My Pregnancy Journey - completed

Chapter Four - 8 weeks

For the two that have been reading and reliving my experience with me. Keep schtum! 

She beamed at me and continued "I can also say you're about eight weeks along." Me and Andy looked at each other and smiled from ear to ear. "I'll also book you in with a midwife, it'll be some time in the next week."  We left the nurses office feeling elated. I was on cloud nine! Definitely pregnant and eight weeks gone! Life couldn't be better. We headed home feeling happy and proud. The appointment with the midwife came around and she told me she'd be my midwife throughout my pregnancy but couldn't guarantee that she'd be there when I gave birth. She handed me a folder and some stuff. We filled in a paper booklet that would contain all my pregnancy notes. She told me about all the freebies I could get and to take advantage of them. She also told me that it'd be a couple of weeks before I get a letter about my first scan  and that I'd have to take my notes with me - my 12 week scan where we'd get to see our baby for the first time!

I never had morning sickness. I never got any cravings. I felt lots of fluttery movements but nothing that resembled a kick or a hiccup. I wondered what gender it was going to be. I thought about what he/she would be like, their personality, their traits, would it look like me? Would it look like Andy?  Week by week my bump slowly started to look more like a bump. We'd read it stories, sing it songs, talk to it and sometimes Andy would gently lay his head on my belly and place his hand there hoping it would kick. But nothing! All the baby pretty much did at this point was constantly put pressure on my bladder every so often. Grr! The blood tests I went through, they must have gathered enough blood to feed Dracula and his entire family! The urine samples I did! How much more of this do they need? What are they using it for? I have no bloody idea.

We got a piece of paper and searched baby names. We wrote out a list for both boys and girls. Slowly we crossed off ones we didn't like or that had been used sooooo many times before. Nothing fitted yet. We eliminated name after name but nothing was good enough. I took photos of Andy laying on my bump and posted them online. I never actually took a proper photo of my bump though. Although I did keep posting how far along I was and the nearer I got to 40 weeks...hahaha.

You're probably wondering why I laughed at that bit, well you will find out later on. Slowly, but surely I went off everything. I wasn't sick or anything, I felt sick but was never actually sick. I was barely eating a single morsel. I obviously was told I had to take folic acid. So I bought some cheap ones out of Tesco. Then a friend suggested I try Pregnacare Vitabiotics.....NEVER AGAIN! I couldn't even keep them down. Like I have said I was never actually sick. So I stopped taking folic acid altogether. I couldn't wait for my first scan. 

Boys names

Aidan, Blake, Caleb, Dominic etc. You get the idea.

Girls names

Amelia, Bella, Caitlin, Daisy etc. You get the idea.

But none of them were good enough. I wanted something unique, unusual, never been used before, never been heard of before. And yet we were stuck. Stretch marks started appearing everywhere. My thighs, my boobs, my arse (yes my ass!) everywhere. They itched like crazy. Every five minutes I'd be scratching a new stretch mark or as most of us like to call them 'Tiger Stripes'. I tried on all my old clothes and nothing fit! I was a size 8! In everything! What am I going to do? Nothing. Just be happy because I'm having a baby which of course I was happy with. I couldn't wait for him/her to arrive.  Everywhere we went I'd need to nip to the toilet and empty my bladder. It wasn't fun. 

Do you want to know what the nurse said to me when I told her I didn't like needles? She fucking said 'look away' 'followed by 'sharp scratch'. Sharp scratch? Sharp scratch? I felt that fucker go in and I certainly knew when the fucker came out! I swear she did it on purpose just so I knew when it was going in and coming out. The fascinating bit about it though was actually watching the test tube they stuck on the end fill up with my blood! Weird right? Yeah I found it fascinating. I was always given this slip of plastic thing, with my name on and everything. My hospital number, my date of birth everything. That is what they put my test tubes in filled with blood to send of to the lab at the nearest hospital. I bet you wondering was I a fainter? Nope I was not. My boobs ached as well. It felt like someone had stuffed them with bricks, fucking bricks I tell you! I was given books about birthing and about each stage of the baby developing. What I can't remember is if they were actually filled with pictures of women giving birth or not. Because I was so young when I fell pregnant, well not that young. I was 19. I had the choice of a health visitior (I'll get to those fuckers later) or a family nurse?

Now what is a family nurse you ask? Well I will tell you. A family nurse sees you like every four weeks, then every two, then once every so often. She does exactly the same job as a health visitor but better! She was also my confidante. I wouldn't have gotten through any of this if it hadn't have been for her. She was my saviour. She helped me with everything. I had sheets to fill out detailing every little bit about my pregnancy and if there was something I didn't understand, she explain carefully and slowly so that I could understand it.