This week Frosty and I have entered the third and last trimester; will we be more excited or scared? As Franz and I have chosen a Latin name for our baby, I tested it in a busy Starbucks to check whether English speakers are able to write and pronounce it well.

Frosty’s developments

My baby is getting bigger and bigger! They should weigh now around 750g, which is a lot if I think I’m carrying them around with no efforts at all.

Their skin is being filled with fat tissue, and their muscles are getting toned. I can’t say the same for me as all these pregnancy hormones are substantially changing my body composition, replacing lean/muscles with fat 😭

Frosty can open their eyes now, and perceive different shades and intensity of light. I am not sure if they were able to do that already when I was on holidays, as I noticed they rolled a lot when I exposed myself to the sun on the beach. I wonder if the sunlight was too hot or bright for them, so they rolled facing the internal area of the womb looking for more darkness. 🤔

New trimester, last trimester 😱

I’m 27 weeks along now, meaning I’ve just entered the third and final trimester of this amazing journey. I am having so many mixed feelings: excitements, sadness, happiness, concerns for what’s going to happen very very soon. I know it’s partially hormonal, and I also know that this is all normal.

I am getting ready to see substantial changes in this trimester, as it’s the fastest time in terms of Frosty’s developments. I hope my energy level will remain the same because I love feeling so full of life and energy to spend 🙂

I am expecting more and sudden weight gain, stronger kicks from Frosty, a drop in sleep quality, more pit-stops to the toilet (if that’s even possible!), more swollen legs, an increase in appetite, in increase in aches here and there, and so on.

I am ready to embrace it all. EVERYTHING IS FINE

Oven updates

Weight hasn’t moved much: sitting at 48.8kg – 107.5lbs as for yesterday, while last week I weighed 48.9kg – 107.8 lbs.

At some point during the week the weight dropped to 48.1kg (106lbs) for reasons I can’t explain, but it seems to stay steady at around 48.4-48.8kg now. I guess that was some water retention from the holidays that I lost when I came back home.

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I tested Frosty’s name at Starbucks

Franz and I have chosen Frosty’s name months and months before we started the IVF process. We’re still keeping it from ourselves, as well as Frosty’s gender.

We picked a Latin name to honour the glorious city of Rome, where we met and fell in love, and also because we LOVE this name. When confirming our choice, we also consider whether this name would be easy to write and pronounce for English speakers: as Italians living in the UK, and immersed in a multi-cultural world, we do know how it feels like when people can’t say your name properly! In fact, I am Stef for everyone as it’s not easy for English speakers to say Stefania. Same is for Franz, who’s Francesco at the civil registry 🙂

Thanks to the brilliant advice from Vincenzo Carrubba (thanks again, mate!), I tested Frosty’s name in the busiest place where your name can be easily misspelled: Starbucks! In detail, I did it at the busy Starbucks in Heathrow Terminal 5 on a crazy Wednesday morning in the middle of the holidays season.

Both the cashier who repeated Frosty’s name and the barista who handed my drink with Frosty’s name written on it did it very well! A part from a tiny typo and the fact they forgot to pronounce a vocal, they’ve done it beyond my wildest expectations!

I’m going to try this again soon. I’ll keep you posted!

I am now also very tempted to share Frosty’s name with someone else to check their spelling and pronounce! Although I’m sure Franz and I picked a fine and accessible name for our baby 🙂

Next stop: midwife check-in appointment

Next Friday I’ll meet again with my midwife. She’s going to take blood and urine samples, check blood pressure and whatnot, keep discussing the birth plan, listen to Frosty’s heart again, check their growth through the fundal measure, and anything else that’s coming up.

Compared with the other times I met the midwife, this time I feel more relaxed as I’m showing a nice bump, I feel Frosty much often (and stronger!) and – touching wood – everything is being very fine 🙂