What Katy Writes

Six months.  I can't believe our baby boy has been with us for half a year.  Every day he is learning new things, making us laugh, (sometimes making us want to pull our hair out), teaching us to be patient, teaching us to take things more slowly, to enjoy every minute because he really is growing so fast.  This post will not only be about Isaac's growth and development but also mine.  These last six months have been so challenging, so beautiful, so life-changing - I don't want to forget the transformation I have been going through as well.  If you have read my previous two posts, you would know that we got off to a rough start.  Postnatal depression and anxiety hit me like a ton of bricks and is something I am still fighting to recover from every day.  Especially my anxiety.  I still see my psychiatrist on a regular basis, am now seeing a psychologist as well as getting lots of support from my child health nurse and ...

I have been avoiding writing this post.  Talking about what I went through (and am still going through although not as severe) is something I still find incredibly painful.  The first nine weeks of Isaac's life were the best and worst of mine.  I feel like I need to take the time here to briefly talk about the Mother Baby Unit and the incredibly supportive, wonderful, beautiful nurses and midwives who work there.  These women saw me at my absolute lowest.  They were perfect strangers who came to feel like family.  They talked me through so many panic attacks, cared for my son when I was unable to, made me laugh, talked me through everything I was feeling, never judged me, never made me feel like a bad mother - quite the opposite.  I quite literally couldn't have gotten through those weeks without them.  I will owe them for the rest of my life and Isaac has the privilege of having a lot of extra "Aunties...

Before I start this post, the post about our son’s birth story and first weeks of life (warning - it’s going to be a long one) I want to once again point out how important it is to seek help and speak out about mental health issues.  If you can hang on and read it to the end (and most people reading this probably already know) you will discover that I am suffering from postnatal depression and anxiety.  This does not mean that I do not/did not love my beautiful boy.  It may come across that way in this post, purely because I believe in being honest and open about how I feel and what I went through and what I am currently going through.  I have come to accept that this diagnosis does not make me a bad mother or a bad person, it is simply something that went very wrong in my brain and I need help.  Please, please, please – if you are struggling with this or any other mental health issue, even if you’re not sure but just feel that something isn’t qui...

It's the final countdown! I can't believe how fast time has gone, today I am 38 weeks pregnant - technically Baby Bear could be with us any day now! The third trimester is shaping up to be everything I've heard and more.  Rough.  Worth it, but way harder than I was anticipating.  I worked until I was almost 37 weeks pregnant - I figured because I have a desk job that I would be fine to work even longer than that really, but honestly, it was difficult!  Baby Bear crowding my lungs, kicking my ribs - are just a couple of things that made it very tricky to lean forward to even type properly.  Not to mention the insane fluid retention I developed in those last few weeks.  I swear my ankles ended up being the same size as my thighs!  Reid found it quite amusing, I found it all pretty exhausting, not to mention the difficulty sleeping (I know, I know, I have no idea what sleep deprivation is yet :) but those last couple of w...

I haven't had a chance to do an update for a while, so this might be a bit of a ramble! The third trimester has been much more challenging than I was expecting to be honest, weeks 28 - 30 were fine, but Baby Bear has done a LOT of growing (which is great obviously) but wow, it is certainly hard on your body!  I have had some pretty severe back pain (mostly in the lower right side) and things you take for granted, like, getting off the couch and rolling over in bed become a bit of a mammoth effort!  All worth it though, as Reid and I lie in bed each night and watch my stomach jolt around as our baby wriggles and kicks - it is so amazing and he will be here so soon! I had my gestational diabetes check just before week 28 - definitely not the most pleasant experience, sitting around for 3 hours, not allowed to eat and then drinking an incredibly sweet drink (kind of like a super-sweet, flat lemonade) while having your blood taken a few times.  My results were all ...

Wow, time is really flying now - less than a week until I am in my third trimester! Things are continuing to go well, definitely feeling more uncomfortable the bigger I get which is to be expected obviously, a few more aches and pains than usual, but overall, things are good! The last few weeks have been busy as usual, lots of family stuff going on, lots of preparation happening for Christmas as well as trying to prepare for our Baby Bear's arrival! Something I meant to mention in my last post is that we bought a new car!  A lovely 2013 Nissan Pulsar with so much room in the boot and back, and much safer than my little corolla.  It's definitely a family car, and as someone who dislikes driving, it has taken me a bit to get used to, but it is lovely to have a newer, safer, bigger car that I know will make things much easier when our baby boy is here. I have started to get some lower back pain as my tummy continues to grow (a lot!) and am defi...

It has been a while since my last update, as usual, due to a very hectic couple of months! All has been well, the second trimester is definitely so much kinder than the first.  There are lots of changes and growth going on with our Baby Bear amongst all the work and family commitments.  We saw our obstetrician at the end of my 16th week and as usual, a midwife took my blood pressure before the appointment only to discover that it had become very high - higher than any of the other weeks.  She looked quite concerned and said medication could even be recommended at this point.  This obviously stressed me out even more.  We went in to our obstetrician's office and had an ultrasound and saw our beautiful little baby moving around in there.  We were hoping to find out the gender if we could, but our little baby was very comfortable with his/her legs crossed, being very shy!  We had a chat about a few other things and my bloo...