My pregnancy [4th month]

Dear Reader, This blog series is written in the present tense. This is because I wrote these articles monthly during my pregnancy as a kind of diary. In the meantime, my pregnancy is already over and I am gathering strength again in the postpartum period. During this time, this blog series should accompany you. And now I hope you enjoy reading!

Time is flying by. The nausea continues to diminish and we dare to have longer and longer intervals during acupuncture. Christmas is coming and with it inevitably a break of a week with the needles. Between the years I am to be treated with it once more before I dare to try it without any help. I feel increasingly better and have more strength every day. The nausea is not draining me as much anymore. I can eat more again, have less problems with not being able to tolerate something. That makes a lot of things easier!

My belly continues to grow slowly but steadily, but it is still barely visible to others. Only I can feel and see the changes in my body. I can feel the borders of my uterus very well most of the time and also feel more and more the movements of my baby. Still very gentle and light, because they still seem very muffled by the amniotic fluid.

The next check-up is coming, but now I know the procedure and am less nervous. I somehow feel that everything is good. My baby is growing steadily and we can hear the heart sounds again. My son is eager to be there and is all excited and calm as we listen for the baby. I've also gained some weight, so I'm happy about that. I know I need to gain weight because I am now at a much lower starting weight than I was with my son. And with him, I barely gained any weight during pregnancy.

Over New Year's Eve we are in Hesse with my family and I enjoy the time, even though it is always a bit stressful. That's how it is on a visit home, I would love to see everyone, but there is always so little time and relaxation usually comes too short. It's still a nice time out, just to get out of here. And I am glad that it goes largely without nausea. I no longer have the feeling that I have to lie down for a long time in the morning after having eaten or drunk a little something in bed. I no longer have to always have something to eat with me and can enjoy our meal together in the restaurant. I can enjoy eating again!

It is a great relief for me. Even though I had left the eating disorder behind me for a few years now, this constant nausea was still a burden. There was always the question of high calorie supplemental food and I resisted it so much inside and only wanted to take it in the greatest of emergencies. I am so glad that I have now managed without it. It reminds me of the time with the eating disorder and I don't want to go back to that point. It would have felt like a setback to me, even though I actually know that it is something completely different, that the situation is completely different.

And so the 4th month is also flying by and I hope that I would soon get a place in the yoga class with my midwife. Yoga did me good even with the nausea sometimes and centered me again. The calm breathing gave me strength and serenity. I also hoped to find in yoga a balance that I was lacking at that moment. I had always exercised regularly. That was first eliminated by my ankle fracture and now by the pregnancy or the nausea. I do light stretching exercises from yoga and feel it relaxes me a bit. But I want to learn more exercises that I can do well during pregnancy.

The cover image comes from unsplash.com.