Bump Pic! 14 weeks 6 days

Here's my bump at 14 weeks 6 days!

It feels really high and I'm still quite self conscious as feel that I just look fat rather than pregnant at the moment. I'm assured that isn't the case, but still!

I've started to grow out of most of my old clothes so decided to remove all of the snug, offending items from my wardrobe and to instead, replace them with comfier, bigger clothes.

Out of sight they can no longer mock me!

Now I can see a bump, I find myself cradling and holding it rather a lot, none more so then when packed onto a crammed tube!

I have a Baby on Board Badge, which thankfully means that people tend to offer me their seat, but I doubt I need it as I spent so much of my time on the train holding my belly! It must be pretty obvious!

Weeks 13-15

So, these past few weeks have all been a bit of a blur of sickness, resting and being bored at home.

Thankfully, by weeks 14 and 15 I'm FINALLY starting to feel a little better! Yes I still retch for pretty much no reason at almost any time, but I haven't been physically sick in a while and I seem to be able to control the nausea much better.

These past few weeks have been so horribly debilitating, I never imagined I could ever feel that ill!

Still no real bump at week 13 but by weeks 14 and 15 there is definitely something there! I'll pop a piccie in my next post!

Im really excited as next week we have our 16 week Midwife appointment and get to hopefully, hear our little ones heart beat!

I can't wait!

My Maternity Style Q&A Over on the Kate Thomas Maternity Blog!

Hello Lovelies!

I wanted to take a min to let you know that yours truly has been interviewed by the Maternity brand Kate Thomas, and you can find my little Maternity Style Q&A over on their blog HERE!

Check out their maternity collection over at ASOS now too!

Sarah x

The 12 Week Scan: I Saw My Baby!

I saw my baby again! My amazing little baby that no longer looks like a jelly bean but an actual, teenie tiny little person!

Waiting nervously and excitedly for the sonographer to collect us from the waiting room, I survey the other women waiting to be scanned, all with varying bump sizes, but all with the same excited smiles on their faces.

Walking into the little room I lay down on the chair and look up at the screen in front of me.

Argh I’m going to see my baby again!

A blob of cold gel is put onto my belly, bloated from drinking so much water before the scan and the cold scanning instrument is pushed onto my tummy. (You are asked to drink about a pint and a half at least 20 mins before being scanned)

‘’I’m just going to take a look and then I’ll turn the screen on for you,’’ she says.

That as the longest 15 seconds of my life!

What if they don’t find anything? What is Baby B isn’t ok?

I’m nervous.

After what feels like a lifetime the screen flickers to life and I see our baby.

Our baby is beautiful and bouncing around inside me like I’m some sort of trampoline! He/she has their leg extended in the air the entire time, much to my amusement, and I watch in awe as the sonographer does all the checks she needs to do.

I’m shown my babys heartbeat and told that the nuchal translucency (the collection of fluid behind the babys head which can be an indicator of downs syndrome) is small in measurement (which is good), that all looks as it should and I’m actually 12+4 days pregnant rather than 12+1.

Baby B at 12 weeks 4 days

My due date is now February 1^st!

I'm then asked to have some routine blood tests done, Including one to determine the chances of my baby having downs syndrome.

On the way out we book our 16 week appointment with the Midwife and the 20 week scan with the sonographer. It feels like so far away! How am I going to wait another 8 weeks to see my baby again!

Gah this pregnancy malarkey is testing, especially for a super impatient person!

12 Weeks Pregnant and EVERYTHING Smells!

So, I had heard that in pregnancy a women’s sense of smell can change and heighten.

No shit! I can smell EVERYTHING and everything makes me want to vom!

I’ve been driving my hubby mad with this symptom, declaring as I walk into every room of the house that ‘It smells horrendous in here!’, when he claims it doesn't smell at all!

My poor pooch has been somewhat neglected due to my super sense as I cannot bear to get too close to his dog breath or doggy smell.

The fridge just smells horrendous! I have to hold my breath every time I need to get something from it and I swear I can even smell the dirt on our carpet!

One particularly bad day, while laying in bed feeling miserable I caught whiff of a smell that set me off gagging terribly.

What was that smell? Me.

Yep, me. I gingerly lent over to smell my arm and immediately felt myself gagging.

My god I cannot even stand the smell of me! For a few days I actually had to shower several times a day to stop myself from gagging at myself!

This pregnancy malarkey is hard work, and often totally bonkers! Who gags at their own natural smell! Weird.

I'm an Ambassador for The Essential One!

I am dead chuffed to announce that I am now a fully fledged Ambassador for the gorgeous baby clothing brand The Essential One.

For those of you not familiar, this brand was created with the idea of giving new mums and mums to be what they REALLY needed as opposed to what everyone else was trying to tell them they need.

The Essentials, essentially. Hence the name!

They are really passionate about offering gorgeous, affordable and 100% cotton baby wear and maternity clothes that you won’t just want, but you’ll need, and they’re honest about it too!

This is what I love about the brand, their honesty, their values and they super cute clothes!

As a first time mum to be, I know first hand that when it comes to baby and maternity shopping, it’s a minefield and something about The Essential One just struck a chord, and I trusted them immediately.

