14 Weeks & trip to Brighton

14 Weeks
31 July 2010

The 14 week bump scan. I will try to wear the same top when taking the photo but I keep forgetting (along with everything else I keep forgetting!). Honestly, my memory has become worse than ever... I walk into a room and completely forgot why I walked in, madness! I also tried to get on the bus using my work security pass rather than my oyster card!

I still feel like a 'chubbs' rather than pregnant but I can so see my body changing now. I love it! Bring on the bump!

Into the 2nd trimester now so feeling much better. All the old symptoms have gone however I have been suffering from trapped nerves in the left hand side of my back, my butt cheek and down my leg. It is so painful, although as usual, this is quite common in pregnancy. It's called Sciatica and will continue through-out. My mum said she had it and so did Dan's so I just have to do a few leg and back stretch exercises to help. Hopefully it will feel better soon.

Dan and I went to Brighton for a night, a b'day present from Dan's mum. We staying in the Grand hotel and had such a wonderful time. Although we live together it's so worth just getting away and really spending some time together. We had a lovely meal out at Due South (yummy). My lovely hubby Dan bought me a Dream Genie which is basically a massive long pillow which you wrap your body around to sleep and it supports your bump, back and legs. Suppose to use at the later stages of pregnancy but here's a photo of Dan demonstrating the Dream Genie..... hope it works and helps me sleep when my bump gets big!

The first baby item I bought!

13 Weeks

Check it out, how cute!!! It's a little snow suit for the baby to wear when it gets cold and snowy in February. I bought it with Vic when shopping in Kingston and is as my first baby item! It was so exciting actually being 'allowed' to go into a baby shop, look about and buy stuff and actually have a proper reason! The only problem is, I bought the one for a tiny baby (up to 7.5 lbs) and I am kind of thinking that the baby will be bigger than that, damn it! I will have to get it changed.

How adorable though, with it's little ear hat! I can't wait to get buying all the other stuff. There is so much stuff to buy and think about so we (well I) have started to write a list. We are hoping to get bits and pieces off friends/gumtree/ebay etc but there will be other stuff we need to buy brand new. How exciting!


I also can't wait to get into our new rented house (1 Sept) and sort out a nursury room, that will be so cute!

Pregnacare vitamins, not for me.....

Week 13

The midwife at my booking appointment told me to stop taking Folic Acid and replace with Pregnacare vitamins, so I did as I was told. A week after taking them I began suffering from horrendous constipation, heartburn and indigestion. I couldn't put my finger on what had caused it, I kept eating foliage, figs, prunes, anything to get my 'functions' moving, but no luck!

After speaking with a couple of friends and a little research on some chat rooms (chat rooms are great if used correctly! Great for bits of information but don't read too much into what everyone else is going through as it can freak you out!). Anyway..... a few people seem to have had the same symptoms whilst taking Pregnacare and after a bit more research it turns out that my symptoms could be caused by too much iron (which pregnacare contain). I thought I would give it a break from them for a bit and see what happens... anyway, bingo, after 3 days I felt back to normal, woo hoo!

I haven't been taking any other vitamins in place since. I see the midwife for my 16 wk soon so I will speak to her about it and see what she recommends.

The Lester Wedding

12 Weeks
17 July 2010

This was the first 'event' that I would be sober at, oh god! It was such an
amazing day and as expected Helen looked beautiful!
I actually handled the no alcohol quite well. I still had a few drinks (2x champers and 1x small red wine) but of course a wedding or any event is never the same without the booze.

It was such a fun day and night so I was too busy dancing, chatting and just having fun so didn't really have time to think about the booze. It was great to jump in the car and drive home too, without having to sort out a taxi so that was definately a bonus!

Here is a pic of Dan and I at the wedding. No bloody bump just yet but feeling fat (when will the bump arrive?!?!). This dress was perfect as it was quite loose and wasn't restricting. It was a sad day for the dress though as Dan & Iyla had a little accident and spoilt red wine all over it, was not happy! The dry cleaners have managed to get most of it out though so not too bad (although missed out on Dan having to buy me a new dress, damn it!)

I also had a toe stamp at the wedding too. P Bear accidently stood on my toe whilst sporting so dance moves (and great they were) but poorly little foot! I will survive!

Happy Wedding Day Pete & Helen!!!

12 week scan & end of the 1st trimester!

12 Weeks

12 July 2010

Dan and I went along to St Helier hospital for our first scan and were very excited! I had to drink a lot of water to get the bladder full (apparently this makes the picture clearer!) so I drank and drank and drank!

