Pregnancy Diary: Week 18 – 21

Week 18

The week of no sleep. I sort of thought now was the time when I was supposed to be sleeping heaps, as people are always like “better get it while you can”, but this week my sleep was terrible. I’d be lucky to get 3-4 hours a night, which was definitely not enough as I was so groggy during the day. I’d lie there at night and my mind was racing about all the things I wanted to achieve and projects I wanted to start – definitely not good thoughts to be having at 2am! Apart from that, this week was fairly uneventful. Work was very busy which was great, and I got to tackle a few new exciting projects. I also picked up some very cute baby books at the local Salvation Army, and I can’t wait to read these to bubba once it’s arrived.

I definitely have a little bit of a baby bump happening! If I wear tight tops it looks like I had way too much for dinner, so I’m definitely still opting for the looser, flowy clothing until the bump is more baby than food baby! This week I have been all about the food, and tomatoes on toast and cheese on crackers are my current go-tos. At least they are a healthy option, right?!

Week 19

This week seemed to fly by and I spent most of the week working. We also had a couple of trips to Dunedin which was awesome. I slept a little bit better this week, although I find I’m still waking up quite a few times during the night. Fingers crossed that’s a temporary thing! I feel like the bump is about the same size as last week, and while I feel like it’s super obvious, I’ve had quite a few people ask “where’s the baby?!”. I haven’t gained that much weight since the start of my pregnancy, only just 2kg in 19 weeks.

This week I’ve noticed my skin has been feeling a bit irritated and itchy so I’ve been religiously applying moisturiser and oils to my skin to help calm it down. Baby’s definitely been kicking a lot this week, and it’s an active little thing. It makes me so happy to feel it wriggling away, and this week my mum got to feel baby. That was very exciting!

Week 20

Week 20 started off very well with our anatomy scan. It was so exciting to see how much baby has grown, and it’s crazy how big it has gotten in only 8 weeks! It doesn’t fit on to the whole screen now! The scan is so much clearer now and you can see all the details like it’s spine, lungs, and heart. I’m so thankful that baby is measuring in perfectly and appears to be happy and healthy – that’s all I can ask for! We decided to find out the gender (I’m totally not patient enough to wait until the end!), and they have let us know what they think it is, but we will wait until the next scan to tell everyone just to be doubly sure.  Baby is such a wriggler and an active little thing, and I can feel it moving around and kicking all the time now. It’s pretty awesome!

We found out at the scan that my placenta is lying low near the cervix (which basically block baby’s exit route). They are hoping it will move and in most cases it does. I have to go back at 24 weeks for another scan so they can monitor it, as if it doesn’t move, quite often a C-section is required. Since we live rurally, they monitor things like this extra closely, and if it doesn’t move, I’ll have to start having appointments with an obstetrician in Dunedin. Fingers crossed in 4 weeks everything will be okay! I made the mistake of Googling it, and now I’m a bit worried!!

The bump is definitely out in full force now, and even baggy tops don’t hide it (although I still have people saying they can’t see much difference, but I personally feel MASSIVE!)

Week 21

This seemed to be the week I went from “where’s the baby” to “well, THERE it is!”. I feel like I well and truely got a bump this week and there’s no way I’m hiding it now! This was another full on week, with a few trips to Dunedin and tonnes of work for me to get through. My MacBook decided to die on me, so I had a couple of very stressful days where I’ll admit I cried quite a bit!! Thankfully, everything is better now though and it’s onwards and upwards!

I put our pram on lay-by this week! I had been a little stressed out over the fact we hadn’t really looked at much baby stuff, so mum and I went shopping and chose out the pram, cot, and capsule so I know what I’m getting now. I tried out so many different prams and some of them are so incredibly clunky and awkward to move around. Since I’m quite petite, I didn’t want anything too massive or too heavy to get in and out of the car. We settled on a Mountain Buggy Swift and I can’t wait to pop baby in it and go for lots of walks! I never realised I could get quite so excited about a pram and I find myself now looking at all the other prams when we are out. This is my life now 😂