13 Weeks Pregnant - the blessing of health

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!

This week we had a visit from our midwife, Haylie — the official booking-in visit. She was apparently shocked to see the results of my first trimester blood tests with all levels in the recommended ranges. Apparently I’m abnormal 😂 I have to say I do feel like a bit of a boring character at these booking-in appointments, not having any of the possible medical conditions they have to ask me about! Jokes aside, I am very thankful for good health!! It is such a blessing, and I don’t take it for granted.

I have had my own issues in the past with burnout and fatigue (as well as a weird heart issue for a few months at 15 which a cardiologist scratched his head over and decided was probably just one of those adolescence things). At age 25 after a very stressful period coupled with battling a virus, my body just gave out. I spent weeks in bed, barely managing to summon the energy to get up and eat, let alone walk downstairs... I wondered if this was my new life and if I would ever be able to have the family of my own I’d always dreamed of. My father had battled chronic fatigue since I was a toddler so I knew it was no joke. The GP couldn’t do anything for me (I did give it a go, even though my father had given up after years of trying and failing to get any medical help).

Praise God we came across a naturopath only months later who had the keys to getting both my father and myself on the road to recovery (mostly diet, but also carefully selected supplements), and within 4 years I was back to normal again. My new normal, that is! To this day, I need to be careful to manage my diet, stress and sleep in order to maintain healthy energy levels. But if the blood test results are anything to go by, it all pays off in other ways as well! Sometimes we need to go through hard things to become better in more ways than we could have imagined.

And it turns out that so far my new normal has included graduating from university with a Bachelor of Languages and an award as Vice Chancellor’s Scholar (bearing in mind I enrolled in uni AFTER my breakdown!); spending 3 years in Italy instead of the initial 8 months I’d expected to finish my degree, because… well… COVID lockdown and meeting my husband and getting married and having a baby 🥰. It has also included moving our new family back to Australia and training as a childbirth educator and birth doula while pregnant with my second, so I’m more equipped to support other families have positive birth experiences. It’s included starting up my own business in birth work. And now it’s including this new pregnancy and baby we’ve been gifted with! So blessed!! 🥰

What symptoms am I feeling?

I thought the nausea was gone and I seemed to be over the food aversions, but have had a couple of episodes again this week. Very mild though, nothing to speak of. Besides that I have to say I’ve felt pretty normal!

How has baby been developing this week?

The placenta is now fully functional and supporting the baby, leading to a massive growth spurt. Baby is now 7.5cm long and weighs a massive 30 grams, almost quadrupling its weight in a week! The bones which have been flexible till now are starting to harden, and the bowel is functioning and secreting meconium. The intestines which have been developing in the umbilical cord start to move into the baby’s abdomen.

As the placenta has taken over the bulk of the day-to-day work, mum finally gets a bit of a break! The progesterone levels which have been high through first trimester may drop back a bit. However, mum is probably less aware of her progesterone levels and more aware that she is starting to feel kind of normal again!

What am I doing to prepare?

This week I worked my way through the new Spinning Babies Birth Prep in 60mins course. I found it a really good explanation and summary of the principles of Spinning Babies, and it is helpful to have the video demonstrations of all the exercises and techniques they recommend. You can download an app to your phone for the course, which makes it very user-friendly. All with lifetime access! I definitely spent more than 60mins on it — probably at least 3 hours, since I read through all the explanations and comments they make. I think the “60 mins” title comes from the total length of the video content.

I also finished reading “The Hypnobirthing Book” by Katharine Graves, and thoroughly recommend it. The endorsement at the end from Dr Michel Odent was particularly special to read, given his recent passing 🤍

A favourite resource:

Yes, you guessed it! This week I’m giving another shout out to Spinning Babies and KG Hypnobirthing! They complement each other perfectly. Both recognise that birth takes mental and physical preparation, and while Spinning Babies focuses more on the physical preparation and techniques, KG Hypnobirthing focuses more on general information and education, and specifically on the mental preparation required to stay calm and relaxed during labour. They are both so important. The Italian midwife I had with my first baby was the one who introduced me to both. I used both significantly in my preparation for my first birth, and didn’t regret one bit of the time I’d dedicated to it. The birth was all I could have dreamed of, and so much more! And this despite my initial fears of “but what if I don’t have enough energy?” (see above about my earlier health breakdown). It turns out that how your birth goes mainly depends on how you prepare for birth, and the environment and people around you when you give birth.

And that’s it for this week! 🌿💛

[Image credit: green veggies photo by Dose Juice on Unsplash]