8 Weeks Pregnant

Should have done this on Friday but somehow there were other things going on. It is Sunday morning now, we had a bit of a lazy morning and I got to read some in bed while having my breakfast. I am on the last book in the Millennium series.

I really started to feel my belly this week, definitely feels like it is growing and that there is something in there :) Had a few cramps but nothing too bad. Trousers that fitted fine a few weeks ago now feel tight across my belly.

Felt like I was getting an infection or a cold of sorts on Friday as my ears hurt and I decided against swimming, which is something I would never have missed if it was only me. As I am two now, however some compromises have to be made!

The baby has been busy growing elbows, nose tip and eyelids as well as lengthening arms and legs this week. It is also loosing it's tail and is growing about a mm each day. It will soon be the size of a green olive.

The end of the coming week signal the end of the embryonic stage, next week the baby will be entering the fetal period. It will be developing muscles and can therefore make spontaneous movements.

We have an appointment with a private doctor here in Berga on Thursday at 18:45 to hopefully hear the baby's heartbeat! I can't wait!

Baby had it's first tandem flight this week! Jess has some pictures that I will upload when she gets back from Ager and the competition. It was a short flight, but I loved it and it being short meant I did not get sick, which I had been worried about, but I could simply enjoy it - even the part where we had to lift our feet above the treetop.

Scott says:

Well, it wasn't the worst take off we'd ever had but it wasn't one of the best either. We arrived at the launch to find that there was very little, if any wind, I'd already said on the drive up that I would only fly my pregnant girlfriend if there was sufficient wind on launch so we didn't have to do a "kamakazi" run off the cliff. The first rule of Paragliding is "never be ashamed to drive down" but anyone who knows me will know that I'm not one to follow the rule book.

Anyway, by the time we strapped in there was a slight breeze, certainly enough to not have to do the "drive of shame" back down. The flight was short but smooth and nice and the landing was a lot better than the takeoff.

First pre-natal Appointment

We went to our first pre-natal appointment today. As we brought Laura as our interpreter, the matrona was much more confident and therefore better able to speak English as a result - go figure, but we were pleased!

Unfortunately they do not offer a week 8 ultrasound to hear the heartbeat in Spain so we will have to do that privately - which is fine. The private doctor is on holiday but back on Thursday so hopefully she will be able to do it soon! I am impatient to hear the heartbeat...then I will be reassured that the baby is fine, healthy and viable and will therefore be much happier telling everyone our good news. We will keep you updated.

Our next appointments are: 1 September for bloodworks, 16 September for the first ultrasound and 21 September for the second appointment with the matrona.

John brought "The Pregnancy Instruction Manual" with him from the UK, and it is excellent! Down to earth information provided in a concise and informative manner, all the information you need without the sensationalism and fear factor of so much information on pregnancy and birth that I have found online.

Can definitely recommend this one!

Scott Says:

This book is a mind field of information, I'm quite worried as to how little I actually knew but am equally worried as to how much I'm getting into the book, probably becasue it's the first book i've read in a long time!

I'm hoping with my new found knowledge I won't have to resort to buying the "Dummies book for expectant fathers"

7 weeks pregnant

So today we have completed the 7th week of pregnancy, next week we are into the 8th week already. I don't know why but somehow 8 weeks seem a bit of a milestone for me. We are having our first prenatal appointment on Tuesday at 11:35. Asked our Spanish teacher Laura to come with us to help translate as none of the primary health care personnel here speak English.

I have been incredibly tired  and exhausted this week, like I just could not get enough sleep, coupled with a bit of morning sickness that felt like it lasted all day some days. Mine mostly seems to be set off by driving, a sort of pregnant motion sickness!

More over mosquitoes have suddenly started biting me, where they never did before!

I find that I need to eat more often in order not to get sick. Scott has been great and serve me breakfast and tea in bed every morning! We bought a toaster to aid my in-between meals, and one slice of dark bread toasted with butter and honey seems to do the trick...and yogurt!

