The First Trimester-Baby 2

Baby 2

 0-12 Weeks

I was around 2 weeks pregnant when I found out I was expecting this time. 

I must admit I've felt much less anxious this time round and have the mindset that if something does go wrong there's nothing I can do to change it/stop it at this early stage. I'm surprised at myself as I felt very different when pregnant with Eliot.

Morning Sickness & Other Symptoms

Before I knew I was pregnant I experienced what I thought was a stomach bug, I woke up in middle of the night & vomited a few times and had (sorry TMI) possibly the worst diarrheoa I can remember experiencing. In the morning I felt better but avoided eating anything for a while but when I did later in the day I was ok. I thought it must have been a one night bug until I woke up at pretty much the same time as the night before suffering with sickness and diarrheoa again. Then the same thing happened the following night after being fine again during the day. It probably was a bug but I found it strange only being unwell during the night and wondered if it could have been a surge of hormones or something.

The first symptoms I experienced after finding out I was pregnant was bloating and stomach pains, sometimes on my right side which did make me wonder if it could be an ectopic pregnancy. I didn't seek any advice over it but thankfully it was obviously nothing to be worried about.

Again this time round I was lucky enough not to suffer with bad morning sickness. I started suffering with nausea a bit earlier this time, around 5 weeks. Like when pregnant with Eliot, I would feel so sick I would retch when teaching! It happened at different times of the day and hunger would make it worse, eating something made me feel better. Unfortunately it continued, not on a daily basis but a lot longer than when I was expecting Eliot.
In the early days I was quite emotional and tearful at times and there were times when the tiredness kicked in!

Cravings

I wouldn't necessarily say I had 'cravings' as such but fancied certain foods at certain times. I wouldn't always fancy a 'proper dinner' in the evening and would much prefer cereal and toast! I drank a lot of orange juice as a midwife told me (when I was pregnant with Eliot) that it helps your body absorb iron. When I didn't have any in the fridge I really fancied satsumas and had two of those a day for a week or so.

Scares

I feel really lucky with this pregnancy I haven't had any 'scares' (touch wood) so far. The only thing that had me thinking there could possibly be an issue were the stomach pains to the right side, as I mentioned above.

Midwives

I made my first appointment to see a midwife for when I thought I was around 10 weeks pregnant, assuming it would be my booking in appointment. When I went for it though I discovered I should have really made a prior appointment,  as it wasn't a 'booking in' appointment. I met a midwife and student midwife, had my blood pressure taken as well as blowing into a carbon monoxide detector thingy (this was new) to make sure I didn't have dangerous amounts of it in my body. They also dated me at 11 weeks.
I was told the usual midwife for the surgery was on holiday and I would need to meet with another one to do my booking in appointment before my 12 week scan. It was arranged for the midwife covering to come to our house at the weekend to 'book me in'. So on a Sunday afternoon a midwife called Bev arrived, asked all the usual questions with Eliot frequently interrupting and managed to take my bloods. My veins are pretty awkward when it comes to taking blood and it was only her second attempt at getting it when my veins complied! I do get myself into a bit of a panic when it comes to blood tests, having Eliot hovering around actually calmed me as I didn't want him seeing me get upset over it. He made me laugh when he said 'look at all that medicine' and I had to explain it wasn't medicine but actually my blood.

Scans

As I was further along than I initially thought I didn't have my first scan until I was 13 weeks. The baby was facing downwards, which I'm not used to seeing in scan photos! But then I figured just like I did people probably turn their scan photos around when sharing on social media. We were told that everything looked normal at this point and measurements dated me at 13+ 3 giving me a due date of 2/9/17. It's always amazing whenever you see your baby in a scan, especially the first one when you see the proof that another human being is growing inside you, baby was either sleeping or on the lazy side as there wasn't much movement.

Not the clearest photo of baby 2 facing down at the 12 Week scan