more questions

Q: Are you going to find out if it's a girl or boy?
A: Undecided.  We won't be able to find out until our 20 week ultrasound, which is on Oct 30th.  I don't want to find out, but Paul does. We haven't made a final decision. I think it would be nice to a surprise to look forward to on the day. Although knowing the sex would help with some planning and buying, we'll always be in need of gender neutral clothes if we're lucky enough to have more than one child!

Q: Is my mom coming over for the birth?
A: She is waiting to hear what Paul and I decide. I'm pretty sure I'll want her here at the beginning, but I haven't worked out all the details. We still have 6 months to decide. Paul has 2 weeks paid paternity leave, so whether it might be better for her to come after than, I don't know.  I think it would be nice for her to be her for the birth.

Q: Because I have a mid-wife does that mean I'm having a home birth?
A: NO!  Midwives are common practice over here. They're used for general pre- and post-natal check ups and help you through the birth, rather than having an Ob-gyn.  I could choose to have the baby at home, but I won't.  I don't want to take the risk if something goes wrong. Plus, I don't want to get my house all messy!

Q: Does having a baby mean we're moving back to the States?
A: Not YET. We do really want to move back, but the way the economy the way it is right now, it just doesn't make sense for us to immgrate back.  We're actually looking to buy a house here at the moment.  We put our flat on the market back in May but no offers yet.  We're looking to move out to the suburbs in south London (Bromley/Beckenham). We will move back, but it'll probably be another 3 or so years.   This isn't great news for my family of course, and that fact is the hardest for me, but we've been lucky so far to see them around 4 times a year, which is more than some families in the States see each other. 

Q. How much time will I get off work?
A. This is one of the greatest things about living in the UK. I get 6 months paid maternity leave, plus I can take a further 6 months unpaid and still return to the same job. Now, those first 6 months aren't all at full pay. A few weeks are at full pay, then it drops to 90% of earnings, then drops to a statutory wage. I haven't quite worked out all the financial implications, but I'm likely to take the full year if possible.  I also get 27 days (paid) vacation next year which I can also take at any time next year.

15 weeks--can't i look pregnant yet?

So my sister has been begging for a belly photo, and I meant to take one each week, but of course I always think about it when I'm by myself or have just gotten back from a run or cycling and look really horrible, so this is my first one. It may look like a bit of a bump, but that's not the baby as its still sitting very low, but I suppose it must be pushing around all my insides up cause my clothes are getting tighter, but I just feel pudgey. It will be nice to soon look properly pregnant and then people will stop having to wonder if I'm just putting on a little weight or if I'm actually pregnant and will just ask;).

So here you go Kimmy:

How are you feeling?

So the first thing nearly everyone has asked me after finding out I'm pregnant is how I'm feeling. I think I've been pretty lucky so far. I have been nauseous but not actually sick. I found if I eat something every couple of hours it helped, though I never really felt hungry. As lunch approached I'd feel particularly not like eating but knew if I ate I'd feel better, which was always the case. I kept a store of pretzels or fruit and nuts to snack on in my desk. Consequently, I put on about 8lbs and already have had to go back to my 'fat' jeans. I guess I'm lucky I lost all that weight during marathon training and still have all my pre-weightloss wardrobe to tide me over until the maternity clothes phase.

The last two weeks have been getting gradually better and I feel less sick and haven't been snacking as much. I've also been able to work out with my trainer Fiona for her last three weeks in England (once a week) and she's set me up with a three gym workouts, plenty of pelvic floor exercises and I've also been promised a post pregnancy workout as well. I've also been running 3 times a week for 30-40 min and still cycling to and from work (45min per day). I've also been trying to walk to work once a week (takes about 55 min). And I'm down 2 lbs. I know it will come back quickly once this baby hits a growth spurt, but a small little victory for me, since I knew a lot of my weight gain was extra food, not extra baby. I'm probably only run for about a month more and then switch to low impact cardio.

I'm officially done with the first trimester tomorrow when I will be 14 weeks. I'm looking forward to actually looking pregnant hopefully soon, and not just feeling a little chubby.

First official photo and new due date!

That's right, we had our first scan today (US translation: ultrasound). It was very last minute...had a phone call at 10 asking if I could come in at 2:30! (The hospital never receieved my original referral from my GP, so my midwife sent through a referral on Thursday, so I guess I went on a cancellation list.) Luckily, Paul was able to meet me at the hospital. I first had a blood test (testing for risk factors for Down's syndrome and a couple of other rare genetic disorders). Then we waited for about an hour before we got in for the scan.

Seeing the baby was very fun, s/he moved around a lot and was even sucking their thumb a few times (so cute!). The technician measured all sorts of things and took pictures of both hands and feet, head, bladder!, spine, abodmen, head, and the cord (and we watched the blood flow too which she made red and blue with some fancy tool). We heard the heartbeat too: 156bpm. The baby is 6.26cm from crown to rump (2.5 inches). And judging from all these measurements and stuff I am 12weeks 4 days pregnant our EDD (estimated due date) is March 12th.

Blood work and scan measurements showed the risk for Down's and the other genetic disorders is considered to be low. Hurrah!

One slight concern which was spotted first was that I have what looks like a fibroid on my uterus (official medical name: fundal subserosal anterior fibroid mass). It's 9.2cm x 7.8cm x 10.2 cm (3.6in x 3.1in x 4in) and I can feel it in my abdomen (I previously had thought it was the womb). She said there is some blood flow in it, so it's unlikely to be a tumor and she spoke with the doctor on call and she said that they'll monitor it at my next scan. There's not much they can do about it now anyway since I'm already pregnant. She said it means I might have more discomfort in my pregnancy, but shouldn't affect much else. I was doing a bit of reading and apparently they're fairly common in women and the cause isn't known.

In the waiting room we randomly ran into one of our downstairs neighbours who are due about a week after us! Another downstairs neighbour is also preggo and a bit further along. We all have the same midwife. How random (well probably not random about the midwife, but that we are all preggers)! There must be something in our water:).

We also scheduled my next scan (20 weeks) for Oct 30th, which also happens to be our anniversary!

PS I had to pay £2.00 to get a copy of the ultrasound!