Welcome to the third trimester

Welcome to the third trimester.

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It’s actually kinda sad, I’m on the 31st week right now and it took me that long to write this post after taking this picture.

I decided on April 14th that the third trimester had begun, since I was three months from my due date. Now I’m well into the throes of it. Second trimester, you were not nearly as good as everyone promised you would be.

How I’m moving

Around mid-March, my running milage took a nosedive because my hip really started hurting. I saw a chiropractor and he was a huge help, and I’ve run about twice a week for the last three weeks, about 3-4 miles at a time. Most other days I try to walk the dogs for at least a mile.

... still running!

… still running!

I think I’m at the point where I’m going to cancel my Y membership until after Baby Runs is born. It’s so nice out (finally) I can’t bear to exercise inside, and I stopped being able to participate in regular yoga classes around late February.

Since I had my hip worked on, my back actually feels best when I’m running and walking. Standing and sitting … that’s a different story. It is so painful to sit in a desk chair for hours at a time now. Installing an app that reminds me to get up and move around has been a huge help.

How I’m eating

It’s been hard to shake the high-carb diet I was able to maintain as a high-volume runner. And carbs were almost all I could choke down during the first trimester.

Protein is super important for a developing baby so I try to do a couple eggs in the morning and a glass of milk during the day. I figure I’ll do my best at breakfast and go from there.

I am finding it hard to finish a normal-sized meal now. Not because I’m less hungry, but because she’s taking up the room that my stomach (and lungs) used to enjoy!

How I’m (really we are) growing

I’m at about 180 pounds right now, week 30, for a total weight gain of 17 pounds. This is right on track. I feel like I gained most of the weight in the last two months, at least 12 of those 15 pounds.

Volume-wise, I am starting to feel very round. I am down to about 10% of my pre-pregnancy wardrobe. Shortly before I was pregnant, I was a bridesmaid in my brother-in-law’s wedding with a size 10 dress. I was fitted for a bridesmaid’s dress for my brother’s wedding next month, and it was a size 24.

I feel Baby Runs all the time now, and I can even see her moving. This is very cool.

How I’m feeling

Did I mention my back hurts? Me and my hotpad have been making good friends.

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The exhaustion seemed to really lift around the beginning of May. Even after the first trimester, I found it very hard to operate on fewer than 11 hours of sleep. But then the sun started coming out earlier and I felt like it was easier to get up early again.

What I’ve been up to and what’s up next

In the second trimester Tony and I took a babymoon to Arizona to visit our family out there.

Tony at the top of Kitt Peak National Observatory.

Tony at the top of Kitt Peak National Observatory.

We went to Philadelphia for a conference in late April, and last weekend we went to Syracuse to visit our friends there who just had a baby.

The fact that I made two 8-plus-hour car rides without having to pee every hour, I think, is a great feat. Also, I love my husband, who did 100 percent of the driving.

After spending the better part of the winter working on getting our house in Lewiston ready to rent, and traveling several weekends this spring, I’m ready to settle down and start nesting.

Tony, working on our baby registry.

Tony, working on our baby registry last night.

We’ve had so many amazing/adorable gifts from friends and family already, but we have bought exactly zero things for Baby Runs impending arrival. We move from our tiny apartment in Bangor to a less-tiny house with a big yard for pugs in Brewer in two weeks, so we’re waiting until then to start getting all things ready.

I might be on my sixth or seventh child-or-pregnancy related book. I really enjoyed Pink Brain, Blue Brain and What’s Going on in There? by Lise Elliot, both about the neurological changes in the developing brain.

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… and I got a countdown timer on my phone to our due date. Only 67 days left!

Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.