Take a look at their website now and see what I mean, I defy you to not end up buying something!

So, to mark the fact that I am a now a proud Ambassador, the guys over at The Essential One have very kindly offered one of my readers the chance to win a £20 voucher to spend over on their gorge website!

To enter, just fill in the rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now, go and take a look at the website and let me know what you think!

Anti Sickness Relief: Cyclizine

I’m not saying I’m a pill popper, but before I got pregnant If i had a headache I’d take a tablet. Ditto with a bit of a sore throat, niggly back, you get the picture.

Not only have I gone cold turkey with smoking, I’ve also done the same with any kind of medication, including pain killers.

It’s been fine, until now. In the midst’s of sever morning sickness I’ve realised that I’m not coping anymore and I may need a little help to get me back on my feet, so when my GP suggested I try an anti sickness drug called Cyclizine, I reluctantly agreed.

I took my prescription home and despite being assured by my GP that it was one of the safest (and mildest) anti sickness drugs to use in pregnancy, I wanted to do my own research.

According to Google, it seems that lots of women take Cyclizine and have no problems, though it doesn’t appear to work for everyone all the time.

I spoke to my hubby and we agreed that as I was 11 weeks now (and was told by the GP that taking this medication after 8 weeks is even safer) that I would give it a go. I had to, I was a mess.

I only had 2 tablets a day, 12 hours apart, and while I still felt nauseaus, I stopped being sick so often, which was a blessed relief.

I was told to take them whenever I felt I needed them, so that’s what I did and personally I’m really glad I chose to take them as I feel they helped me get back on my feet a little.

Obviously, the decision as to whether to take medication in pregnancy is entirely down to the individual, and If I wasn’t so unwell I’d have liked to have been able to steer clear, alas, I did what was right for me at the time.

Have any of you suffered terribly with morning sickness? How did you cope? What are your thoughts on taking medication during pregnancy? 

Week 11: In A Nutshell...

This post will be brief as otherwise it’ll be dull as hell.

In a nutshell, still super sick. Still taking my anti sickness medication. Still feeling miserable.

When. Will. This. End!?

Next week perhaps I though, at around the 12 week mark.

‘’Oh no that’s a fallacy, its often more like 16 weeks and sometimes, women can suffer throughout the duration of their pregnancy’’ says my GP to I. I go home and sob ‘’please don’t let that be me, please let me be cured by next week!’’ through my heaving.

In case you can' picture what a REALLY morning sick person looks like. Here's me. Cant believe I've just shared this photo with the internet. Oh dear. 

Bad times. Hopeful for a miracle to relieve me of this current situation! 

Week 10: Midwife Booking In Appointment

So, I managed going to back to work for all of 1 hour this week. On Tuesday, the day of my 1^st midwife booking in appointment, which I had been so looking forward to.

I dragged myself to work and after an extremely dodgy journey, I finally made it in just in time to throw up my breakfast and collapse at my desk in tears.

My work colleagues took pity on me and sent me home with the instructions to get a note signing me off this week. I felt wretched as I called my GP for an appointment 2 hours later. 

But that was just the beginning of the worst day in my pregnancy to date so far.

I have no idea how, but I managed to get myself on the tube and onto a train home, but by this point my underwired bra felt like it was digging into me, and my sickly tummy couldn't stand the pressure, so there I was, on the 10:20am train home, flapping about on a train, desperately trying to take my bra off, while panting through the sickness and sipping lukewarm water.

I’m pretty sure moans of desperation and ickyness may have left my mouth on that 25 minute journey, the longest journey of my life.

Once home my hubby who was working from home that day ahead of our midwife appointment, put me to bed to rest ahead of my GP appointment. 

Things didn't get any better there.

Sat in a stinking hot waiting room with no air or water to hand I was rocking through the sickness at the clinic and eventually succumbed to my need to throw up right as I was being called in for my appointment.

 This was not a hi-light of my day. Neither was tearfully accepting my GP’s prescription for an anti sickness drug called Cyclizine, which will feature more in my next post.

This is what you book of 'notes' looks like- Keep it close!

Despite my semi-consciousness, we did make it to the hospital for my midwife appointment, though I could tell you very little about what happened as I spent the majority of my time in the loo!

She took a sample of my urine, weighed me and took my blood pressure. She went through (thoroughly) what felt like THOUSANDS of pages of notes about mine and my husband’s medical history while I sat there nodding along, semi comatosed.

There are a LOT of forms that you have to fill in and they want so much detail too! I guess it’s good, better to be armed with plenty of info than not enough, and I was told that I’d need to carry these notes with me at all times, as in the event that anything happens to me or the baby, everything any nurse/doctor would need to know is written there. So keep your notes close by ladies!

I got given one of these too, which was mainly filled with adverts for baby Paraphernalia

 and small samples of various things such as coffee (random) but it is a great, waterproof place to slip my hospital notes into to stop them getting grimey when I carry them around with me for the next 30 weeks!

I made it home from the appointment in one piece, not before having to barge the hubby out of the way when he opened the door to race for the loo before it was game over again. 

Did I mention it was also one of the hottest bleeding days of the year so far this day?

This was not my favourite day by a LONG shot.