Pregnancy at 23 Weeks: Challenges and Cravings

My Pregnancy Journey at 23 Weeks

Now, I’m not normally one to complain; I remember my my mom was with me at one of my postnatal midwife appointments after Caimen was born and asked if I had any more complaints to tell my midwife and before I could say no, my midwife said “Heather never complains about anything! She didn’t the whole pregnancy!”.  Well that was then, and this is now.

Cravings for this week 23:

– peaches and nectarines
– coconut water
– cashew butter
– looks like my sweet tooth is starting to come back!..

In general, I am feeling great, in my second trimester ‘paradise’, and have expressed before how much I LOVE being pregnant. However, baby #2 seems to be taking a larger toll on my body and this blog is all about me bitching about it 

Challenges of Pregnancy at 23 Weeks

My pelvis is my number one complaint. Both SI (sacroiliac) joints are well under the influence (of relaxin that is) and are making my muscles around them work extra hard. When I do something with bad form, or spend too much time sitting or bend over too many times, I get what feels like an electric shock right at the joint while my muscle spasms. I have had to alter the way I get up out of bed, which makes me look like I’m ninety years old. Seriously, Caimen actually laughed at me the other morning because of how ridiculous I looked. I can no longer sit up out of bed; I have to roll to my right side (left doesn’t work as the muscles in my right glute have to work differently and cause a spasm), push myself with my arms up to my hands and knees, crawl backwards slowly to the edge of my bed, and then perform a proper squat with perfect form to stand up.

My abdominal muscles are becoming farther and farther apart as each day passes, which means I am feeling weaker and weaker in my core. The connective tissue between my rectus abdominus bulges out in a really disgusting way when I use my abs. I was demonstrating an exercise to one of my personal training clients the other week and she said “Oh my God I can see the outline of your baby! It’s really long!” It wasn’t my baby, it was my abs separating. See creepy pic below! I was out for dinner with some friends the other night and they were asking about how I am feeling so I brought this up and showed them. Then I made them touch it. One friend said “Oh my God, why did you make us do that?”.  It’s super squishy where it bulges out and I thought it was pretty funny. Especially during dinner. Don’t worry though, it is perfectly normal and I am being careful with my abs. I know what exercises are safe (or not) during pregnancy and I practice what I teach. The truth is though, sometimes it just happens and that’s ok!

I’m just going to say it – constipation sucks. It’s really shitty – actually, I WISH it was really shitty; it’s unfortunately the opposite, not shitty at all.

I could go on, but my final complaint for this post is that my heartburn is starting. This was the one biggest complaint I had with Caimen’s pregnancy, but it was pretty much my only complaint. I have only had it a few nights here and there, but I am not looking forward to it getting worse and me always being uncomfortable, tasting the awful taste in my mouth, and having to get up in the night to have some milk or bite of bread or something just to ease the acidic feeling.

I think part of what I need to do now is just slow down and actually be pregnant. This pregnancy came at a time when my life actually became the busiest its ever been! Literally, I became partner of bebo mia, we purchased Baby and Me Fitness and then I peed on the stick three days later. My business partners know all about my perfect timing 😉 I have been continuing physically at full-speed ahead and am still bopping around like I used to pre-pregnancy – I really think I just need to remind myself that I’m ALSO growing another human being, and to move and be mindful of doing so.

Heather Jones is bebo mia’s Director of Pregnancy and is expecting her second child in October.