Diary of a Boho Baby - Kirsty (37 Weeks)

Today I am delighted to launch a brand new feature, ‘Diary of a Boho Baby’ I asked for pregnant readers to write in when I wrote my own pregnancy diary at 6 months. The idea is to not only have me prattle on about my own pregnancy but for you the readers to share with others your pregnancy story, the good the bad and the ugly. I thought it would be interesting to get a cross section of readers to tell us their experiences, after all one women’s story can be completely different to another.

Today we start with Kirsty who is on baby number 2 and at 37 weeks pregnant could give birth at any time! We will be following her story, as her baby bump turns into a baby and follow into her first year of mother hood.

I’ll pass you over to Kirsty…………

Three weeks to go. Currently 37 weeks pregnant with my second little princess. Have loved my pregnancy but there are parts I’ve disliked too but first, let me introduce myself.

My name is Kirsty, I am 26, from Scotland and the founder of www.el-blog.co.uk as well as www.elweddingsandevents.co.uk . I am an extremely motivated individual, brunette, usually athletic, wife to my high school sweetheart (and big brothers best friend..oops!) and a girl mummy to my beautiful princess Kaci-Elle who is 2.5yrs old and my girl baby bump who is due on 9^th May.

I’ve been married for four years to Craig who proposed out of the blue down on one knee beside our 7 year old border collie Cody when we were out for a walk. (Just for the record, Cody makes Marley from Marley and Me look like a saint!) I cried and cried and cried…and screamed YES! Fast forward 4 years and we are living in the countryside in our big farmhouse which has been an ongoing DIY project since we moved in almost 2 years ago. Kaci enjoys the freedom out here and loves to run and play in the fields with Cody and our latest addition – Kookie the kitten –who we got to keep the mice out of the cellar but it turns out she is too scared to go outside!

Baby bump at 12 weeks

My second pregnancy has been fairly straight forward with minimal complications. It was a planned pregnancy although it happened a little quicker than Craig and I were expecting. The first trimester was not nearly as rough as my first trimester with Kaci. This time round I never experienced any morning sickness thankfully, I just suffered from being tired. It didn’t help that Kaci had a bad cold at one point and was up and down all night followed by contracting hand, foot and mouth (similar to chicken pox) which resulted in about 5 days and nights of constant scratching from a two year old who didn’t understand what was going on. I also had an early scan at around eight weeks as I had a bit of a funny reaction to peanuts. My big brother is severely allergic to them however the midwives had previously told me I was doing more harm by avoiding them. Turns out this baby didn’t really like them and made me pretty ill for a day or two.

The second trimester was my favourite. I seemed to be full of energy and was really getting on well with my workouts at the gym. I went three times a week and was proud I was still managing to do my usual weight training, cycling and power walking. My bump was starting to show so I was getting some funny looks from people in the gym but I held my head high, put my earphones in and got my sweat on. I paid very close attention to my heart rate though and never let it go above 150bpm – just to be on the safe side.

With my first pregnancy I put on quite a bit of weight and as a result I ended up with a lot of faint stretch marks. Thankfully my gym habit helped me slim right down and the stretch marks soon faded and became unnoticeable. This time around I haven’t got any new stretch marks but the old ones have become more evident again. I can tell they’re old ones as they’re a white colour rather than a purple/blue colour. I’m hoping they are only noticeable because my skin has stretched so much and keeping my fingers crossed they calm right down when baby makes an appearance. I’m sure they will.

During my second trimester I also started to notice some varicose veins on my right leg. I spoke with my GP and midwife about these and was told it was because I was on my feet for so long each day. The downward pressure of the pregnancy was putting extra strain on my already weak veins causing the slight bulging effect which I was told would only get worse as my pregnancy progressed. Great! They are noticeable at the moment but not as bad as I thought they were going to get. I have patches on my lower leg that looks like really bad bruising though – all down to the pressure of this pregnancy. This has made me feel uncomfortable in cropped trousers unfortunately so it’s full length leggings all the way for now.

My third trimester hasn’t been all that fantastic to be honest. Gosh, don’t I sound like a mega moany pregnant person! Trust me, I do think being pregnant is a blessing and at times I have loved it…but I will openly admit it’s not the most enjoyable thing in the world for me and I’m happy this will be my last pregnancy. I keep telling myself it will all be worth it once princess #2 is safely here in my arms.

Bump at 37 weeks

From around week 28 I have been exhausted. Not just tired. Absolutely shattered. I’ve been working pretty much non-stop and having Kaci running around all the time makes my relaxation time zero! I very rarely get the chance to sit with my feet up and when I do I am usually working on the computer at the same time. My fingers have started to swell which means no more wedding/engagement rings for the next 4 weeks which makes me sad. My skin is breaking out which is very unusual for me. I am overly emotional (even more than usual) and cry at everything – I even cried at spaghetti last night! I have noticed a varicose vein down there which has made me feel sick at the thought! That BETTER disappear! I am now around 2.5stone heavier than my usual weight so none of my nice clothes fit anymore. I miss the gym (I gave it up at 34 weeks). I can’t lift Kaci for any length of time which I really don’t like. I am super uncomfortable with a lot of heartburn and backache and I also found out the baby is back to back meaning her arms and legs are punching and kicking out towards my front which makes every movement very very sore. I’m hoping she turns soon and gets ready for labour as I really am looking forward to not being pregnant anymore.

I know that last paragraph makes me sound so negative and ungrateful – I’m not, I promise. I just don’t really enjoy being pregnant and find all the changes in how I look, feel and act quite difficult to face. Sometimes all I want to do is run around with Kaci and scoop her up in my arms but I know I can’t do that…but then I think about our family and how complete it will feel once the baby is here and I know we have made the right decision and the timing is just right.

My high school sweetheart husband and our two gorgeous girls…what more could a girl want!