This week the baby is the size of a slingshot. So, your grandad will totally know how big it is, but probably you won’t. I don’t anyway. I don’t think I have ever seen a standard sized slingshot in my life. Aren’t they just made out of twigs? My pregnancy app is ridiculous sometimes. Anyway, I don't have a slingshot so instead you can have a photo of my scarily huge 18 week bump. It is big, no? This baby is going to be another nine pounder, isn't it?
Week 18 has been all about the tired. Oh lord, have I been tired. We went to see Sandi Toksvig on Wednesday and she was wonderful, but staying awake was way harder than it should have been. The interval was too calming and then I spent the rest of the evening trying not to be asleep. I had a party to attend on Saturday night and that too was pretty exhausting. I’m just not good at late nights right now. In the 1950s, they used to say pregnant women shouldn’t be out at night and that they should stay in doing handicrafts and listening to the radio. Obviously, I am all for this and will be starting a campaign for a pregnancy curfew to kick in at 7:30pm each evening.
My sickness has completely gone now, I don’t even get waves of nausea when I’m sleep deprived anymore (thank god, because that was really annoying). The only thing I do still have is a constant bad taste in my mouth. The only thing that gets rid of it is cleaning my teeth, so I’m currently cleaning my teeth about five times a day. If I eat when I’m out of the house, there’s nothing I can do but moan about the taste in my mouth until I am reunited with my beloved toothbrush.
I have spent most of the week peeing. I don’t know what has happened, but clearly the baby has had a bad week and is taking it out on my bladder. I must get up about 15 times a night to pee, it is so annoying. If I so much as think about turning over in bed, I need to pee. I had forgotten about this aspect of pregnancy and wasn’t really expecting it to kick in quite so soon.
My PGP is still bothersome but I am coping with it. By the evening, it’s usually pretty awful and I feel like my entire body has seized up. But it’s ok during the day as long as I’m careful not to over do it. Obviously, I keep overdoing it because there is just so much to do, then I spend the next day regretting it. The worst part is after I’ve put Ebony to bed, when I get up from her bed it is so incredibly painful. I’m not sure if it’s because her bed is quite low, but it is very terrible so I need to think of a solution to that.
Ebony has been talking lots about being a big sister this week. She really enjoys talking about the birth and asking what will happen and who will be there. We decided she might ask the midwives if they want a biscuit and a cup of tea, but she pointed out that she would have to get Laurie to actually make the tea. Then she said, “When daddy’s making the tea, you can lean on me if you want.” My heart exploded, of course. We have a book called Hello, Baby about home birth (if you’re planning a home birth with your soon-to-be older sibling present, you must buy this book - get it here) and in it, the woman leans on her partner during labour. I thought it was really sweet that she wanted to do that for me, even though obviously she hasn’t taken into account the fact that I will weigh 57 stone by then.
The baby is still kicking loads, we seem to have settled into a routine of post-nursery run and post-bedtime acrobatics. Ebony hasn’t felt the baby kicking yet, but she has felt the hard bits of my tummy where the baby or may not be (I’m no midwife).