2nd Trimester Recap
In some ways the second trimester was easier than the first and in other ways it was harder. The things that were better was the increase in energy and the ability to eat protein again. The things that were worse were the calf cramps, groin pain, and the gas!
I’m really grateful that I’ve been able to maintain my normal routine for diet and exercise for the most part during pregnancy. Coming out of the first trimester I got my energy and appetite back. I was able to survive the day without a nap and could eat my regular diet. It felt good to be back in the kitchen cooking up meals.
It wasn’t until a few weeks into the second trimester when I got my first calf cramp in the middle of the night. It then happened the next night and the next night and pretty much most nights throughout the second trimester. I tried everything including: upping my potassium intake through bananas, dried apricots, sweet potatoes, and coconut water, magnesium lotion on my calves before bed, compression socks, getting adequate hydration and electrolytes, epsom salt foot soaks, stretching and massage, legs up the wall before bed, and supplementing with calcium. Nothing really seemed to help entirely. It was more combination of things I did nightly which gave me some relief only on some nights. I basically did all the above with the exception of the compression socks after a few nights because they didn’t seem to help and it was the middle of summer so sleeping in knee high socks was not very appealing.
About weeks 18 - 19 I got this really intense inner thigh/groin pain. I had done a leg heavy workout at the start of week 18 and was what I thought incredibly sore for a week, which I thought was strange. The pain was so bad I could barely walk. I decided to take it easy and rest. After a few days of rest I started to be able to walk a bit more comfortably. I still took it incredibly slow and easy over the next few weeks, not doing many workouts. As someone who is regularly active, this was incredibly hard for me. I could barely even take Bella on her daily walks. When I did start to intentionally workout again I focused mostly on upper body, stretching, and some body weight lower body movements as felt good. Any lower body exercise I did had to be a bilateral movement.
I had always wanted to work with a pelvic floor specialist as a part of my pregnancy and postpartum care and it became even more relevant when this pain started. I had called a local pelvic floor occupational therapist (OT) to schedule an appointment and talk about care for both during and after pregnancy. Cassidy McCurdy at Pivitol Pelvis has been incredibly helpful in giving me things to do to relieve my pain and prep me for labor. After the initial assessment, she thought my pain was caused my extremely tight muscles. She gave me some simple stretches I could do at home. During our next session she implemented some manual release and showed me how I could do that at home with a silicone cupping technique. After each session I felt so much better and with the continued work of completing the stretches and cupping daily I really started to see and feel the improvement. I was able to start implementing more lower body exercises into my workouts without pain! I got to a point where I was seeing enough relief and Cassidy was able to assess my pelvic floor function using biofeedback and determine that it was now time to shift my focus on strengthening my pelvic floor.
Another common symptom of pregnancy and one that I experienced was gas! Yes, flatulence! Wow, pregnancy gas is something else. Luckily, it didn’t usually happen until the evening when I was in the comfort of my home. Gas is most likely the result of increased hormone levels, namely progesterone, that causes digestion to slow down. Fortunately though, I was able to maintain bowel regularity as constipation is often another side effect of pregnancy due to the decreased in digestion motility as a result of increased hormone levels.
Overall, the second trimester felt great with the exception of the debilitating groin pain. I was able to go on a few planned trips, we found out baby’s gender on my birthday at the end of July, I felt baby move for the first time inside, and then both Bryan and I were able to feel baby move from the outside too! We are now in the home stretch! Just a few more weeks until baby is here!
Surprise… we’re having a girl!
