A little while later...

I haven't written a bog post for months. Busy, stressful, and yet amazing months.

After months of hard work, in which my husband says he barely saw me, I can now use the title Dr., having passed my PhD viva last week. I have three months in which to do my corrections, but this long weary stressful journey is nearly at an end. And I am infinitely ready for this particular journey to be over.

But a new journey is just starting. I am now 18 weeks pregnant, and (sometimes) believing we will become parents at Easter-time. A somewhat unknown, daunting journey is ahead of us, but one I cannot wait for.

24th September. 12+1

Looking back at my sister's blog, she started blogging about Pip-to-be at 10 weeks pregnant here. Somehow I didn't feel ready to blog about my pregnancy until I felt a bit more confident. I had a miscarriage at over 11 weeks at the beginning of the year and so this time round, have felt very cautious about getting to excited or taking it for granted that things would progress well this time. We have now had two scans, and I have heard the heartbeat, and so I should be able to believe a little bit... and some days I now do. The other half of us spent the first 12 weeks in a nervous state, but is now getting very excited. I cannot wait for him to be able to feel the baby move.

We were lucky enough to be offered an early scan at 10+3 (due to our worries after the miscarriage last time), and although we have no photos from the time, we will never forget the relief of seeing a dancing, wriggling foetus doing backstroke and kicking off the side of my womb. The journey to the hospital felt like the run-up to an exam, fearing the unknown, hoping for the best. But what a fantastic feeling to see this pregnancy progressing well.

We then had our 12 week dating scan at the end of September. At first he (?) was face down and refused to be photographed but after some turning this way and that on my behalf, was prodded awake enough for measurements to be taken. The sonographer tried to get some better pictures but we were happy just to come away knowing the foetus was doing ok and to have a visual reminder of it.