Pregnancy ....past the half way mark

I'm sat here with my sweet affectionate little cat all cuddled up on my knee.....just wishing she'd blooming move! .... so I can switch positions because of my back ache.
Although I know my biology and have a degree, turns out theres alot you just never know about pregnancy until you go through it yourself. Like for example the hormones soften your spine and make you more prone to getting very achey.

I have quite a few ups and downs already and am only 23 weeks 6 days gone and was really starting to think I hated this process until a few weeks ago I finally felt my baby move.

I thought I'd felt something a few days previous, but then ruled it out as my stomach doing strange things, but as I sat at work doing some data entry chatting to a colleague I experienced what felt like a little kick, then another knock, then some kind of wriggling movement and another kick.
I didn't say anything to anyone I was just in amazement and sat there with a massive smile on my face, almost laughing as I carried on typing and every now and then over the next ten minutes I would feel my baby move about.
Since then I have been able to feel the movements and that day it just pushed all the bad stuff into the background and made me remember its all worth it.

When I told my friends at work (at the hospital labs) about my pregnancy a few didn't even believe me at first but they were all so lovely and excited for me, I have met some great people there.
However there are the gossips you get with every work place, those that aren't interested in being your friend but still find out everything they can, I can only assume it's because they don't have a life of their own.With it not being long since I'd gone public with my relationship with someone there, I must have been something of a talking point. But Ashleys taught me to have the point of view who cares what they think, what matters is just me and him. Oh and the baby now =)

My lovely sis got me one of these soon after to keep my mind at rest.

I left telling many of my other friends for a while, because I found the majority of my first half of pregnancy pretty scary, good job I was ignorant to the life growing inside me for the first ten weeks or I would have been a nervous wreck. I am a bit of a worrier but to make things worse my antenatal care was all over the place because of moving and because of incompetant staff. Add that to a pre existing medical condition and you have a stressed young lady! I had to fight to get my blood tests done at the anti natal clinic and try and sort many things out by myself with no midwife to guide me. Finally I got a new one at my new GP's, I'm not sure how good she is, but when she used a doppler and let me know my baby was ok by hearing my babies heart beat for the first time, she was my hero. It was such a relief that I ended up posting on facebook.....and that is how many of my friends found out, besides the lucky few who had known pretty much from the start.

 One of my worries about how my baby was doing was due to my lack of bump ....sometimes it seemed like one, but my period of awful pregnancy bloating was usually the cause and my stomach would be mostly flat without it. I knew people developed differently but seeing my friend Taz's bump at work and seeing Mel's progress online with her lovely bump, I got a bit paranoid, despite my sister telling me she'd been the same and didn't show at all at 17 weeks. Then three weeks later this popped out of nowhere:

             
 I finally had a baby bump!


 Its grown rapidly since then so I really need to take some new pics so I've got something to remember it by.

My baby is very lively and moves about alot and it always makes me smile when I feel it, esp a few days ago when in the bath there was a kick and I saw my belly move. I was sat laughing to myself as I watched it happen

I was a happy bunny =) but not as happy as the day I had my anatomy scan, 2 weeks ago this Thursday.
I was so excited that morning, I felt like it was my birthday or Christmas and I only got a few last minute niggles as me and Ash were sat in the ultra sound waiting area before the sonographer called us in.
Seeing my baby on the screen was amazing but still scary as she was doing the measurements ( or attempting to when my baby kept wriggling off ....she's an active one apparently) and zooming in at everything, until she told me everything was just fine and I felt a heavy weight just lift, the stress just evapourated from me. Then we got shown our babies tiny feet and and arms and hands and as she zoomed in on the face, baby was yawning and then stretched and we saw the arms and tiny hands going up to the face, it was magical, I felt so unbeliveabley happy and amazed.
Then as I'd decided several weeks before I wanted to know if it was a girl or a boy (although i really didn't mind by this point as i was so blown away) it was time to find out the sex.
I think baby was getting a bit tired or maybe just a bit shy as after lots of prodding n shaking he or she still wouldn't open their legs. The sonographer was lovely though and told me to go for a wee and it would be less pressurised and maybe we'd get a result then. However alot more wriggling the baby's legs about it was still a no show. However she didn't give up on us and told me to sit up to let baby move about and she'd go write up the notes and try again. Ash talked to my stomach in hope baby would be listening =)
It still seemed like we wouldn't find out, which would let everyone at work down as they'd all been making bets amongst themselves, but then suddenly she managed it and we heard the news that its a GIRL.

 And here she is: 

 

  

I started my baby shopping after this, but that along with everything else will have to wait for another blog, as this one's just a bit long now!!

xxx