21 weeks!

That’s more than half way! We are more than half way towards meeting Baby Girl!

I’m a bit sad that I didn’t get chance to do an update last week but we were busy being out and about with my parents, so this is more of a 19-21 weeks update.

Generally, I’ve felt pretty well. I get tired easily – I am growing a baby, after all, but having fairly sensible bedtimes (we will ignore Game of Thrones nights) and the odd afternoon nap seems to keep that at bay. Despite the weather being hot over the Easter weekend and doing lots of walking, I was fine. My feet and ankles ached on the evenings but putting them up for a bit helped. I did notice a massive increase in Braxton hicks though, which started a couple of weeks ago.

I had been worrying a little bit about her movements – it seemed I would have a day or two of feeling her move and then nothing. I know that because at this point lots of pregnant women are only just starting to feel movements and there’s still plenty of time for her to move about that the midwife wouldn’t worry about it, but it’s still a bit disconcerting when you don’t feel much. However, since Easter, her movements have massively ramped up and I’m beginning to notice a pattern (she doesn’t like mornings – wonder where she gets that from?) and starting to feel and see the odd kick on the outside of my tummy. The boys can’t wait to feel her!

We’ve got the vast majority of the essentials we need now, apart from a bigger car and a chest of drawers for her. One of my best friends had a baby last year and has helped us out massively by giving us all her bits so we have a Moses basket, side cot, carriers, bath, car seat etc, and we had bought her pram a few weeks ago. Now it’s mostly concentrating on buying her clothes. We’ve picked up a couple of things including a beautiful pink babygrow that has ‘best little sister’ on, ready for the first time her big brothers meet her (man, I’m getting emosh just writing that!). When my mom and dad were here we went shopping and got a gorgeous little dress, cardi and tights. My nan also sent a big bag of clothing up that she had bought – dresses, little leggings, vests and a fluffy (pink!) Unicorn snowsuit. Baby girl has quite the collection of clothes already!

I also had my 20-week scan last week. I was actually really nervous about it. I think because with the boys we have waited until then to find out the sex, we have had that element of excitement but because we already knew and this was purely checking for anomalies, I was more nervous. It didn’t help that Graham couldn’t get the time off work so I had to go on my own, and I’d had a bad morning beforehand. As it was, there was nothing to worry about, and everything is looking just as it should be at this point.

I’m starting to think about birth choices now. I was set on having a c-section up until last week – knowing when she would come, not risking another 3rd-degree tear and the possible option of being sterilized all made it seem like the best option. However, I’m now questioning that, and I don’t know what I want to do now. I have my first appointment with my consultant this week though, so will hopefully have the chance to talk about it with him/her and see what they suggest.