoyment of shoving any and all foodstuffs into my gaping maw.

Actually, there is one super weird thing with my eating habits: I've historically been really, REALLY wimpy about being able to handle spicy foods. Like, I become a cartoon caricature of a person who has eaten a hot pepper: I turn bright red; I start to sweat; my eyes start leaking tears - and of course, my mouth and lips are in varying levels of intense pain, depending on what I was stupid enough to try to eat. But now? Pregnant? I can suddenly handle spicy foods, like a normal human, as if it's no big deal. WHAT. HOW. WHAT. On the one hand, I joke that this is definitively proving I have Chris's kid in me - this has to be HER ability and not mine. But how a wee fetus is able to provide a sudden tolerance that changes my physical reaction to spicy foods..!? Yeah, no idea. Pregnancy is so freaking weird, man.

The hoovering of foodstuffs has been paying off though: I've definitely gained back everything I lost in the first trimester, and then some. As I learned at my last checkup, I managed to put on ELEVEN POUNDS in one month, much to my amusement. The doctor was - well, not concerned, per se, but definitely sort of made a note of it, since that is obviously a kind of large swing in one month. But once he heard a little backstory on my first tri woes, and realized I had only put on like 5 pounds compared to where I started pre-pregnancy, he was back on board. I remain highly amused and weirdly proud of my 11 lb month, though.

One of the very few areas in which 2nd trimester has failed to do a complete 180, though, is my stupid skin. It has thankfully become slightly less sensitive, but holy cow is does it remain dry and quick to anger. My scalp is no longer excruciatingly painful after a shower.. just, like, regular painful. I have been able to cautiously transition back to normal shampoo & conditioner from the tea tree oil I had been using to heal/soothe my skin, which is great because that stuff was leaving my hair oily and stringy like no one's business. The less frequently I subject my skin to showering, the better, at the moment. So now I can go like three days (!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is CRAZY LONG for me and I LOVE IT) between hair washings, and I'm sorry to report as it's kind of gross, but I am only showering once or twice a week, because even with frequent full-body lotion lathering, my skin gets too dry and painful otherwise.

BUT! This would normally be grosser than it currently is, because another change in the apparent fundamental make up of my body chemistry? I no longer sweat or smell. Like, at all. I don't even need to put on deodorant any more. And I was a SWEATY BETTY before this, believe you me. I wear nearly exclusively tank tops or sleeveless shirts in the summer because one iota of heat or humidity + my body - even with those "clinical strength" deodorants - will still = copious sweat, rings on all the underarms of my shirts, etc. And now! Nothing! Why? How? So weird! I don't care! I will revel in it, for now!

The only real complaint I currently have is around sleep. I've always been so! good! at sleeping. I'm amazing at it. I can sleep easily, almost anywhere, and I sleep SOUNDLY. Well... I used to, anyway. I've become an increasingly light sleeper, now to the point where every time Chris coughs or the dog starts licking himself (OMG THAT NOISE STOPPPPP ITTTTT) I am instantly awake.. and worse, can't immediately drop back to sleep. If it happens close enough to dawn - like, say, 5 am! or 4:30, sure, why not! - I'm up for the DAY. This is... not cool. I assume it's my body preparing me for not sleeping through baby cries, and preparing me for being up a lot at night, or whatever... but dude. I have the rest of my life to not be able to sleep through the night, I don't know why we need to start THIS early.

The only other kind of bummer symptom is that my feet & ankles have already started to swell regularly, ever since I hit about 15 weeks. The doctors are not concerned (blood pressure is fine; no face/hand swelling to accompany it; no piercing headaches at the same time) but hoo-boy does this not bode well for when I'm giantly pregnant, in this swampy hell-hole of a place, in August. I have been warning Chris to expect a sexy pregnant beast come summertime.

Overall though, second trimester remains the best and I am SUPER AWARE of how good I have it. Our 20 week anatomy scan is next week, which hopefully will be awesome - especially since I still haven't been able to feel any kicks from Contrary Baby in there. So it will be nice to get a view of her (hopefully!) doing well and partying it up. I'm not sure if she's just not kicking hard yet, if I have an anterior placenta, or I just am very not in touch with my body (strong possibility), but I'm trying to be chill about it and assume things are fine until we get a peek next week.