Pregnancy Diary: 20-29 weeks
22 week bump
I’ve felt like in many ways there hasn’t been much to report since the 20 week scan. Thankfully the gestational diabetes tests came back all clear which was a big relief but they booked me in for a 28 week scan anyway, just to check how baby boy’s rotund belly is doing…hopefully not so rotund eh?!
I’ve been mostly chugging along, still a bit yucky in the mornings and not a huge amount of energy but nothing outrageous until 23-24 weeks when I was struck down with such overwhelming tiredness. My whole body felt so exhausted I could barely do much, even though I still tried my hardest. It was bad timing as Granny was away for two weeks so I was also trying to manage my workload with less help with Maggie and the little one decided to cut her usual 2-3 hour nap to anywhere between 15-40 minutes that week so everything got on top of me. Juggling is hard at the best of times, let alone when totally exhausted. I ended up in full-on ugly tears by the Friday, not really knowing what to do with myself or even how to articulate what was even wrong.
Thankfully I was able to catch a nap with Nick at home over the weekend but man did that little blip feel like it came out of the blue! I also felt more nauseas again so perhaps my hormones were just changing or baby boy was going through a big growth spurt. Who knows…pregnancy can be such a crazy journey. When I get super tired it’s easy to then get overwhelmed by everything and I launch into a little meltdown. Weirdly enough I had one at a similar point last time, questioning how it would work and how I could juggle even more and still earn money for us. It was my typical midway crisis where to my mind everything is wrong and draws out to the worst case scenario. Thankfully in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t last long.
I was surprised at how early I was getting SPD, often with sciatica at the same time but it seemed to come in waves rather than be constant and spiral so I could deal with that, even if there were times I had to breathe through the pain whilst walking, as if I was in labour. Yup, felt like a loser doing that in public!
Ever since I felt baby moving, all the little kicks and thumps have been really low down, totally different to Maggie who was always much higher up with her gymnastics. I started to worry that he was feet down and hope he would be obliging and turn at some point and you know what?…I think he did. At 24 weeks I suddenly felt super uncomfortable one evening going to bed. I couldn’t work out what on earth he was doing but there was a lot of pressure on one side and lots of rolling style waves that were pressing against my organs. It was prevented me from going to sleep for a while but eventually I drifted off and from the next morning onwards the movements totally changed. They were no longer at the bottom, but more spread, what felt like feet up the top to one side and it’s been like that ever since.
On turning 25 weeks pregnant we went on our baby moon and whilst I’d somewhat come out of the other side of the midway pit, it still felt like a well timed little getaway. I don’t think it usually means as much to Nick and to me to have a run of Maggie-free days. I love her to bits and of course I missed her but it’s really draining to be growing a human, running a business and looking after a toddler. For 4 days I was only in charge of the growing a human part which felt like pure relaxation. We slept until 9 each morning, had a leisurely start to the day and left the house minus a buggy, changing bag and clip boxes full of meals and snacks in tow.
I definitely hobbled my way around Margate as the extra walking definitely made my SPD worse for our little break. Our airbnb wasn’t the closest to the centre of town but neither was it that much of a hike for any able bodied, non pregnant person. I was over the moon to discover a bus route we could use on day three!
Before baby boy did his tremendous turn inside me I was pretty chuffed that compared to Maggie my bladder was proving rather robust. Sure I was need the loo more than usual but not much. That smugness had worn off quite quickly ever since this new position he had nestled into, clearly now pressing much more into my bladder. Now I could sit on the loo all day if I so wished and I’d be able to go almost all of the time, joys!
I decided to book an appointment with the doc to check out my alien belly button. I’d been quite taken aback at the fact it popped so early (I mean 11 weeks early) and has looked a bit peculiar ever since. I don’t mean to totally freak you out but if I press it in, along comes a gross squelching sound. Nick literally can’t even look at it because he’s so repulsed lols! Anyway I suspected it might be a hernia and my trip proved that my suspicions were true. He said it wasn’t a big one and it’s fairly common for pregnant women to get one on the belly button because of all the pressure so he wasn’t worried. There’s nothing that needs to be done until post delivery unless I get super sick and alien belly button turns red and sore so I’m not worried either, but really hoping I’m one of the ones it spontaneously resolves for post labour because otherwise I could need a small surgery 6 weeks to 3 months afterwards. That’s not ideal timing with a newborn and I’m sure I’ll be sick of not being active by that point. For now I’m wearing a support band to avoid it showing through every item of clothing I own!
26 week bump
At 28 weeks I had a horrible stomach bug and I genuinely haven’t ever thrown up so much in a day, not even with gluten. The worst things was having baby boy kicking around non-stop into my very delicate stomach. Not being able to keep water down for a whole day felt a little bit unsettling with him in mind but at least his crazy kicking reassured me he was still ok throughout the day.
That wednesday I had my 28 week scan to check his growth and all was well and completely healthy. He’s on the larger side but nothing to get worried about and they said it made a lot of sense when they found out how much Maggie weighed at birth too. Apparently that’s how we roll then! The sonographer said she was somewhat surprised that I produce larger bubbas with my frame but if she’d seen Maggie’s length she probably would’t have been surprised at all. It was such a relief that all was fine and yet such a bizarre experience because I’d never had a later scan before. You might expect to see much more detail but I basically couldn’t make out anything at all! The monochrome blob on the screen certainly didn’t look like a baby that’s for sure. I was told bambino is very low down in my pelvis, so low down in fact that she had to lower the bed so my head was almost touching the floor just to get him to move away from my pelvis. It didn’t work but that definitely makes sense as to why my SPD has been so much worse and much earlier this time around. No more extra appointments now which is great!
And so I hit 29 weeks and I feel like it’s about time! The second trimester has felt looooong and yet hitting the third makes me realise we’re not really that organised at all. I guess we better get onto sorting the double buggy, bed nest, birth plan, work arrangements and all that jazz. At least I did a massive sort through of Maggie’s old clothes and found that the majority of them for 0-3 months are unisex. Forward planning without even knowing!
It was this point last time that my feet and ankles started swelling so I’m praying I escape that this time. My speckled arms and chest have returned though, with all those capillaries coming to the surface. I kind of look like a might have mild chicken pox again but there you go! On a positive note, Maggie is increasingly aware of the baby in my tummy and points to bump shouting baby, many times through the day. She demands to kiss my bump over and over which is so sweet. I’m really looking forward to seeing her become a big sister.
29 week bump
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