Pregnancy week 9. Baby is the size of a grape🍇This week I travelled Western Australia. Baby's first time swimming with whale sharks and humpback whales. Look... my only tip for week 9 is to probs not book a 3000km road trip while morning sickness is in full swing 🤦🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️
👶🏽 Baby Status: This week baby is the size of a grape (around 2.5cm long) 🍇🍇 All baby's body parts have formed and basically just grow bigger from here on out. Baby's eyes are nearly developed enough to see - but the eyelids will fuse shut for the next 4 months. Genitals have also begun to form but we won't be able to see this via ultrasound just yet. Guillaume is hoping for a boy and I'm hoping for a girl!
🤰🏽 Mama's Status: Week 9 has been the most challenging week yet. I'm grateful to have little nausea up until now. Since my Mum didn't get morning sickness throughout her 5 pregnancies, I was hoping this would also be the same situation for me. Alas, week 9 was the week where it felt like it all came at once. Of course this is also the week I chose to travel to Western Australia, road trip around the outback and be out at sea on a boat. I'm sure this was also a contributing factor. Morning sickness and nausea is the weirdest feeling. I feel jacked on hormones. It honestly feels like you’ve overdosed on something. You feel this yucky feeling coasting through your blood stream, dizzy, headachy, spacey, and constantly fighting the urge to throw up. Eating makes it worse. Not eating makes is worse. Sleep depravation makes it worse. Laying horizontally makes it’s worse. Ahhhh it’s so frustrating. This week morning sickness hit at sunrise and lasted until night time. every. single. day. I often woke in the middle of the night feeling sick. It felt like a full time job managing morning sickness. Though I only threw up a few times the nausea and dizziness was what kept me in bed most of the days. I should feel a little more relief once the placenta develops and takes over hormone regulation for baby, rather than my body working overtime. I've been feeling pretty defeated and deflated. I miss feeling healthy and strong. It's weird having to keep this news so quiet too. I'm a big sharer. So not being able to openly talk about this is strange. I'm writing this before I've announced it on social media etc. All I can say is thank God for this blog where I can talk to myself lol!
Weight: + 1.5kg. My lower belly is feeling like it's bloated now. Baby is still small so this is from my uterus which has now doubled in size.
Diet: HAHAHAHA WHAT DIET? I went from eating 20 plants per week to a diet of dry toast and 2-minute noodles. It's all I can stomach right now. Hoping this changes next week as I basically feel like crap.
Aversions: Currently everything repulses me. Anything creamy. Anything with a scent. Guillaume and I have started cooking separate meals and I try not to be in the kitchen when he cooks because it triggers nausea. Even water right now has been a struggle to take in! Water tastes like I'm drinking metal and it's so hard to swallow.
Cravings: No cravings. Though adding a little bit of apple or orange juice diluted in water helps me get fluids and helps me bounce back when I'm feeling a little dizzy from low blood sugar. Ahhhh the joys of pregnancy.
Products I'm loving: Using toothpaste and not throwing up from the scent of toothpaste is a mission for me this week. So I've taken a break from many of my usual lotions and products that usually smell divine. They currently smell like vomit. Pregnancy is weird. One thing that has been helping is pure Sea-Band Acupuncture Wrist Bands.
Supplements: Supplements this week have been such a struggle and inconsistent with the way I've been feeling. I'm usually taking Garden of Life Raw Prenatal, Garden of Life Organic Plant Calcium and Ferro-Gradumet & Vitamin C. Taking these consistently whilst nursing morning sickness simply isn't working. So plan B! I've ordered SmartyPants Prenatal Vegetarian Gummies and Now Foods Iron Liquid online. My hope is to use these on days where I can't stomach my normal supplements.
Pregnancy Exercises: Between travel and morning sickness, I've given myself a break from working out this week. Gentle stretching is where it's at!
Yoga Practice: This was the first week I noticed a difference in my yoga practice. I used to love deep spinal twist that cracked out the back and now they're much more gentle. Definitely no cracking the spine anymore.
Self Care Rituals: Self care this week is rest. Resting and saying no. Not feeling guilty for saying no.
✌🏽 Thanks for taking the time to read and connect. I'm sharing my pregnancy journey online for friends, family and other mamas out there. If you have any questions, tips or anything you'd like to share, please comment below.