The Pregnancy Diaries; Weeks 12-20
The first half of the second trimester has bought about a whole host of new symptoms and feelings! It feels surreal that we have our twenty-week scan this week. The first few weeks of pregnancy were filled with so much anxiety that every passing week felt like it lasted a month. But since our 12-week scan time seems to be flying by too quickly. One minute all my clothes fit, the next I found myself having to buy some maternity leggings! My wardrobe now exclusively consists of stretchy skirts and XL t-shirts!
So far the second trimester has treated me well. The nausea left pretty quickly after we hit the 12-week mark and the extreme, incurable, tiredness also left with it. Although these symptoms vacated my body, others showed up uninvited. The main symptom I’m battling on a daily basis is the back ache from the ever growing bump. For me the bump didn’t make a gradual appearance but more of a dramatic overnight entrance. Me and my partner went on a last ‘horrah’ holiday abroad for my Birthday in May before I got too big to enjoy some sun, sea and sand. On the morning of my birthday I woke up and got dressed only to be greeted by what I thought at the time was a massive bump! I also felt some of baby’s first movements this day which made it extra special. I have since come to appreciate that the bump I thought was massive that day was actually tiny compared to what I’m faced with three weeks later. I always thought I would struggle with the constant body changes that come with pregnancy but I have actually found them to be exciting and my attitude towards it is much more positive than I had anticipated. The only thing I am struggling with is the lower back pain I now live with. It seems to be at its worst at the end of the day after carrying around children at work. Luckily my partner is taking on the majority of the cooking and household jobs so when I get home from work I can relax on the sofa with all my kitties which helps to relieve a lot of the accumulated up back pain. I’ve definitely got a lot more energy than I did in the first trimester but my sleep has got considerably worse. Every night I wake up at 1am and 3am on the dot to use the bathroom! Often after the 3am wake I find it very hard to get back to sleep and end up tossing and turning util I have to get up at 5:45am. As expected, this leaves me exhausted by 9am but once I’ve done the school run I get to go back home for a nap and a rest before school pick up. So although I feel like I have more energy in general, my wake-sleep schedule is not the most practical one to have! I am just extremely lucky I have a flexible job at the moment!
Since our 12-week scan we have had one more private scan just to check that everything is still progressing as it should as we are still apprehensive about the chorionic bump found on our first scan. We feel incredibly blessed that the chorionic bump has since resolved itself and baby is thriving. We had our latest scan at 17 weeks and even got to see a sneak preview of a 4D scan. Whilst it is mindblowing that we now have these pictures on our fridge, our little one currently resembles something out of a sci-fi movie which is both interesting and slightly strange to see! We are considering going back at a later date for another 4D scan when the baby is looking more like a human baby and not an alien. But for now we can admire and adore our alien on the fridge!
Although we have until the end of October to get our house up and running for a baby, it feels like there is so much to do with so little time. We have decided to continue living in our one-bedroom apartment for the next year or so which means we need to do some serious decluttering and reorganising to fit another human into the space! This week we have started to put some furniture into storage that we don’t necessarily need at the moment like the book shelf and one of the desks. As someone who loves a tidy and organised space this has made me feel 100 times better about the prospect of having a baby in a one-bedroom apartment. We are going to look at buying the baby a wardrobe soon as I am desperate to organise all the clothes and baby products we already have. I feel slightly deflated that I wont get to decorate my first borns nursery in the way I had always dreamed, fundamentally because it’s ‘nursery’ is going to be a corner of my bedroom for the foreseeable. Whilst this baby won’t be getting their own room anytime soon, their corner is going to be as magical as we can make it! I know a lot of people would argue that these things don’t matter as the baby won’t even remember the apartment we are living in when they’re older but as a first-time mum it feels like a major pregnancy milestone is being taken away. To make the space special for us and for the baby we have started to pick out a colour for the crib and the wallpaper to cover the wardrobe in. One of my hobbies is digital drawing so I’ve been spending a lot of time hand drawing our baby shower invites and making some prints to go above the baby’s crib to add some personal elements to our baby’s corner. I’ve also become fixated on the idea of sewing some cot sheets and a cot skirt for the baby, but like all hobbies I get consumed by, I wouldn’t be surprised if these never become a reality. I need to borrow some of my mums motivation for her new love of crocheting the baby an entire newborn wardrobe!
It sounds like a clique but this pregnancy is going by so quickly. I’m still finding it hard to believe we have hit the half way point to welcoming our little one into the world. Some days it feels like it isn’t going quickly enough as we are so excited to meet our baby, then other days I find myself begging time to slow down as I don’t feel ready to start this new chapter just yet!