9 Weeks....

I'm feeling so tearful... I went to http://www.babycentre.co.uk though and watched this vid & I must say, it made me feel a bit more excited about what I'm going through. I just don't have energy & I'm really struggling to get my work done. There seems to just be way too much to do (even though I know that there really actually isn't).

I've just messed a whole glass of water on my desk for the second time in the last week. Grr.

I had no idea what to have for lunch yesterday so I made the most delicious Banana Crêpes with Bluegum Honey. They were so unbelievably yum that I'm not sure I'm going to resist making them on a regular basis.

I really need to focus. Get some work done so I can really relax. Tuesday. 9w1d. We leave for Argentina on the 16th of March. I am looking forward to feeling better for that!

Our next appointment is on the 14th of Feb with Dr.Caro Nel at Constantiaberg. She's going to be the Gynecologist who will C-section me if necessary on Squid's birth day. We should be finding out if we have a boy or a girl squid > I'm looking forward to finding out because I am looking forward to thinking about having a boy or a girl baby instead of just thinking 'baby'. I really don't mind which: I just want to know soon.

Nina found me a pregnancy exercise class in Kommetjie. I start tomorrow at 9am & will attend the class weekly. I really hope that it will help me relax & connect with my feelings better. I am also missing getting some exercise done so that will be great.

So this is what's going on:
By the end of this week, your baby measures about 2.3cm in length and weighs less than 2g. His eyelids, now completely covering his eyes, are fused and won't open until week 26. Tiny earlobes are now visible.

Your baby's essential body parts are accounted for, though they'll go through plenty of fine-tuning in the coming months. Already he looks more like a tiny human being. His wrists are more developed, his ankles have formed, and his fingers and toes are clear to see. His arms are growing longer and bend at the elbows. Now that your baby's basic physiology is in place, he's poised for rapid weight gain.

Though it's not yet possible to tell the sex of your baby by ultrasound, his genitals have begun to form. By now the placenta has developed enough to support most of the important job of producing hormones. The placenta is also making nutrients for your baby and getting rid of his waste products.

Symptoms Kick In..

Bashful (check), Dopey (check), Grumpy (check), Happy (definitely), Sleepy (totally!), Sneezy (check): so 6 out of 7 of the dwarfs - at any given moment or all at once!

We went to see Sandy Standish yesterday in Muizenberg: she's going to be our midwife.
I'm quite excited about having her on our project as she really seems very nice! Yay.
I was supposed to make appointments with the gynecologist she works with (Caro Nel) as well as with the foetal assessment clinic. Will have to do that tomorrow.

We had a Fish Hoek surf followed by salad and pizza. I only had 3 slices but I'm not feeling brilliant. Sleepy sleepy so going to go to bed now...

8 Weeks Today!

How exciting! We're at 8 weeks today. We went to Joshua's christening yesterday. It was a bad sick-day yesterday. I really didn't feel well. We got home by midday and I slept for about 3 hours. Very excited to have completed the first 2 months of our pregnancy :)

Baby Center Says:
New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it.

First Scan!

We had our first scan on Wednesday! We saw squid's heartbeat & it was ascertained that he/she was 7weeks and 3days ! (This means that we can count our new weeks every Monday)

It was quite surreal to see the little one there...its a real little person, hiding inside me, feeding off its yolk and growing bigger every day (and making me sick!)

I've been really nauseous... I got some pills which the doctor prescribed called ASIC which is especially for the relief of pregnancy nausea. Trouble is, it causes drowsiness & impaired concentration. As if I need more of that!!!

I sent Licia our scan picture & she sent one back of her with her preggie tum. She's not been for any scans....She's moving to England soon so I'm sure she'll have scan(s) done there.

I phoned a lady called Sandy Standish > she's been recommended to me as a midwife by a couple of people so I'm keen to meet her & see if her philosophy on birth resonates with what our ideas are.

The strangest feeling I've been having is that so many women/couples have gone through this very thing & nobody seems to make such a big fuss of just how radical it actually is. I suppose I'll feel differently when I'm feeling less sick and tired & when I start feeling more "pregnant".

