37 weeks

So I made it to full term!!

I can't actually believe I've made it this far, it's not been an easy pregnancy for me, and the end is finally in sight, I'm going to have this little Bear in my arms soon.

Looking back, it's been a scary, exciting time for me and Daddy Bear.

I was at work when I found out I was pregnant. Daddy Bear and I hadn't been together very long at all, and I'd been feeling off. I'd put the sore breasts down to being due on my period, I hadn't had any sickness, I just felt rubbish. So I tested my urine for an infection, and did a quick pregnancy test as it's protocol for 'sexually active' women in our hospital. I pottered off, I have little patience and waiting 3-5 minutes irritates me. When I came back, there was a positive test sat on the side. I assumed someone had cleared mine away and did another one. So I repeated it, and stood and watched until a faint but positive sign arrived. It was the first of many positives.

So I called Daddy Bear, and told him very tearfully. He was very quite for a very long time and agreed to talk to me when I'd finished work.

The next morning I woke up with cramps. I haven't even come to terms with my pregnancy but I was terrified that I might lose my baby. It was crazy, 24 hours before I hadn't even known about it, and today it might not happen at all. I phoned my GP, who told me to come in immediately (They sure know how to scare you). It turns out I did have a UTI, it had gotten overlooked with the whole positive pregnancy test thing. I'd never felt relief like it!!

Fast forward 4 weeks, and I'm excited about being two months into my pregnancy (little did I know how slowly it was going to go) and I start getting stabbing pains in my right side and shoulder tip pain. Now this was scary, I knew the signs of ectopic pregnancy, and this time it wasn't just my baby's life at risk, it was mine too. I went back to my GP who rushed me in for a blood test to check my HCG levels. I'd always been naive about pregnancy, not understanding the link a woman could have with a life that was barely there. Until my own was at risk.

But I was okay, and at 13 weeks I got to see my beautiful baby. It's magical, it really is. I'd accepted that there was a baby in there, but to see it moving and wriggling inside me, playing hide and seek from the sonographer.

At 20 weeks, my world came to a stop again. I was days away from my next scan when I was woken up with cramps. Nobody was home and I had to wait for Daddy Bear to come home from a night home. When he finally came back, he was trying to talk to me and I was trying to pretend I was okay, until I burst into tears with a cramp. He was running around like a headless chicken, wanting to call an ambulance. Thankfully, I managed to calm down and call the maternity ward, who dismissed it as Braxton Hicks, if it didn't get orse then see my doctor in the morning.

So I did. ANOTHER UTI was irritating my uterus into contracting, hence the regular tightenings. Yet another course of anti-biotics, which cleared the UTI but to this day I still get Braxton Hicks at regular intervals throughout the day. And a few days later, I got to see my baby again, kicking and somersaulting, and not keeping still for a single picture. It was amazing to see how much my bean had grown and changed.

Other than the Braxton Hicks, my pregnancy was fairly uneventful until a bleed at 28 weeks whilst I was at work, and another at 30 weeks. Bleeding in late pregnancy is terrifying - to have gotten so far and have the threat of that being taken away from me made my world stop turning.

But I made it!! And after 2 UTI's, thrush, chronic heartburn, SPD, and irritable uterus and various other things, I'm offically handing Baby Bear an eviction notice.

Here's to daily walks, bouncing like a maniac on my gym ball, sex, pinapples and whatever else might encourage baby out. I'll let you know how it goes

Impatiently awaiting the arrival of our full-term Baby Bear
xxx