Diary of a COVID pregnancy: 4 months
My husband and I are currently expecting our third baby.
In many ways, we’ve already ‘been here, done that’: pregnancy with a second or subsequent child is certainly different to the first time round when everything is new and unknown.
But every pregnancy is different – whether owing to symptoms, risk factors, or the current stage of your life, family and your resulting priorities. In our case, our daughters are now busy 5 and 3 year-olds, so the things we now spend our time doing are vey different to when I was pregnant first time round. Personally, since we had our last baby I have trained as a hypnobirthing instructor and childbirth educator, and am now fully immersed in the world of birth work in a way that gives me a new perspective to the one I had with my previous two pregnancies.
And of course, this time, we’re doing something that less than a year’s worth of parents will have done before us – preparing to meet our baby in the middle of a global pandemic.
This monthly diary* intends to chart the ups, downs and questions we’re dealing with during this unique time. I hope I can offer other pregnant women an honest take on my thoughts and anxieties as they evolve, and as a hypnobirthing instructor, I hope I can share some insight about things I’m doing to manage them.
*(Of course, in true 2020 style, all plans have been repeatedly thrown off by school closures and having to oversee a Kindergartener on Zoom for half the school year, so there’s a bit of a time lag on these ‘monthly’ installments. Nothing like keeping it real, hey?!)
You can read about what was going on at 3 months here.
Weeks 14 – 17
This month has seen the start of my second trimester and whether it’s that, the replacement of the summer humidity with gorgeous fall weather, or the return to in-person school of our 5 year-old after nearly six long months, I feel like I’ve got a new lease on life! The fatigue of the last couple of months has definitely tailed off, and I’m so enjoying having some time to myself again on the days when both girls are back in school. A chance to focus on work, as well as to engage a little more with the idea of our third (and final!) baby.
At my first appointment with the birth center midwives last month, they ran a series of blood tests and genetic screenings, all of which came back with no concerns, which was obviously a great relief. Something that’s different about the birth center (compared to the hospital where I received my care with my previous two pregnancies) is that they don’t typically advise having a 12-week ultrasound, as they think the blood draws are a more accurate indicator of any issues. I guess if this was my first pregnancy, or if I hadn’t had that early dating scan at 8 weeks, I would have been more inclined to opt for one anyway (and they were very relaxed; I could have sought one out if I’d wanted), but I’m happy to take their recommendation and minimize the number of medical visits for now.
Having had those positive test results (and eyeing my growing belly that really won’t stay under wraps for much longer!), we decided it was time to share the news with our daughters, and then the wider family. We’d deliberately held off, knowing that 5 and 3 year-olds have no sense of time, so any date beyond about a week in the future feels like ‘soooo looooong’ to them, and one small advantage of lockdown life has meant no family visits at which to make excuses for not drinking! Needless to say, the girls were absolutely thrilled, if a little unsure of the specifics (‘Daddy, stop driving too fast, otherwise the baby might fall out of Mummy!’ – if only!). It turns out my eagle-eyed sister had spotted a Heineken 0% in one of our vacation photos last month so already had her suspicions aroused, but of course the family were thrilled too. Lots of wondering about what the state of COVID and travel is going to be by next spring, and when this new little one might be able to meet their wider family.
I finished off the month with my second midwife appointment – opting this time to drive out to the birth center in the suburbs of Philly, instead of scheduling at the small satellite office in the city, as I knew that actually seeing the location and getting a sense of the space would help me start to visualize how birth might unfold. The center seems really nice and all the members of staff I met were lovely. There’s something quite comforting about knowing that everyone there is focused on women’s health and babies, rather than the much broader focus of a hospital clinic. I drove back in the glorious sunshine, singing along to music I had chosen for once (Disney soundtracks finally banished!), and felt a glorious sense of freedom for the first time in months. This pandemic has certainly renewed my sense of pleasure in the small things - I’ll take them where I can get them!
