One small thing

[radegund]

I reckon it's time to let yiz all in on the other little story that's going to make life interesting this year: as some of you already know, niallm and I will be joined in late August, all going well, by ... [pregnant pause] ... a BABY.

Heee!!! We're so deliciously excited about this. It's wonderful. And terrifying. Our lives will change completely. Person who did not exist will exist. I can't wait to meet it.



This is a portrait of my inhabitant, taken at around 9.5 weeks (the blob at the bottom of the egg-shaped black bit). You can't make out much, but my obstetrician friend (who did us the scan as a nixer; this is Ireland) alleges that the bulbous bit on the right is a head and the sticky-out bit on the left is a leg.

What was really exciting was seeing the heart beating: about four pixels on the screen flashing black to white.* The whole thing was 27mm long at the time (20 January). It should be well over twice that now, although I'm still fitting into most of my clothes. I can feel there's something going on in there, all right, particularly when I do singing exercises or lie on my stomach. This is week 14, so there'll be speedy growth for the next few months.

So now you know why I've been whining so much about my health recently. Morning sickness sucks dead donkeys, and baby manufacture seems to take an enormous amount of energy. But oddly, despite the nausea and the extreme fatigue (twinned neatly with insomnia) and the forgetfulness and the achey hips - and the tendonitis, which is apparently likely to flare up at intervals for the duration - I'm in excellent spirits. Feel profoundly happy most of the time. Ah, hormones!

Besides! Big tits!

*I have two hearts! I'm a Time Lord! (Or a Centauri, I suppose. But Time Lords are cooler.)

Comments

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

I was really starting to wonder when you'd make it public. :) Again, congratulations!

Re:

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The Received Wisdom is that one doesn't go public until the first trimester is over, because there's such a high risk of early miscarriage (although there again, I'm uncomfortable with the idea that miscarriage is so unspeakable that the risk of having to talk about it should be avoided at all costs - surely that can only exacerbate feelings of isolation when it does happen ... oh, to each her own, I suppose). However, we're incontinent people and couldn't keep it to ourselves, so we've been telling our closer friends for a while.

Re:

[ailbhe]

One reason for not telling people while there's still a very high risk of miscarriage is because it's actually hard and upsetting to explain to people that you've had one. It's much easier, I'm told, to rapturously tell the universe that one is pregnant. Plus you might forget some of the people you burbled to and not inform them of the unfortunate change in circumstances, which could lead to nasty things like them showing up a eyar later asking "So, what did you name it? I didn't know it it's a boy or a girl, so I just brought a bear," which would, I imagine, be unbearable.

But yes, discussing miscarriage is still taboo, which is pretty awful. Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill had some pungent remarks on the topic.