Second Trimester, Here We Come!

At the last OB visit I had what I thought was a pretty comical conversation. It went something like this:

Me: "So when does the second trimester officially begin? It seems like there's a lot of different estimations out there."

OB: "Yeah. Well, its sometime between the 12th and 14th week."

Me: "Really? No offense, but I thought you guys would have worked it out a little more precisely."

OB: "Nope. Everyone says something a little different. But definitely sometime in there."

It wasn't until the car ride home that I burst out laughing when I finally put it all together. Giggling with a mania that probably concerned Terry, I explained, "They can't decide on a date for the second trimester because those jokers can't agree on how to divide 40 weeks by 3. If we were on a quarter system, everyone would agree on 10 week increments. And here I thought these trimesters were meaningfully distinguished by something important, some deeply medical transition. It's just math. And bad math at that."

Either way, using the incredibly medically precise 12-14 week measurement means that as of this Saturday the baby will be officially 14 weeks old and therefore into the second trimester by anyone's count.

The way people write about the second trimester makes it seem like a return to Eden. If you were sick before, most can expect to get their appetite back. If you were tired before, they say that some women find themselves more energized than they have ever been in their whole lives. If you had to pee like crazy before, the second trimester brings relief. So you are supposed to feel more alert, energized with a sense of well-being, and this is the period where you first get to feel the baby moving inside you and hear its heartbeat. It sort of does sound like a little piece of paradise. And I'm looking forward to being able to sit through an entire movie without a bathroom break.