Welcome to the thirteenth week of pregnancy. You are now in your second trimester! You are probably starting to look pregnant. You may not be worrying as much as you were a few weeks ago. Pregnancy may be all you are talking about now. You may be driving your friends and loved ones crazy with all the baby talk. Some of your friends and family may really enjoy talking about your pregnancy, and others may quickly get bored or change the subject. You might feel like some of your friendships are starting to change now that you are having a baby. In this week’s newsletter, we are going to talk about how your friendships might change during your pregnancy.
What Is Going on with Mom & Baby
Baby: Baby’s crown to rump length is around 7-9 cm. (about the size of a peach). Your baby weighs about 35 grams. Your baby’s intestines which were forming outside your baby’s body have now moved into the abdomen. Your baby's tooth sockets are forming now. You won’t see her teeth until later, but they are all there underneath her gums. Your baby’s hair follicles are also forming now.
Mom: Most women start to feel better in the second trimester. Hopefully, your morning sickness has decreased. You may have a little more energy than you had a few weeks ago. A lot of pregnant moms wait until they are through the first trimester to announce their pregnancies. If you haven’t told everyone the news, you may feel ready to start talking about your pregnancy now.
This Week’s Pregnancy Checklist
- If you haven’t bought any maternity clothing, purchase some maternity clothes this week.
- See if any of your friends or family have any baby items that they no longer need.
- Clean out the room that you plan to be the baby’s nursery.
- Consider purchasing a gliding chair or rocking chair.
- Put non-slip pads under your area rugs to prevent slipping accidents.
- Take a new belly picture for your scrapbook or journal.
Friendships and Pregnancy
You wouldn’t think having a baby would make too much of a difference in your friendships and relationships. If you have an active social life, you may find yourself suddenly having to slow down. You may find yourself having new feelings about friends who have made different choices than you, or your friends may have a difficult time adjusting to your new role of motherhood. If you are having your first child, you may quickly run into discussions that you hadn’t had before with your friends. Friendships can go downhill when parenting topics come into play.
Try to keep an open mind and not let your friends’ feelings about parenting topics change the dynamics of your friendship. You may not see eye-to-eye on everything, but you can still keep connected by talking about things that you both have in common or enjoy discussing.
You may find yourself feeling closer to friends that have children or are pregnant. Sometimes it is nice to have someone who enjoys talking about kids and pregnancy. You may discover new friendships blossoming now that you are expecting a baby. On the other hand, you may start getting unwanted advice from your friends that have children. Moms sometimes try to help too much and get carried away with telling you how to do things. Don’t worry too much. Sometimes the easiest way to handle these unwanted conversations is just to be polite and say “oh, really” or “I hadn’t thought of that” or “I will have to talk to my doctor about that.” Pick your battles. There is no need ruining a friendship over a disagreement.
There is no need to create extra stress by worrying about your friendships. It is normal to have relationships change with life-changing events. Keep your communication lines open, and give yourself time to adjust to being pregnant. Your friendships may not be the same after your pregnancy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t continue to have close and meaningful relationships with friends that you care about.
Impulse Shopping During Pregnancy
There are all kinds of gadgets, cute clothes, baby bedding, and toys that you may want to buy for your baby or yourself. When you are shopping, you may see all kinds of cleverly marketed baby or pregnancy-related merchandise. What do you need, and what should you steer away from? Try to avoid purchasing items that you just really don’t need, even if they sound like a good idea. If you buy every cute little thing that catches your eye, you may quickly find yourself in over your head in baby-buying debt.
Here are some tips for avoiding impulse buying during pregnancy.
- Make a list of what you need before you go shopping and stick with what is on your list. If you see something that you would like to buy that is not on your list, don’t buy it right then. Write the item down on your list of things you would like to have. Put this item on your baby registry or buy it on another shopping trip. This will give you time to really think about whether or not you need this item, or if you were just having an impulsive moment. You may end up finding other things you want more and scratch this off your list.
- Purchase a gift card with a set amount of money on it before you do your shopping. Make a list of the things you need and approximately how much money you would like to spend on each item. When you do your shopping, bring only your gift card and nothing else. This way you will be forced to stick to your budget. If you do decide to cave and spend more money, you will have to drive home, get your credit card or checkbook, and then drive back to the store to buy your items. With all the inconvenience, you will most likely decide that whatever it was that you wanted could wait for another trip.
- Don’t shop online if you have problems with impulse buying. Click, click, click and away goes the impulse shopping. Buying online is very convenient, but also very bad for impulse buying. If you are an impulse shopper, stick to shopping at the store for your items.
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