I thought it would be nice to jot down how I’ve been feeling and what we’ve been upto. When I was pregnant with Polly I had a pregnancy journal that I’d write in weekly and I started to take bump pictures from about 8 weeks but this time I’ve been alot more slack as I’ve had pregnancy sickness again, luckily not as bad this time and each week getting better and better, but I’ve just been much busier this time with life and of course Polly.

It’s been a hard first trimester due to that fact of when we first took a pregnancy test I started bleeding so we thought our hopes and dreams were all over, then after a super long week of retesting a week later the test went from 1-2 to 2-3 week pregnant which was reassuring. We then had our dating scan at 7 weeks which was amazing to see little bubbas heart beating away but that evening I started bleeding again and I mean alot. I was flooded and we had to quickly come home from our local where we had gone for a celebratory dinner! The next day we went to the early pregnancy unit at our local hospital where they we able to scan me and reassure us everything was OK and it was probably the internal scan I had the day before at our fertility clinic which knocked me but yet I never had anything as worrying with Polly’s pregnancy.

At 7 weeks I’d been feeling very sick. I’m not sure I’d actually been sick at this point just lots of wrenching and sucking on mints to take that funny taste away. Oh and lots more eating in general I can literally eat all day long and it’s safe to say I’m alot bigger this time round too!

Talking of food, we went out for dinner one Friday after Andrew finished work, I must have been about 9 ish weeks pregnant and as I arrived I felt that horrible flooding feeling again and low and behold I had completely bled through and flooded my knickers and leggings. It was horrendous how much blood I was loosing and even little clots, you just think the worst is happening! We already had another scan at hospital booked for a few days later so was told to take it easy and unless I felt ill in myself then I didn’t need hospital. The midwife was so lovely on the phone to me but basically said it’s that horrible thing of if the worst is happening there is nothing anyone can do about it. That next morning I woke up and was sick again so that made me feel alittle better and by 9 weeks actual sickness was happening. I would never refer to it as “morning sickness”as for me it hit me all day. One night Andrew had his works Christmas meal an after I picked him up and got in at almost midnight I then was sick. Aswell as sickness kicking in big time at this point, my boobs were growing day by day as well as my bump and I was still continuing to have strange dreams (I mention this is my 2 week wait symptoms post), not as often as I was but several times a week still.

We had a day at Center Parcs before Christmas which was lovely and again I wasn’t too ill there. I found as long as I ate little and often and snacked around 11am and 3pm that kept sickness at bay. I obviously wouldn’t recommend this but when you feel that rotten and think your just going to be sick again, then food helped me.

Cravings were starting to kick in about week 10 which again were similar to Polly’s pregnancy all I fancied were salted things which I believe the old wives tale say your carrying a boy but that wasn’t true for Polly’s pregnancy at least. Before being pregnant I had let my weight slip, I think that’s all the fertility hormones your taking too, but I barely ate crisps when I was weight conscious and on slimming world, where as even now give me salt and vinegar snack and jacks over cheese and onion. The stronger the flavour the better. But I put that down to after being sick so much early on. I want salt in my body and naughty fizzy diet drinks to quickly give me a boost which isn’t the answer I know but when your that sick you want what you want. I also craved soup early on and I think this was because I ate alot of it in my two week wait to help keep my uterus nice and warm 😉 My mum’s homemade sausage rolls couldn’t be made often enough. I had actually even cut out alot of red meat before falling pregnant but have gone off the texture of quorn meats so now I’m all about the meats!

Also at 10 weeks I had my booking appointment with my midwife, who’s lovely. She even came over to do Polly’s check’s at home when she had a bit of jaundice after she was born so it is nice to see a friendly face. By now heartburn was kicking in super bad at night that I had to invest in a big bottle of gaviscon and I found myself going to bed early to stop myself from being sick and trying to sleep off the heartburn. I didn’t get heartburn with Polly until alot later on. Luckily by end of this trimester its definetly eased.

Christmas Day 2019…

Christmas day was very odd this year as my poor Dad is now in a care home so it was very weird for him not to be seated around the table with us but we went to see him in the morning which was lovely. We then came back and Polly opened the rest of her presents. Touch wood I actually felt OK Christmas Day. I remember the Christmas I was pregnant with Polly I brought my dinner up which is the worst! But actually It was good to feel well as I think most people put pressure on themselves to cook a good dinner and host and good Christmas day etc so I’m pleased it turned out well.

At 12 weeks pregnant we ventured to London to watch Disney On Ice at the O2 arena. I’m not brilliant first thing but got up early and ventured there with Polly and my Mum. I just ate a few snacks on route to keep sickness at bay etc and by time we arrived we had a yummy Nando’s for lunch then got ready to watch the show. Polly was really good, the older she gets the better she gets at travelling and keeping herself entertained on route and absolutely loved the show which was her Christmas present from us. I think as she gets older rather than too many toys a day out making memories is always lovely.

Scan day couldn’t come quick enough. I felt like bump was getting very big and hard to hide, sickness was hitting me anytime of day and due to that I couldn’t commit to seeing friends and family etc. I thought I was about 12 weeks and 3 days but when they measured baby it had had a bit of a growth spurt and was actually 12 weeks and 6 days so basically 13 weeks I felt like I’d lost a week but also lost a week of sickness too if makes sense.

The next day we had our announcement shoot booked with the lovely Gina Manning, who has always took some fabulous pictures of us all and even edited some that evening so that we could send it to friends and family.

Now that it was out in the open it didn’t matter who knew I was sick because they knew why etc. I was having good days and bad days still. I went on a play date one morning with our friends and by the time got home just before lunch was sick. Other days would just be in the morning or I would have good days an then the odd bad day that would go on all day. In general now sickness is so so much better than with Polly, I’m not sure if that means little one is a boy this time or whether I’m just coping better with the sickness, either way I feel more human now and I feel I can really enjoy this pregnancy so I’m going picture crazy and documenting it all as I actually feel I’ve got that pregnancy glow this time.

Much Love

Sophie & Bump