24 Weeks - Babymoon!

Over the last few weeks, Daddy C and I have taken the (rapidly diminishing) opportunity to take a couple of trips while it's still just us two.

First we went to Perth for a few days, the Western Australian capital where Daddy C grew up, for St Patrick's Day.  Daddy C enjoyed lots of Guiness and Mummy Em enjoyed lots of gorgeous sunny weather!

19 weeks pregnant, meeting the locals in sunny Perth!

 Then about a week ago we spent a lovely weekend together in the Gold Coast.  The sun and beach were stunning and we really enjoyed the chance to have a couple of days away together.  I have to admit, it was almost bittersweet... I had this feeling like I was living out something that would become a memory, one I would cherish (with a little bit of longing) in years to come.

Beautiful Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast

 Since then... well back to real life and the babymoon is over! :-P  My little belly has been growing up a storm!  I've even noticed a growing pattern - I get really hungry over the weekend and then on about Tuesday or Wednesday, my belly suddenly looks heaps bigger.  Then I'm not as hungry for a couple of days... and then the pattern repeats!  I even had ligament pain this past weekend, an achy, stretchy feeling in my bump - growing pains, basically!  My uterus is up way past my belly button now, pretty much as high as it can go - so it's only out from here!

It's a funny stage of pregnancy, this second half of the second trimester.  All the ultrasound scans are done but it's not quite countdown time yet... so you just kind of sit and grow!  You have to create your own little  milestones... the first time she jumps on your bladder (today), the first time you get offered a seat on the rush hour train (today... guess I must really look preggers now!), the first time Daddy C is able to feel her from the outside (still to come - I'm looking forward to that!).

At our hospital appointment a couple of weeks ago, the doctor reviewed the notes on my previous pelvic fracture and gave our homebirth the go-ahead - which is very exciting!

It might sound weird, but I was quite happy to learn that my little munchkin is now "viable" - which means she would have a half decent chance of surviving outside the womb with the right care.  The more time goes by, the more I feel like I can really believe that I am really going to have a baby!  She even has hair now, on her head as well as little eyebrows and eyelashes.

A little bub at 24 weeks

As much as I get impatient, time is definitely flying... less than 16 weeks until another little human being joins our lives!

23 weeks

24 weeks - yesterday

22 Weeks - Finally Starting to Look and Feel Pregnant

Over the past couple of weeks I have really become fascinated and in love with my funny little belly!

For one thing, it seems to sometimes have a little overnight growth spurt, none more than when I went to bed at 21+2 with what could have been a little beer-and-pies girl belly and woke up looking... pregnant!

21 weeks 2 days - belly-splosion!

 The other weird thing is that it seems to flucutate - sometimes it looks more pregnant than others.  I think it depends a lot on what I'm wearing, but also maybe has to do with the position the baby is lying in.  I've noticed that it looks a lot smaller and flatter after I've done yoga - maybe yoga puts the baby into a more vertical position or something.

Here's a little timeline to illustrate:

20 weeks 2 days

21 weeks - I think I had just done yoga before taking this picture

21 weeks 3 days - Three days later... pointy belly!

22 weeks - today!

I've also noticed that my normally deep belly button has become a lot shallower - I tried to point this out to Daddy C in fascination but he just looked vaguely horrified and didn't want to hear anymore about it!  Haha - boys are so funny!

One thing is for sure though - I love my little growing bump!  Having always been fairly slim, having a belly is quite a strange novelty to me, but I love watching it change and grow, because it means my little girl is healthy and strong and getting big enough to meet me :-)

I'm also getting movements every day, multiple times a day now, which I LOVE!  I love feeling her move around in there and knowing she is active and healthy.  She is definitely getting stronger these days and finding weird places to nudge me in.  She even seems to be big enough to nudge me in two places at once sometimes, and sometimes I have a really weird sensation that I assume is her doing a little flip or something.  It's very exciting and I can't wait until her little nudges are full blown kicks that Daddy C can feel from the outside!

Tomorrow I have a hospital clinic appointment, at which I hear what they managed to find out from the NZ hospitals about my prior pelvis fractures.  My lovely independant midwife is coming with me so we can make a birth plan with the knowledge, as well as Daddy C for some moral support.  I really hope the news is good and I can continue with my plan to homebirth, but I'm trying to be at peace with the fact that, as Daddy C always reminds me, "whatever will be, will be"