Second & Third Trimester Update
I am back with an update on the rest of my pregnancy! We will cover nutrients of focus, how I ate, tests and things that happen during this time and any other bunny trails I think of along the way. Just a little disclaimer: I make a small commission when you shop through some of my links, some even have a discount code attached for you. I only recommend what I love and find useful. I appreciate your support!
As we move into the second trimester, baby’s bones are hardening, organs are forming and beginning to function, and my blood volume is increasing. It is important to focus on calcium, iron, copper, zinc, vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium. I want to give my baby the very best building blocks for her body and I don’t want to come out of pregnancy absolutely depleted making my postpartum more difficult.
I already alluded to this, but we found out we’re having a girl!! Yay!!!
I am eating pretty much the same as I was during my first trimester, maybe slightly larger portions during the second trimester, and slightly smaller during the third due to lack of physical space in my stomach.
Supplements:
MultiAvail Mama Prenatal
Mood Memory & Brain - beef organs for all the nutrients + omega3s
Relax & Regulate - magnesium + inositol for stress, sleep, muscles (no charlie horses!), these two help with so many things
Cellular Antiox - NAC + Glutathione + B6 for antioxidant and enhanced immune support (hello cold and flu season!)
BioC Plus - vitamin C + quercetin + rutin for immune and adrenal support
GI Immune Builder- increased immune support through cold & flu season (I think this played a big role in minimizing severity and length of infections as well as avoiding many throughout the season for myself and my two little ones, 2 & 4)
Collagen & Gelatin - for extra protein and amino acids to support growing and stretching skin (no stretch marks from any of my pregnancies and I believe these were a big support of that)
How I ate:
pre-breakfast snack: gummies (homemade with gelatin & fruit), bone broth, milk
breakfast: 2-3 eggs, sausage or bacon sometimes, fruit, sourdough toast or coconut flour waffles, yolky coffee with added protein from collagen or gelatin
snack: yogurt, fruit & cheese, broth, gummies, milk, small sourdough cinnamon roll with cream cheese instead of frosting
lunch: leftovers from dinners - I almost always cook to have leftovers for lunches. It is an easy way to have a nutrient dense meal without a lot of work. I just heat up on the stove or in the toaster oven if needed. I know some people aren’t a fan of leftovers, but I see them as a gift to myself!
snack: broth, protein shake/smoothie
dinner: grass-fed beef, venison, elk, homegrown chicken, pork, salmon, + veggies and some sort of starch (potatoes, squash, tortilla, sourdough, etc) I tried to get liver mixed into dinner at least once a week in meatballs, meatloaf, spaghetti, etc.
bedtime snack: sometimes just a small serving of dinner or one of the snacks I’ve already listed
We were getting lots of delicious milk from our cow, Scarlett, so I didn’t shy away from drinking as much milk as I felt like. I have never been a big milk drinker but man, I crave it now! Raw milk is packed with so many great nutrients, enzymes, and pro-bacteria that it didn’t make sense for me to not drink it. You do your research and make that decision for you.
I aimed to get at least 30 grams of protein per main meal plus extra protein in through my snacks, a good balance of carbs, and fat as it naturally fell in. I had been fairly low carb prior to pregnancy but found that I felt better when I increased my intake. The extra protein in the afternoons helped me sleep through the night without needing to wake up and eat at 2am - more on this in a bit.
Between 24 and 28 weeks, it is standard for pregnant women to get tested for gestational diabetes. If you remember from my last post I mentioned the growth of the pancreas and the increased insulin production that happens during pregnancy, this is what makes pregnant women more susceptible to diabetes while pregnant. Typically this test is done by drinking Glucola, containing 50 grams of glucose along with artificial flavors, food dyes, brominated vegetable oil (which is approved as a flame retardant and is banned in other countries), sodium hexametaphosphate, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), and sodium benzoate. I’ll let you look those ingredients up, but essentially its full of all the things we don’t want going into our bodies, especially while growing a human. It also tastes horrible.
No shame if you drink it or drank it in the past. I did when I was pregnant with my first. I also felt horrible for two days after. The good news is, there are alternatives! You can do the same type of test but use a less offensive drink like The Fresh Test, you can eat a certain amount of dye free jelly beans (like 30-50 depending on the brand), or you can skip the the hit of 50 grams of glucose in one shot by tracking your blood sugar for two weeks. Why would you want to avoid that much glucose at once? For me being lower carb in general, my body is not used to that much glucose or sugar at once which is part of the reason why I didn’t feel well after taking it the first time. There is also a chance that you could fail if your body is not used to that much glucose, even if you do not have gestational diabetes.
In my second pregnancy, I borrowed a glucometer and chose to test my blood sugar for two weeks. It wasn’t much of an inconvenience, just a finger poke first thing in the morning and an hour after each meal. I wrote everything down and brought it in to my provider at the time. This time around, I used a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) for two weeks. It was super easy and gave me more information about what my blood sugar was doing around the clock.
If you’re not familiar, a CGM is something you implant on the back of your arm, it connects to an app on your phone, and you just scan it throughout the day to get your blood glucose numbers. The app also was able to show me a graph of my levels throughout the day, not just when I scanned it which I really liked. I noticed that my blood sugar was dropping in the middle of the night which correlated with the time I would wake up and be hungry. I didn’t put it together before but seeing the data made everything click, I needed more protein before bed! When I started incorporating a protein shake or smoothie in the afternoon or before bed my blood sugar stayed more stable through the night and I got more sleep🙌. I just took screenshots of my graphs for my midwife to have on file and all was good. I used a FreeStyle Libre sensor, you can get a free trial one but it does require a prescription from your provider. You can also purchase one through Nutrisense.
