Following on from the first post about ten month of pregnancy on Monday and Tuesday, here we go with the third and final part:

So my last three months have been the most ‘enjoyable’ as I have not been feeling so sick or sore! The nausea still creeps in from time to time, but nothing like it was. I have been very fortunate to work with a lovely lady who is a sonographer and have had many scans to keep check on the wee man – we found out he was a boy before Christmas at about 15 weeks, we rechecked at 18 weeks just to make sure, and in typical bloke form he has been flashing us his bits ever since! For a while he was growing very quickly and was ‘abnormally’ large on certain measurements, but seems to have slowed down a bit now. Only his leg measurements are outside the norm now but with us as parents that is allowed! 5 weeks ago he was estimated to be 7lbs, so goodness knows how big he will be by now!

As the weeks go by, you feel like you want to rush things along and when you hit 20 weeks it is like ‘wow’ half way there, but you still have another 20 whole weeks to go! Long time still! Once you get a bump and start showing you are pregnant you feel like it is a bit more real for everyone else and not just your secret. When he starts kicking and you can feel it, it is such a relief, because you have a daily reassurance that he is ok in there. As your bump gets bigger, you feel huge and how can you get any bigger?!! I remember thinking at 34 weeks I was ginormous, but in the last 6 weeks I reckon he has almost doubled in size!!! It is difficult to move around and getting out of bed five times a night to go to the loo is a mission! Thinking of installing a crane in our bedroom! My hands have swollen up and every morning I have an extreme case of sausageitis – sometimes I can’t even make a fist they are so swollen and sore. I have spent a ridiculous amount of money on Gaviscon since Christmas. I guess I could have got it on prescription, but feel a bit embarrassed to get through the big 600mls bottles in less than a week! Had to get proper medication and have been taking ranitidine every night for a couple of months which does make the world of difference!

Now at over nine months pregnant the whole thing doesn’t seem so bad. But if you told me that even a month ago I would have laughed in disbelief. Think my brain has gone off on holiday for a while! It has been a long long time since September and whilst I still have labour and birth to go through, I would do it again.

I have seen several births; cesarean sections, assisted deliveries, sudden births and I am not scared to give birth myself. Part of me wants to have it all over and done with now and part wants to just let him stay put forever! The main focus now is staying patient and letting him come when he wants – have tried every natural induction method I think there is, but he appears to be quite content in there still – must be all the magnums I’ve been eating! In the coming week I have couple of hospital appointments where I’m sure he will be handed his eviction notice and be forced out if required! Hopefully he will decide to make his appearance on his own, but I have had enough now, and will be quite happy to have my body back to myself and be rid of the continuous heartburn, leg cramps and pressure on my bladder! Also I wonder if the cats will see me any differently – they have only known me pregnant

Pregnancy has been an extreme mind and body, all encompassing, often overwhelming experience and until you can experience it for yourself you can never understand how it truly feels. Hats off to all mothers out there! And pregnancy is only the beginning!

So come on Colin, come on out………

Following on from yesterday’s post about pregnancy:

Once you reach the 12 week/3 month point, which seems to take a life time, you get a scan to check that the baby is ‘viable’ (lovely term) and that it doesn’t have a variety of genetic disorders and has a head, two arms and two legs. I would have to say that this is one of the most scary things you have to do. You cannot image that things will be ok, surely something will be wrong. But all was fine and you are reassured that your pregnancy has a good chance of going the distance. However there is always the chance that it wont, and that is always on your mind. Think as soon as you get pregnant you will worry constantly for the rest of your life!

Also once you get to 12 weeks morning sickness allegedly starts to tail off! Yeah right! I was being regularly sick until I got to 27 weeks! The tiredness does tail off a bit and you start getting cravings! The first thing I craved was apple juice – that lasted only a few days and I sickened myself of it quite quickly! The main cravings I have had have been for spicy food, which really doesn’t help with heartburn! What amazed me was how specific my cravings were – I once woke up at 9am and immediately knew I wanted a kebab from the Rose Street kebab place in Aberdeen – unfortunately I have been unable to satisfy that one!!! But I would regularly fancy chilli chicken and cucumber! Another bizarre thing is craving things you normally don’t like – I have loved anything to do with mangos and even ate scampi the other day – I don’t do anything out of the sea! Been fancying sea bass as well, but know that am not allowed to eat that. There are many things you are not supposed to eat – soft cheeses like brie, runny eggs, pate, peanuts. I have had the odd poached egg, but every time it made me feel sick, so have only had about three in total, and whilst I haven’t eaten many peanuts, I haven’t completely avoided them. I have stayed well clear of pate – that is a big no-no unfortunately and I cannot wait to have some! Not having alcohol has not been difficult at all – wine tastes as it did when you were a child and is horrible! Beer makes you feel sick and I haven’t even sniffed anything else! Except I did have a craving for gin and tonic in January!

The biggest problem I suffered in my pregnancy was terrible headaches, and had a constant headache which was sometimes a migraine for all of December and January. No one was concerned about it, so just had to get on with it. It was very difficult to deal with and waking up every day needing to vomit because my head was so sore was awful. I really thought I would have it for the whole pregnancy. I had acupuncture for it and it was possibly not due to the mad hormones, but my tense neck and shoulder muscles. Other aches and pains included sciatica, lower back pain, pain in my pubic bone where the ligaments loosen and the bones separate and rub against each other. I started going to yoga at around 26 weeks and I believe it cured me of my headache and back pains. I have had very little pain since – only the pelvic pains have continued. So can definitely recommend yoga!