Guest Blogger Amy on her Experience of Pregnancy

When Emma first said she wanted people to be guest bloggers for her, I jumped at the chance to write about "pregnancy" my chosen subject. But then I was a bit like eek! What do I write about?! What do I NOT write about?! How do I cram 9 months of glorious morning sickness, expanding waistbands, swollen ankles and squashed bladders into one blog?! I don't know but I'll give it a go. . .

 

I'll start by explaining how my pregnancy journey started. I can't remember the exact date but it was between Christmas and New Year 2009. I was 19. My period was a few weeks late but i didn't think much of it as this is pretty normal for me. Anyway, I decided one day to just try out a pregnancy test, just a cheap boots one. . .12 tests later I sat on my bathroom floor, shocked, scared, exited, worried, MORTIFIED. There staring back at me, was 12 little red lines. Yup, I was pregnant. So, I'm not THAT close my mum, so I didn't tell her straight away, but I did ring my boyfriend and broke the news that he was going to be a daddy (he was away in Norway at the time working). Silence followed the news and I could feel a lump in my throat, what would I do if he didn't want it? Would I be alone? Would he abandon me and my pregnant self? No no, the silence was tears running down his face, of happiness of course! Phew! Thank goodness.

 

The first few weeks were fine, except extreme tiredness, I was literally sleeping 15 hours a day, its hard work growing a baby! Then at 10 weeks, every pregnant mothers worse nightmare. Severe stomach cramps and bleeding. That was it, it wasn't ment to be, I'd rather it happen now rather than later. Gutted I sat in the car on the way to the hospital with all these thoughts running through my head. Several hospital hours later we weren't really any further forward and I would have to wait until the next day for a scan. I didn't sleep a wink that night. I lay in bed and hoped and prayed and wished my un born "bean" would be ok. The next day dragged and dragged. I lay myself on the cold hospital bed, along with my mum and my partner, just waiting for the worst. As soon as the midwive put the ultrasound on my stomach the bean's legs did a little dance as if to say hey mum look at me! I'm ok! I burst into tears, there on the screen, dancing away, was my tiny 10 week old dot :) Proud wasn't the word.

 

I didn't get any other symptoms until later on, but boy oh boy did I get them then! My new best friend was the toilet. Morning sickness didn't have a look in. More like morning, afternoon, evening and night sickness. I tried all sorts travel sickness bands, ginger tablets, smelling certain things, ginger biscuits worked for a while but soon i gave up. I literally couldn't leave the house, I couldn't go anywhere for fear of being sick. I still remember lying on the bathroom floor thinking "is this REALLY worth it? How much longer am i going to feel like this?!"

 

Of course it was worth it, how could I ever have though that your probably thinking. But I really wasn't in a good place then. This last until I was 16 weeks, and I had lost A LOT of weight, so much so that I was classed as a high risk pregnancy as my weight was so low.It wasn't until about 20 weeks that I had a bump, going for my 20 week scan raised some looks as I was still wearing normal clothes and my bump wasn't that obvious! My boyfriend works away and unfortunatly missed this scan, which is of course also known as the sexing scan.

 

I was so so sure it was a boy - Joshua Thomas we had chosen, that I nearly fell off the bed when she said it was a girl, Lola-Grace. I felt like I was on cloud 9 and wanted to tell the world. This was the part of being pregnant I loved. I didn't get heartburn or swollen ankles, piles (sorry for the tmi!) or weird cravings. I felt amazing, like I had this little secret growing inside me and it was all mine. People open doors for you, give up their seats on the metro, smile at you and ask you when your due. I adored all the attention and as my bump grew my confidence did too.

 

At 27 weeks I was booked in for a private scan, but this wasn't a ordinary scan, it was 4D! We sat exitedly in the waiting room outside, me trying not to move too much as my bladder was more than full! At £130 I wanted my money's worth! The scan was amazing, it didn't seem real, we saw her hair and she even smiled at us! She was a little camera shy though, and wouldn't move her hands from her face! I tried all sorts but she wasn't moving. All the same we'd still seen enough and I was more than pleased. I can genuinely say the 4D scans look like Lola does now! I'd highly recommend them.

 

The 4D scan, so accurate!



From 27 weeks onwards i can only say i bloomed! I felt amazing! It was the middle of summer though and oh my goodness it was hot!Summer check list for mummies to be

1) A fan! For the bedroom and anywhere else your sat for a while!

2) WATER! And lots of it! The last thing you want is to be dehydrated whilst pregnant.

3) A summer hat to keep the heat off your head and some sunglasses to shade those eyes!

4) A good moisturiser for that bump! (I used Palmers cocoa butter solid formula and i never got a single stretchmark!)

 

That leads me onto the next bit. Maternity clothes. . . .And YACK I hated them! I stuck to loose tops, leggings and summer dresses. But if I were to choose one, I would choose new look's range They seem pretty reasonable and still fashionable! I had a couple of events to attend when I was pregnant, a christening and a wedding. By this time I was heavily pregnant and the last thing I wanted to do was treck round shops in the hot weather. . .but thankfully I found a dress for both. The first being a a stretchy cream lace one from new look's tall range,that bit longer so that it would cover my bump comfortably. For the wedding I wanted to be a bit more formal and smart and found a purple dress from lipsy that fitted perfect!

 

At the wedding in my Lipsy Dress :)



A couple of weeks before my due date i had my ante natal class. A 4 hour sessions that I wish I didn't attend! I was quite calm before this, but as I saw diagrams of babies being pushed through that places NOTHING that big should go through, I was terrified! To breast feed or bottle? Pain relief? No pain relief? Water birth or natural? I didn't know any of their answers but they would be answered soon enough!

 

The days leading up to my due date I was so exited it was ridiculous. I tried EVERYTHING. I walked for miles and miles. I ate spicy food, drank raspberry tea, I had 2 sweeps, but in the end the only thing that was gonna get her out was the thing that got her there in the first place. . .

 

28th august 2010, it all started. The period like cramps got worse and worse and before i knew it I found myself on the labour ward 4cm dilated.  

 

But you're going to have wait for my next blog for that part...

 

Keep your eyes open for Amy's next blog on labour!