We were a little early putting our Christmas tree up this year, but we are just too excited! Partly because we have a lovely new decoration from Adam and Laura especially for Pip, and we couldn’t wait to put it in pride of place on the tree!
^^ I do have to confess that this is Chris’ photo of the tree, not mine!
This week, I also started Christmas shopping for Chris, although they are for Chris; they are all “Daddy” related and it’s Pip that will be using them the most! I absolutely adored having a good excuse to start shopping, although everything has to be gender-neutral for now; it’s only a matter of time until we know for sure…
Dan and Kate came to stay with us this weekend and they brought two books for Pip. These are his/her very first gifts and we can’t wait to read them with Pip in our arms.
My biggest challenge this week was the annual Procon awards ceremony that I attended with work; not only was it black tie (and not one of my fancy dresses fits anymore) but it was also a set three course meal for 650 people (of which I couldn’t eat 2 of the courses! The organisers were great though and sorted out a “special” meal for me so I still got a full dinner!)
I had a mad rush last night trying on the dress that I had intended to wear – emphasis on “trying” there, as it definitely didn’t fit and then some extra shopping on Asos for a new formal dress. I ordered about 6 dresses to try on; some in my regular dress size (but not as slinky as my current dresses,) some one size up in a 10 and some in my regular dress size but specifically a maternity style. The maternity ones were massive, and as I had only ordered full length dresses and don’t have a proper bump yet, they were far too long so they went straight back. In the end the one that I kept was the only normal size 8 I had ordered. My bump isn’t too big at the moment and the empire line was all I really needed to squeeze in.
For a full view of my bump in my formal dress; check out around 6 minutes 40 seconds in our daily vlog…
We also had our second midwife appointment this week, I was really disappointed because they didn’t let us listen to Pip’s heartbeat. The midwife said it was too early to hear and that if she couldn’t find it, we would be unnecessarily worried.
Luckily we had already bought a handheld Fetal Doppler online from Amazon and we were lucky enough to try it out in our own living room and had success. Hearing it for sure for the first time was incredible!!! Probably the best thing I have ever heard in my whole life!!! I love the fact that now we can do it whenever we want to and as often as we want – and we don’t have to wait for the midwife to say it’s ok.
If you want to hear Pip for yourself; using the Doppler is in this video…
Nothing really happened at our second midwife appointment, it was more questions, more blood taken and a urine sample, but that was it, which was why it was especially annoying not to get to hear Pip for ourselves.
We did book our NCT classes though, even though we have to wait until NEXT YEAR to start (we are scheduled for February) I am sooooo excited!
My second trimester is well underway now and it turns out that the book is wrong! I’m still just as tired and still have infrequent bouts of nausea (probably a little less often than before, but not noticeably less.)
After waiting forever, we finally got our blood test results back this week, they were testing for Downs Syndrome, Edward’s Syndrome and Patau’s Syndrome and are happy to know that Pip is doing great, with only a 1:100,000 chance of each. I have spoken to lots of people and so far haven’t heard of anyone get a 6 figure result yet so I think that might be the lowest set of odds you can get. In terms of Patau’s and Edward’s Syndromes that’s a really big relief.
I think the shape of my tummy is just starting to be noticeable in my normal clothes, but with the help of a bump band there’s still plenty of life left in my jeans… for now!
Yey! We are now officially in the second trimester, I think now is the time that all the sickness and tiredness magically halts!!!
I really haven’t suffered too much with nausea and sickness, so I can’t complain, but I’d really like to go to bed after 9.30pm for a change and be able to do stuff in the evening again. Fingers crossed this is where it all starts to get easier for a few weeks like the book says…
nearly mama 