33.5 weeks

My "blessed state” (not sure if you say this in English, but it’s for sure a synonym to pregnancy in Swedish - ett välsignat tillstånd - a very apt name for it, once experienced!) has been going very well, all along, albeit with some side effects that are rather common... Today, I am very very tired. Hot flashes and out of breath. Since I wrote last time, the kicks and moving around has become more pronounced (and mostly I LOVE it, except for occasional movements to nerves which hurt... but it’s not often!). I’m supposed to keep count in 2 hr intervals, once per day, to make sure there’s more than 6 movements within that time range. That hasn’t been necessary...

So, anyway, I thought I’d write down some fun observations along the way, so that I don’t forget it.
Trimester 1: Nausea (not bad, just in the afternoons, and evenings if not eating at exact times) and no throwing up - at all! I think I was very lucky, having conversed with others. The interesting sensation of being happy when nauseous, since it meant that all was going well, and being all worried when feeling well, in case something was wrong. Tiredness galore. Wow. Our walks became slower and slower, with lots of stops.
Appetite: Only mediterranean food seemed to make me interested, as well as cheese, loads of fruit and veggies and generally healthy stuff. I didn’t mind.
Craving: Orange juice. And apples.
Strangest thing: The chocaholic (well, moderately so, and only for very high quality stuff) completely lost all interest in chocolate. Weirdest feeling in the world. I even forced myself to try some, and my senses weren’t impressed at all! Liquorice (the real, black, salty Dutch and Swedish stuff) was however incredibly awesome (even more than usual), and seemed to help with nausea.

Trimester 2: Oh, this was nice. Energy back, things almost normal, except the appetites and cravings, which remained. And the acid reflux (heartburn), which I’ve always “enjoyed” to some extent, came back with a vengeance, and just got worse and worse. Luckily there’s medication. Most wonderful thing of all: movements starting in week 17 (first time that I was sure was real, was in the celestial room of the temple - that was incredible...), and could be felt from the outside from week 20.

And Trimester 3: Not much change really, more than always thinking that the belly "can’t possibly get bigger than it already is???”, and a subtle increase in tiredness, together with a much less subtle increase in acid reflux... So far no swellings of ankles or anything like that. More appetite, which is treacherous, since too big portions bring the heartburn. So instead one has to eat often... Chocolate is yummy again btw. The rest is about the same. Orange juice is still divine. And apples! Not to mention kiwis... A little known fact is that they help with constipation. I’ve never had so many kiwis in my life...
A beautiful feeling of connectedness with this little person inside. Before, it was unreal. Now it’s very real, and even though the entire process still feels like incredible science fiction, it feels REAL! I don’t worry as much as I did in the beginning, and I just love it. I also love the fact that I’ve reached the state where I’m not (very) worried about the delivery anymore. It seems to be directly correlated with the amount of discomfort one experiences, which is rather practical, I suppose...

What an incredible adventure! It really is the biggest adventure of my life. Anything can still happen, but being the direct observer of this process, experiencing the body changing so much, and how it all works, it’s just fantastic.