Doesn’t quite have the same ring as the “faster, higher, stronger” Olympic motto, does it… But that’s what I’m getting.

The bump has suddenly passed some magical threshold. Last week all sorts of people commented on how visible it had suddenly become. Even the lady holding our pregnancy yoga classes, who’s seen me weekly for quite a while now, mentioned it.

Remember when I said I couldn’t see all of my belly any more? Now I’ve come to the point where I can’t even see my toes without bending forward a bit. If I stand facing a wall and move forward until I just touch the wall, the part that touches it first is the belly. And when I sit at my desk, the bump has started hitting the edge of the desk.

Bigger also means heavier, of course. I’ve gained about 11 kg now, which is over 20% of what I weighed before I got pregnant. Most of the time I don’t notice the weight much; it’s not like a rucksack weighing down heavily on the shoulders. But it is definitely noticeable when I have to walk uphill or upstairs, especially when I’m carrying bags of groceries – I’m huffing and puffing hard by the time I reach our second-floor flat.

Walking in general has become a lot less comfortable. First of all there is all this weight to carry around. Second, the stomach muscles can’t work as well as they used to, because they are so stretched out. Fast walking is out of the question because the muscles then cannot manage posture and breathing at the same time. I’ve always relied more on the stomach than the back muscles to keep me straight (my back is weaker, for some reason) and now that I can’t, my lower back has started hurting somewhat. One of the hormones that the pregnant body produces is called relaxin, and its most obvious effect, as the name promises, is to relax various muscles around the pelvis and the uterus. The result is a “floppy” pelvis that has a tendency to sink out of shape and thus hurt while I walk, unless I take small steps and focus hard keeping the pelvis straight.

Cycling, on the other hand, causes no discomfort whatsoever. And even though the going is slower than it used to be (probably because of the weight again) the slowdown isn’t as marked as when I walk. So I still cycle to work every day, and to the supermarket, and to the hospital, and everywhere else as well. I hope to be able to continue cycling for a long time still – I am not looking forward to switching to public transport.

I took the bus home on Friday (had a large parcel that I needed to take home) and back on Saturday to pick up the bike, and it was, above all, so terribly boring. Even though the route is about the same as when I cycle, and it takes about the same time, it felt a lot slower. When I’m cycling, I am active all the time: I am thinking of the potholes and pedestrians to avoid, keeping an eye and an ear out for cars, watching the traffic lights. On the bus I just sit there. No wind in my hair, no sun in my face. And it’s not even as comfortable as cycling!

Yoga also still feels good, so I am doing both my usual Tuesday night class and a special pregnancy yoga class on Thursdays. The Tuesday class is ashtanga-inspired and therefore quite a good workout, without any of the jumping or bouncing that more energetic classes tend to have. I’m still able to do most of the exercises with the rest of the group, just more carefully. Other asanas have to be modified slightly: in forward bends such as padangusthasana and paschimottanasana, the legs need to be further apart to leave space for the bump. Still others have to be replaced with something else completely: upward dog and anything else that involves lying on the front or strongly arching the back is out of the question. But most of it works well, and it is pleasant to be able follow the familiar routine.

The pregnancy yoga class is quite different. It is a lot gentler and slower, mostly because it needs to be accessible to women with no previous experience of yoga (or of any sports for that matter), so it isn’t much of a workout. I’ve never worked up a sweat there. The focus is almost entirely on the back, pelvis, hips and shoulders. It wouldn’t be enough to keep me in shape, but it is a good complement, and has taught me some nice back stretches.

All of a sudden, over the last week or two, the belly has gone from almost-as-usual to a very noticeable bump. Here’s what it looks like.

Notice the masterpiece of engineering that is surrounding the belly! No seams, and at least 4 different kinds of weave, and they sit as well as anything I’ve ever worn, even though they need to adapt to a rapidly changing form. But they do look rather odd…

The baby is now supposed to be 33cm and weigh 570g.

Had my second ultrasound this Thursday. Was told that Blump was very mobile (I could have told them that myself!) and therefore not easy to take pictures of, but appeared to have all body parts present in the usual numbers and usual places. The only thing they commented on was that the waistline (Blump’s, not mine) or “abdominal circumference” as the technical term goes, was rather large. The doctor didn’t seem to be able to explain what that could indicate, other than a vague mention of diabetes, and all it led to was an appointment for a third ultrasound 6 weeks later.

Otherwise, not much has changed. I grow, Blump grows, and Blump wriggles with great vigour.

This Wednesday was – if the doctors’ estimates are right – the halfway point. 20 weeks gone, 20 to go.

I have become used to being pregnant now. Used to seeing a bump when I look down or look in a mirror. To having to take the bump into account when moving – getting out of bed in the morning, or getting on to the bike, or putting my shoes on. To not being able to sleep on my stomach. To not being able to cross my arms at the chest because they then weigh down on the stomach that is being pushed up by the bump.

There is a force of attraction between the bump and my hands. Unconsciously, my hands drift towards the bump to hold it, to rub it, or just to rest on it.

The baby…

Hmm… I don’t like calling him/her “the baby”. It feels so impersonal, as if it was just any one of a bunch of babies. I wouldn’t call my child “the child” for example. People have names for their dogs, cars, houses and willies, so the baby definitely deserves one as well.

