Mum-to-be Diary: The start of a new journey
Welcome to my new Mum-to-be Diary! I am really excited to share my pregnancy experience with readers of The Sloaney. An exciting few months lies ahead as I wait for the new arrival and prepare myself for life as a parent.
There are a few things you should know before you decide whether or not to follow my diary and join me on my pregnancy journey. Firstly, I am going to be a mum for the first time and have no experience of the ‘baby world’, so everything is very new. I am the first in my family to have a baby and one of the early starters among my friends.
I am a very busy Mum-to-be and I plan to carry on juggling everything as best I can throughout my pregnancy. So, if you are looking to relate to someone who just wants to sit on the sofa all day with their feet up and eat chocolate, then sadly I am not your woman! I love working, exercising and socialising. So far, I think Baby is enjoying it too!
Part of my regular exercise involves taking my dogs for walks and it seems that they may have an inkling that there is no longer just one person at the end of the lead. Apparently dogs, and other animals, are sensitive to the scent of pregnancy hormones – they definitely seem much more affectionate than normal and clearly feel as though they have an extra responsibility in protecting a Mum-to-be!
Exercise is continuing as normal, including plenty of long walks with my dog
During the last few months, I have been spending a lot of time reading up about pregnancy on the Internet. My midwife warned against doing this, so I do take everything that I read with a pinch of salt and rely on advice from the medical experts. However, the general consensus seems to be that the first trimester is the hardest part of pregnancy (except for the birth perhaps!).
Thankfully, I was lucky enough to escape the dreaded morning sickness. Instead, I was bulldosed by fatigue and I found this a particularly frustrating symptom. After powering through, I am now in the second trimester (17 weeks) and enjoying a fantastic dose of energy. In fact, I feel on top of world and it is only since reaching this point that I realise how tough those first few months were. So, if you are still in the first trimester – and can’t even tell anyone why you feel so unwell – stick with it as most people will begin to feel a lot better soon!
In fact, keeping it a secret is one of the hardest parts of early pregnancy and it is quite liberating when you reach that point in time when you can finally tell people. This is normally after the first scan and seeing your baby for the first time is a very special moment. It is also quite surreal because at this stage you still can’t feel anything inside you and most people don’t have any sign of a baby bump. So, when you suddenly see a little baby shape popping up on the hospital monitor… and then it moves… it is a pretty bizarre experience. If you were in any doubt before, once you have the scan picture, you can really start to believe that there actually is a little one growing inside you.
I have discovered that there are a few things that are not allowed during pregnancy. Sadly, most of these involve food and wine, which just happen to be two of my favourite things. I have bid farewell to some of my best loved delicacies such as smoked salmon, raw sushi, rare or medium steak, brie (oh how I miss you) and various other delicious bits of food. Alcohol is obviously another big no no. It can be hard to sympathise with any Dry January moaners when you have not been able to taste your favourite glass of wine for several months!
I have developed a new taste for Baked Beans – having hated them all my life
On the plus side, I have developed a new taste for some foods. Namely Baked Beans. Oddly enough I have hated Baked Beans for most of my life. However, since being pregnant my taste buds have done a dramatic U-turn and they now salivate at the thought of these squidgy little orange things. Sadly, they are not quite exciting as my first trimester craving of scampi.
I am also enjoying experimenting with non-alcoholic cocktails. I won’t say too much about this because my next installment is going talk about some of the best non-alcoholic tipples on the market, which should suit both pregnant ladies and keep the Dry January crew happy too!
Until then…
Your resident Mum-to-be x
