We made it!! 12 weeks - 3 months!!

Friday 29th of October 2010: We are there, 12 weeks - 3 months!! Second step cleared off!

During the first 12 weeks, 1 out of 10 pregnancies ends up with a spontaneous abortion. After 12 weeks the risk is much lower. We are extremely relieved!

Eva is also feeling much, much better so now we look forward to enjoy the pregnancy a bit!

198 days left - Wednesday 27th of October 2010

 Viva la siesta española!!

2 days left for 12 weeks, almost there!!

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200 days left - Monday 25th of October 2010

200 days to go!!

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203 days left - Friday 22nd of October 2010 - Exactly 11 weeks of pregnancy

Hey everyone! Exactly 11 weeks of pregnancy today, one week to go for the horrible first 3 months!

The baby is about 4,1 cm from the top of the head to "its behind" (legs curled up). Now it´s starting to move!! The babys´ hands is often close to its face. The neck has extended so it can be flexed and also allows lateral movements. If we would make a scanning, we could now see the eyes. The ears are moving upwards to their final position but the baby still cannot hear. The baby is quite active but since it´s so light, you still cannot feel the "kicks". For that, we will have to wait until week 19-20 (almost 5 months of pregnancy).

 Eva has been much better this week and we have been able to be out quite a lot. Seems like things are stabilizing but that we have said before, crossing my fingers.... The weather has been amazing in Seville this week (as usual) - beautiful sunshine and around +30 C during the day - so it was a perfect week for a stroll! On Thursday the 21st we went to fish in the river Guadalquivir, in front of La Cartuja Monastery, and then we went to Plaza de España and Parque Maria Luisa. They finally managed to finish the renovations of Plaza de España, after at least 5 years of restoration!!

This week we have also decided to change gynaecologist. We went to a gynaecologist here in Tomares beacuse it´s much easier than going down to Seville BUT from day one we were not too happy with this woman. She is quite rude and does not explain almost anything. She seems fairly careless and when we realized she calculated wrong for the important 3rd appointment - they have to make important tests between week 12-13, tests which can not be done before nor after - we decided that this is too important to leave in hands of someone as slipshod as this girl. We have to make the test between the 29th of October and the 5th of November, and she gave us an appointment on the 8th of November. Bad luck but waht can we do. This girl is as social as a brick! How can you be so unpleasant when you work as a gynaecologist?!

We now have a new appointment on the 3rd of November, with a gynaecologist in Seville. Supposedly she is a specialist in IVF pregnancies, sounds good!

208 days left - Sunday 17th of October 2010

10 weeks and 2 days of pregnancy. Back again after a really horrible week. Eva has been really, really bad, worse than ever with feeling of sickness and heartburn. Thursday night was a torment, partly because Eva was really exhausted after 4-5 nights virtually without sleep (eventhough she has been sleeping during the day). The feeling of sickness sets in at around 19:00 and then she has to eat every hour until 24:00. She feels really bad until 04:00-05:00 in the morning.

So if we finally could enjoy the pregnancy a bit and talk to the belly and caress it two weeks ago, this week all focus has been on the feeling of sickness again. Many people say "Enjoy the pregnancy" but seriously, how the hell can you enjoy something like this?! This doesn´t seem to be a pregnancy, it seems more like a bad illness. We would enjoy the flu more than this...

According to our book - "The Day-by-Day Pregnancy Book" (Dorling Kindersley 2009), the baby is now not any longer an embryon but a foetus. Supposedly it has grown A LOT in just two weeks. On the 4th of October the baby was 17,9 mm, now it is supposed to be around 40 mm (according to the book).The placenta is fully developed.

New weight for Eva today: 65.8 kg (up just 300 grams)

12 days to go for 12 weeks/3 months, time is passing slooooooowly....

215 days left - Sunday 10th of October 2010

Back to scratch. We have been abusing too much of our "liberty" (yesterday we went to Carmona to celebrate Gabriel´s birthday) and now Eva is really tired and feels very sick again. Even if she was sitting down almost all the time, we will have to take it much more easy in the future.

