My neglect of my weekly pregnancy updates is definitely getting worse!
It’s a combination of a busy few weeks and not too much changing on a weekly basis – everything seems to be quite settled with us at the moment. Definitely the calm before the storm…
First of all, I’ve been away from home a lot in the past month. Seb and I went on our ‘babymoon’ holiday to Italy, which was amazing. I’m going to do a separate post on everything we got up to on our break, but I’ll say a bit here about the experience of travelling abroad while pregnant!
Way back when we booked the holiday, I couldn’t really imagine feeling so physically different, especially since I’d had such an ‘easy’ first trimester, with nothing changing bar a bit of tiredness in the evenings.
But now I can definitely see why they limit you to being 28 weeks at the latest to fly. I was 23/24 weeks while holidaying, and there’s no way I’d have wanted to go much later.
Italy was a good destination because it’s a very short flight at under 2 hours total, but with the added check in and no end of dreaded queues at the airport, it was draining.
The heat was about 30 degrees at its peak, so not unbearable, but I made sure to take water supplies with me everywhere so I didn’t dehydrate.
Once there, we visited Venice, Verona and Lake Garda, so we did quite a bit of walking and that took its toll. I was definitely a lot slower than usual and had to keep finding a shady spot to sit down for a rest – now I know how old ladies feel! But we kind of expected that, so we made sure to work around it - and in Italy there’s always a beautiful café to slink into once it gets too much.
Most days I also fitted in an afternoon nap, which was bliss. We’d make sure to go back to our room around 3.30 and I’d try and watch some TV, read a book and just rest on the bed before taking a shower and getting ready for dinner.
I also made sure to stay out of the sun as much as possible – I wore a hat and factor 50 when I was outside and always went under an umbrella around the pool. I still managed to get a light tan though!
It was amazing to spend some time together just the two of us (with bump!), and we appreciated it, but we were also so glad to get home!
I’m going through a real nesting phase at the moment and don’t want to leave the house. So I was so glad to get home.
My wonderful mother in law had been coming round to feed Shilling, and when we got home she’d
stocked the fridge with bread and milk, left flowers on the kitchen table and even mowed our jungle of a back lawn, bless her. What a great lady.
Since we’ve been back, we’ve been cracking on with the decorating in the nursery.
I originally wanted a very neutral scheme, but Seb spotted some beautiful Paddington bear wallpaper from Colefax and Fowler, which he fell in love with, so now we’ve gone for that as a ‘theme’.
The room will be grey and white with accents of blue. We also picked up our changing table and cot, which are bamboo wood ones from Kub.
There’s still so much to get for his room though, like storage baskets for toys, a nursing chair, a laundry hamper, a chest of drawers… it feels like we have so much to get.
Health wise, it has been a bit strange the past few weeks.
The doctors found out I had an infection that can cause pre-term birth, but treating it is tricky because of the pregnancy.
At first they didn’t know what was wrong, so I’ve had tests and treatments for a few things, and nothing seemed to be making it better. I feel well again now but I’m still not convinced its all gone away.
Other than that, I’ve felt well but at the same time, getting more tired and heavy by the day. Physical stuff is getting a lot harder with a large bump in the way, although I’m still walking to work and going to the gym a couple of times a week. Aiming to keep that up until seven months if possible, but just trying to be gentle with myself.
All I really do there now is a bit of cross trainer, some stationary biking and walking on a gradient on the treadmill. Its more than enough!
I don’t know how much weight I’ve put on. I don’t own any scales and so far the midwife hasn’t weighed me either. I think its better not to know at this point!
My bump is pretty big and I feel like I’ve put on some weight around my arms, hips and thighs but not loads. Weight and body shape can be complicated things mentally, so I’m following the idea that ignorance is bliss.
I don’t want to gorge myself and put too much on, but at the same time, I don’t want to worry about it until I have to, and there’s not much I can do about it while he’s still growing in there!
Mood-wise, I’m up and down. Most of the time I’m so happy, and I have every reason to be.
Seb is being amazing and it actually feels like a second honeymoon! When you’ve been together 10 years, you learn to accept its not going to be sunshine and roses all the time – but at the moment it is, and I feel very loved and appreciated.
However, I have been getting random ‘blues’. Just a sudden flat, down feeling that can come over me with no warning, even when I’m otherwise happy. I guess its hormonal, as I can also get the giggles a lot at the moment and am often in stitches over something silly
But most of the time I just feel super in love, curious to meet the little guy…I can’t imagine what he’ll look like, what kind of a temperament he’ll have…and I’m so looking forward to finding out.
He’s kicking a lot now, it can really make me jump at times as there’s quite a lot of force!
He’s most active very early in the morning, from 5-6am, a little bit at 2pm and then at bedtime, 9pm ish as well.
I’ve also started to think about my birth plan since NHS Choices very kindly emailed me a blank one.
The hospital I’m going to offers mobile epidurals, and I think that is my plan.
I’m not concerned about getting a medal for doing it all ‘naturally’ – I’ll freely admit I’m a coward with pain and I really hate hospitals, so I want the comfort of knowing there’s some good relief. With a mobile one, its not as strong and you can still walk around, which appeals to me as I didn’t like
the thought of being paralysed.
But my main thought is that I don’t want to have too much of a rigid plan because I know circumstances often have to change at the last minute, and that can be hard if your heart is set on one particular birth.
I don’t have a clue what its going to be like, and have heard every account from the reasonably chilled to the screaming horror story ones, so it really is the great unknown.
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