20 Weeks of Being Pregnant

The cat’s out the bag well and truly and there is no hiding that I’m very much pregnant. To be precise, I’m currently 20 weeks and five days pregnant. (I just told Ayman what this post is about and he broke out into Bon Jovi… “Ooooooooohhhh, we’re halfway there”)

I’ve felt it through to the very bones of my body this time round, whether that’s because I have an energetic two-year-old around my feet 24/7 – when I’m not working that is – I don’t know?! So where do I start, I thought it might be easier to break it down into questions.

Due date?

24th March, which is also our wedding anniversary. Everyone straight away generally says, ‘awww, that’s so nice!’. However I hope he / she comes early or late as I want to keep that date all to ourselves, it’s our wedding anniversary after all and we’re allowed to be selfish just one night of the year aren’t we?!

How long were we ‘trying’ for?

Okay, I didn’t know how open to be on this but I know it’s a question that gets asked a lot. I always dreamt of having a spring baby as it’s one of my favourite times of year, my birthday is in April and Ayman’s is in May and I think it’s just a lovely time to be born with all the new blooms, spring lambs and the longer sunny days.

The other reason why I ideally would have loved a spring baby was because Hugo was born in September, where the clocks went back and the days quickly grew shorter and I felt quite isolated not being able to get out as much with the weather getting quite dreary. I know I’ve said this before but it’s true, had it not have been for Instagram and connecting with other mums online when Hugo was sleeping for the most part of the day and I was at home, I don’t know if I might have suffered with post-natal depression purely down to loneliness.

So not to digress, we were extremely lucky and fell pregnant straight away much to Ayman’s dismay haha. I took two tests with me when we went to Turkey in July and I didn’t drink the whole time just in case I was, but I could only find out at the end of the holiday. It showed a very faint line, but a line is a line as it said on all the forums I ended up on. You can never be too sure!

I know this is quite unusual and it generally takes months to fall pregnant and sometimes I know for some it sadly never happens and I never want to take this for granted. The only things that I did do to help the process along was to take folic acid and to use the Clearblue fertility test just after my period stopped to work out when I was most fertile. I like to know that I’m doing everything I can because although people say it’ll happen when you’re not thinking about it how can you stop thinking about it when you want it so much?

Also at the time I was doing a collaboration with Blossomsib which is basically an organic drink that is full of amazing nutrients for the whole body. The agreement was to only post about it if I liked the product and felt any benefits from it as it has a whole list of benefits which are listed on their website here. Before I said yes to the collaboration I asked if it was OK to take if you are trying to get pregnant or if you are pregnant and they said yes and that they have known of cases where it has actually increased chances of getting pregnant. This isn’t an endorsement for their product as I did the collaboration ages ago and it may or may not have had an effect but they are so good at answering any questions if you want to ask them as I was very sceptical before accepting to do it! This was the picture HERE from my Instagram I took at the time when I was collaborating with them and you can find their page HERE. Again I’m just being totally honest with you in what I did use whether it actually helped or not I have no idea.

How am I feeling?

I finally feel good. Less tired, not so sick and super excited towards the future!

Symptoms?

My sickness has been so bad this time; from less than four weeks pregnant I felt ALL the symptoms. Sickness, sore boobs, my clothes quickly began to feel tight and the tiredness was insane. I often caved in when putting Hugo to bed and fell asleep with him and would wake up the next morning. I still do this sometimes now too haha.

I’ve been sick without fail every morning and then the constant nausea feeling throughout the whole day and night. Many a time Ayman had to pop downstairs at midnight to make me some hearty food just to help try and keep the sickness at bay. The question ‘what do you want to eat?’ was hard though as I really didn’t feel like eating but knew it was the only thing that could help. Looking at my phone was a no go; it made me feel so much worse hence the increased social media absence particularly in the first trimester.

Do I feel different to when I was pregnant with Hugo?

Yes – so much more sick and totally different food cravings. I’m also a lot more laid back, I don’t have time to research everything all over again so I try and trust my natural mother instinct more instead.

Cravings?

So it began with bacon butties. Ayman doesn’t think this counts as a craving as he could eat them every day – but that was never my thing prior to this.

Next up was McDonald’s fries. I sometimes went through the drive-thru and ordered two large portions just for me as they were the only thing that helped.

