5 Second Trimester Symptoms I Wasn’t Expecting

I just wrapped up my second trimester of pregnancy, and I’m getting settled into the homestretch. Being pregnant is still so surreal to me, even as I start my third trimester and get ready to attend my first baby shower. Things has already started to shift, so I wanted to write a post about my second trimester and some of the unexpected symptoms I experienced.

Like I mentioned in my blog post about the symptoms I experienced during my first trimester that surprised me, I’ve been loving the pregnancy apps like The Bump, What to Expect, and BabyCenter to keep me up to date on how my baby is progressing and what symptoms I should expect. But still some things caught me off guard!

Here are a few of the second trimester symptoms I wasn’t expecting but definitely did experience!

1. Energy. I thought it would never happen, but around week 17, I started to have energy again! The nausea subsided and I didn’t feel the afternoon crash like I did during the first trimester. It was like a light switch flipped, and I was my normal self. Sometimes I even forgot I was pregnant I had so much energy. I was feeling FA-BU-LOUS!

2. Leg cramps. I haven’t had a lot of leg cramps like other mommas, but I’ve had a few – and they were painful! The type of pain that wakes you up out of your sleep. I think one reason why I didn’t experience a lot of leg cramps is because I tried to stay hydrated, and was active with exercise and strength training.

3. Carpal tunnel pain. Initially, I thought the pain in my left wrist was because I was sleeping on my left side and was putting pressure on my wrist. But then my right wrist started to hurt, and I realized this was possibly carpel tunnel pain due to pregnancy. Because of fluid retention during pregnancy, sometimes press is put on the joint between the base of your thumb and your wrist. And it’s painful. I tried wrist support braces, but they seemed to make it worse. So I just take more breaks from using my phone and computer so much, and stay hydrated so I’m not retaining as much fluid. Hopefully this symptom goes away once Mr. Blakes Jr is born.

4. Braxton Hicks Contractions. Now, I know these are quite common amongst pregnant women during the second trimester. But I was still not expecting them to feel how they felt. When I thought of contractions, I thought of pain. So I never considered that the painless tightening feeling I was experiencing was a Braxton Hicks contraction. I’d been having them for weeks, and had no clue until it happened during a doctors appointment. The doctor felt my stomach and told me ‘that is a contraction’! I was so shocked, but glad the know.

5. Short cervix. During my 24 week appointment (which actually fell at the beginning of my 25th week), my OB/GYN wanted to do an ultrasound to check the location of my placenta. Good news was that my placenta was properly placed, but the bad news was she noticed my cervix was shorter than it should be at that time in my pregnancy. Take about unexpected! Normally this is not monitored after 24 weeks, but my doctor is a ‘see something, say something’ type of doctor, which I love about her. She decided to put me on modified bed rest until I could be seen by a maternal-fetal medicine doctor to ensure this would be okay, and I wasn’t at risk for pre-term labor. I was able to return to work after two weeks of rest and an overnight hospital stay.

If you’re in your second trimester or just finishing your first trimester, these are a few of the unexpected symptoms that you might experience. Any moms out there who experienced these symptoms or ones that I didn’t mentioned? Let’s talk about it – leave a comment!