I think Blump would be a good name. Vaguely related to both bumps and lumps, definitely softer than a lump, and fits boys and girls equally well. So Blump it is, from now on.

Blump has started moving around now. About two weeks ago I thought I could feel faint flutterings, but only if I was really still and watched for them. Sort of like belly rumblings but with a more distinct location and a clearer sense of direction. The best moment to catch them was at night, when I was close to falling asleep. They would usually come a little while after I turned on my back.

The movements slowly grew stronger, until there really was no doubt that it was Blump and not my intestines. Some of it seems to be general shifting around, but the most distinct ones are definitely kicks and punches – I’m glad there’s not much strength behind them!

Blump has been gaining confidence over the last few days and is now moving around during daytime as well. It’s a very odd feeling when s/he does it. Imagine you’ve swallowed a whole live fish, and it’s now flopping around in your stomach – something like that. Except that it feels nice, which wouldn’t be the case with a fish, I imagine.

Here are two pictures from my first ultrasound scan.

The first one is (I think) an image of the head and torso. Proves, I guess, that what’s in there is vaguely human-shaped. Seeing the torso was more interesting on screen, because it was a live image and not a still one – I could see the heart beat (very fast!) for example.

Whereas the first image was taken “for the parents”, this second one is one of the images that was printed for medical purposes. You can see two small white crosses, one at the top of the head and another at the base of the spine. This “crown-to-rump” measurement – here 8.71cm – is one of the key measurements for estimating the age of the fetus.

As soon as I’d posted my pregnancy announcement, I got e-mails from two old friends telling me that they are both also pregnant. (Old friends not in the sense of age, but in the sense that we’ve known each other most of our lives, since before we started school.) Their pregnancies are just a few months ahead of mine. Which is all very convenient for me – at any point, when I will be wondering about this or that baby-raising question, they will have gone through the very same thing just a few months earlier!

Although at this point, all this talk about babies feels remote… intellectually I know that there is a baby at the other end of this pregnancy. But I find it very difficult to imagine a life with a baby. I haven’t got much first hand-experience of them, either. There haven’t been any births on my side of the family since I was born (no cousins, no nephews or nieces) and those on Eric’s side are on the other side of a sea, so contacts have been limited. I guess we will simply learn from our own mistakes rather than others’ experience.

We had our first appointment with the midwife today. Lots of talk (an hour and a half!) and lots of box-ticking. The amount of paperwork that this pregnancy is producing is astounding. I begin to understand why the NHS costs as much as it does. It’s all paper-based and their usage of computers is minimal and mostly limited to booking appointments. Communication between different hospitals / clinics takes place in the form of letters – on paper! snail mail! Ante-natal care involves not just midwives and GPs but also specialists (for ultrasounds etc), and they all need to have access to notes relating to my pregnancy. So these are all in paper format, bound up in a red folder that I myself have to take care of and carry around; there are no databases or electronic patient journals involved. Very quaint.

For my 100th post, here’s news for you: I’m pregnant. Both families have now been told, so the news can finally be let out. ETA is October 18.

So if you’ve been wondering about my changed habits, absent-mindedness or other odd behaviour, here’s your explanation.

There is a bunch of blog posts that I’ve written about this, but not published yet. I’ll be releasing them as soon as I can. (You’ll find them in the “Pregnancy” category.) Some of them were written later based on quick notes I’d taken, so the dates may be off by a little bit here and there, but no more than a week in any case.

It’s clear that my current wardrobe won’t get me far through the pregnancy, and even the “panic buy” skirts will only last a little longer, so today I went out to explore what’s available in maternity wear. A whole bunch of online shops, to start with. I’m a bit unsure about the sizing – it is generally supposed to be based on your pre-pregnancy size, but I don’t know whether some of my rapid weight gain may have taken my “base size” up a notch. So I started with some bricks’n’mortar shops, in order to figure out what size I need, and to see how these things work.

Maternity wear has come far from baggy dresses and kaftans. It is actually possible to look really good, because there are lots of really stylish clothes out there. Many of the items I tried on were also wonderfully comfortable. Such a relief after several weeks of trying to squeeze into my normal trousers, even with the buttons undone. Some of them were so pleasant to wear that I hope I can use them after the pregnancy, too. That might even be possible – they are really cleverly constructed! There’s a whole technical vocabulary I need to learn. I can choose between over-the-bump and under-the-bump trousers. There are wide jersey roll waists, elasticated waists with hidden adjustment bands, stretchy jersey side panels, and so on.

I had my first ultrasound scan this morning.

There is actually a little creature in there, believe it or not! Until now I’ve just felt like my body is growing an extra inner organ – it has been a part of me, and nothing else. (In fact some days I’ve doubted whether I am pregnant at all, because I haven’t experienced any of the things that are said to go with pregnancy – nausea, cravings etc.) But today, as I saw the creature move, it became real, in a way, and acquired an identity of its own. It already has more-or-less recognisable body parts: a head and arms and legs, and even a tiny heart that’s already pumping.

It also turns out I’m a bit more pregnant than I thought – I’d guessed maybe 10–12 weeks or so, but was told 14! That suddenly makes me feel a lot less fat. ETA was said to be 18 October. It turns out that this is calculated by simply measuring key bits of the baby (femur length, skull diameter) and then comparing that to a graph of standard sizes. Apparently all babies are roughly the same size up to week 20; individual differences come later.