217 days left - Friday 8th of October 2010

Eva is definitely feeling better and today we went down to Seville to have sushi! Apparently sushi is not bad for pregnant women and we are completely addicted to this food!

http://www.samuraisevilla.com/

Photos from the exposition "European Modern Art and Young Flamenco Promises"

                                                 WEDNESDAY 6th OF OCTOBER 2010

Reales Alcazares in Seville: http://www.patronato-alcazarsevilla.es/index.php

Manuel Chabrera: http://www.chabrera.com/chabrera/

ARTE MODERNO EUROPEO Y JOVENES PROMESAS DEL FLAMENCO: http://chabrera.com/eu2010/eu2010/INICIO.html

219 days left - Wednesday 6th of October 2010

Today we ventured out of the house to go and see an exposition at the Reales Alcazares. Our friend Manuel Chabrera (http://www.chabrera.com/chabrera/) was opening the exposition. We did not stay too long - there were no chairs and Eva cannot stand up for long periods of time - but at least we got some fresh air. Nice event at a very nice place, Reales Alcazares is magic!

220 days left - Tuesday 5th of October 2010

8 weeks and 4 days. Knock on wood but Eva seems to feel a little better. Yesterday was not too bad and today has been more or less OK as well. She feels really tired and sometimes dizzy but the new medicine against the heartburn seems to be working and she does not feel sick every minute of the day. She also slept more or less OK tonight.

When the hunger sets in she still has to eat instantly, i.e. within 30 seconds, otherwise she throws up (one has to be a good and very quick chef!) but this new state is still a huge leap forward. Crossing our fingers that the feeling of sickness is now in decline...

New weighing in today: 65.5 kg

221 days left - Monday 4th of October 2010

8 weeks and 3 days of pregnancy, 221 days to go! Today, second appointment at the gynaecologist and above is the 2nd ultrasound! Now we can confirm it´s "only" one baby, I think it´s enough to start with. Then we can get some practice and go for twins next time!! The baby is 17.9 mm and according to the size it should be about 8 weeks and 2 days.... Finally our book and the gynaecologist seem to coincide, she missed the correct date with only one day. Today we could hear the baby´s heartbeat, really amazing and an astonishing feeling!

Everything seems normal, even if there is some kind of hematoma in there and that have to cure. The gynaecologist prescribe relative rest for Eva since there is risk of abortion. The rest is no problem: Eva could impossibly to get more rest since she cannot stand up due to the feeling of sickness, heartburn and dizziness... The hematoma was probably the cause of the bleeding on the 23rd but in any case hematomas and bleedings are not something unusual, they are rather common. But we better take it easy though, better safe than sorry...

The gynaecologist took away one of the medicines (prolactina) but added another one for the heartburn so Eva will still be taking 6 different medicines. A pain in the neck but it will help the process and help curing the hematoma.

Estimated birth date according to the gynaecologist: 21st of May 2011. It still seems very far away. When I stop worrying about the dangerous first 3 months and the absolutely horrible feeling of sickness I will start to worry about the delivery (and most certainly about something else). As a father, I have realized that it´s important to always worry about something...

We are convinced that the baby is a girl. Why? Because girls always seem to give horrible pregnancies and it can hardly get any worse than this. Eva says: "Espera que tenga culo, verás lo que va a cobrar" (Wait until she gets a bottom, then she will pay for what she did to me...)

Next appointment at the gynaecologist: Monday 8th of November. Then we will be able to see the baby move!

223 days left - Saturday 2nd of October 2010

Here we are again after another 4 loooooong days. Eva feels bad most of the time and horribly bad the rest of the time. She doesn´t throw up that much but the feeling of illness won´t loosen its grip... Sometimes she only feels "slightly bad" in the morning but the evenings and nights are a nightmare: feeling of sickness, heartburn and Eva hardly get some sleep at night. Since Wednesday 29th of September I´m putting the alarm clock at 03:00 AM and I prepare food for Eva. This seems to work a little better and now Eva can get some more sleep at night. Sniffing fresh ginger is also something that soothens the sickness a bit.

Yesterday we tried to go the "Oktoberfest" in Tomares but we had to go back after 10 minutes, Eva could hardly stand up. Today we went down to Seville to "La Feria de las Naciones" and lasted a little longer, about 1 hour. Moving or simply standing up seems to be a bad idea... We will go back to moving between the bed and the sofa....

You would think we would delighted to finally be pregnant and that we should be planning for becoming fathers, etc but at the moment 110% of the focus is on the HORRIBLE FEELING OF SICKNESS. This is how women felt during thousands of years?! It seems impossible! And then they say that men and women are equal, my ass... If men would have to give birth, mankind would have become extinct thousands of years ago, we wouldn´t even have had time to climb down from the trees... Women are extremely long-suffering.