The first trimester

I’m currently 15 weeks pregnant, so officially in the second trimester.

These last couple of months have been hard. I remember people telling me how tired being pregnant can make you, but until you’re actually pregnant I don’t think you can really comprehend just how exhausted you feel all the time. Add to this a constant feeling of nausea that stays with you all day and evening, and you the whole miracle of growing a baby inside you is a little overshadowed by just how miserable you feel.

I even reached the point at 10 weeks when I stopped running (and exercising altogether). Walking to and from work was exhausting enough. I did feel bad about this, since I was always adamant that I was never to be one of those pregnant women who just sit on their arses. However, my body was giving pretty strong signals that an afternoon nap was about as exciting as my social life was going to get! Fortunately, the tiredness (and sickness) seem to be lifting, and I’ve managed to get back to dog club and start pregnancy yoga recently. Although I have decided to forego running altogether until I’ve had the baby. Apparently your tendons turn to elastic (due to a hormone called relaxin) when you’re pregnant, and as I’ve only recently recovered from tendonitis I think it’s sensible if I keep to low-impact exercise. A hard decision, since I love running!

Luckily I haven’t actually been physically sick, but I often wished I was just in case it would make me feel better! Rushing to the toilet just to stand over it feeling like you’re going to hurl, but nothing coming up can be frustrating. Having said that, I am completely rubbish at being unwell anyway, and very impatient when I am ill, so maybe I’m just being a wuss. I did find it reassuring feeling nauseous though. In my mind it meant the baby was doing ok!


A brief summary of my thoughts during the first trimester:

1. I’ve forgotten what having energy feels like
2. Feeling sick all the time is both exhausting and boring
3. I miss pooping
4. My boobs look awesome!
5. Is there really a baby in there?

Below I’ve included some belly shots to show my slowing growing bump.  I've tried to wear the same jeans (while they still fit!) to give some kind of reference point.

 5 weeks pregnant.

I included this shot so I could look back

and remember what it was like to once

have a waist!

8 weeks pregnant.

Goodbye abdominal muscles!  It's been

fun beasting you with crunches.  See you
in a few months for more beasting!

10 weeks pregnant.

The stirrings of a bump.

Although at this point it looks more

like I ate too much cake.
I'm not sure why I'm grabbing my
own boob.

15 weeks pregnant.

Definitely starting to look more like

a baby bump!  I'm starting to show

through some of my t-shirts now too.

The reveal...

You might remember that I mentioned a pretty cool project I was working on a while ago.  Well, I can now allow a sneak preview of this work in progress.

It still needs a bit of work; its head a bit too Roswell Incident currently.

A work in progress.

We spent an hour at the Ultrasound Department today whilst the staff struggled to get a decent image for their measurements.  It turns out our little Parasite is a wiggler, and would not keep still!  Between that and an overfull bladder (boy was I aware of its fullness!) it made the sonographer's job pretty difficult.  After a couple of trips to the loo to empty my bladder a bit, and a call to the radiographer for help, the baby had finally settled down.  Unfortunately, in completely the wrong position.

The radiographer then suggested I bounce my bum off the table a few times to wake it up (the baby, not my bum).  It slept through that, and I had to then roll on my side and wiggle my pelvis until it woke up.  Eventually, after being allowed to completely empty my bladder, they got an image they were happy with!

Although this was probably very annoying for the staff, Gareth and I thoroughly enjoyed being able to spend an hour watching our baby wave, flail about and generally having a whale of time not doing as it was told (something I hope it gets out of its system before it's born).

I'm 12 weeks 2 days, which is exactly how far along I thought I was, and Little Parasite is due 22 December 2012.  Which is only 6 months away... there suddenly seems an awful lot to do before then.

Tangent does not like the cold

For a dog that was born on a farm in North Scotland, Tangent is not a fan of being cold.  Luckily, he has a fleecy bomber jacket to both warm and humiliate him...

 Fine.  I'll pose nicely.  I guess it is kinda cozy...



Right. Enough's enough; it's coming off. 

I'd better get my Octopus after this.

Yay! Octopus! [Tangent's favourite toy/obsession]

More cards

I've been shockingly slack at both getting cards to people on time, and blogging about them lately.  But here are the cards I made recently for my sister and brother-in-law's anniversary, and my neice's birthdary respectively.  I'm particulary please with the anniversary card, as I was playing around with staples that I coloured in before using them to secure the vellum to the netting.  The techniquey needs work, but I think the effect could be worth it!

Anniverary card 

Birthday card