This is a collaborative post.

Welcome to my last post of 2018! After I hit publish, I’ll be officially be taking the next few weeks off blogging. But in the background, I’ll be working on lots of content for 2019: including gut health guides, IBD content, an updated juicing guide and plenty of yummy free-from recipes.

But as I’ve not given you all a pregnancy update in the while (And I’m officially past the half way mark!, I thought I’d tell you a bit more about how my second trimester is going, my scans, weight gain my gastro appointments, my plan for stopping Humira and for the caesarean. I am 20 weeks tomorrow but as I will have a caesarean, I am counting it at half-way already, as I will probably be scheduled between 37-39 weeks! (all being well).

How I’ve Been Feeling

On the whole, I’ve been feeling really good. My morning sickness has finally stopped (Around week 17 thank god!) and I have definitely had a bit more energy. I did battle with breathlessness for a few weeks and convinced my anaemia was the culprit. However, I’ve had all my bloods done again and my iron levels are fine-so it was probably just the baby!

I’m still quite anxious but I think that is to be expected. My consultant has actually referred me to a maternity mental health team so I have someone to chat to if the anxiety gets a bit much! I’ve not had anything come through yet but I’ll let you know when I do. We’ve had a lot of milestones (gender scan, first consultant appointment, listening to baby on doppler at the appointment, anomaly scan) so I think it’s natural I have been fretting!

My IBD still seems to be doing ok (massively touches wood!)I have had the odd day that’s felt off; but that’s to be expected with all the Christmas food around, my anxiety and just general hormones. It bounces back and I’m fine the next day. Overall, I’m still able to eat SO much more than I previously could which is absolutely amazing! I’m going to try to enjoy it whilst I can! I’ve finally seen my gastro team now which I’ll go into more detail in a sec!

I am unfortunately dealing with the dreaded pregnancy incontinence-which started at around 19-20 weeks. My midwife told me to do my pelvic floor exercises in my first appointment but I must admit I do keep forgetting! I’ve found the below video on pelvic floor exercises by Hartman Direct really useful as I sometimes kept worrying I was doing them wrong!

One thing I’ve been so pleased about however is that I’VE GAINED OVER A STONE!! Now I know that’s to be expected when you have a baby but you might know I struggle to gain weight! At my first appointment, I was 59kg (or 9 stone 3) and now I’m 65.5kg (about 10st 4/5.)I’m so pleased as I worried I might not gain much having IBD. Oh and I have started to feel the baby move! I wasn’t expecting it as early being a first-time mom, but it’s been pretty lively from around 18 weeks!

Our Scans

So we’ve had two big milestones since I last blogged: our gender scan at 16 weeks (see picture above-on our way back from it!) and our big anomaly scan at 19 weeks. First things first: I’m having a boy! Eeek!! I always wanted to find out the gender (For me, the fact I am having a baby is surprise enough, believe me!) and at 12 week scan they thought it might have been a girl. I knew it wasn’t 100% accurate but was still very shocked! Now, however, I couldn’t imagine having a girl and am so excited for our boy!

We also had the anomaly scan which was incredibly nerve-wracking! I keep mentioning how anxious I am; hopefully, that is normal? My consultant had mentioned things like the baby being potentially underweight so that was 1000% on my mind! However, they said everything looked great and all his measurements were perfectly normal for 19 weeks.

Managing IBD with pregnancy: Stopping Humira, seeing Gastro Doctor, Growth Scans Cesarean and More.

I didn’t have much of an update about my medical team when I blogged last time-and I know many of you were keen to hear how it all works with your doctors when pregnant with Crohn’s. This time I’ve seen my gastro twice and my pregnancy consultant once so I feel much more informed!

I must admit my IBD nurses did fob me off a bit and I pretty much have to force my way into the gastro doctor appointment! I have been a bit disappointed in my IBD Nurses lately but I am impressed with my doctor. When I did see him, he said I’d definitely done the right thing and you should be seen monthly when pregnant with IBD! So that’s one thing I have learnt!

We’ve discussed hospital choices and at the moment, I would like to give birth at a hospital nearer to me (not where my IBD team are based). He was fine with that but wants to be in regular contact with my pregnancy consultant so I have put them both in touch and the plan is now for them to work together. I have also learnt that you can actually request maternity tours at each hospital to give you a feel for their facilities, so I think I will do both just in case.

Humira antibodies are at the right level in my body which is reassuring. The plan remains to stop it at 26 weeks; as it’s then when it starts crossing over into the blood stream. If I am unwell, I can stay on it but it will mean my baby won’t be able to have his jabs for the first year. However, it is a bridge to cross if we come to it. We can also use steroids in this time if I need to as a backup plan. But the doctor seems confident many women can survive this period med-free.

At 27 weeks, I will then start my growth scans to keep an eye on baby. Those with IBD should usually be under consultant care and have growth scans every two weeks from this time. To be honest, I am very happy with that: the more eyes on baby the better I say! I am really happy being under a consultant rather than just the midwife for this reason.

As mentioned last time, I already know I will have a Cesarean and we also talked about potentially seeing if I can have my own room due to this and the fact I have Crohn’s.

I mention all this as I want to show how you can have extra adaptations due to having IBD-my doctor didn’t laugh at me or dismiss me. I will also be asking if I can have my partner stay overnight for this time- is not the done thing but I found out you can request it in special circumstances! For me, the chance of an IBD flare post-birth, could it make it possible.

I’m hoping for a quiet and calm christmas (keep your fingers crossed for me and my belly!) and then in the New Year, it will be time to go back to my midwife and start the growth scans at the start of Feb. I hope you all have a lovely christmas and I can’t wait to be back blogging in the new year. I have SO many ideas for new content and can’t wait to share it with you all! If there is something you’d like to see in particular, do let me know in the meantime!