I didn't go into too much detail in my first post as I'd been pregnant for a while by then and I thought it would be easier to just kind of summarise everything up until that point! I wanted to go into a little more detail about some things now. I read a few pregnancy blogs and I always feel so much better afterwards because I can relate a lot to the girls who write them, so there's no doubt that me recording my pregnancy and sharing my experience for other's to read can only be a positive thing!
So let's start with the interesting topic of my mother being my midwife. This will definitely make the birth a bit different to everybody elses. I know a lot of women have their mother's there, and mine will be too.. she will just be delivering the baby as well! I'm not bothered about my mam being 'down there' and seeing everything as I'm pretty certain that when the time comes I won't care who sees what as long as they get the baby out! Obviously she had to make sure she had permission to do this first, but actually we didn't really have to have a long chat about it, it was pretty much a mutual decision. She's a very experienced midwife who's been delivering babies for a long time and has worked her way up into job positions that give her more responsibility, so I know I'm going to be in very good hands.
I've also decided to start preparing for the birth a little earlier than other's probably do, and this is because I'm prone to a little anxiety and the more I know, the better I feel. So I have stopped reading the awful birth stories courtesy of Google (for my own sanity as well as Craig's) and instead read as much as I can about what to expect, pain relief and how to prepare, as well as what to expect in the first few weeks. I've also decided to sign myself up to a pregnancy class which focuses a lot on yoga in pregnancy, hypnosis and positive affirmations. I'm not really into this kind of thing normally, but I thought it would be interesting to look into. I've spent enough time in hospital to know that staying calm as opposed to letting fear take over tends to make things go a lot quicker and smoother. So anything that is designed to help me relax is a good thing and Craig is really happy that I'm doing it.
The whole point of the course is to try and look at labor as being a calm and natural experience (although I know I'm definitely not going natural haha) rather than a scary and painful one! Of course I can't say too much about this right now but I will report on how effective I think it was later on.Now, the moment every expectant mother eagerly anticipates... baby kicked for the first time the other night!! I know at the last scan we seen the baby practically doing somersaults in there but Friday night was the first time I properly felt it moving about. I'd felt 'different' about a week and a half before that, kind of felt like I had butterflies in my tummy but nothing for definite. I thought I was imagining it but now I realize I probably wasn't as most women say they feel the butterfly sensation first before they feel the kicks. On Friday I felt a gentle prod in my tummy so I called Craig over and we just lay there in silence with our hands in the same spot waiting to see if I'd imagined it or not! We both felt it kick again not long after, and I'm so glad he was there so that we could experience that together. I would have been pretty sad if he wasn't there to feel the first kicks with me. I've felt it a couple of times since then but they're very gentle kicks at the moment which will no doubt get stronger in the next few weeks!
Thankfully, a lot of my nasty side-effects have gone away - apart from heartburn, but I have medicine for that which keeps it under control now. After months of non-stop sickness I can finally say it's mostly gone, I only get it occasionally now. I'm more energetic and in a better mood overall now that I'm not ill everyday - much to the relief of my family and friends haha. I mentioned before that I was avoiding going out a lot in case I was ill, and now that I'm better I'm enjoying going out a lot more. I'm not going to clubs (I tried one sober night out in town, despite being warned by my friends with children that it's not fun, and I was demented so will not be doing that again!) but I just like going out to restaurants and to the cinema and seeing my friends while I've got the energy and the time!
