9 Weeks Pregnant - a milestone
This week has been a good week overall. Yes, I’ve had the odd day where I didn’t feel like I accomplished much more than the essentials. But you know what? I’m growing a new human 24/7, plus taking care of the basic needs of two other humans who are dependent on their parents for most things still, so that’s already a lot accomplished in a day!
9 weeks is always a bit of a milestone for me as a mum who’s experienced pregnancy loss, since I was 9 weeks when my body let go of my first baby. So to get to this point knowing that the pregnancy is going well is always a relief. And yes, I know pregnancy loss can happen any time, earlier or later, but I also think it’s normal to have our own milestones based on our own experiences. We just can't take life for granted, and I am so thankful for the growing life inside of me 🥰
What symptoms am I feeling?
If you’ve had a baby before you probably know round ligament pain -- that pain underneath your belly when you stand up suddenly, sneeze, laugh, straighten out in bed, you name it! The ligaments are loosening up to make space for the growing uterus, and sometimes a sudden movement stretches them a bit too much and you feel a twinge or full-on pains. I’d had the odd twinge over the last few weeks, but this week it amped up quite a bit. I’m going back to my habit from previous pregnancies of doubling over when I sneeze to put less pressure on that area, and holding my belly while I stand up from a seated position!
I’m still getting a bit of nausea on and off, still can’t cope with red meat, and even white meat isn’t my favourite right now. Amazingly I still haven’t had my “normal” first trimester fatigue! I did have headaches a couple of days this week - no knowing if that was pregnancy-related. I’m not normally prone to headaches either pregnant or non-pregnant.
How has baby been developing this week?
Baby is now 1.5cm long and has a much more defined and distinctly human face. Eyelids have developed over the eyes but won't open until 24 weeks. The external and middle ear are forming over the already present inner ear. The skeleton is growing and fingers and toes are separating. So much going on!
What am I doing to prepare?
This week my midwife sent through the referrals for the first trimester blood tests and 12 week ultrasound, so I got those booked in. Getting the ultrasound booked turned out to be quite the ordeal! I was trying to get an appointment that didn’t clash with my husband’s work hours, but radiology at the hospitals is booked out until WEEKS after I need an appointment. So I went private, and had a lot of backwards and forwards there as one person I called couldn’t fathom the idea of having a 12 week scan that wasn’t nuchal translucency (since we opted not to do that). Another person I spoke to got the message and booked me in for a time that worked really well... and then called back to say sorry, but even though it’s not a nuchal translucency it needs to be done by the technician qualified to do the NT scans so we’ll have to change the appointment to morning! In the end we just did that, but it’s so crazy how fast these places book out! We’re going to get the morphology referral (for the 20ish week scan) ASAP and get that booked in so we can hopefully get a time that suits us better! Seems crazy booking it already when I’m only 9 weeks!
A favourite resource:
I stumbled across The Positive Birth Company while preparing for my first birth. I was googling all the things that first-time mums google... “how painful are contractions”; “what is the longest that labour could take”... you know, all those sorts of optimistic things! And my eye fell on a video titled “Why Birth Doesn't Have to be Painful”, which explained the physiology of birth in such a simple but effective way, and was a real eye-opener for me! I thought birth was just something you had to get through -- I had absolutely no idea how our mental and emotional state affects it. This video gave me so much confidence that I could rock my birth. And so, as one does, I went ahead and binged their other videos, especially the ones in the playlist “The Hypnobirthing Pack | Expert Top Tips”. I had heard about hypnobirthing in the past, and immediately thought “hypnobirthing = hypnosis = woo woo = definitely not my thing”, but it was watching these videos full of down-to-earth, practical tips that made me realise there was a lot more to it than that!
And that’s it for this week! 🌿💛
[Image credit: Pregnancy photo by Suhyeon Choi on Unsplash]