Second Trimester Pregnancy Update! | Symptoms, Money, & Bump

So I am officially done with the second trimester of pregnancy, so I thought I would give you guys a quick update on my symptom time feeling. We're going to be talking about finances, how much I've actually spent on the pregnancy so far, and how my mindset is going into first-time parenthood. Check it out in this video. Hey, what's up guys? It's Justine with Debt Free Millennials, the channel to help you crush your debt and live payment-free. If you want to live debt-free or you're on your debt-free journey or just looking for more tips on living a debt-free lifestyle, stick around, scroll down, and hit that red subscribe button. And we're going to be talking about pregnancy in this video because I just ended the second trimester and now we're in the home stretch. So officially, as of this recording, I am 31 weeks pregnant, so I'm just entering the third trimester. I've got like nine weeks to go. Nine weeks. It seems like I have a lot of time still, but also it feels like I don't have a lot of time left. But nevertheless, I wanted to reflect back on second trimester, so let's go over my symptoms. Symptoms in the second trimester are way less than they were in the first trimester. If you guys remember watching that video about how I survived the first trimester, there was a lot of stuff going on. But things subsided and really the biggest things that were symptoms for me was acne on my back, otherwise known as bacne. And I have never had issues breaking out on my back before, but now it's just like crazy town back there. Although I will say now it has gotten a lot better and I feel like things have kind of reduced. But still, that is a real pregnancy symptom that I really did not know about until it happened to me. The second symptom is I've had a lot of soreness in my hips and that's really kind of been more towards the end of second trimester. But during second trimester and really kind of first trimester too, I was dealing with a lot of tailbone soreness as well. Just all that extra weight and pressure, even though the baby is still small, it was kind of doing some stuff down there. So I've really been focusing on sitting upright, having a tall straight posture. I had a tailbone cushion and I've been taking a lot of baths with Epsom salt. I've also had a lot more energy in the second trimester. It's true. The magic middle is a real thing. I feel like I've had more energy. I feel like I want to cook again. And so that's been really helpful. And my biggest cravings, and I say it that way because all my cravings start with a C-H. Charcuterie, cheeseburgers, and Chobani Greek yogurt. I don't know why, but I've really been craving anything that goes on a charcuterie board. You know, the cheese and the salami and the olives and the crackers, all that good stuff. Cheeseburgers I have really been into, especially from STK. So good. There's actually a really good DoorDash deal where those burgers and fries are only $7.99. I could not believe that. And I'm an avid DoorDash user, so this is like my Friday night meal almost every week. And then I also eat a lot of Chobani Greek yogurt. In fact, Kyle and I, we actually drove back. I mentioned this in Beers and Budgeting. We drove from San Diego to Kansas and Nebraska for Christmas so that we could see our families for the very first time. And the reason why we drove is because my doctor said it would be safer. She would feel much more comfortable for us driving instead of flying due to me being pregnant. And so we were able to do that visit very safely. Everybody was quarantined, including us, before we drove out there. And then when we came back, we made sure to get tested just to triple check we were okay. And I am so happy to say that our test results were negative and we feel great. That being said, I had my family stock up on Chobani Greek yogurts because I knew that would be something that would satisfy me in the mornings. And I'm still waking up very hungry. And then I have that gag reflex. That's just kind of been a thing since day one. But as long as I'm eating, I'm okay. All right, let's talk about the finances. And I've actually broken these down into subsections because the individual line items were getting a little bit long. But here's how much I've spent. Okay, so for pregnancy supplies, I've spent $210. That includes anything from my tailbone cushion, the loofah brush I bought a while back to pregnancy pillow, the Zofran anti-nausea medication, nightlights, belly butter, all that good stuff. Basically anything that keeps me comfortable during pregnancy goes into the supplies section. For education, I spent about $168. This includes virtual childbirth classes that were offered by my hospital. I also signed up for a hypnobirthing class. And then I also have a couple of pregnancy related apps and books that I've bought related to pregnancy. And that goes all into the education bucket. For medical bills, I've spent $1,270. And the reason why this is so high is because I have a high deductible health plan with a health savings account. So that means my premium is really low. In fact, I just looked this up that my health insurance premium is just $200 per month. And then that means my deductible is a lot higher. And so in order to offset those costs, we have a health savings account, which pays for qualified medical expenses. So the $1,300 that you see, really that's because of ultrasounds and then standard lab tests. So I've had a very healthy, normal, boring pregnancy, if you want to call it that. And so I haven't had any additional medical tests or shots or anything like that. Except we did find out that I'm Rh negative. My blood type is Rh negative. And if the baby's blood type is Rh positive, and if they cross bloodstreams, that's just not a good situation. However, it's very easy to combat by just getting a RhoGAM shot, which I already got. So that would be included in medical bills. And then I also recently got my whooping cough shot and did the glucose test. Don't have gestational diabetes, but all of that stuff, all those tests and shots goes into the medical bills. Now, if you want to learn more about health insurance and pregnancy coverage, you can watch this video I'll link to up here that kind of goes over what my plan covered. And maybe you're under a similar situation. Do your research. Highly recommend you check out