26 Weeks Pregnant - varicose veins
We all know about varicose veins in the legs, right? But have you ever heard of varicose veins of the vulva? Well, if I’m being suuuuper honest, me neither until I went for my 26 week check with my pelvic floor physio and she told me I have them.
25 Weeks Pregnant - the importance of preparing for postpartum as a first-time mum
I have been thinking a lot this week about my biggest regret after giving birth to my first baby. The birth was fantastic, so much more empowering than I could have imagined. Just amazing! But the postpartum? That was a big shock. I had been so focused on preparing for birth, but nobody had prepared me for what to expect postpartum. This happens to so many mums. And it’s stopping right here!!
24 Weeks Pregnant - finding balance and rhythms in life
It’s been a quiet week this week, just normal busy daily life with my husband and two little girls. There’s nothing much particularly coming up for me around pregnancy right now, though I am feeling baby move regularly and continuing with my near-daily practice of Spinning Babies exercises, breathing and “horse lips” exercises, and listening to positive birth affirmations and relaxation/visualisation audios. I didn’t have enough of these quiet weeks in my last pregnancy, so I am really enjoying it!
23 Weeks Pregnant - birth reflexes, aka, your body knows when to push!
I listen to The Great Birth Rebellion podcast regularly, and this week I listened to an episode I’d missed on birth reflexes. That was really fascinating, hearing the explanations and comparing with my experiences with my first two births.
22 Weeks Pregnant - ultrasounds in pregnancy: good or bad?
So! We had our anatomy/morphology ultrasound, and if you were following my Instagram stories you’ll know that our baby is... a boy!! I am so thrilled that my girls will have a brother, and for sure excited that he has such amazing big sisters 🥰
This feels like a good opportunity to chat a bit about ultrasounds in pregnancy. We’re so used to them, they’re completely the norm, but have you ever actually thought about the pros and cons?
21 Weeks Pregnant - my birth preparation protocol
You may have heard the saying, “if you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail”. I feel this applies to birth as much as anything else. Now clearly, I don’t mean we can “fail” at giving birth! That baby is going to come out! However, if we have a particular plan for how we would like the birth to occur, we need to prepare for it. This applies whether you are planning a vaginal birth or a Caesarean birth.
20 Weeks Pregnant - halfway there? A discussion on due dates
A common comment to hear at 20 weeks pregnant is, “Oh, so you're halfway there!” This is probably roughly true, but let’s talk about due dates! Firstly, have you ever wondered who decided that a pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, and how they came to that conclusion? And most of all, how on earth is it that 40 weeks has come to be seen as a deadline, as if the mother or baby are all of a sudden at high risk from one day to the next?
19 Weeks Pregnant - life is busy…plus gender & name chats
I have to say this week has been very NON-focused on pregnancy! While I have continued nourishing my baby 24 hours a day, 7 days a week … with an exceptionally busy life season my mind has been on other things the majority of the time! … I will confess that despite the busyness, I am still counting down the days till the morphology ultrasound, when we are also hoping to find out the baby’s gender! I just can’t wait to start calling baby by his or her name!