Looking back: first trimester

Hooray and thank God, we've made it past the halfway mark. At the time of posting, I am now at 22 weeks, and still having a relative breeze of it, for which I'm very grateful.

At this point I thought it would be appropriate to look back for a moment at my first trimester.

Of course, it started off without me knowing I was in my first trimester - which, I suppose, is often the case. It wasn't until week 6 that I even suspected I was pregnant, week 9 before I knew for sure and week 13 until we knew how far along I was, and were ready to tell the world.

As soon as I seriously suspected being pregnant, I started reading up furiously about the dos and don'ts, especially regarding what I can eat. However this doesn't change a thing about what you eat (and drink) before you know you're pregnant - but a lot of the restrictions on a pregnant woman's diet is to try and avoid the absolute worst case scenario and the chances of something like an unpasteurized cheese actually causing a problem are very low. Alcohol can be more of a factor but luckily I'm not much of a drinker. I recall the odd glass of wine here and a shooter there but not enough to lie awake over, especially since Ziggy is looking a picture of health so far.

I was very lucky as far as common first trimester complaints go. I didn't have heartburn, cravings or morning sickness to speak of. I don't think I was particularly moody, either, but I am not sure I'm the best person to judge that ;)

The only morning sickness I had was three mornings in a row (at week 7) which was enough of a clue to make me do a pregnancy test (or, as it turned out, a series of tests). So I count that a blessing rather than a curse! I had the typical fatigue though, and let me tell you, unless you've experienced this yourself whatever you are imagining when I say "extreme fatigue", it's probably not quite accurate. I'd heard women talk about it before, but I had no idea I would have so little energy left by the time I got home from a day's work. I would literally flop onto the sofa, barely able to lift my head, and doze there on and off the entire evening. I was also constipated, which is fairly typical, but I won't share more than that on the subject, don't worry.

The two emotions I'll always associate most strongly with my first trimester are doubt and elation. Because I had a negative result on one of the three pregnancy tests I did, and a natural reluctance to take getting pregnant for granted due to my medical history, I found it very hard to go through the ups and downs of three pregnancy tests, a blood test, waiting for results, and then finally waiting for my gynae appointment to confirm how far along I was and that everything was looking ok. But when the doctor's office called on the Monday after my blood test and told me the results were positive, I felt as if I was going to explode from joy and relief. That is one of the happiest memories of my life so far, equalled only by my wedding day and topped only by the incredible mass of emotions I felt the first time the doctor put that baby up on the sonar machine's screen and I could see this little person growing inside me, and hear hir heartbeat. I was so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude.

There was also the relief of hearing that I was already 13 weeks along - relief for the most part that I was already past the most dangerous phase for miscarriage and such, and also a bit for the fact that we could finally tell the world this giant secret that had become the centre of our universe.

Now I'm well into my second trimester, and looking forward to the rest of this exhilarating ride, the end of which is only the beginning.

Ziggy at 17 weeks

The ultrasound we had at 17 weeks was an amazing experience; we could see the baby so clearly and it looked so much like an actual little person. Sadly the stills the doctor took don't really convey much of that. There are some video clips, too, if I get a chance I'll try to turn them into animated gifs; but for now, here's the best of the 17 week pictures of Ziggy.

Preggie Product Review: The Yummy Mummy Tummy

Even though I'm not really showing, I have for a while now found my jeans can cause discomfort, especially when I'm sitting - and this is not just the same discomfort of a big belly I've been used to most of my adult life, either.

I'd seen those elastics you can attach to the buttons and button-hole of trousers to increase the space between them but it's not very discreet, especially since it doesn't do anything with the zip. I improvised this effect with hair-bands for a while but the first time someone told me my zip was undone I resolved to buy myself a Yummy Mummy Tummy.

Known by other names as well, especially in other countries, this knitted band is supposed to fit snugly but elastically around your waist so you can hide unbuttoned jeans underneath it, as pictured.





Ordering and delivery
Although the gateway the site uses for processing payment was down the first few times I tried to order, it was back within an hour or so. I found the site easy to navigate and cute to look at, and the shopping basket secure and easy to use. I chose a counter-to-counter next day delivery (counter to counter is cheaper than door to door but I still wanted it soon - I'm not a patient kind of person!).

I was impressed when the lady who presumably owns the business phoned me to say that she was going to drive past my place of work (whose address I specified as the delivery address) on her way to the post office, can she just drop it off at reception. Thus I had my package even sooner than expected - she did keep my delivery fee, but I suppose she did go very slightly out of her way.

The package was beautifully wrapped in the black and white striped pattern central to the website design, and it was lovely to get a "present" in the middle of the working day like that. The product packaging was also lovely.

Size friendly
I love that the site carries two sizes of this product:
Size 1 (pre-pregnancy dress size 28 - 36)
Size 2 (pre-pregnancy dress size 38 - 46)
(those are SA / UK sizes), and that it does so without making you feel the least bit uncomfortable about needing size 2. If you've never been a plus-sizer trying to find pretty or even just comfortable things to wear, you will never know that this is a real concern.

However, unfortunately I don't think two sizes are enough. Maybe it'll change as my belly grows, but I find the size 2 (and although I'm a fair few sizes up from the lower 38, I'm not at the top end, 46, either) is too big to effectively keep my jeans up at the moment. I'm still using my hair-band trick underneath it, or with bigger/baggier trousers I'm just buttoning them up and using the band instead of a belt.

Using the product
The other disappointment, and this is more of a problem, is the thickness of the material. I appreciate that there are probably considerations such as not causing an already warmer pregnant belly to overheat, but the material is just too thin. From the descriptions and very much from the pictures I had envisages being able to wear this sticking out under my tops like a camisole or vest top. However it's not nearly as discreet as I had hoped since the shape of a denim fly, zip and button are clearly noticeable underneath and I still need to wear tops that cover the fly region, kind of making the band obsolete. The material also looks like underwear. The black is the best one in these terms; the shape of the jean underneath is extremely noticable in the white and the beige just looks like old-fashioned underwear, it's that petticoat colour (there was a 3 for 2 offer for web orders, ok?).

I concede that most women don't prefer to wear their trousers in their waist like me but on their hips, and maybe there it's less noticeable, but I had had higher hopes for the product.

On the upside, I have gotten extremely used to the soft hugging feeling over my belly when I wear it pulled up. This might however result from a lifetime of being self conscious of my belly and the feeling I like may well be something "holding it in" by association. This is not a conscious preference, and I am not at all interested anymore in whether my belly is or looks big or small enough for other people's liking, but I am aware of the cumulative sub-conscious effect those concerns might have had in my life before being pregnant or embarking on my Body Acceptance journey.

~~~

The last concession that I must make is that I don't know how many of the issues I have with the product will disappear as my baby grows. If they do, I will post about it again.

To summarize:
✓ great idea, well presented;
✓ there are a nice amount of colour choices;
✓ catering for larger women;
x the broad size categories don't make for a great fit;
x the thin material makes it far less versatile than it can be;
✓ the physical sensation is comforting.