First Trimester, pt 2

Now that pretty much everybody knew I was pregnant, I didn't have to worry about hiding all the telltale signs, like walking around with my hand over my tummy, or rushing to the loo, retching, every 5 minutes when I was at work. That wasn't much fun - I've always had a huge problem with being sick (who enjoys it?!). Thankfully, that wore off towards the end of the first trimester. I was going through packs and packs of ginger biscuits, since that was the only thing that would take the nausea away, and I went right off tea, which I saw as a real tragedy.

I was used to the idea of being pregnant, just not the changes it puts your body through. I'd never been so tired in my life, and I kept doing things like bounding up the stairs two at a time, then thinking 'Oh, probably shouldn't do that'. Work became a bit difficult, because I was terrified of pushing past people in the bar to pick up glasses in case they knocked me, and became useless at all the things that, as a bar manager, were my responsibility, like carrying beer crates upstairs to restock the fridges, or getting change for the tills. I had to ask everyone else to pick glasses up for me, change barrels and bring in deliveries, and to an extent, since I wasn't even showing at the time, I just felt lazy and cheeky.

I had my first 'proper' scan on the 11th September. Ben came with me to this one, and it was lovely watching him look at the tiny snug foetus in fascination, and listen to the super fast heartbeat. The sonographer confirmed that my actual due date was the 28th March, so I immediately wagered the baby would be born on the 1st April.

On the way home, we had our first serious discussion about names. Well, I say serious but I'm sure it actually went something like this:

Ben: If it's a boy, can we call him Jetson?
Me: Do me a favour.
Ben: River? River Crancher sounds really cool.
Me: No.
Ben: Mitch likes 'Hank'...
Me: NO.
And so on.

My community midwife booked us in for another scan at 19 weeks - not the normal fetal anomaly scan; a specialist one at Guys Hospital in London to check the baby's heart was healthy, as there was a risk that it could have either inherited my fast heartbeat or congenital heart disease, which Ben's brother had at birth. Although I was nervous, I was also ridiculously excited, as I thought they might also be able to tell us the sex of the baby since it was so close to the regulation 20 week scan. It was becoming harder and harder to stop myself buying every single item of baby clothing I walked past!