Pregnancy observations

Having never been pregnant before, I've experienced a few things that have quite surprised me. Such as:

A pregnant belly feels HARD. Like a fully inflated basket ball. I thought it would be soft and squishy!

My hair is growing at all sorts of different rates. The hair on my head is growing fairly steadily, underarm hair is growing super fast though and requires almost daily shaving! But the hair on my legs has barely grown at all in the last few months, and most strange of all - my eyebrows - I last waxed them just before my wedding in June, and since then I think I've had to pluck a random hair about twice (yes that’s in total, in 4 months!)

My fingernails are growing like the clappers, I'm having to fill my acrylic in every 3 weeks, where I used to stretch it to 4 weeks.

Leg cramps in the night are most unpleasant, especially thigh and hamstring cramps - ouch. I never even knew it was possible to get a thigh cramp.

The little bugger has started punching and squishing and bashing into my bladder, to the point where a couple of times I've had to cross my legs, squeeeeeze those pelvic floor muscles… and hope for the best!

Random strangers often talk to me. It seems that many people love a pregnant woman, especially if its your first. People look at me and smile. I've struck up conversations with random sales clerks, big burly butchers, staff at Queensland Transport, bank officers etc - whereas before they would barely even look up.

I'm forgetful. Really, really forgetful. Hubby finds it particularly annoying! I never had a great memory beforehand, but its even worse now.

I drop things. A lot. The harder I try NOT to drop things, the more I drop them.

Putting on lace-up shoes (like gym shoes) is proving to be more difficult as time goes by. Same goes for putting on socks, painting toe nails, and picking up the stuff that I dropped.

Everything is done with a grunt. Bend over to pick something up - grunt. Get out of bed or out of a chair - grunt. Walk up the stairs at work - grunt and rest at the top.

Your feet get bigger. No kidding, its supposedly because the bones and muscles relax. Some say that they never go back to the original size. So what do I do with all my beautiful size 8 shoes????

Still, I think I've been pretty lucky so far. No stretch marks yet. And with 8 weeks to go, I've gained just on 10kgs. First time in the 70's! Fingers crossed my target of putting on no more than 15kgs is achievable. Blood pressure is still normal, glucose test results were fine. I've also not experienced any cravings, or had any symptoms of nesting yet. (Can you believe we still haven't got any furniture for tic tac's room yet!! Maybe this weekend) My major complaint at the moment is that I'm just extremely TIRED.

Last Friday we went for our 3D/4D ultrasound, and got some amazing photos of little tic tac. We ended up with about 130 images, plus a DVD of the whole thing. I will leave you with a couple of the best photos.

Have an awesome weekend!

Photos! and other stuff...

Thought I'd update with a few photos this week.


Here's a pic of the new house - this is the side of the house. You can see the temporary fence that we built a few weeks ago to keep Miss Elke in. To the right of the tree in the middle is our fully screened patio area. The house is pretty much smack bang in the middle of the 1.5 acres, so the neighbours aren't too close :-)




More of the backyard - this is the area that we fenced off . If you look closely, on the right hand edge of this photo you can see the corner of the screened-in patio.





This was a classic - Connor discovering the local wildlife! This bird was absolutely obsessed with its reflection in the glass - it sat there for about half an hour gazing lovingly at its own image, totally unaware that there was a cat on the other side going bananas and wanting to catch it, and very frustrated that he couldn't!!

In the end Connor was the one who gave up in disgust.

Elke - I had just put some Advantix on her, and she was not happy with me. She refused to make eye contact with me for the photo!


Baby bump last week (at 29 weeks)

We went to a wedding on Saturday and I wore heels. Flat shoes with dresses just dont look right on me... I had to stand a fair bit though, and ended up with swollen ankles again, and back pain for a few days. The things we do for style! Although I feel that at this point in time, nothing is going to make me look good LOL. This weekend is another wedding, and I'm trying to decide if I can get away with flat shoes... maybe I'll have to wear pants, but I'd rather not! Maybe I'll just try to sit down as much as possible instead, and wear the heels? Or am I just being silly?

