27 WEEKS PREGNANT AND COUNTING

My big plan to blog my entire pregnancy didn’t exactly come to fruition. However, I figured that shouldn’t stop me blogging about my experience from this point in my pregnancy onwards. Plus, I have a pretty good memory/have obsessively been recording notes and symptoms (as you do…), so my recall should be sufficient to blog on earlier weeks too!

So today I am 27 weeks and 6 days pregnant. The days bit is super important….I wouldn’t have thought I’d spend 9 months of my life counting down days either, but apparently this is a thing during pregnancy. I’ve come across more women, who when asked how far along they are, can provide pinpoint accuracy to the day, than those that can casually throw out their no. in months. I suspect this is because no single source can agree on a woman’s stage of pregnancy in months?! Some say I’m 6 months, and others 7 months. I’m sure I could even find some claiming I’m closer to 9 months… Of course given how exhausted I feel, and if nothing else but to elicit rage in whoever I’m telling I wasn’t offered a seat on the tube, I’d rather claim to be further along at 7 months. BUT I think that’s one stretch too far. So that being said, I am 27 weeks + 6 days, AKA 6 months pregnant, and entering my third trimester tomorrow!

Given I found out I was pregnant a few days before my missed period, this feels like a long time coming, reinforced by the multiple baby apps on my phone which provide a countdown ‘until the big day!’ In retrospect, I’d probably recommend not using an early detection pregnancy test if you don’t want to drag out the countdown longer than necessary, and certainly not during the anxiety-filled first trimester when fear is the main emotion of the day (or rather 13 weeks) but more on that in a later post.

Symptoms: Braxton Hicks, inability to retain more than a thimble of pee, excitement, and tiredness.

It’s this last symptom which bothers me most actually. The idea of tiredness (as debilitating as the first trimester) returning is quite frankly a little bit terrifying. I’ve enjoyed being able to hold conversations without zoning out into the abyss. I’ve loved doing things at weekends instead of wondering if 2pm is an acceptable time to take to my bed, after lying in until 11am. I’ve also rather liked feeling a little less like the walking dead and a teeny tiny bit more like myself. So yeah, as I’m increasingly fantasising about naps with the same passion normally reserved for a bar of Galaxy after a hormonal meltdown, I am fearful!

Things I’ve enjoyed about this week: I’ve started loving, and purchasing, all things pink and heart-shaped. Given you’d typically find me shrouded in black from head-to-toe this is a little bit exciting! I really hope when my hormones have subsided that I don’t come to regret this decision because a) I’ve spent a small fortune on a pink lambswool jumper, b) I purchased said item in my pre-pregnancy size so it’s not like I can get any wear out of it now whilst my heart yearns for pretty-in-pink shades, and c) I really had to defend my selection of a heart-shaped soap dish to my husband (who over the last couple of years has played audience to me judgementally preaching the benefits of minimalism) not as clutter but as an item of beauty, AND utility- significant Marie Kondo points here!

Things I’ve disliked about this week: People commenting on the size of my bump. Unless you’re my husband or my mum I will take it to heart, and you have been warned! I wish I didn’t, and my god I hope it’s just hormones or I really have become insanely sensitive. Even so, please don’t tell me I’m ‘super neat’ because I may start to build a case against you, and/or spend the rest of the afternoon panicking about whether my baby is growing safely inside me. Before falling pregnant I’d have considered this fairly safe territory, especially if you’re commenting on another woman looking ‘tiny’, but it’s absolutely not. So if you must comment on mine or any other ready-to-explode-in-a-hormonal-outburst-woman’s size, please just tell her she looks amazing, and besides her burgeoning bump you wouldn’t have known she was pregnant. Or better still, don’t go there.

What I’m looking forward to about next week: I will officially be in my third trimester, and another week closer to meeting my baby!! Enough said really.

What I’m dreading about next week: The glucose test. Despite craving all things sweet, I suspect 17 Lucozade glucose tablets may be a little too much for me to stomach. We’ll see, since you never know these days …