We know you all love a good natter about pregnancy. Our own lovely Becky is ,as you know, expecting but it’s always nice to hear some other stories too. So today we are introducing you to Alice (great name by the way!!) who will be sharing her pregnancy diary with you are she navigates her way through this exciting time. We hope you will say a big hello and share your stories too.

Weeks 5 – 12

Hello everyone, my name is Alice and I’ve just begun my second trimester. I will be blogging my pregnancy diaries for Rock My Family, the good, the bad and the ugly!

So to kick things off it makes sense to start with the first 12 weeks.

My husband Matt and I approached ‘trying for a baby’ very lackadaisically. (I can sense all you other fertile Mammas shaking your heads at me right now) but I genuinely believed it would take upwards of three months to conceive, so when he jokingly said to me one Sunday afternoon ‘let’s make a baby’ – so romantic, I didn’t actually think we would. First time.

Without seeming insensitive to those who struggle to conceive it was a big surprise to me. I had been tracking my periods regularly using an app on my phone so should have really known that the particular time was one of my fertile days, but, like I said I genuinely thought it would take a while.

However when my period was late a few weeks later, I did question (doubt) myself. When the phone app got to ‘period is 7 days late’ I realised I probably couldn’t ignore it much longer. On the 4th January I went to Wilkinson’s on my lunch break and bought the cheapest pregnancy test they had. I then hot footed it to Marks and Spencer – the nearest place with a toilet and took the test. Two bright pink, strong lines appeared. They weren’t event feint; they were ‘definitely pregnant’ lines! I rang Matt immediately and told him. In hindsight I wish I had waited and told him face to face as I missed seeing his priceless reaction, but quite frankly I was shocked and overwhelmed, and needed him to calm me down!

Over the remainder of the week I did take a few more tests, including an expensive, more fancy Clearblue one that told me I was 3 + weeks.

My first pregnancy symptoms were some of the loveliest; acne on my chin and jaw line and terrible bloating! Charming. My appetite also went through the roof, I’ve always been an active person (cycling, CrossFit, running, 3 times a day dog walking) so have always had a healthy appetite and a strong body, at first I could keep the eating in check with an increase in my usual healthy-ish foods, but when the nausea kicked in at about 6-7 weeks I completely ate all the wrong things… mostly mini cheddars…

Also in my 6th week I made an appointment with my GP and told him I was pregnant. Unfortunately my GP was completely uninterested in my news and wanted to chat to me about a bike trip he had planned to the Alps (he knew I cycled) so I left kind of feeling it was a waste of time. He didn’t even do a urine test! Anyway he referred me to the community midwife and sent me on my way.

At 9 weeks, my husband paid for us to have an early private scan so we could feel assured that things were going the right way. Most of my symptoms had gone by this point (no more sickness, no exhaustion ect) and we have a LOT of twins in both of our families (I’m a twin myself) so I was curious to see if we would. The scan revealed just one baby, and the wonderful sonographer assured me that everything looked well for our stage of pregnancy. Much relief from me.

The next big milestone was my booking in appointment with my midwife Keri which is basically a lot of questions, blood test, weight, height, and providing of a urine sample. The only drama for me here was the blood test, I have teeny tiny veins and the midwife, two nurses and a healthcare assistant all failed to draw any blood from me. I had to be referred to the phlebotomist at my local hospital. I’m hoping this improves, I know as pregnancy progresses your blood volume levels increase, so fingers crossed blood tests get easier in the future. That or I’ll spend the next 6 months looking like a pin cushion.

After the first midwife appointment I received my booking letter for our first scan, known as the dating scan. Ours was on February 22 and I’m pleased to say everything looked well. The first scan is a dating scan so you will be given an accurate due date, (mine’s 3rd September) and the sonographer will confirm the baby’s anatomy and measure baby’s size. I can’t really describe the feeling of seeing the baby on the screen, ours was being very cute and playful, it even waved its little arm! It looked so much more baby like than the scan I had had at 9 weeks, it’s staggering how much the little thing had developed in just 3 weeks!

That’s about it so far. I also want to say I have been able to continue my exercising, I’ve had to scale back my CrossFit weights and I do seem to get out of breath more quickly at the moment which sometimes makes cycling uphill a struggle, but I do things at a steadier pace now.
I will leave with saying my jeans are getting tight… but I do think I’ve had it pretty easy so far.

Please leave any comments below about your pregnancy journeys so far and if I have any other September babies joining me please do let me know.

Image by Little Beanies