Geoff is a complete angel. He's been so helpful and understanding. He's even started talking to & rubbing squid through my tummy which is just the best thing. He's so excited :)

Hungry Hungry

My same-time preggo friend (around the same amount of weeks as pregnant as I am), Eloise, described the feeling of nausea really well: She said it feels like when you're so hungry that you feel that empty, nauseous feeling in the pit of your stomach > and that is really how it feels - I'm so 'hungry', all the time. It just never goes away. Food helps temporarily: if I can decide on something that I actually want to eat.

Most food I can't even think about eating.. and I've totally gone of anything that tastes too strong. So breakfast today was plain yogurt, an apple & some almonds. By 11.30am I was ravenous so I had a slice of pumpkin seed rye with cottage cheese & one with honey.

...and then sleep!
Eloise has a job in an office so she has to go in every day. I don't know how she does it - I never used to sleep during the day & now it is impossible not to.

I'm so exhausted all the time. I actually had quite a good sleep today. I dreamed that we were on an airplane and there were 7 engines. The engines started failing & suddenly someone realised that the engines working were directly linked to our baby feeling happy...so I ran to [him/her] and started rubbing [his/her] tummy. I remember marveling at how comfortable & natural I was with our child... and then I got onto the table (there was a wood & marble kitchen table on the plane) and sat with my legs up on it with the baby lying on the table between my legs. As I rubbed baby's tummy, [he/she] giggled & I remember feeling as though the plane was saved.

How is one supposed to get motivated to drive for 18 minutes over a mountain pass to get to the gym to do exercise when one just feels like sleeping???

Yesterday I skipped ahead to the birth part of What to Expect. I suppose I have to find out about that at some point. I found a bit that says that "how you wear your pubic hair for the birth is entirely up to you" > I think this is hilarious. Geoff was looking forward to the shaving. I also read about delivering one's baby yourself. They make it sound so easy -- there's a few steps to follow and hey presto: baby is born! (sounds to me like a much more cost-effective solution than all the palaver of doing it the responsible way with midwife & doctors & the hospital stuff on hand).

Tomorrow is our first scan. I can't wait to see squid's (yes-that's our temporary name) heartbeat :)

Midwifery & Irritability

I'm feeling really irritable today. I am so hungry all the time. I'm not sure it is because my stomach is unwell because of all the hormones...or whether I am actually hungry. I suppose I did only have 2 boiled eggs & a medium sized smoothie [ mango, pineapple, apple & granadilla ] this morning. Still can't believe how hungry I am. Hmm.... salad wrap. I think that's going to have to happen in the next half hour. It is 12.30 which is close enough to lunch.

I had a big scare last Friday - I had a tiny bit of pink spotting. Managed to get hold of Robyn's sister Gill who has her honors (or some huge qualification) in Midwifery. Funny word: midwifery. Anyhow...she said that I shouldn't worry about it too much. It went away and then it came back on Sunday but I decided not to worry about it.

Aline used this amazing midwife when she had her baby. I phoned her on Friday as well - to see where she is and what her schedule is like etc. She's between Cape Town and Durban at the moment because she's going to be moving to KZN eventually. The bummer is that she can't guarantee whether she will be in Cape Town at the time of our baby's birth and I certainly don't want to shift over to someone else at the last minute. Plus she's in town and I certainly don't want to drive all the way to town for meetings very often.

I did a bit of a search & I can't find any midwives in Kommetjie or Fish Hoek. I would have thought there would be plenty of midwives in Kommetjie. Bummer there aren't. Actually there probably are but they most likely get contacted through word of mouth or something without their details being online.

T'Neal's pediatrician's wife is also a midwife so I will try and get hold of her. She only has a cell phone and our cell phone reception is so bad here. I don't like phoning cell phones with the landline, but I'm just going to have to phone her.

I keep on getting bitten by bugs. I got bitten on Saturday by something that made my arm swell up huge. I'm stuck with StopItch cream as I'm not allowed to take antihistamines. I'm a big ball of itch & hunger. No wonder I'm irritable.

On the brightest side...our baby's heart will be beating by now.
That makes me so happy I get a little tearful...

The nose, mouth, and ears that you'll spend so much time kissing in eight months are beginning to take shape. If you could see into your uterus, you'd find an oversize head and dark spots where your baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute -- almost twice as fast as yours -- and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, your baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean.