Second Trimester
Ahh the second trimester, a time to decorate the nursery, find out the gender and create a registry for your baby shower. JUST KIDDING! I, like the rest of the COVID Mamas, got a pandemic thrown at me! This changed everything. A time when a woman looks forward to sharing her pregnancy we were forced to lockdown in our homes. It was considered dangerous to see your own family; in what world I ask?
It was a huge wake up call to have my husband wait in the car during my appointments. I tried my best to relay the information and milestones to come to him but there is no way to describe seeing your baby on an ultrasound. I am so grateful he was able to be there for the first one at 12 weeks. I know many couples that were not able to do that.
We had this grand celebration planned for our gender reveal but once again, COVID. We had to cancel our plans and dreams of seeing that puff of coloured chalk and go a different route. We made a nice dinner and opened that little yellow sticky note to see it said boy coupled with a sweet smiley face. We were ecstatic. We were decided on our boys name, Beau for a few years and fully expected it to say just that. It’s no surprise because Mario’s immediate family seems to produce just boys. I quickly got to work to make a onesie to social distance announce it to our families. It wasn’t how we planned but what ever is?
Speaking of unplanned. A trip to the hospital at 23 weeks definitely didn’t fit our plan. One night I was nauseous, which not surprising is common for pregnant women, but this was different. I couldn’t eat anything and had pain walking and sitting. The pain came as bursts at about two to three minutes apart. This was a shock. We thought I was in labour and called the hospital, they told us to come in immediately. We were terrified because we knew there was a low survival rate and a difficult complicated one if our boy did have a chance. I was rushed in and my cervix was checked. All in the clear, or so we thought. But what was wrong? The pain continued and worse at times. The cherry on top, I was all alone, Mario wasn’t allowed in. I was in the hospital for a total of three days. I underwent numerous tests, cervical checks and was given heavy pain killers just to control the pain. Turns out my ligaments were not strong enough to hold up my uterus and it was resting on my pelvic floor. As Beau grew he put more and more weight on my pelvic floor causing strain on the nerves and my body.
I was placed on bedrest right away and had to use a pregnancy support belt. The only time I wasn’t in pain was when I was laying or sitting down. It was difficult because not only were we in a pandemic but I could barley leave the house without being in pain. God bless my husband, he would push me around in a wheelchair twice a day so I could get some fresh air.
During this time I struggled with prenatal depression. I hated the way I looked. I struggled to do anything without being in pain. The only thing I looked forward to was meeting my son. I finally decided to get up at a decent hour, get dressed and sit outside everyday to read. I tried prenatal yoga to help with my mood, anxiety and physical pain and it actually started to work. It’s true when people say when you look good you feel good. I put time and effort into my selfcare and it paid off.
