By Alex: 015
As I write, I am 24 weeks 3 days pregnant. I have now been growing a human inside of me for over SIX MONTHS. Its amazing, and hard, but mostly amazing.
In many ways the start seems so long ago, and I can't believe I have been on this crazy journey for so long already. In other ways, the memories of the first three months are freshly carved in my mind - from the terrible nausea, to the pounding daily headaches, and the total lack of appetite - and feel like just yesterday. That first trimester was definitely not a walk in the park (the opposite if anything, as I could barely leave my sofa), particularly as along with the physical symptoms I also had a nagging, well okay all-consuming, terror that something was going to go wrong with the pregnancy.
Whilst I can't say that this anxiety has completely abated, and I am fully aware that it probably never will, with every passing week and every beautiful scan I get more excited about the future and slightly less frightened.
The second trimester has been so much easier. The headaches and nausea have disappeared, my appetite came back overnight, and the joyful discoveries with every scan have made everything hopeful and preparations exciting.
Sure, I am a little daunted by the prospect of labour (not really thinking about it too much yet, but I intend to do a bit of hypnobirthing), the mountain of things a tiny baby seems to require, and the million questions that I seem to think of on a daily basis - plus the being far from home and a support network of family, and getting treated and giving birth in a foreign country that doesn't necessary align with my own ideas on these things - but all in all when I feel those little kicks and punches, and my husband sings the ABC song to my belly, I can't wait. For everything. Everything that is coming in the next few months.
I am ready (or at least, I will be).