18 weeks (already)

By | 13th October 2006

Well, we’ve been pretty rubbish about keeping this blog updated. Quite a lot has happened in the last 6 weeks:

I’ve got antenatal depression (whoop). It’s fairly common and I was more likely to get it because I’ve suffered with depression in the past. It is rather annoying though – as if things weren’t hard enough!

Life is pretty difficult for both of us at the moment. We have no money, no way of making extra money, and our various ways of solving the money problem have utterly failed leaving us even more in debt. We still haven’t completed on the house in Walsall (we’ve been delayed on completion for almost 2 months now) so we’re haemorrhaging money as we attempt to pay for 2 houses at once.

So, we’ve got to move house (again) before the baby is due as we can’t afford to live here anymore. Luckily I have nice and supportive parents with a large house. They’re going to let us (for very low rent) part of the ground floor of their house. Joe is going to build a wall to separate it off – so we’ll have our own granny annexe! It’s not the end of the world, but it’s really not helping the whole depression thing. Feels odd to think that we’ll be welcoming our first baby into the world without even our own house. Who knows how long we’ll be there, it could be years before we get our debt under control. Still, it’s the only way of living without going bankrupt.

Hopefully, once we’re in Reading, we’ll have some disposable income after the debt repayments, and other stuff so we might be able to put aside some money for our own house, start a pension, occasionally go out together, do some fun things and make friends in the area.

On the happier side of life, I have felt the baby kick! It is so strange, but lovely at the same time. It is good to know that the baby is doing well and all this stress doesn’t seem to be upsetting him/her at all. We can’t wait to see the baby again at the next scan and find out if it’s a he or a she. I hate having to call the baby ‘it’ and, also, almost everyone we speak to is convinced it’s going to be a girl (I can’t decide – some times I’m sure it’s a boy) so I want to know for sure before I start believing everyone and have a shock in the delivery room!

I had my 18 week appointment with the community midwife yesterday. Apparently I’m actually measuring 26 weeks! This doesn’t mean that my due date is going to be brought forward (thankfully) but we’ll check everything is OK at the next scan (31st October). It seems that I just have a very accommodating uterus which leaves the baby plenty of room to swim about. Sounds rather nice to me!

We could hear the heartbeat really loudly as well – the midwife said that’s because the baby is right up against my skin (which is probably why I’m feeling the kicks so early). Good to know that I’m not huge because I’ve put on loads of fat and it is legitimate!

Apart from that, I’ve not got much else to report. I’m trying some things to help get rid of the blues by getting out more often- such as going to aquanatal and folk dancing (great fun, I went last night with Joe and his mum and we really enjoyed it – feeling the aches and pains today though!). It would be nice to have some friends around here but, at the same time, I don’t want to make good friends because I’ll only have to leave them behind. We’re planning to move on the 5th (or so) of Jan,so I won’t be lonely for much longer.

I so can’t wait for the scan. Wish it would hurry up and be the 31st October. I’m so excited about the baby now. Now that I’ve actually felt it kicking, it seems more real to me.

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