Pregnancy after bypass: Week 14 Pregnancy Diary

I managed to have another quiet week, for me, this week. I had a chance to really get into my study which is good because I needed to make some headway into it and the only pregnancy related thing I had on was that I saw the dietician. The baby is about the size of a lemon this week and I started to get a tummy and if you’ve got a good eye you can notice it! This was the first week of my second trimester and I’m glad to be out of the first one and have a lot of the initial risks drop away.

I finally dropped my caffeine habit this week, I had known for a while it had to happen but I finally did it. I had set myself a deadline of the second trimester in case I hadn’t managed it prior to that and I went decaf on the last day of the first trimester. Since my son was quite small at only 2.85kg I want to avoid anything that can contribute to growing a small baby and unfortunately caffeine is one of those things.

As I expected I had a few days of awful withdrawal headaches. I was hoping since I had cut down from four to one shot of coffee a day that it wouldn’t be quite so bad but oh boy my body missed the caffeine. I was pleased to find that Altura, my local and fave, has quite nice decaf coffee which is decaffeinated with the Swiss Water Method, not chemicals so at least I have something, right. I am still missing the caffeine though and can’t wait until I can pick up my one bad habit again.

I got a call from the hospital dietician this week. My bariatric nurse had forwarded her the emails we had exchanged where I let her know I was going to see the private dietician and to cancel my referral. After a bit of back and forward and figuring out she was able to fit me in later in the week. I was pleased to be able to stay under my bariatric team and that she could get me in. They were about to do another round of booking and I was top of the list so I wouldn’t have had to wait 3-6 months but still the letter issuing might need to be looked at.

It was great to see her and talk over how things are different now that I’m pregnant. By and large I’m still eating how I have for the last couple of years and nothing needs to change there. I have been having an afternoon snack most days, I think it’s mainly driven by how tired I am, and she was quite happy with that. I’ve been tending to have a couple of teaspoonfuls of peanut butter or a tiny bowl of cereal.

Overall so far I have put on three kilos and she was happy with this. Since I started this pregnancy in the healthy weight range it is expected that I can put on a bit more say 11-16 kilos so I’m doing well in that regard. If I don’t keep gaining weight as I need to then she said we could look at adding a morning snack in too.

The only things I need to change are to put my vitamins down to one a day, my bloods will still be monitored so we can change it if need be. I need to try and get my calcium levels up a bit to 1500mg a day, I’m already taking a 500mg supplement daily, so I need to try and have one more serving of dairy a day to achieve this. The last thing of note was that I need to shoot for the higher end of my 60-80 grams of protein a day recommendation. Based on my weight I should be aiming for 75 grams a day.

The tiredness has been hard again this week. I’ve been going to bed early and it’s not really helping. You need so much rest when you’re pregnant it’s really incredible. My tummy has continued to be a bit of a pain this week but I’ve had less incidents where it’s quite unhappy so hopefully that keeps dying down and I’ll be back to normal again soon.

How far along? 14 weeks, finally in the second trimester. It’s seemed to take an age to get to this point!

How big is the peanut? About the size of a lemon and various other fruits and vegetables depending on what you read.

Total weight gain/loss? This week I stayed the same as last week. So far I have gained 3kg overall.

Maternity clothes? I’m becoming quite good friends with my maternity jeans this week.

Sleep? Has been better. I’ve seemed to get used to waking up a few times in the night to pee and I’m falling back to sleep quite easily now.

Best moment this week? Seeing the dietician and finding out that I was basically on the right track so far.

Symptoms? Tired so tired. All the time. No matter what.

What I miss? The variety of my wardrobe. There’s quite a few things that I can’t fit now and it’s getting quite limiting.

What I’m looking forward to? Doing yoga with Skechers next week. Who knows, if I enjoy it I might start doing some pregnancy yoga classes.

Milestones? Getting into the second trimester!

Bump? It’s starting to appear and depending on what I wear can be quite noticeable.