Second Trimester Essentials

The second trimester for me was when it started to feel real that I’m pregnant and there were some products that I relied on. So I thought I’d share my second trimester essentials.

I didn’t share the news that we were having a baby until we were well into the second trimester. It was not until I was 20 weeks pregnant that I made the news public. In my opinion, it was a stressful trimester because of health issues. I go into more detail about what the second trimester of pregnancy was like for me in this blog post, such as pregnancy symptoms and what I encountered. Overall, all the first trimester symptoms still carried over. I was still having morning sickness which was super annoying on top of everything I had to deal with.

But it felt SO good to share the baby news. And as you all know now, Carter is here. It’s so crazy to think not too long ago we had no idea if we were having a boy or girl. We wanted to keep the gender a surprise and we waited until he was born.

It’s incredible though to see how much the woman’s body changes. The 2nd trimester was when I started to see my body transform. As your body continues to change to accommodate your growing baby inside, you also need several items that can help you stay comfortable and get through the second trimester of pregnancy.

Second Trimester Essentials

Second Trimester Essentials

1 BellyBottle Pregnancy Water Bottle

Staying hydrated is extremely important throughout your entire pregnancy! I also found out it is important to stay hydrated postpartum too. The moment I found out I was pregnant, I started chugging water haha. I love this water bottle because it just makes it a bit more fun and easy to track how much you drink. There are timestamps to indicate how much water you should have drank. All you need to do is refill the bottle 3x in one day and that’s a total of 90 oz. What makes this water bottle fun is that as you progress each week, there is a sticker you can add to the bottle that indicates what fruit or veggie the baby’s size is that week!

2 Belly Butter Or Belly Oil

Moisturizing the baby bump helps the skin become more elastic as the belly continues to grow. It also helps hydrate the skin and potentially prevent stretch marks. I used both the Pipette Belly Butter (also a fan of their baby skincare line!) and Bio – Oil. Love them both! I didn’t have any stretch marks, but also keep in mind that stretch marks are potentially genetic. Regardless, still important to hydrate your skin.

3 Maternity Clothes

The second trimester is when you’ll start to need to wear maternity clothes. I went from having a food baby belly to full-on baby bump overnight! Wearing maternity clothes helped boost my body confidence and it was fun dressing the bump. 100% recommend maternity overalls. It was so comfortable to wear and it looked cute with the bump. Here are some outfit ideas with maternity overalls. And if you want maternity jeans, I did a full review of them here. I’ve also shared my favorite maternity dresses.

My favorite maternity brand is Hatch. Their clothes are SUPER cute and I personally think a gift card is a great gift for an expectant mama. They are pricey and I only own a few of their things, but they are worth it to me.

They did come out with a more budget-friendly line called The Nines by Hatch and it is sold at Target exclusively. It’s just as amazing! It recently launched in the Spring and they just released their Summer collection – HOLY AMAZING it makes me wish I was pregnant in the Summer haha.

4 Indie Lee I-Recover Mind & Body Gel

I still used eucalyptus essential oils, but I started using more and more of this mind & body gel because I was getting more and more body aches. It’s pregnancy-safe and so soothing on the body.

5 True & Co Bras

True & Co bras are my ULTIMATE favorite bras. I did a full review of them here. Throughout my pregnancy, they have proven to be the most comfortable bra ever. I used the V-Neck bralette and triangle bra. They’re super soft that I forget I’m wearing a bra!

6 Pregnancy Body Pillow

Even though I mentioned it in my first trimester essentials, you don’t actually need a body pillow until the 2nd trimester.  As the baby and belly grow, you will need to sleep on your side (the left side is preferred). The pregnancy pillow makes it easier to sleep on your side and helps you have a good night’s sleep. I still use it even though I no longer have a bump ha.

7 Maternity Workout Clothes

I remained active throughout my pregnancy and continued to workout. Remember to only workout according to your fitness level. Some days I am walking only or doing a full body workout. It’s really all about getting your body moving. I honestly wish I wore more maternity workout leggings because they definitely made a difference in terms of support & comfort and having a great workout. I only own a couple and I was constantly rotating between them. In my 3rd trimester, I was solely wearing maternity workout leggings and I would go days without washing them haha.

8 Belly Band

Belly growing means you will need extra support. There will be pelvic pressure, waddling, and back discomfort. I LOVE the Belly Bandit Maternity Support Belt. It helped ease up on the pelvic pressure and made walking easier. There’s a back pocket to insert a hot or cold pack for your back too.

9 Nécessaire Body Lotion & Nécessaire Body Serum

Don’t forget that the rest of your body needs to be well-moisturized (another reason why you should be drinking lots of water!) and not just your belly. Growing the little babe uses up all your water in-take. My skin was SUPER dry and the only thing that really worked, and is safe for pregnancy, was the Necessarie body lotion and body serum. You don’t need both, but if you are as dry as I was, I used both at the same time. Purchasing the set is much more affordable than purchasing individually if you plan on using both.

10 Prenatal Vitamins

Prenatal vitamins are a must throughout the pregnancy!

You’ll notice that some of my pregnancy product recommendations overlap from the first trimester and that’s because if they continued to work for me why stop? I’ll do an overview of my ultimate pregnancy product recommendations soon.

If you want to know what each of my trimesters of pregnancy was like here are my posts on the first trimester, second trimester, and third trimester.

xo RD