I'm getting to the point in this pregnancy where I'm starting to complain a bit! Oooh my back hurts, leg cramps in the middle of the night, I cant bend over and do up my shoes, or paint my toe nails because there's this big belly in the way, heartburn, I'm so tired all the time!... etc etc. I catch myself and think "you of all people should not be complaining, after the dramas it took to actually GET pregnant" So I'm trying to suck it up and just get on with it.

I have caught myself waddling a few times in the last week or two - and I have instantly corrected my gait LOL - ahhhh its SO glamourous!

Todays excitement came when I felt the heel of a FOOT pushing out of my belly. Its the first time I've actually been able to almost name a body part. Cute.

I went to a morning tea on Sunday, and one of the girls there had a 9 week old baby. Everyone was doing the "Pass the baby" thing, and I felt horrible that I STILL didn't have the slightest urge to cuddle a baby. The sum total of my baby holding experience in my entire life would probably add up to less than one our - that is including ALL babies that I've ever held. I thought I might be different once I was pregnant, but, um, I'm not. I've also never changed a nappy before. This baby is going to come out and I'm not going to have the slightest clue what to do with it.

I hope its different when its your own?

I'm also wondering when this supposed "nesting" instinct is going to kick in, cos so far it hasn't surfaced....

10 weeks to go - eeek!

Its starting to feel like home :)

For me, the sun is starting to come out again. When I think back over the last few months - its been HUGE. All the stuff that’s been going on - getting married, putting the house on the market, having open houses, buying a house, organising finance, having to put our much-loved dog down and grieving over him, packing and moving house, unpacking, buiding a fence at the new place, starting a new temporary managers role at work, AND being pregnant - well, its no wonder I had been feeling so overwhelmed and "flat" for the last few months.

But I'm starting to feel good again. There is less stuff to stress over, and more stuff to look forward to now. Starting to look ahead to the next few months as we finally get to buy a few things for the baby's room. We'd been holding off on any big purchases because there didn't seem much point doing it before we moved. So now we can get a stroller, cot, change table etc - oh and we also have to get a car for me, because pretty soon I have to give the company car back :( bugger!

We have started talking about getting another dog too - its been a month now since we lost Shavez, and it feels like it might be ok to get another one soon. It also might help us heal emotionally. Elke has become even more precious to me lately. She is such a gorgeous little girl, and is such a good indoor dog. Even Connor the cat is tolerating her being inside so much now. She has become my shadow, sitting at our feet when we're on the lounge, or comes up at random to give us hugs and kisses. I don’t know if she can sense my pregnancy, but she's certainly been a great companion lately. Isn't she a cutie?

There are a few things we need to get for the new house, but one of the things on the list was to finally get with the 21st century and get a big screen plamsa TV. We went out window shopping on Sunday - and yep, you guessed it - we came home with a new telly! It’s 50 inch - its MASSIVE! We are not really big TV watchers, but hubby wanted to watch Bathurst this weekend on a big screen - spoilt!

We have such a busy month ahead of us - including weddings on the next two weekends. Hubby is in the bridal party for one of them too. Normally I would buy a new dress for a wedding, but I decided to try on a few of my current dresses this time - and I found two that still fit, despite the big preggo belly! Not keen on buying something new that I wont get to wear again, so they will have to do. Feeling like a whale at the moment, so I don’t think much is going to make me look good somehow! Will get some photos taken if I remember.

Did a lower body training session at the gym on Monday, and took Elke for a walk this morning to expore some of the new suburb. Tomorrow I'm going to gym for an upper body session, and Thursday I'm planning a sleep in! Although sleep is getting to be a bit of a luxury at the moment, the other night I actually feel like I pulled a muscle in my stomach just from rolling over!

It really is amazing what the human body can do - I have a little being inside me right now that is about 27cms long from head to bum - now THAT is amazing! I also keep looking down at my growing belly with a degree of fright - this thing keeps getting bigger, and its got to come out down there! 11 weeks to go!