My Tummy

Sticks out. Yes already. But the baby is only the size of a bigish grape so it can't be the baby. However my uterus is apparently the size of a cantaloupe. So maybe it's that. It's gone from the size of a fist to the size of a small melon.

Or maybe it's just all the bloating. Nice. I feel like I swallowed a balloon. And yes I started wearing my maternity bras and even some of my maternity tops. They just feel more comfortable. Pictures of all my new pregnancy goodies coming up soon. Would write more but.... my head... feels heavy...........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Goodbyes

Mr. T left today. He has gone for a whole month. Sigh. I already miss him terribly.

Though I am hoping this month flies by. It should do as I am working a lot and we are very busy too. And even more exciting, by the time Mr. T comes back I should be (God willing) into my second trimester!

Though I won't be on my own. My sweet wonderful mum has changed her work commitments so she can come and stay with me in Morocco for a whole month. This is such a relief as I was a bit worried about going through all the morning sickness, doctors check-ups and if anything was to go wrong... I really don't want to be on my own at home. Plus my mum is coming out with a large volume of essential supplies that I can't get here. Yay! Can't wait to get my hands on my hair conditioner, face wash, marmite (yum) and my new maternity bras! All this should help my goodbye blues and get me through the next 4 weeks. Eeek by then I will be 13 weeks pregnant!

When Mr. T left this morning I told him to take a mental picture of me as I am now, as I will look different when he comes back. He pulled out his phone and quickly took a pic of me in my pjs just before he walked out the door. I wonder how different I will look in a month's time from that picture he took this morning?

Scanning

So this is going to be a bit of a controversial post, but I feel I have to write it. In the IF world (and I'm sure to some extent in the fertile myrtles' world too) it seems when the unthinkable happens and we actually get pregnant, we then have a lot of scans. I understand the urge to scan. I mean if we could we'd want one everyday. To see the bubba that we have longed for for so long and never quite believed would happen. I understand that urge to see that everything is progressing well, heart is beating and baby is developing just right.

But. There could be a downside. Lately I have read a lot of reports online and different studies in books which bring into question the safety of pre-natal scanning particularly in the first trimester. It does make me wonder, and I can understand the reasoning why that might be the case. I mean it's ultrasound. Sound waves, i.e. vibrations. Perhaps vibrations on that scale when the embryo is vulnerable and in such a delicate state could do damage. In the UK they are not recommending women have scans until 12 weeks, unless there is some special reason to have a scan earlier. Many of the books I have read have advised to only have two scans during the pregnancy if possible. So could scanning actually be dangerous?

In one book I have, the author talks about how there are no legal limits placed on the levels of sonic energy emitted from ultrasound machines and that there is not enough research to show that the current levels are safe.

So. What does all this mean? Well I think each person has to make up their own mind about how they want to deal with this. Personally, I am reluctant to scan too much. My doctor wanted to scan me each week. I said NO. I went for one scan just before 8 weeks to see that everything was okay. Dr. B wanted me back in at 11 weeks and I said 12. It's like bargaining in the market here! He accepted that. I just didn't want another scan in my first trimester. I want the baby to just get on with developing and growing without ultrasound vibrations potentially affecting this process. Though the urge to take a sneak-peak at Baby A is always there. (Baby A is the new internet name for our little bubba. Not because I am so unimaginative I just picked the first letter of the alphabet. Or because we are having twins - WHICH WE ARE NOT. But because A is the first letter of our surname.)

It is a minefield. And when it comes to health and babies, I know it won't be the last minefield we have to navigate. But IF is all about navigating potential minefields. We've been there. We've read the books and the medical reports, we've questioned the experts, we've trawled the depths of the internet and we got the t-shirt. So this is just another part of the journey. Though this part of journey is so much better than the last two years, that's for sure! Yes it is. Even with all the vomiting.