This past week all the important organs started to develop, the baby also got eyelids and nostrils and grew over 100 brain cells a minute! The baby developed reflexes and showed some movement. This coming week the baby will be growing ears among other things, although only about 1.5 cm long and my uterus will grow to be the size of a grapefruit.

Have been trying to go swimming in Avia every weekday. It is a great pool and sometimes I am lucky and get to have it all to myself, like today. I walk from Can Ballus on a footh path to Avia and the pool listening to my ipod which takes about 30 minutes, then swim a 1000m - 40 laps in the pool. I have always loved swimming but now it sort of feels like I am doing it for the baby too.


I am glad Scott decided to shave his moustache, I think he looks much better without: Take a look for yourselves!

Scott says:

The tash had to go, simple as that. I know facial hair is all rage in the UK but I'm not in the UK, I'm in Spain and soon to be back in Nepal, the land of the mustachioed man. It was beginning to disturb me every time I looked in the mirror so off it came.

Anyway, enough about me and the tash. So far there are still no real physical signs of the baby, I think Anita has been remarkably unaffected by it all, sure she's tired a bit more but this is Spain, everybody sleeps in the afternoon. Yeah, she's definitely got more of an appetite but then she's a great cook, who wouldn't want to eat her food. She hasn't actually vomited once, a bowl of cherios normally sorts that problem out, so no holding hair back required, no mood swings, nothing. All I see are a happy and healthy pregnant Norwegian with bigger boobs, who happens to be carrying our baby, what's not to like. To be honest I think I'm getting off rather lightly at the moment.

While I write this, Anita is in the kitchen as usual making fish battered in breadcrumbs and chips, bring on those food cravings I say. However while it's all well and good waiting in anticipation for Anita's belly to start expanding, I'm having to work hard to keep my expanding waistline to stop peeping over the top of jeans.

So if we're talking about physical signs, well it seems to be me that are showing them all, the tash, the waistline and me standing in a kitchen preparing Anita's breakfast in bed!

Weekly bellyshot

I know it is very early days for taking bellyshots but since it is Friday today and the baby was conceived exactly 1 month ago I wanted to start.

So much bigger boobs, but no belly yet!






Scott says:

I'd post a picture of my belly but by the looks of it, you'd think I was the one that was pregnant.

The day we found out we were going to be parents.

When we realised we wanted a baby:

I somehow think this blog needs to start, not with the day we found out that we are going to be parents, but from when we realised that this is indeed something we truly want.

I had to have an emergency appendectomy in Nepal in early March 2010, you may ask what this has got to do with anything, but for several reasons it meant that I stopped taking my pill. My body felt really out of sync that first month after the operation and when my period did not appear when it was supposed to I was fearful that it meant I was pregnant.  Six days later when it still had not appeared I was sure that it was not just me being paranoid but that I really was pregnant and I told Scott.

Although we had been talking about wanting children in the future some time I felt rather apprehensive as this was not at all planned. However, the both of us realised that it did indeed make us happy, that it felt right and that growing up to the task seemed possible, even desirable. By the time I took a pregnancy test and it came back negative we had so gotten used to the idea of this new, small family we thought we were about to have that it was a disappointment to the both of us to “loose” it. 

That is how we came about planning for this baby
we now knew we wanted so much: 

With my time in a Nepali hospital fresh in our minds we did decide that we would like for our child to be born somewhere else, if possible. As we spend half the year from October till April in Pokhara, Nepal we figured that July would be the first time we could try again. Calculating that it may take a few months to succeed, this way we could have a full season in Nepal before going back to Europe and having the baby here.

I was slightly fearful that we wanted this child so much that it would simply never happen, but we got lucky first time. You were conceived on the 9th of July in Tvedestrand in Norway. 

