I heard the baby's heart beating with my doppler at 9 weeks (I can't remember exact gestation - 9w3d?)!! Soooo lovely, and it never gets old to hear that sweet sweet sound for the first time all over again! :) I have only used the doppler once since, and that was a couple of evenings ago, where Neil heard it for the first time. This time, the little one was REALLY wiggly and active, and constantly moving in and out of doppler range! Lots of bumps and splatches on the audio as the baby kicked too! Wiggly little bean! :)
Over the past couple of weeks (maybe 3?) I have been having much more trouble with spots on my face than I remember in my other pregnancies. I have had some skin trouble like this in the past few pregnancies, but this time seems worse to me. I get a good few and they last a few days and then clear up, and I get a day or so free and then a few more start up at once. They're nearly always in the same places, but they're more persistant than I remember from any previous pregnancies anyway, so I'm noting it. Hormones probably!
Still feeling sick - week 9 was yucky, week 10 not so bad, and week 11 really grim again. I'm only 2 days into week 12 but feeling really bleurghy so far! I wonder how long my morning sickness will last this time? I just have to keep on top of eating, but I feel sick regardless. It's not too overwhelming though, like it was in the first couple of weeks. Not this week, at least! It does vary a little from week to week, rather unpredictably.
I hit my second trimester (yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!) yesterday!! I always start my second trimesters at 12 weeks because I use the developmental method of fetal development (and placental development, for that matter), rather than just getting the calculator out and diving 40 weeks by 3 (or the crazy ovulation method - dividing 38 weeks by 3 - that makes the first trimester over 14 weeks long!!). My little baby has all his/her organ systems in place as of 12 weeks, and is now "fine tuning" and growing! :) I am so happy to be in my second trimester - it's always nice to leave the first one behind, especially if I'm feeling sick!
I had my booking appointment with the midwife a couple of weeks ago which went really well. My blood pressure was 110/60, my urine was normal, and I had all the bloods taken, which have since come back normal.
I have been feeling the baby move from just before 10 weeks - just incredibly subtle tickly sensations under my pubic bone or just above it, so that I doubted myself at first. But during week 10 I was much more sure. I had the odd little "stroke" across or "flubble" feeling inside, in the right place. Sometimes there would be a little pressurey surge for a moment, and then it would give way again. So I knew I was feeling my baby! :) At 11 weeks, I had the first really serious baby movement. I was lying on my side breastfeeding Elijah at bedtime, and suddenly felt a quick "puh-doiiing" bounce inside. The "puh" was a sudden (very tiny and lightweight) tap to my cervix, followed within a second (very quick) by a rebound sensation on the top of my womb, about 2 inches above my pubic bone! My little teeny (5cm!) person had literally bounced off my cervix and rebounded off the other end of my womb! Boiiiing! :D I have felt lots of little teeny bumps, flicks and sweeps since then, and I'm LOVING it! I adore the stage of feeling movements, and look forward to hiccups and feeling little parts through my tummy, and so on!
I am showing a bit, though very high - maybe just pushed-up bloat?! I have taken a couple of belly pics so far (first one at 7 weeks) but haven't uploaded any yet - must get to that soon.
Today I went for my 12 week scan! I am only 12w1d, which is the earliest I have had this scan with my other pregnancies (Matthew was 12w2d) - they've otherwise been between 12w3d and 13w exactly. The baby measured 12w3d today though, same amount ahead as the last scan I had, so they've changed my due date to October 20th. I am still going with my original due date of the 22nd though, because well, I just am! It gives me 2 days longer to go into labour before they start harrassing me! ;)
Everything looked wonderful with the baby, and we declined the nuchal/combined test for Downs Syndrome as usual, because it wouldn't alter a thing for us re. the outcome of the pregnancy (ie. we would never. ever. ever. in a million years terminate a pregnancy) and we would joyfully embrace a child with Downs Syndrome anyway. So, no testing. They said that the baby measured 60mm from crown to rump (so weeny, and yet SO perfectly formed!) and all the various anatomy and other measurements were normal.
Because I'm only 12w1d, it's on the early side for the "angle of the dangle" nub theory to be accurate - the closer to 12 weeks, the less accurate, and the closer to 13 weeks, the more accurate. This is because before 12 weeks, all nubs look the same - flat and "girly", parallel to the spine. Boy nubs will start to angle upwards from the spine to varying degrees (Benjamin's was 90 degrees, lol! Samuel's was more like 30 degrees, and more subtle to be sure) somewhere between 12 and 13 weeks. Matthew, at 12w2d, had what looks to me from the picture to be quite a girly nub. It still looks parallel to the spine to me, though not quite flat.
I got dozens and dozens of "shots" of the nub this time. It was REALLY clear and easy to spot, and I saw it many times from lots of different angles during the scan, while the baby was moving, etc. It wasn't the wiggliest of babies at the scan, quite restful really, but got a bit annoyed and moved about quite a bit when they laid the bed flat and tilted my head down and my feet up (I felt yucky after a bit and asked to have it put back up again!) to get the baby in a better position. So I had a lot of chances to see the nub angle clearly. I also got 3 almost identical pictures, all of which clearly show the nub too! So clearly, that I am suddenly a bit shy of posting the pictures on Facebook yet, which is unusual of me.
If I was 3 or 4 days further along, I would ONE HUNDRED PERCENT be expecting to have a GIRL baby in October!! I honestly could not believe what I seeing at the scan. I kept seeing it flash into sight again, and in my head I was saying, "There it is again. It's flat. It's FLAT. There's no angle at ALL!" I have never seen a nub like this before on one of my own babies, but I still can't. believe that I will end up producing a baby girl. Seriously! I am totally unable to grasp that concept, so right now I am thinking, surely it's just too early and the nub is going to angle up? I double checked Nicola's latest 12 week scan pic when she was 11w6d (too early, but still only 2 days before my gestation) and her baby's nub was pretty much exactly like my baby's nub, except that she is having a boy! Soooo..... I don't dare think much more about it (which of course is like not daring to breathe any oxygen for the next couple of days) in case it's just too early. I will rejoice in another son, but I will set myself up for a hard time that is totally unnecessary if I am expecting to maybe see girly bits at the 20 week scan, if this nub is simply looking girly because of the slightly early gestation for calling this kind of thing. That said, here are the pictures - see what you think!
See? Girly nub! I have posted at in-gender about it with the pics (well, the 3rd wouldn't load) and people there are saying it looks girly but it's a bit on the early side to say for sure, like I thought. I will just somehow have to be patient and wait and see! ;) I really don't want to go telling people that it might be a girl, because I might be wrong, and having 6 boys already makes the whole world likely to be EXTREMELY sorrowful on my behalf if there was a smidge of a chance that this baby might be a girl and then it turns out not to be. And I don't want to go there, people! I seriously will be full of joy if it's a boy! Neil says the whole baby looks different to him, especially the head shape (?!), and the nub, obviously. We will probably plan a girl's name, because of the nub in this scan, but also plan for a boy as we always do. We haven't even looked at girl names in the past few pregnancies, lol!
Okay, it's really late and I MUST go to bed. I will TRY to update again soon, as I'm sure I have more to say if I wasn't so nauseated and late for bed! The weeks are whizzing by at a rather scary rate, so I'm sure I'll be 16 weeks or something the next time I blink! ;)