Well, the reason I've been away for so long is that quite some time ago, we found out I was pregnant. Since I felt that this blog was more about posting about my istock portfolio and career posting lots of stuff about morning sickness and pregnancy seemed a little out of place. Since I realise that this means no posts for 7 or so months though, I've reconsidered - particularly when I realise that this would mean probably no more for at least another 3-4 months - maybe longer. So I'm going to post a bit in my last little bit of pregnancy (I'm 37.5 weeks pregnant now - about 2.5 weeks left to go... in theory anyway) and during the first stresses of new motherhood. If you guys can survive all that, hopefully I'll get back into istock and be able to write about that again ;)
One thing that many of you may or may not know about me is that about 3 years ago, I was diagnosed with PCOS - polycystic ovarian syndrome. This basically means that I have multiple cysts on my ovaries which can have all sorts of unpleasant side effects, including rare or non-existent ovulation. The pictures on the right (for some reason VOX isn't actually finding images on istock so I had to put it in in the old fashioned way - the image on istock is here if you're interested - you can zoom in to look) are an ultrasound of my ovaries - all the dark patches are actually cysts - and they're fairly classic ones at that - the "string of pearls" effect where you can see that they're all actually around the outside of the ovaries is very common.
When we found out, Michael (my hubby) and I went off birth control with the attitude of "if it happens it happens and if it doesn't we'll try something later when we really want kids". And so time passed. About 2.5 years. So when I was feeling sick I put it down to some sort of stomach bug and didn't pay a lot of attention. But I noticed a couple of other strange things... sore nipples for one... and the "stomach bug" didn't seem to be easing off. I meantioned it to Michael and he said " get a pregnancy test to put your mind at rest about it. Since this has happened about twice before in our marriage (for various reasons - probably which were realated to the PCOS without us being aware of it) we didn't expect anything to come of it so when we got home with the pregnancy test, and two little lines appeared (see top picture), I assumed that I was somehow misreading it. I actually called Michael into the bathroom and said "I'm reading this wrong aren't I?". He looked at it for a few minutes, actually checked the instructions that came with the pregnancy test and then just looked at me. We were both stunned - we hadn't been expecting a POSITIVE result :) So then we decided to call a few members of family to make it seem more real.
It wasn't until we had the ultrasound done though, that I actually believed it. We had to have one done straight away because since it had been at least 6 months since my last period we had absolutely no idea of how far along I was (I was panicing that I might be half way there and not know it) - but it turns out I was about 6 weeks along, and the baby at that point was as pictured on the left - smaller than a jelly bean, and with about as many features. So that was a relief - plenty of time to get used to the idea, and possibly even get some things ready :) I was still pretty morning sick though - in fact it was getting worse not better - some mornings were so bad that I woke michael up early to go for a drive to take my mind off it - and a couple of times I actually threw up when driving - not fun. They kept telling me that it would probably go away when I was about 3 months pregnant - but it didn't really ease off until I was 4.5 ish months pregnant - and I still get spats of it every so often, even now.
Here's some photos of me - the first at 13.5 weeks, the second at 18 weeks, the third at 22 weeks pregnant and the last at 36 weeks pregnant. I had all these ideas of getting good pregnancy photos, but for some strange reason (exhaustion etc) I just haven't done it. Still I have time, so maybe it will happen. I have a big list of pregnancy shots I'd like to do for istock but we'll have to see if it actually happens.
I've been surprised at how little istock I've done since I found out I was pregnant - I've been either exhausted or sore throughout a lot of it - and now the braxton hicks contractions I've had make it nearly impossible to do anything - even walking around is a pain. Still, on the home stretch now.
One thing I have managed to do is get some photos of my piggybanks - which I imported from america - and they came over in huge boxes. I've got a huge list of shots I want to do with them... but they're a patient group of piggys so they can wait. You can see some of them here though... or just go here to see all of them.
When we found out, Michael (my hubby) and I went off birth control with the attitude of "if it happens it happens and if it doesn't we'll try something later when we really want kids". And so time passed. About 2.5 years. So when I was feeling sick I put it down to some sort of stomach bug and didn't pay a lot of attention. But I noticed a couple of other strange things... sore nipples for one... and the "stomach bug" didn't seem to be easing off. I meantioned it to Michael and he said " get a pregnancy test to put your mind at rest about it. Since this has happened about twice before in our marriage (for various reasons - probably which were realated to the PCOS without us being aware of it) we didn't expect anything to come of it so when we got home with the pregnancy test, and two little lines appeared (see top picture), I assumed that I was somehow misreading it. I actually called Michael into the bathroom and said "I'm reading this wrong aren't I?". He looked at it for a few minutes, actually checked the instructions that came with the pregnancy test and then just looked at me. We were both stunned - we hadn't been expecting a POSITIVE result :) So then we decided to call a few members of family to make it seem more real.
Here's some photos of me - the first at 13.5 weeks, the second at 18 weeks, the third at 22 weeks pregnant and the last at 36 weeks pregnant. I had all these ideas of getting good pregnancy photos, but for some strange reason (exhaustion etc) I just haven't done it. Still I have time, so maybe it will happen. I have a big list of pregnancy shots I'd like to do for istock but we'll have to see if it actually happens.
I've been surprised at how little istock I've done since I found out I was pregnant - I've been either exhausted or sore throughout a lot of it - and now the braxton hicks contractions I've had make it nearly impossible to do anything - even walking around is a pain. Still, on the home stretch now.
One thing I have managed to do is get some photos of my piggybanks - which I imported from america - and they came over in huge boxes. I've got a huge list of shots I want to do with them... but they're a patient group of piggys so they can wait. You can see some of them here though... or just go here to see all of them.