The second trimester began, with a decrease in morning sickness - finally! I went from vomitting 2-5x daily, to vomitting once or twice a week.. then once or twice every couple of weeks. It was a welcome reprieve!
The first of three exciting 2nd trimester milestones happened when I was 14w3d... I felt my baby moving for the first time! I was at work when all of a sudden I experienced what felt like a tiny little muscle spasm, down toward the top of my pelvic bone. I quite literally dropped what I was doing, and sat there with my hand on my belly, in total awe. My baby had MOVED. For the first time ever I had physical proof that I was pregnant. I thought the pregnancy suddenly became real when I had my first scan - but feeling my baby move for the first time? That added a whole nother spectrum of reality to the pregnancy. I believe I shed a few quick tears at that moment. Another thing I will never ever forget.
The 2nd of three exciting milestones happened soon after - I got to hear my baby's heartbeat for the first time at a midwifes appointment, when I was around 15 weeks! When I had my scan at 12w5d I could *see* the heartbeat, but wasn't able to actually listen to it. I was petrified before the midwife turned the doppler on, asking her what the chances were of not being able to hear it - but everything still being okay with baby, but she was confident we would hear it... After what felt like a lifetime (but was probably only about 15 seconds), we heard the tell tale sound - BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM - a healthy heartbeat! Once again the tears came, it was so relieving to hear that beautiful noise. I had been a little worried, because after I got into the 2nd trimester, my symptoms had calmed down a lot, and I was a bit afraid that I had had a missed miscarriage... even though I knew that it was common for symptoms to calm down after 12 weeks, and even though I'd felt my baby moving. My lack of appetite continued though, and I started the 1st trimester weighing less than I had when I got pregnant, which seemed a bit weird to me - but also made a lot of sense. The lack of appetite, mixed with morning sickness had obviously made me lose a few kg's!
The first 6 weeks of the 2nd trimester were filled with the excitement, of knowing that soon I would be finding out the sex of my baby! Stu and I spoke a lot about whether the baby would be a boy or a girl. Right from day one, I had felt I was carrying a girl - however after the 1st scan, suddenly I felt it was a boy... although deep down, I think I still felt it was a girl. Toward the end of the 1st trimester we'd chosen names for our baby - if it was a boy, he would be called Kaiden Warrington-James. Warrington after my Grandfather who passed away when Dad was 12, and James after my Grandfather who passed away when I was 13. If it was a boy, she would be called Gaby Jayde. Jayde was a tribute of sorts to my first angel, Jayden. Around 16w, we changed our name for a girl to Gabrielle Jayda-Lee. The Jayda was still a tribute to Jayden, but the added 'Lee' was after Stu (his last name being Lee) and after my sister. We changed her name to Gabrielle so that when she was older, she would have the option of the more 'grown up' name Gabrielle, if she didn't think 'Gaby' was mature enough, or sophisticated enough! However we'd still call her 'Gaby' a bulk of the time. I was still REALLY worried about losing my baby - more terrified than I had been in the first trimester, because I knew if I lost the baby during the 2nd or 3rd trimester, I would have to deliver the baby - and the loss would be more heartbreaking for me than a 1st trimester loss - due to the bonding I'd done with the baby - the fact I'd seen my baby on u/s, heard the heartbeat, felt it kicking..... I booked in for the third of the three 2nd trimester milestones - my anomoly scan for the 19th May. At that stage I would be 19w1d - I was excited about seeing how much my baby had grown, even more excited about finding the sex - and terrified that I would find my baby had died. As the 16th, 17th & 18th weeks passed, I started feeling my baby moving a little more - but not enough for me to be absolutely certain everything was fine, in the back of my mind I kept thinking "what I'm feeling might not be baby moving, it COULD just be muscle spasms, my baby could be dead". Such morbid thoughts, during what should be such a wonderful 9 months.
The morning of the 19th May I was a little more excited than scared about the ultrasound - I had felt my baby kicking around the night before, and had a couple of movements after I got up, so was pretty sure everything was okay. But there was still that part of me..... We were taken in for the scan at around 10.35 - Mum, Terri & Stu were all with me. Like the first scan, I didn't breathe until I had heard the sonographer mention the baby's heartbeat - and then sat (well, lay!) through what was up until then, the most amazing 25 minutes of my life! The sonographer measured all the babys organs & important bones, he did all his checks for abnormalities & signs of any chromosomal defects, but everything was just fine. As I expected, I cried a lot through the scan - and I saw my Mum shed a few tears as well. I couldn't believe how much bigger my baby was, than the first time I saw it, only 6 weeks earlier! It was really starting to resemble a little person, and I found it especially cute when we looked at the hands & feet....... just like grown up hands & feet - but in minature! We had told the sonographer before the scan even started, that we wanted to find out the sex, and about 10 minutes in to the scan, he said the words that added yet another spectrum of reality to my pregnancy.... "IT'S A GIRL! There is no sign of a doodle". All around the room I could see huge smiles... but I think mine was the biggest.
Finally I could give my baby GIRL a name - I could now refer to her as Gaby. Not as 'baby', not as 'bubs', not as 'it', not as 'her or him', not as 'she or he'... SHE was Gaby.
I left that scan feeling extremely happy - and a little more confident that come October '06, I would be a Mummy for real! I sent text messages to everyone, exclaiming that baby was fine, and that baby was infact a girl - everyone else seemed almost as excited as me! By the time I got to 24 weeks, I was feeling Gaby moving a lot more often - and the movements were getting more and more noticable. I never really felt her kicking when I was standing, and felt the most movement when I was in bed, laying on my tummy. The pregnancy was going splendidly, and my fears had subsided somewhat. Each day I still did think "what if I lose the baby", but each day I also believed more and more, that I would give birth to a healthy baby.
The only thing that really had me upset, was that I wasn't showing yet. I knew that being of a bigger build, it would take longer to show - but I hated seeing women who were 16 ,17, 18 weeks pregnant, looking more pregnant than me! The evening of the day I was 25w6d, I was getting changed to go to bed, I looked down at my tummy and..... there was a pregnant belly there! I had quite literally popped! I asked my Mum if it was baby or just fat, and she chuckled when she said "it's baby Emma, it's baby". What a happy note to end my second trimester on!
No comments:
Post a Comment