The bump is here and is real; we found out Frosty’s gender, but won’t reveal it; we’re live writing from London’s Happiness Leads meetup, and all is going well. Crossing fingers for the next trip to Berlin in less than a week!

Frosty’s developments

Frosty has made another leap forward in their growth: they measure about 28cm and weigh around 430g. Think of an eggplant, or a fruit pie, or a Maltese puppy – you got the drill!

While Frosty’s skin still has wrinkles and is very thin (they will work more on that during the third trimester), their bone marrow ha started to produce blood cells. That’s quite a big milestones, as this has been done so far only from the liver and the spleen.

I sort of figured out Frosty’s sleep/waking patterns I should have already noticed, but I’ve failed to pinpoint so far due to the Budapest trip: as far as I can tell now, Frosty tends to be more active an hour after each meals, as well as when I am completely relaxed. My hunch is that this is related with me not rocking them around, and with my heartbeat slowing down, but that’s just my assumption.

All in all, they’re extremely, very active – not complaining by any means! The surprising fact is that they never seem to be tired: once they start moving, they can stay active for hours without giving me a break. Not sure where they get such stamina from as I’m far from being a marathon runner – let alone Franz’s cardio!

This week I also got the whooping cough shot, right before leaving to London (see below): while this didn’t cause any major side effects, my deltoid is still quite tender! That is worth the discomfort though, as this vaccine will cover Frosty from whooping cough, polio, tetanus, and diphtheria across their first 4 months of life – they’ll then get a proper vaccination.

The London trip

We (as in Frosty and I) are currently spending one week in London for the company’s support team leads meetup. Even though it’s not far from home, we’re not commuting (which is great!), and we’re staying in a hotel with the rest of the team.

That means I’m having all my meals out, which can turn to be tricky due to all my allergies and Frosty-related food restrictions. Rest assured that when Automatticians are on meetups, they are committed in getting stuffed, so calories wise I’m all set already.

I was also concerned about my sleeping quality in a bed that’s not my own: with the bump growing (see below) this is a classic risk, but after a couple of nights spent in this hotel room I can’t really complain about that. So far so good.

Neutral Frosty

Last week at the anomaly scan we found out if we’re having a Frosty girl or a Frosty boy. Franz and I wanted to know that because this will help us build Frosty’s identity while waiting to meeting them.

On the other hand, we decided to not disclose this publicly, and keep it from ourselves until Frosty is out. There are different reasons behind our choice. These are the most relevant:

• We don’t want to be stressed by any external pressure about Frosty’s name: we would not share their name even if we didn’t know about Frosty’s gender, let alone now that we know about it. For some reasons, people sometimes seem to feel entitled of sharing their own unsolicited opinion about that, whether you ask for it or not. Annoying!
• Avoiding unwanted gifts: we deeply and truly appreciate the love and the gifts, though friends and family will be definitely get biased by Frosty’s gender when picking anything for the baby, if they know their sex. Keeping the gender as a mystery can help people choose what they really like, regardless the traditional blue/pink colours or stereotypical gender oriented stuff.
• Franz and I are fully committed in raising Frosty as much gender neutral possible. We’d love to pass Frosty the message that we’re all human beings, despite anything ‘particular’ that can characterised us. This includes the gender: girls and boys are equal. Besides, We don’t know whether Frosty will feel themselves as binary or not, and we hope the gender neutrality environment we are setting up will help them build and discover their identity in serenity.

Oven updates

The bump is here and is real, despite many people still can’t believe I’m already 21 weeks down through this fascinating journey.

My personal perception is to carry already a pretty big belly: I have never had such a big abdomen in my life. It’s scary and I know it’s okay to have this feeling!

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Walking at 47.5kg – 104.7lbs; last week I was at 47.1kg – 103.8lbs, so the gain is in-line with the expected.

Feeling good and energised; I was also able to score some pregnancy PBs at the gym.

All in all, so far this pregnancy adventure has been pretty smooth and easy to manage: I brace myself for the unexpected, but for the time being everything is happening in a very natural way. I am the same person, only carrying a life that’s growing inside me.

I know I am not expressing what I meant clearly, but it’s not easy at all to explain how my mind is resiliently receiving those huge changes as something regular and natural. It’s like my brain has switched gears and put itself into a different “reasoning” mode.

WordCamp Europe and Germany trip

I’ll be sleeping only one night in my bed once I’m back from London before flying to Berlin for WordCamp Europe. That’s going to be a touch and run, so I don’t think I’ll have chances to actually visit the city.

While this trip shouldn’t be too stressful because it’s a quick one – from 20th to 23rd – it will require another couple of plane trips, and the last time Frosty didn’t appreciate that. We’ll see how it goes this time!