I then suddenly one day – whilst eating another portion of fries – decided that I couldn’t eat anymore and I haven’t since and that was about two months ago now. I’m kind of glad about that as they aren’t exactly the most nutritious snack to crave.

Other cravings since:

Ham and coleslaw sandwiches.

Mango

Red Leicester cheese and sliced tomato sandwiches.

Cheese and Branston pickle sandwiches.

Now – anything CHEESE. Give me all the cheese!! Also, gluten-free Scotch pancakes drizzled with butter. Oh and salt and vinegar Squares.

I’m so much better now though and feel like I can eat most things but I get a lot more hungry so have to eat at least every three hours.

Maternity clothes?

You kidding me?! I’ve been in my maternity jeans from the get go, so much more comfy than trying to squeeze into my normal skinnies which would only make me feel more sick by how tight they felt. I wish I could be one of those fit pregnant woman who still look super toned but I just haven’t been able to; the food cravings and sickness has been far too intense to be like my normal self.

Boy / Girl?

We found out on Monday!! But, I’m keeping it hush hush until we’ve had time to do a proper announcement – hopefully this weekend! Sorry for the suspense but it’s all part of the fun 😀

Bump?

Oh yes and it seems to pop out more throughout the day – mysteriously after I’ve just eaten. Hmm. Ayman is like; “woah, where did that come from?”.

Any baby moves?

You’ll find it hard to believe me but I honestly felt the baby move very early on, even before my 12 week scan, it wasn’t like how I’m feeling the baby now but it was like little tiny flutters or bubbles in my stomach and I promise you it wasn’t wind or digestion! This then stopped at around 14 weeks until I was about 17 /18 weeks pregnant where I began to feel a lot more stronger movements. Last night I could actually see my stomach move and Ayman felt the baby move properly for the first time too so it was pretty special :).

Sleep?

A part from the nights Hugo wants to join us, I’ve been sleeping OK actually. I do need to get one of those pregnancy pillows though as at the moment I just use a normal pillow to put in-between my legs, so much more comfy for my hips when I can support them more.

Needing to pee?

Strangely, I haven’t needed to pee as much as I thought I would. However when I do need it I have to go straight away as I struggle to hold it, especially if I cough, sneeze, have to pick Hugo up and the list goes on. Pantyliners all the way, wahoo…!

How do you manage being pregnant with a toddler and working full-time?

I have felt it a lot more this time, I think moreso having Hugo and feeling guilty sometimes when I physically don’t have the energy to do everything I normally do with him. Also when I pick him up I sometimes feel twitches in my tummy as he’s such a heavy boy now, I’m going to have to be more careful as I get bigger I think and no doubt my abs will split but hey ho it’s all worth it! The work situation is fine really, I just have to keep the tiredness at bay with nibbles and popping out for a minute of fresh air sometimes.

The real difference for me this time is I feel like I have no time to myself to just enjoy a bath for example. When I was pregnant with Hugo I still worked out a bit and did yoga on a regular basis but this time I haven’t had the energy because by the time I’ve put Hugo to bed, I’m done with the day. I feel a bit guilty though sometimes as I know I connected with Hugo so much more when I was pregnant with him but I just haven’t got the time to just sit there and be these days. I honestly love this little baby so much already though and constantly pray that God will help me protect him/her while he/she is in my tummy and through the delivery process and for the rest of his or her precious life 🙂 .

Have we told Hugo?

Yes! We couldn’t wait to tell him and now it’s even more exciting to help him bond with the idea of having a brother or a sister. I have to keep reminding him to not jump on mummy because of the baby inside and he actually came to our 20 week scan so he could see the baby on the screen.

Future plans – new home, nesting?

We are moving to a bigger house… hopefully at the end of this month!!! I am sooooo excited! It’s a lovely Victorian style house and I cannot wait to start nesting and be in a home where Hugo can run around more and we can invite people over and not feel cramped in our little house. We will also have a proper lawned garden instead of a paved one so this is honestly making my heart leap for joy when I think of how happy Hugo is going to be; it will be his own playground. I’ll also be branching out into an interiors side of my blog too, so watch this space. The house is pretty much a blank canvas at present – lots to do!

So the question is BOY or GIRL?

All will be revealed very soon, I pinky promise!

In the meantime if you have any other questions you want to ask me about being pregnant, then please feel free to leave a message.

If you are pregnant I’d love to know if you’ve had any weird cravings??

Thanks for reading if you got this far 🙂

Much love

Sally

xxx