Marissa's Budgeting for Baby course. She has a whole section on insurance that really helped me figure out what was covered in my health insurance plan and what wasn't so that I can be better prepared for these medical bills. All right, close. I've only spent a total of about $84. Physical therapy, I've spent about $450 so far. I have a feeling I am going to up that expense because I have more physical therapy appointments scheduled for third trimester as we get closer to delivery day to help me get in the best labor positions, help baby get in the best position. It's going to be awesome. So in total, I've spent $2,182 on my pregnancy. Now, in addition to what I've already spent, I had plans to hire a doula, interviewed this girl, loved her, ready to sign the contract. And I literally just got an email this morning that said she is taking off the month of March, which I'm due at the end of March, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. I really wanted a doula. The fact of the matter is my hospital is not letting in private doulas due to the pandemic. So Kyle and I have to figure out what we're going to do if we need to interview another doula or just kind of wing it. My hospital does have a volunteer doula service. However, sometimes they're not always available when you're ready to get checked in. So I don't know, maybe we just chance it and say, OK, maybe we'll just use the volunteer doula service or we hire somebody else that was referred to us. But that would have been an extra expense. The second thing, too, is that we really haven't bought a lot of baby supplies ourselves because our friends and family were so generous and have gifted us a ton of really cool baby items. And so we're still assessing what we need and what we want. And so that would include things like the SNU bassinet, which is expensive. But I have heard such good things about this. And one of my things that I want to prioritize for my baby spending that I figured out using one of the worksheets from the budgeting for baby course is that baby supplies was like top of mind. And to me, this new sleep, it's a smart bassinet. Y'all look it up. I think that is important. So we are planning on purchasing that here in the next couple of weeks. OK, let's talk about mindset. Now, I feel like I've actually been pretty calm considering that I'm pregnant during a pandemic. However, when we went home, I was really excited to see my family. And I was like, this is going to be such a positive thing. My parents are going to see me pregnant for the very first time. This is their first grandchild. And we got this really awesome experience. And we did that. And then we had this drive by baby shower. And it was incredible. I had friends and family that I hadn't seen in over a year. And it also made me sad because I wanted to hug everybody, but we couldn't hug. And because they were driving by, our time was really limited to just like five, 10 minutes with each car. And then they had to drive off. And so that really made me sad. And I kind of struggled with that during my visit home. And I was like, wow, this was not the experience that I had anticipated. I'm so glad that I could see everybody. And also recognizing like, this kind of sucks. But when I got back to San Diego, I was kind of reenergized here. I was like, okay, I'm good. We are going to finish out this pregnancy smooth, calm and confident and in control. And so Kyle and I started taking the positive birth stories, hypnobirthing course. And this woman, I don't even know her name, but she has really helped instill confidence in myself that I can do this. And I feel that's very important. I also do daily affirmations and meditations through my gentle birth app. And that has been extremely helpful. In fact, I listen to those meditations. I listen to the affirmations on my way to my visits, because I don't know about you. Whenever you go to the doctor's office, you're like, everything's good. I know I'm healthy. I feel the baby move like constantly all the time. But still, there's like that little excitement and anxiousness. And I know because when they take my heart rate and my blood pressure, my heart rate is like 91. I'm like, normally I'm 70 something. But I know it's because I'm excited. But I listen to those affirmations. And it really helps center myself before I go into an appointment. And lastly, with mindset, my doctor, I kind of had told her some of my concerns. My doctor recommended to stop listening to other people's birth stories, because I am so interested in hearing what other people's experience has been like. And it's kind of backfired on me, I will be honest, because I had listened to a couple of stories from women that I know who had breached babies. And then I got it in my head that I'm going to have a breached baby, and this is going to be a disaster and not anything that I want. And it's a whole control thing. And I know it's not a disaster. If that happened to you, it's not a disaster. However, I struggled with that for a good long week, at least. And I had to remember that I have to let go of control and let things happen. And that I can give the baby gentle options to figure out how they want to exit this body. And that is the very best my body can do. And that's the very best of what I can offer the baby. And that's where I've come. I've come to peace with that. And that's why I'm not asking people about their birth stories right now. Because I know each one is very unique. And my story will be unique as well. Are you guys interested in hearing once that part happens? Are you interested in hearing my birth story on this channel? Comment below. Let me know. That's something that you want to hear about. Because we all know this is a debt-free channel. And I am bringing this baby into a debt-free world and tracking my expenses along the way. And also, there's the mental emotional experience of this journey too that I'd like to share with you. So that's the updates I have from second trimester. We're gonna see how third trimester goes. Oh, and I want to show you a quick bump shot so you can see my progress and how this body is creating life. It's really incredible. Like, I'm not really thinking about anything and it's just happening. It's awesome. Okay guys, that's my pregnancy update for you. We'll have another pregnancy update maybe. Maybe after the baby's I don't know. But I'll catch you in another video.