25 Weeks: So this is Heartburn

I’ve reached the stage now where I have to check my diary for the number of weeks pregnant I am, I’m still in the in between second trimester where I’m kind of used to being pregnant. My body has adjusted and it almost feels normal. Only a few weeks left until the third trimester and I’m sure things will change.

I’m feeling well, I’ve got used to not sleeping so well and being a bit clumsy. I also discovered what heartburn is this week; it’s different than I thought it would be, but it’s almost impossible to describe it better than heart-burn.

I feel like I’m really getting big and I’m trying not to do that pregnant lady waddle yet- there’s plenty of time for that!

I’m struggling to eat a healthy diet though and snacking on chocolate and rice pudding (homemade), we’re cooking fresh meals for dinner but breakfast and lunch are mostly bread based which I’m sure isn’t helping.

I have started carrying round a bottle of water and have really increased my hydration levels which has stopped me feeling so sluggish – who would have thought that all those people telling me to drink more water were right!

19 Weeks: Muscle Manipulation and Stretch Marks

       

I’ve made it to the end of 19 weeks and I have my scan tomorrow, marking the half-way point! I am feeling good, partly due to the weekly yoga sessions, the massage and the muscle manipulator and partly due to the appearance of Cadbury’s Cream Eggs in the shops. It did cross my mind to take a picture of my Cream Egg yesterday morning (Eggs for breakfast – that’s perfectly acceptable – right?!) but then I just ate it.

The muscle manipulator taught me a lot - the reason for my pre-pregnancy backache which has caused me a lot of pain in the past is my psoas, which I had never heard of before. The reason for my visit was the fear of the backache returning during pregnancy and not being able to take the usual medication that breaks the cycle of muscle spasm. I finally decided to do something about it and I’m really glad, I now feel that there’s hope! I also learnt that my pelvis is in the correct position; very solid and stable.

Pregnancy has made me learn things about my body that I never knew I needed to know. I thought I was fairly well educated in human biology and had read enough books pre-conception to know the most important things. This week I learnt not to do breast stroke – well I’ve spent the past 4.5 months compromising my pelvis this way and I had no idea.

I have had tiny stretch marks appearing which has had me using huge amounts of body butter and oil for the past few days, at least there’s nothing on my tummy yet, I have a feeling I may not escape pregnancy without a few battle scars, but I knew that was likely before I make the decision to have kids.

Afternoon Tea {001}

Grab a cup of tea; remember afternoon tea lends itself nicely to some dainty sandwiches without crusts – hot smoked salmon and crème fraiche for me, followed by a little piece of cake.

Life is good at the moment here, we’re at the start of our child bearing years and it’s exciting. I’ve enjoyed being pregnant so far and I’m now more than halfway. It was really important to me to see the beauty in this time and to think of the overall picture and of how lucky we are. I decided this early on before we were pregnant, when I heard friends complaining. During the months we were trying to conceive it was even clearer to me that pregnancy was a gift and like anything attitude was one of the most important points.

I feel like I’m learning skills which I hope to use again, my body have amazed me in its knowledge of how to adjust and support a growing baby. This really has made me appreciate the power of my brain and the knowledge that I can’t even access. Of course it’s not always glamorous – suddenly vomiting in your hands as you run up the stairs to the bathroom wasn’t the highest point (sorry that’s a bit much for afternoon tea) but it does make me laugh now!

I’ve made the most of the excuse of being pregnant and have been doing two hours of yoga every Wednesday afternoon which has made me feel so much better and has given me a great support network. Yesterday I started something new too, it’s a combination of physiotherapy, muscle stretching and massage and it was wonderful. I’ve been treating myself fairly well which probably adds to my general feeling of wellbeing.

I hope you’re taking good care of yourself too.

Chilli Dog on the Pier {March 2012}

Ever since mentioned my favourite street food, I have been obsessing over it, I need to find some of those American crisps, Freetos I believe, I think there’s nowhere to buy them in Scotland, I may need to try out some alternatives. Pregnancy, rather than give me specific cravings, has made me obsess over foods I see other people eating or photos of food, adverts etc. I need to avoid images of food I cannot easily obtain!

So back to Santa Monica…

Los Angeles is somewhere that I tried to avoid visiting in 2009, it was flight 5 of 8 in a two week round the world trip and I was considering adding 2 more flights to that list before I came to my sense and decided to give LA the benefit of the doubt, it was two nights between Australia and Toronto, if it was as bad as I had heard I could just sleep it out in the hotel and I wouldn’t have lost all that much, my aim was to relax and recuperate.

