Week 18 – Those butterflies are not my imagination!

My update this week is a couple of days late as pregnancy has taken a backseat to my husband’s knee surgery.  He went in on Friday and everything went to plan, but he’s in a lot of pain and suffering a lot. We were able to bring him home yesterday lunchtime and that in itself was an effort.  Have you ever tried to fit a 6 foot 1 human being in the backseat of a car while keeping his leg entirely straight? We did it – thanks to his parents large SUV – but it took a long time and he felt a lot of pain in the process.

The past two days have been exhausting, not only to my husband but also to me.  I got home at around 9pm on Friday and I was so drained. Even though I hadn’t been doing anything much physically, I think I was subconsciously stressing a lot and that takes a surprising amount out of you. Yesterday was a different day with many more physical jobs to do to help my husband out, but at one point in the afternoon I surrendered for a 2.5 hour nap. I think that says it all really!

On to good news… over the past 3 days those are-they-or-aren’t-they bubbles have become distinguishable baby movements. It has been really strange and really amazing all at once.  I try to explain them to my husband but it’s so difficult. At one point on Thursday night I was lying on the bed on my back with my top half propped up with pillows and one of my cats sleeping between my legs. I thought the cat had put his paw on my belly at one point (which would be no bad thing) but I looked down and the cat was still fast asleep between my legs and not near my belly.  It was a baby movement! Since then I’ve had other similarly strong movements which have continued to delight me.

When my husband was in his post-surgery, post-anaesthesia delirium he almost told his parents the gender of the baby.  Now they know that we know, we are going to have to confess over the next few days. I’m ready to tell people as I’m finding the secret too much of a burden. I will reveal that about 80% of the people who have guessed the gender based on how my bump is carrying, the shape of my face, or whatever, have got it right so maybe it is possible to guess this stuff.  My local butcher though (who used to flirt with me and give me free steak – I guess those days are behind me) told me that he was 99% certain my baby was one gender and it was hard to keep a straight face because he was 100% wrong.  Bless him!

Also, for those of you who play these games, I have checked several Chinese gender predictor calendars and they have ALL been right.  That is particularly freaky!!

Onto the weekly data…

Weight gain: This week has been a slower weight gain week, thank goodness!  I’ve put on 300gm, although it does seem to vary quite a lot from day to day so I weigh myself around 2-3 times per week to observe the variations.  It must be water retention or something.  Very strange bodily behaviour!

Symptoms: I found a rash on my leg yesterday which seemed to have no particular origin.  It’s still there today but it’s not bothering me right now.  Rashes are apparently normal in pregnancy – great! Also, heading into TMI territory (so turn away now those of you who prefer not to know this stuff) I’ve really noticed a bit increase in the discharge this week.  I mean, it’s been more than usual for some time now, but this week it seemed to increase even more (#ewwww).  I also think I may have the start of haemarroids which is weird as I am not constipated.  Overall though, I think I am very, very fortunate when it comes to symptoms as I really do have almost none.

Eating: I’ve not gone crazy with my eating this week.  I’ve been hungry but I’ve been able to control it and also I planned my snacking in the office so that I ended up eating healthy snacks while there. My current snack of champions is celery with peanut butter.  You spread the (crunchy) peanut butter down the middle of the celery, kind of so the celery is the boat and you’re filling the boat with peanut butter.   The celery and the peanut butter have very different textures and flavours which makes it a sensation for your tongue.

Sleep: Very average.  Multiple wake-ups each night etc. I’m now sleeping in the spare bedroom (at some point to become the baby’s room)to give my husband and his knee some space  and the bed there is not as nice as our one so that is not helping. I have given up worrying about the sleeping and I just try and do my best.

Movement: Yessssss! All sorts of funny movements have been felt by me since Thursday (17 weeks, 6 days) and now it is mainly discernible.  I love it!

Emotions: I’ve been a bit sensitive this week, but it’s been a tough week too looking after my husband.  It’s been physically tiring which has also made my emotions a bit fragile. Some tears, but not too many.  I had some massive road rage yesterday about this idiot who parked on double yellow lines blocking the road (while picking up coffee of course), but I don’t know why I let it bother me so much at the time as this stuff happens constantly here.

Missing: My husband being physically able to do stuff.  To be fair, I think he’s missing this more than me! I’m sure he’ll be back to most tasks in 1-2 weeks so I just have to be patient.

Purchases: While waiting for the surgery on Friday, we narrowed our choice of stroller design down to 2, which is definitely progress for us.  We chose the brand/model a long time ago (sometime during pregnancy number 1) so all we’ve been discussing this time is the colour scheme. I think husband started to get a bit jumpy about buying things this week so I expect we will start the process of making purchases soon. Exciting!

I also bought a new belly oil by Linea Mamma.  It’s lovely and all organic!  It is an Italian brand but the box had loads of different languages on it so I am pretty sure it is easily bought across Europe at least.  Not sure about further afield, but anyway there are so many excellent baby bump oils on the market that you probably can’t go wrong.

Looking forward to: Telling people the baby’s gender (so I don’t have to refer to the baby as “it” anymore), more baby movements, buying/ordering the big ticket baby items, decorating the baby room (albeit sometime after I stop sleeping in there).

Best moment of the week: For sure it was realising that I could feel the baby moving.  Nothing is going to trump that!

Clothes: I’m all about maternity bottoms – jeans or whatever now, but I can still wear regular tops as long as they have a loose fit.  Anything tight from my original wardrobe is a no-go anymore. I also bought some awesome flamingo pjs from ASOS a few weeks ago and I’m totally in love with them. They are not sexy, but I love flamingos and they make me smile.  Even hubby said he liked them when I put them on so clearly I’m onto a winner there!

Exercise: The week started so well with exercise!  I took walks of more than 1 hour on both Sunday and Monday, yoga on Tuesday, but then Wednesday and Thursday were a bit of a write-off for different reasons. Friday morning before the surgery I did get another hour’s walk in, but yesterday’s exercise consisted of waiting on my husband which was more than enough work!  After I finish writing this I plan to go on a walk so as to keep the momentum going.

While out walking on Friday morning – which was a spectacular Spring day (one of the advantageous of living in a temperate Mediterranean location is short, mild winters) – I took the below photo which shows off my snazzy maternity leggings.  From behind I must look okay in them (and not preggo) as I received a couple of different shout outs from passing motorists as I crossed the road.  I was tempted to lift up my top and show them my bump, but I didn’t want to ruin the moment for them.

The bump update: Some days the bump seems huge and other times it seems quite modest. I think it shrank a bit on Friday (stress?) which was when I took the bump photo.  If I took another one right now I think you’d find it to be bigger.  In any case, it’s bigger than last week and that’s the important thing!