Smooth Sailing: the Second Trimester Dream

This is the 4th entry to my pregnancy diary. To read the previous entry, click here.

After we’d told our parents & immediate families we were expecting twins, we were approaching the 12-week mark. Due to the decreased risk of miscarriage or complications after 12 weeks, this is often the time that’s seen as most socially acceptable to announce your pregnancy publicly. As I’ve mentioned before, some people choose to do it earlier, but our choice was to wait. 

Steve and I went through a several week period of arranging cookouts, dinners, and coffee dates with our closest friends to make sure we told them in-person. I told 2 of my closest friends on FaceTime since they were traveling during this period… not quite in-person, but still fun to see their faces and hear their excited reactions.

Since I’m ~*extra*~ I arranged a photoshoot for us to use as “announcement material” for extended family & social media. Somehow we ended up shooting on one of the most humid, sticky evenings of the summer, but Steve was a real trooper and you’d never know how uncomfortable we were looking at the photos. Huge credit to our amazing photographer, McKaila Singer, for capturing these beautiful, happy moments for us (and making us forget all about the humidity to get absolutely gorgeous shots).

The week following the photo shoot, it was time to tell my new boss & coworkers. Remember, I’d only been at my job for a couple of months at this point. It felt incredibly awkward to waltz in after such a short time and say, “hey, so, I know I just started, but I’m pregnant....!”

Thankfully, my boss was (and continues to be) my biggest advocate. She congratulated me and did not make me feel awkward or guilty in the slightest. Instead, I felt empowered and confident in my decision to take the leap into this role. 

The next day, we had a team meeting where I planned to tell my colleagues. But truthfully, I couldn’t keep my secret that much longer. So the same day I told my boss, I told a handful of coworkers at lunch.

“Can you guys keep a secret for 24 hours?” I asked. They stared at me with wide-eyed anticipation. “So, I was going to tell everyone at the team meeting tomorrow, but I just can’t wait that long.”

A few of them immediately piped up. “I think I know what it is!!” 

Shoot.

“Well… I’m pregnant…” Everyone around the table shrieked in joy. “I KNEW IT!!” they rang out.

“Here’s a surprise for you that I’m sure you didn’t know,” I continued. “It’s twins.”

The shrieking escalated. Even now, it doesn’t get old telling people there’s 2 babies on the way.

Apparently, my saltine-eating habits were the dead giveaway (can’t a girl enjoy an entire sleeve of saltines at her desk? Sheesh). The other tipoff was that during our team outing to the Cubs game, I kept going to the farthest bar from our seats to order my “vodka sodas” (which were really only club sodas with lime) -- and to make it even more obvious, it was served to me in a completely different cup than what actual vodka sodas came in. My bad. And here I was thinking I was being super sneaky! 

The next day in our team meeting, I snuck in my announcement during my allotted update time. “I wanted to make you all aware of a special project I’m working on,” I began. “It’s something I’m working on from a personal perspective, and when I’m done I’ll have a new title.” Some people started giving me the side eye. I’m guessing they were thinking, who is this girl, coming in here going for a promotion after 3 months on the job? Joke’s on them.

I continued. “The project timeline is approximately 9 months, and my new title will be MOM.”

The surprise & delight on everyone’s faces is something I won’t soon forget. I remember sitting next to our college intern and she might have been one of the most excited faces in the room. It’s really meaningful to know you're surrounded by coworkers who really do care about you and genuinely share your excitement.

Honestly, my entire second trimester was kind of a blur. It seemed to absolutely FLY by and it was by far the favorite part of pregnancy. I doubt that’s much of a surprise to anyone though; I kept hearing from people how wonderful the second trimester is. Any first trimester symptoms like nausea or food aversions wear off, and you start to get your energy back. I continued my Orangetheory classes, for the most part, as normal. I think week 16 may have been when my body told me to stop running (cue the power walking!), but I kept up with almost everything else as usual. 

Quite possibly my favorite thing about this time was my growing belly (and the shopping it required!). I clung to my pre-pregnancy wardrobe as long as I could, but once the waist expanders just didn’t cut it anymore, I decided it was time to bite the bullet & just invest in some clothes I could feel confident in.

Between Target, Motherhood Maternity, Pink Blush Maternity, and Stitch Fix, I felt like I’d put together quite the #OOTD collection. It’s funny looking back now because at the time I thought my bump was so big. Ha! If I only knew…

Some of my favorite memories were made on our very-early babymoon to San Diego. As carrying multiples is still generally considered “high risk,” my docs advised against traveling too far into the pregnancy. So we went over Labor Day weekend, which was around the 4-month mark (and also coincided with our 8th wedding anniversary). The best part about this trip was that we made very few plans -- something I’m not prone to do on vacations. We simply enjoyed being together, sleeping in, lounging on the beach, and trying to talk about things other than babies or pregnancy. It was beautiful. 

A couple weeks later we invited almost everyone we knew to our home to be surprised with us as we found out the sexes of our babies. We’d done an early 3D anatomy ultrasound and sent off our results to an Etsy maker who filled 2 huge cannons with colored confetti & smoke. We really, really hoped the results were correct. 

The weather that day was less than cooperative, but all of our family & friends were more than cooperative. Shoutout to everyone who came & stood around in the on-again, off-again rain & mist for hours. Steve and I feel incredibly lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives. 

Amazingly, the next several weeks continued to fly. Thinking back, it seems like it was just yesterday that we told our parents, or that I told my coworkers. I can still remember what that San Diego sunshine felt like on my shoulders (even now, as I stare at the fluffy snowflakes outside my window). We’re still finding remnants of blue confetti in our garage and it reminds me that it wasn’t all that long ago.

If this pregnancy has flown by, I can only imagine how it’s going to feel once these babies are here. I now have a better understanding of why parents love to say, “Don’t blink,” because I’m sure it really does feel like they grow up in a heartbeat.

Read the final entry to my pregnancy diary here.