I loved LA, for a long time it was top of my list of favourite places in the world and definitely in the USA. I stayed in Venice and loved it there, I ate great food and the people were helpful, I travelled by local bus to various other parts of the city too and found Santa Monica which was my favourite.

Last year when I returned to LA, I stayed in Santa Monica, I did a bike tour and ate chilli dogs on the pier; it was refreshing and interesting and I felt ready for the next leg of my tour. I just wish I would get those chilli dogs in Scotland, although they may not taste quite as good as in LA.

A Celebration of Travel {Around the World}

Recently I’ve been writing a little and thinking rather a lot about travel. Travel has been a big part of most of my life, we were lucky enough to have had family holidays abroad as children, the opportunity to work abroad as a student, then as an employed grown up the opportunity to travel with work. We have also priorities travel and holidays over the past 5 years while we have had the money and time to do so.

So in this transition stage rather than think about what it will be like to travel a lot less often I am celebrating the great opportunities I have had and the great places I’ve been. I used Wordle to create the image above of everywhere I can think of outside of Scotland that I’ve visited, the bigger the word the more visits. It’s not bad going for just under 30 years. Just for fun, here are a few favourites along the way:

Best street food: Santa Monica, LA – Chilli dog with all the toppings, cheese, pickles and chips

Best conversation in another language: Cahors Market, France - chatting to a nougat seller about how expensive Paris is in French

Most thought provoking trip: Johannesburg – Seeing the huge houses with pools minutes from township

Best purchase: Texas – Real cowboy boots from Cavendars

Best adventure: Florence, Italy – Getting the overnight bus to Florence from Potenza, staying in a tent in the city and meeting random people {I love Lonely Planet}

Most going local trip: Uganda – Staying with a local and hitting the Entebbe night clubs and eating roast chicken cooked on a fire in the street

Farthest from the sea: Denver, Colorado, USA

Most peaceful location: Zion National Park, Utah, USA

Place I’d buy a house: Lott region, France, weather, wine and cheese

{Posts to come soon on these favourites – links will be added}

17 Weeks–Guessing Games, Babymoon Flights and Biscuits

 

I can’t believe we’ve reached the end of 17 weeks already! I am starting to have a real bump now and for the first time someone has tried to guess whether I’m having a boy or a girl – come on people, you have a 50:50 chance of getting it right! Apparently I’m carrying high for this early so it’s going to be a boy?!

In other news I visited the midwife this week and everything is at a fairly average height for my dates, which sounds more realistic to me! Anyway it amuses me, but maybe I should tone down the sarcasm a bit “Yeah we’re pretty sure we know what’s in there, the ultrasound was pretty clear, it looks like a human baby”.

This week has been pretty good; it started off with a very relaxing weekend, a little shopping and a lot of lounging about. I have had some serious biscuit binges this week including buying a 6 pack of chocolate and cereal bars and eating all 5 in one afternoon. I blame it on the cold weather!

I haven’t had a sudden burst of energy now I’m in the second trimester but I am glad to be having a break from the sickness, I still don’t go anywhere without a large zip lock bag for emergencies though! Pregnancy is not glamorous all the time.

This week we booked flights for our Babymoon - which all sounds very American! We are going to Toronto for 10days, I am tagging this onto a work trip and I am looking forward to it so much, it will cover some of weeks 22-24 and will probably be my last long haul flight for some time, I am going to focus on relaxing and having lots of romantic meals with my boy.

16 Weeks–More Snow and Wrapping Up Warm

 

I love the winter time and this week had a proper snowy winter feel to it. I love wrapping up in layers and wearing boots over my favourite pink/red maternity jeans. It’s also a great excuse to spare 10minutes whilst the car warms up having coffee and croissants.

I feel like I’m starting to look pregnant from a side on view now, some outfits are more subtle and others are really obvious.

My nausea seems to be gone now although I still have to avoid acidy foods first things in the morning, favouring decaff coffee or milky tea over my old winter favourite of hot orange juice.

I’m really enjoying my Wednesday Yoga classes, it’s such a great opportunity to talk to other pregnant girls and be able to ask the teacher who is a midwife about anything. It’s also a really nice relaxing break mid-week, sometimes (always) I’m really struggling by Friday at work and I doubt I’d make it as far as I do each week without taking the two hours out.

I am really enjoying sleeping at the moment, as soon as I get home and eat dinner I am ready to sleep. I’m making the most of it while I have the time and I can still sleep relatively well.

We have been talking about names already, we are pretty much there with a girl’s name but I’m finding boys names so much harder, which is strange because we have been referring to the baby as a ‘he’ even though we have no idea. There’s no pressure, plenty of time to decide these things still and it’s always funny using those random baby name generators. I would like to pick names that mean something to us though, but maybe we’ll get desperate in the later stages!