Pregnancy Series: Month 3

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Three months down means I’m a third of the way through this pregnancy!

These last few weeks, I had to actually remind myself that I am pregnant. I marveled at the fact that life could be so damn busy and stressful that it could make me forget that I’m growing a person.

The beginning of this month was marked by an extremely worrying spike in new Covid cases across France. The Toussaint holidays (for All Saints Day) at the end of October saw big cities empty into the provinces, as people fled imposed curfews for their time off. Cases here in Calvados, which had never reached a very worrying level, went from “low level threat” to “high level threat” in 5 days. So, zero to a hundred real quick. Thanks, Parisians.

Finally, we went into our second national lockdown on October 30^th. I spent the majority of this month of pregnancy sitting at home avoiding the plague. Papa and I decided to keep C home from the nanny for the first 2 weeks of lockdown in an effort to do our civic duty and reduce the comings and goings of people in our household.

So, I was basically a full-time mama for 3 weeks (including Toussaint holidays), and it kicked my pregnant ass. Seriously, I don’t know how you full-time mamas do it. And you’re often working too!

I found it impossible. There was the minimum amount I had to work (for my day job), but I was only able to do this at C’s naptime and bedtime. As soon as I finished, I didn’t want to do anything else but flatline in front of the TV.

So I sat. And I ate. And it was good. And at my 12-week checkup a few days ago, I discovered I had gained SEVEN kilos in the last month. SEVEN. Hoooo boy.

This past month, I craved sugar for a quick burst of energy, and comfort food in an effort to mitigate the stress of watching a historic election unfold over five days.

Now, let me be clear: I love eating. I am not the sort of person to strictly deny myself anything I might want to eat. But I do keep a close eye on my nutrition. And boy—this past month, I f**ked up.

KitKats and Twix bars were the major culprits. Ice cream was in there at some point. Oh and caramels. I ate a lot of cheese, too. And I seem to remember making Bechamel sauce on numerous occasions.

Coupled with the fact that I wasn’t moving around much at all, I guess I could see why I gained weight, but SEVEN kilos?! My god!

So I am gonna tone it down on the junk food from here on out. I don’t want to feel pregnant AND fat. With C, I think I gained a grand total of 10 kilos in the entire 9 months. So I am not at a good start right now with my weight.

I am not gonna try to lose weight (generally not a good idea when you’re pregnant), but I am going to pay more attention to what I eat and in what quantities, as well as exercise more, which will be made easier by the fact that C is now going to the nanny again.

Other than the weight gain, the only slight inconvenience of this pregnancy is that my dog sticks to me like glue whenever I sit or lie down! He was like that with C too. He just loves resting his little head on my belly. Dunno whether he can feel something.

At my checkup a few days ago, I was able to see baby on the ultrasound super clear! Teeny tiny fingers and toes. He or she even seemed to give us a little wave of the hand! What a pleasure to experience.

The past few days I have been giving some thought as to whether I want to know the sex before the birth. We kept C a surprise, but I kinda want to experience something different this time. I am sure Papa will need little convincing. It’s still too early to know, and even if we change our minds, we could still ask to know the sex much later. So I have some time to think about it.

Right now, I am dreading telling my boss. I’ve told more and more friends—something I didn’t do last time with C. I didn’t anticipate telling a lot of people this time, but probably since this pregnancy feels like the only good thing happening right now, I can’t help but to bring it up. It’s like my little Patronus!

If you missed earlier installments of my pregnancy series, or if you want to keep up with subsequent months as they are published, click here.
Jessica

About the Author

Jessica is an American expat living the dream in Normandy. She is wife to a French hubby and mama to a Franco-American daughter, born in 2018, and one whippet. Passionate about all stages of writing, this Francophile created her blog in 2020 to help others navigate motherhood with a focus on conscious parenting and bilingual parenting. Bonne lecture !