Looking back on my second trimester, I am still in shock at how I reached 28 weeks of pregnancy already. Although my growing belly definitely gives me an hourly reminder, I still feel like I have so much to do before baby Emery arrives and my world is forever changed for the better.

Justin and I recently and officially announced the gender of our little one—welcome soon baby girl, Emery Lauren! Justin and I have known the gender for quite some time now, ever since week 12 of my pregnancy. It’s been a nice little secret we kept to ourselves, something just the two of us shared, enjoyed, and smiled about. However, we felt it was about time for everybody else to know our little secret as well. Although our gender reveal wasn’t exactly what we planned it to be, we still had plenty of laughs putting it together. If you haven’t checked it out, our reveal was filmed for Justin’s YouTube channel and you can view it here:

Our Baby Gender Reveal Video

I haven’t given an update on my pregnancy in quite some time, but to me that seems like a good thing—knowing there is not too much out of an ordinary pregnancy to announce. Thankfully, and God willing, my pregnancy has been pretty smooth sailing thus far. Although, I do still have the same symptoms as most mommy-to-be women, such as shortness of breath when I do too much, relentless back pain, and annoying leg cramps. However, overall this pregnancy thing is a piece of cake, just kidding! It’s anything but cake, more like a bran muffin wrapped up in sprinkles to conceal its true identity.

So here’s a peek into what the last three months of pregnancy has looked like for me, I would love to know if these were common symptoms you experienced or if you know somebody currently going through pregnancy.

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First and foremost, I have to explain a phenomenon I hardly knew anything about until now. Leg cramps and restless leg syndrome. I was warned and warned again about the natural occurrence of leg cramps during pregnancy but it wasn’t until I had my first one did I realize these muscle spasms are no joke. Waking up in the early hours of the morning to a knife digging into my calves is not exactly something I look forward to when my head hits the pillow at night. Knowing these cramps can strike at any moment without so much as a warning sign is the scariest part—will it happen tomorrow morning? Next week? This evening when I’m falling asleep?

Apart from the painful muscle spasms that mutilate my calf muscle into a firm ball, the restless leg symptom is equally annoying. Although not nearly as painful, this phenomenon occurs mostly at night when I am trying to fall asleep. The sensation that my legs need to move and keep moving seems like it wouldn’t keep me from falling asleep, however this is very far from the truth. I’ve spent hours tossing and turning in the sheets because of the extreme annoyance of my legs. They move all day long, why can’t they just calm down and relax for me to fall asleep at night?

After looking through a few good sources and checking my pregnancy applications, leg cramps are very common and should not be cause for alarm. However, some sources say to get more exercise, drink more water, eat a balanced diet with calcium, potassium, and magnesium, and make sure to stretch before going to bed. I can most certainly check the first three off the list, so for now I’ll be doing stretches before I crawl into bed for the evening.

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Although I’m still craving my daily ritual of scrambled eggs, wrapped up in a tortilla drizzled with spicy Cholula sauce, I’ve never loved water so much in my life than I do these past several weeks. Is it weird that I now crave frigid cold water and ice? I never used to be one who enjoyed ice cold treats, they were always too cold for me. As of late, ice has never sounded so wonderful to me. The crunch of the ice and the taste of clean water together is all I’ve been craving lately, so much that my jaw is actually taking a slight beating from all the ice I’ve been chewing on. Although I know I shouldn’t be chewing on ice all the time (considering the amount of dental damage I could be doing), most days I just cannot help myself. However, to think of all the things I could be craving, I am most happy to say my cravings have been beneficial to both my and my baby’s health, such is the case of healthy hydration. I love a good strawberry lemonade with real lime and strawberry chunks every once in a while but a typical day for me looks a lot like water and ice, iced water, ice without water, and ice cold water.

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Among my other symptoms of pregnancy, my nesting mode to get the house and nursery ready has been on extreme levels lately, sorry Justin. Although I assume this is the normalcy for any woman who moves into a new home, the need to feather and fluff the nest is a natural instinct. However, my motherly instincts have doubled-over because of the added nursery factor and sensing the need to fluff a nest for our soon-to-be little one.  So in the case of nesting for Emmie, I have since come to the conclusion that I must take one day at a time. I must remind myself to take one project at a time, not to get ahead of myself, and most importantly, not to stress about the little things that might not get done before Emery arrives in September.

Until next time, you know exactly where to find me, nesting around the house while scrambling up some eggs and tortillas.

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All photos used were taken by and for The Healthy Chew, all rights reserved.

 

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