Monday 26th July

 The day we found out we were going to be parents: 

As we had been trying for this baby I am carrying, I found myself overanalyzing every possible, little change in my body while we were waiting for the day when we would know for certain, but I had been suspecting that I was pregnant for a few days before we took the first pregnancy test. It started with my breasts growing about a cup size a short week after we conceived and they were really sore, persistently so, and the soreness did not subside the day before I would normally expect my period, like clockwork. Friday I got car sick and light headed - and I simply never get carsick.

So Saturday came around, but no period by 2pm, and no period by 6pm...I was however scared of hoping too soon. But Sunday came and went and I knew now. Monday morning I bought two pregnancy tests in Berga, but suddenly I felt slightly apprehensive about taking one...what if it was too soon and the test would show up negative? Should I wait for the following morning? Should I simply go and take it now? I was kindly persuaded to go and take one now, then wait with the second test for the morning after... just in case.

The moment we found out!

They say it takes 2 minutes, but mine showed two clear lines already after a few seconds. I did however wait in the bathroom for the required 2 minutes and a bit, just to make sure that those two wonderful lines did not somehow disappear right in front of my eyes. Scott was somehow convinced that I was pregnant too, but although the test only did confirm what we hoped, it was so great to have it confirmed. I got the best hug I have ever had and the feeling of having given him the best news in the world!

This baby should know that it is so wanted and has been so incredibly loved for every second of its existence. Ever since we knew I have just felt this warmth and light emanate from my belly. Abover is a picture of us with the test - right after we had told everyone else in the house! We are not very good at keeping secrets and our family and close friends were told the happy news that same afternoon...then we went for a swim in the lake.

Scott says:

"At first, I wasn't sure about this Blog malarkey, when Anita started writing her bit about her boobs getting bigger and stuff I thought it was all getting a bit personal. But then when she finished, I read it and had second thoughts, I thought how nice it would be to have a record of our thoughts and the changes that we'll go through up 'til the birth of our first child together, something for us to look back on in years to come and our son or daughter can read, cringe, mock or laugh about when they're old enough. Also, since we are overseas and live away from our families and some of our oldest friends we thought it would be nice for them to keep up to date with what's happening in our new world.

So once Anita has written her part, I''ll add my two-penneth worth, it'll be titled "Scott says" 

I can't recall the day that I wasn't scared of the prospect of having kids, although it was sometime around my mid thirties. I knew that I wanted to be a dad before my 40th birthday, well I'm 38 now, I'll be 39 when the baby is born so just in the nick of time.

Anita and I have both made choices that enable us to live happy and healthy lives doing things that we love to do everyday. We try not to get dragged down with normal everyday problems such as mortgage payments, job security, the worsening UK weather, the price of petrol etc etc. We try to live in beautiful parts of the world where the climate is mostly warm and the people are friendly, being outdoors is important to us. I never wanted family life to be a struggle, I always wanted to raise a child or children into a world that I was happy to be in, to share in the lifestyle that we live and enjoy so much.

Anita, being a typical Scandinavian had it all worked out, I mean, we had discussed and agreed on dates but what I wasn't aware of was how accurate the timing had to be. So early one morning at the summer house in Tvedestrand, Norway I was summoned to the bedroom, I was due to leave for Spain at mid-day, I wouldn't see Anita for at least another week. It was either now or wait another month. Anita was very insistent!

I was over the moon when we found out that Anita was pregnant, I was secretly impressed with myself and the performance of my little swimmers. I'm not the strongest swimmer but I was a fairly good athlete back in the day, maybe it was my tenacity and determination to always be the winner. Either that or Anita's desire to be a mum was so strong that the Viking in her just sucked 'em all up. Just like the morning of the conception, they really didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. Some people are just meant to be mums and Anita is one of them.

I feel a little redundant at this stage, my morning duties have now been downgraded to tea making and cereal in bed. So I've decided to grow a mustache, that's what Dads do, right?

They say that life begins at 40, my new one will begin at 39 1/4."