We paid £15 for 3 scan pics and after a short wait we were called in. We had a great doctor who was so friendly and helpful.

We then saw our little baby!! It was bouncing around like crazy, waving its little hand, crossing its legs and then sucking its thumb! So amazing to see!! It looked so big on the screen but it is only 6cms long, tiny! All was good and healthy and got told that it was developing well and due date is 23 January 2011.

They do the Nuchal Test at this point (they also did a blood test last week). This is basically to see whether the baby is at risk of Down Syndrome. Along with my blood test result they measure the amount of liquid behind the babies neck. This then gives a risk factor. Anything that is 1:500 or less gets referred for further tests. We got a ''low risk' and was 1.5 mm in length so gave us a 1:1850 chance of the baby being at risk, so we were very happy!

All things look good. We got given loads of scan photos (so could have only paid for 1 pic, oh well) and we obviously got a memory that will last a lifetime! We have finally got it confirmed, we are going to become a Mummy and Daddy!!! :0)

We popped along to Dan's mum school to show off our baby. Frances, Fran and Laul were very excited about us popping along, I think it broke up their day a bit! So cool to show them the first photo of the new addition to the Hawkes family!

Here's a photo of my tiny bump at 12 weeks....

Booking appointment with Midwife

Week 12....

I saw the midwife at St Helier on the Friday and was in there for about 1.5 hours, crazy! It was just a matter of checking all my medical history, standard form filling and asking questions. I was given a 'green booklet' which I have to take to all my appointments. It basically has all my notes in. The midwife was lovely and really helpful. They also gave me a Pregnancy Book which is really good and a few other leaflets about things when the baby arrives (not that I am thinking about that just yet...)

I was told that going forward I would be seeing the midwife at Shotfield in Wallington so that makes life a lot easier and hopefully get the same one each time. I think I get to see her once a month until the later stages and then it's every 2 weeks.

Few things picked up at that appointment:
- too many white blood cells in urine
- blood in urine
both these may be due to a slight urine infection that I have so been drinking cranberry juice and that will hopefully clear it up. They will get in touch should it be anything to worry about.

She has also referred me to a consultant at 28 weeks to keep an eye on me re: my lung op when I was little. Hopefully nothing to worry about but good that they keep an eye on it. I don't think what I had is hereditary but best to keep an eye on it anyway.

Bring on Monday for the 12 week scan!

Telling work....

Week 11.5

Told my boss today. I was a little worried as he is not the most supportive when it comes to women and babies, however I was very surprised! He said he would be as flexible as possible during the pregnancy and was keen to find out what my plans were afterwards (although he knew he shouldn't be asking....). I kept all my true thoughts to myself but he was very honest about how he could accommodate me returning part time etc, so was very cool!

Only time will tell as you never know how you feel after the baby has arrived however it was a weight of my mind that going back to work there could be an easier option than I originally thought!

Told my work colleagues too today but they said they already guessed anyway!!! They said they thought so as I had been eating so much (hehe) and also had a sick day last week and never have sick days! oh well, funny that they had guessed!

Told some of our friends around this time now (we just couldn't wait until the scan was done). They were all so excited, obviously! Some a little shocked that it had happened so quickly (as were we) but excited all the same! Dan and Abby becoming parents, yikes! ;0)

Week 10

Week 10
July 2010

This week we told our brothers and sisters. It's starting to feel real now and to be honest I just had to tell people even though I should have waited until after the scan. Of course they were all very very excited (especially the girls!).

Dan's dad loves making funny 'sneaky' comments about putting on weight, eating gherkins, looking at my non-existent bump! He's so funny!

Symptoms now and have experienced:
- gone of meat . This lasted about a week but still, the sight or thought or it at the time turned my tummy!
- same hangover feeling!
- sore boobs.
- feeling bloated and fat.
- nauseous but not actually been sick, phew!

These are all 'normal' symptoms apparently!

I can't say I have actually enjoyed the first 3 months of pregnancy. I haven't had it as bad as other people, no sickness etc but have still felt rough and will be glad when the 2nd trimester kicks in!

My consumption of McDonalds has increased from once a year to about 2 a month!! Yummy at the time but not healthy for bubs! I have generally just wanted to eat crap all the time. I never fancy a salad but if it's stodge or fattie stuff I have eat it! I hope that changes in the next few months otherwise I am going to be FAT!