Just to note: you can opt out of screening for gestational diabetes. The caveat is if you give birth in a hospital your baby will most likely be tested for diabetes, meaning pokes to test their blood sugar. Even though I’m planning a homebirth, there is the small chance that we may get transferred to the hospital. I would much rather poke my own finger or wear a CGM than have my brand new baby poked. Again this is a personal decision, talk to your provider about your options and make the best decision for you
Speaking of homebirth, this is the time when we decided on our birth plan. I knew I wanted to stay out of the hospital from the beginning, and I had found my amazing midwife during my last pregnancy, so when the time came I called her up for my first prenatal appointment with this baby. In my opinion, birth is treated as more of an emergency or a serious medical condition in the hospital, there’s less room for you to do what feels natural to you. As women, we are designed to birth. It is a big event, but it is normal, and not something to fear. Over the years, I have become so much more connected with my body and God’s design for the mother’s body, that I want to ensure that I will have all the space and comfort to do what my body was naturally designed to do. I will go more in depth on this when I share our birth story, but I hope to inspire you to consider all of your options here. Meet with a midwife or two for more information (even if you want to stay in the hospital), they love to spend the time to answer all of your questions so that you feel informed and confident in whatever decision you make. This is another reason why I love the midwife route, my appointments are an hour long so that we can really connect and discuss all the things if needed. We have gotten to know each other which is so amazing! If you’re in Whatcom County, look up Mary with Moonbelly Midwifery in Lynden. We love her!
At some point you will get your iron levels tested. A quick note here, there are other nutrients that affect iron absorption and assimilation in the body, especially copper. So if you test low it can be helpful to incorporate more organ meats like liver for copper and other incredibly bioavailable nutrients. I mix about 1/4-1/2 lb into 1lb ground beef for meatballs etc. You can also get desiccated or freeze dried organs in capsule form to make it easier to consume regularly. I really like the brand Heart & Soil for these.
Around 36 to 38 weeks it is also typical to be tested for GBS. This is a strain of bacteria that is common in our bodies, but if it is passed to baby and baby gets infected it could be serious. The chance is very small but its your baby. Typically, if you do test positive, you are given antibiotics during labor (you can choose to decline). With Gavin, I tested positive and took antibiotics. With Charlotte, I tested positive and declined antibiotics. Now this time, I tested negative. I’m going to let you do your own research and talk to your provider about GBS, but I will share what I did this time around leading up to the test.
Prefacing this to say, I did a Beat the Bloat gut cleanse over a year ago, and worked a smaller refresher one in with a detox I did right before I got pregnant this time around (check my 10 Day Real Food Detox Review). So if you are not pregnant yet, I’d recommend cleaning up your gut first!
I’ve been taking probiotics throughout my entire pregnancy, but when I entered the third trimester I made sure to be really regular about the Women’s Flora probiotic. As I got closer to testing, maybe around 32ish weeks, I also regularly took GI Clean Up (this formula contains 4 bacteriophages that clean up bacteria overgrowth in the gut along with 7 strains of probiotic to reset bacterial balance.) Starting at 35 weeks I inserted one Women’s Flora vaginally each night before bed, just to really saturate my vaginal microbiome with good bacteria. Being cold and flu season, I’ve been regularly taking swigs of fire cider (recipe in my reels on IG), and making sure I’m supporting my whole body health to avoid getting sick. Most, if not all of these measures also support the microbiome. That’s it! I tested negative at 38 weeks!
This is another test that you can decline. But if you deliver at the hospital they will want to know your GBS status and may want to prescribe antibiotics with an unknown status. For me, I wanted to know so that if I do end up transferring to the hospital, I know it won’t be a concern at all since I’m negative or I would have a plan if I tested positive.
Now, its just labor and postpartum prep and patiently awaiting the arrival of our baby girl!
I am eating dates and drinking raspberry leaf tea, but not religiously. I’ve been drinking more of an infusion I suppose (basically a long brewed herbal tea) throughout my pregnancy but have definitely increased to just about daily. I include raspberry leaf, nettle, oatstraw and tops, and rose hips or I use a premade blend from Living Earth Herbs, they are local to me but also ship! To make the infusion, I put about 1/4 cup herbs in a quart sized jar, pour over hot water, and let steep overnight. In the morning I strain out the herbs and add ice or lemon if it sounds good.
They say eating dates can help with oxytocin production and help soften the cervix. I’m not sure if there’s any hard evidence, but it definitely doesn’t hurt and I’m a big fan of dates with butter and salt. It tastes like a caramel! I also made buttered date balls with dates, butter, salt, collagen, and cinnamon. These were so good and I plan on having some on hand for labor and postpartum.
This post is already pretty lengthy so I’ll do a separate postpartum prep post, but the third trimester is also a great time to start stashing away freezer meals. So far I have a sausage frittata, broth, and chicken soup. I highly recommend reading the book The First Forty Days if you haven’t yet. Lots of great information about nourishing yourself postpartum with lots of rest and warming foods. At this point I also recommend researching Vitamin K, Erythromycin eye ointment, and vaccines so you can be prepared and informed for after your baby is born.
Stay tuned for my postpartum post and birth story!! Thanks for reading along! I love sharing about pregnancy and birth because they have become such empowering experiences for me. The miracle of life is so so amazing, and to witness God’s design at work in my body is just…I have no words! Let me know if this was helpful for you or if you have any questions. I have some podcast episodes linked below for more resources.
Podcasts linked on Spotify:
Blog: Naturally Nourished Ali’s Natural C Section - even if this isn’t your plan know how you would want it to go just to be prepared