There’s no doubt about it; it’s been baby-on-the-brain around here quite a lot in the last few weeks. It’s inevitable, really, as you hit the mid-point of a pregnancy and have the scans that confirm the gender and the general health of the baby so far. It’s almost like you’re given carte blanche to finally enjoy your pregnancy; up until then it’s all “don’t tell anyone until 12 weeks!” (as if that magically protects you) and “do you know what it is?!” and “do you feel sick?” (for the record, no. I never got sick).

And I am quite enjoying it. I appreciate that this is because I’ve had a bit of a textbook pregnancy, with few strong symptoms and nothing that’s too tricky to handle. The worst part has been the restricted lung capacity, given I walk up stairs to work and was pretty unfit to begin with, but I’m not using it as an excuse not to exercise; now that I have my energy back – the first trimester was quite sleepy, tis true – I am swimming two or three times a week and walking as much as possible. Nothing earth shattering, but at least the minimum I can do to make sure Bumplet is getting her due.

I’ve also been doing a lot of relaxation practice, breathing, affirmations and visualisation as part of hypnobirthing preparation. You can read about what it is over at BitchBuzz but suffice to say I’ve already begun to feel a lot more confident about the birthing process in general.  Not that I would ever suggest for a second that bad pregnancy symptoms are caused by a stressed mother or anything, but I do wonder if my lack of stressing about it is contributing to the general positive, healthy feeling.

Funny thing is, after last year’s battery of gallstone removal, glandular fever and dreadful cold after fluey, dreadful cold, I feel completely and utterly healthy. Even though I’m immunosuppressed (pregnancy does that). Weird.

Anyway, the nursery is now almost ready; just a nursing chair and a single bed for me left to buy, and I’ll do that when I’m on leave as I can schedule the deliveries better. I can’t believe there’s only 9 weeks to go before I have a month’s holiday followed by a planned nine months maternity leave. I am having the odd panic about that; I’ve not taken this long a break from work since coming out of full time education, and it does seem strange. I worry about keeping myself relevant and involved in the industry when I don’t have time to follow and tweet, and can only hope that I plunge back into the social media world as swiftly and decisively as I plunged into it in the first place.

We seem to be up to our eyes in 0-3 months clothing too. I doubt my daughter will have time to wear it all before she outgrows it! And speaking of outgrowing clothes, I’m thrilled to find that I’m not doing so as quickly as I’d feared; I’m still getting by on:

1 x maternity jeans

1 x maternity black trousers

1 x maternity leggings

3 x maternity tops

1 x maternity smart dress

Today I’m wearing a pre-pregnancy dress and I even still fit in some of my zip-sided skirts, although I concede they no longer sit on the hip and therefore ride a lot higher than before. I’ve done the top-to-bottom tape measure bump thing and everything seems to be on course in terms of centimetres to weeks ratio. My weight is about what it should be (it rose suddenly and then plummeted again at one point but I can only assume that since that coincided with doing more exercise that doesn’t really mean anything. Especially as I do replace my exercise calories!).

I’d be amazed if anyone other than a curious pregnant woman or a reminiscing mother was still with me at this point, but if you are I appreciate your dedication. As a reward, I offer you a link to something I read yesterday which I found so honest, simple and truthful that it has stuck in my mind since I clicked on the link. If nothing else, it certainly proves – should anyone doubt it – that teenagers can be insightful and eloquent:

Steph Bowe: Body Image