Pregnancy: Weeks 17 & 18
Flutters. Kicks. And Pillows. Oh my!
Symptoms
Movement. I have been feeling flutters since week 13, but only in hindsight is it clear that was the baby. It wasn’t until Week 17 that I could definitively say I felt the baby. At first, it felt like taps from the inside. On 17+6, I felt real kicks for the first time, and maybe even a flip! I was just working away and getting increasingly hungry when I felt a kick – I guess he was getting hungry too! He kicked again and again, so up and to the kitchen I went! So far there is no consistency, but I will take it!
Trouble Sleeping. Now that my uterus seems to be sitting higher, I can sleep a good 8-9 hours without needing to wake up to use the bathroom. However, sleeping on my left side as much as possible is difficult. I bought the pregnancy C-pillow and actually slept worse with it than without! I have a whole system of the C-pillow + regular pillows going on now, but it is hit-or-miss most nights.
Energy. I have been waiting for the second trimester energy everyone talks about to kick in! I stopped having that debilitating first trimester fatigue around week 12, but I have still been more tired than usual. During the 18th week, the energy kicked in though! I felt my appetite suddenly increase and my energy levels soar! Sure, I am pretty much useless after 8pm, but that is an improvement from 4pm!
Otherwise, with a healthy diet, regular exercise, and a healthy posture, I have been able to avoid most of the other pains and symptoms so far!
Food Cravings
Week 17 was all about salt (CHIPS!!!!) and week 18 was all about chocolate – the good dark stuff. Oh and eggs – they are the first thing I think about in the morning! I used to love them scrambled, but now I can only stand them fried/over-medium/hard-boiled, which is funny because I HATED hard-boiled eggs pre-pregnancy.
I also had the resurfacing of an aversion these weeks – chicken! I still don’t really want chicken unless covered by lots of flavor/sauce.
What I Actually Ate
My appetite increased in Week 18 from my normal pre-pregnancy level. I find the bump is larger in the evenings and making it hard to eat a full dinner so I usually eat larger breakfasts and lunches, and then a light dinner followed by snacks.
See my instagram for more details on what I am eating, but most days follow a simple formula:
Breakfast: 2-3 eggs + 2-4 servings of vegetables + 1/2 cup sweet potatoes + 1/2 avocado (sometimes)
Snack 1: 1/2 GoMacro bar or 1/2 avocado (if I didn’t have it at breakfast) with crackers or chips
Lunch: Tacos or Quinoa Bowl with lots of protein
Snack 2: Granola or Kale Chips or Fruit/Sweet Potatoes with coconut yogurt or Smoothie
Dinner: Gluten-Free Pasta or small Quinoa Bowl
Snack 3: Pregnancy Tea with splash of unsweetened cranberry juice + squares of chocolate, toast with avocado or sunflower butter, lamb burger (if tolerated), sweet potato wedges with coconut yogurt…sometimes I have all of this!
Workouts
I stuck to my usual routine of strength-training workouts Monday-Friday, prenatal yoga on Saturday, and rest day Sunday. I started adding in some of the yoga stretches during the week in the evenings to keep things loose, and to create a sense of room/space in my front body when the belly is larger.
