11 Weeks Pregnant - the “in-between phase”

Weekly pregnancy updates from a childbirth educator, doula and mum to 2 little girls. Come and join me on my journey as I share how I'm feeling, how baby is developing, what I'm doing to prepare, and some favourite resources!

Just an ordinary busy week! It seems a bit crazy to say it so soon, but I feel like I’m already entering what I call the “in-between phase” of pregnancy, where the first trimester symptoms are diminishing or gone, but you can’t feel the baby yet, so you kind of don’t feel pregnant except for the fact that your belly is growing (especially if you’re a third-time mum and everything remembers how to stretch so easily 😂). I wasn’t symptom-free till 13-14 weeks with my last two pregnancies, and technically I do still have symptoms now, but they’re not really impacting my daily life too much.

I found this in-between phase pretty challenging with my second pregnancy (first after loss), since naturally the first pregnancy there’d been a negative connotation to loss of symptoms. But last time and this time I’ve been a lot more relaxed about it. I’ve measured my BBT throughout my first trimester in all my pregnancies, just for the peace of mind that there aren’t any sudden drops or steady declines. (I stop after first trimester, since apparently levels can naturally go a bit crazy then and I don’t want to stress myself unnecessarily!!) So given the steady high temps, growing belly and lack of “negative symptoms”, I’m trusting that my little one is growing and thriving quite happily. Can't wait for next week’s ultrasound though 🥰

What symptoms am I feeling?

The nausea seems to be diminishing, though I did have one episode of feeling a bit carsick when we were driving. I don’t normally get carsick, but when I’m pregnant I can be more prone to it, depending on how recently I have or haven’t eaten, and especially if I’m spending time looking down (e.g. at phone, book etc.). That type of nausea isn’t fun, but at least I know how to keep it to a minimum!

Besides that... well, with crazy hormones during pregnancy a lot of women find their libido is affected. It can diminish or be non-existent, which can obviously be affected by mum’s other symptoms as well (e.g. how keen are you going to be if you’re severely nauseous?). But it can also increase! Happily I’ve generally tended to the latter extreme, some weeks more than others and...well... let’s just keep this PG-rated and say we’ve had a great week 😂

How has baby been developing this week?

By the end of week 11 at just 3.5cm long (CRL measurement from top of the head to bum) baby already has all major organs in place! Their brain and nervous system are maturing and baby is starting to move and respond to touch. Their ribs are developing, as is the digestive system.

What am I doing to prepare?

I’m reading The Hypnobirthing Book by Katharine Graves. While I was preparing for my first birth, my midwife gave me the “Colour and Calmness” audios by KG Hypnobirthing. I used and loved those during my pregnancies, but it was only since my last baby was born that I looked up the website and came across the book. I purchased it (those same audios are included in the book purchase -- definitely worth it even just for those!!) -- and now is the time to read it! I think it covers a lot of the same stuff I’ve studied/read/learned/watched over the years, but I’m glad to read it now, since I think it will be a great resource to recommend to parents-to-be in the future.

So naturally I have my mind on hypnobirthing at the moment... common preconceptions, misconceptions, myths. I know there are people who are prejudiced against it. I was myself until I got introduced to enough facets of it that were perfectly rational and evidence-based. And then looked into it and found it wasn’t at all what I thought it was! I actually started writing about it for this week’s blog post, but I think it deserves its own separate post to do it justice. I’m working on it 😊

A favourite resource:

Clearly this week’s favourite resource is KG Hypnobirthing! The link to the hypnobirthing book and audios mentioned above is here. I also recommend following them on social media. Katharine regularly posts short reels with such straightforward, practical, common-sense ideas and thoughts to consider for your pregnancy and birth. She has a lot of experience with supporting parents to have positive births. She knows what works!

And that’s it for this week! 🌿💛

[Image credit: Pregnancy photo by Alicia Petresc on Unsplash]