One week to go!

One week to go until the start of the second trimester. One week to go until my next scan. One week to go until I hear that beautiful heartbeat again (God willing).

One week to go until we hear that everything is a-okay. Or not as the case may be. One week to go until the Nuchal Fold test. Has anyone had this done too? I am so looking forward to seeing the baby again but also anxious to know that everything is okay. Mr. T won't be here for this scan so I hope Dr. B can record it on DVD and then Mr. T can enjoy it when he comes home.

One more week and hopefully the end to the nausea too. It seems to be easing off now. Except for a few days ago when I vomited on myself at work. Ugh. Very gross. Second trimester here we come. One more week! Eeek!

Pregnancy Goodies

This post has been a while coming. My mum arrived nearly 2 weeks ago and with her she brought many wonderful things to make a new mama 2 be happy. So I thought I would share some of these things with you.

Ah the maternity bras. Actually they're nursing bras (kill two birds with one stone right?) They have a clasp at each corner for easy access. Mr. T really likes this and has suggested I just switch to nursing bras from now on.

The prenatal exercise DVDs. I love love love them. They keep me motivated and I feel so much better after doing them. I'll be honest I've only done the yoga ones as haven't had the energy for the aerobics workout with all my 1st trimester sleepiness and nausea. But I feel I am working up to it. I especially love the kundalini yoga DVD, very cool exercises (some are really challenging- like the one where you have your arms out and then move your thumbs up and down for 3 minutes, no stopping - try it, you feel like your arms are gonna fall off! But it's meant to help you prepare mentally for labour. So I'm game. I've only managed 2 mins so far non-stop, gotta build up to it.) But the yogi lady has a really cool vibe and calming presence and I love the way she talks about motherhood and the preparation of getting to know your baby. She says that yogis believe babies do all the 108 positions of yoga when they are in the womb, so it's like we are little yogis when we are born. I love this.

Maternity clothes! I love them all and I am going to continue wearing them forever! I am very long in the body and I have always had a problem with my tops meeting up with my hipster jeans, too much gappage in the middle. No longer a problem. How did I not discover these sooner? Oh yeah the infertility thing. Damn you.

Supplements. Gotta have the Vitamin B, Zinc, Multi-Vit, Magnesium, Fish Oil, Vitamin C, Pro-biotics & not forgetting the Spirulina - a form of blue/green algae packed full of super foody goodness.

Books! Following my desire to have the healthiest pregnancy I possibly can, these have been great reference points. But the best book of all, which I have had for over 2 years now (gathering dust on the bookshelf) is Ina May's. She is amazing and is making me feel all sorts of wonderful and confident about the next 6 months and the birth to come. God bless you Ina May.

Amazing Pre-Natal Film

If you're like me and are fascinated by the whole real-life-human-being-actually-being-made process then you have to check out this site. It's amazing. The film is called THE BIOLOGY OF PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT. You can watch the whole film in short snippets - I have been logging on week from week following Baby A's development.

The shots in utero are incredible. How did they do that? I am constantly asking myself. And also as an aside - I am so glad I can see this, but also glad that it's not my baby or my uterus a camera is poking out - I know, selfish. But I am also very grateful to the mum and baby who helped make this film. There is so much to learn and it helps me feel connected with what is going on with my baby at each stage.

I really am in complete awe of this whole process. It is so complex, so refined and so hard to fathom that all this can be going on inside of me. And that each of us began in this way - from major organs forming to tastebuds to tiny hairs on the skin. It is truly a miraculous thing.

Mr. T often worries that something is going to go wrong. Of course there is always the possibility. But I believe this is not the way to approach it all. I, of course, strive to do my best - eat well (now I can, the nausea seems to have subsided yay!!), take my supplements, do prenatal yoga everyday and have massage and acupuncture once a week. As long as we do our best the rest is in God's hands. I have never felt that more acutely than I do now. So I tell Mr. T just to have faith. We do our best, the rest is up to the Divine.

This film has also helped me to understand that. To understand that this baby has it's own set of instructions and is guided by something so strong and powerful I cannot begin to conceive of it, but I can feel it. So if you only watch one film about a totally awesome miracle this year - make it this film!