Saturday, May 09, 2015

16 Weeks

Time for another monthly bump pic. Well, 4-weekly. Ish. Week 12 turned out to be almost-week-13 and this is week 16-and-a-bit. It seems so strange to think that I'm almost four months along. Every day of it has taken an age and yet part of me is thinking I can't have been pregnant that long! Steve's preferred method of tracking our progress is a percentage counter to the due date, which today tells us we're at 40%, which seems very substantial. Another alternative would be to take the long view - I'll likely live another fifty years, and worry about my Offspring every single day of that, so right now, at 16 weeks pregnant, I'm not even 1% of the way through.

Nevertheless. I'm actually going to post two pictures. Here's the official one:

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... which I don't really like. Taking these pictures against the bookcase and wearing the same outfit seemed like such a good way to definitely be able to see the progress. Instead, the outfit makes me feel self-conscious about my body and I think that's the first thing that comes across in the picture. I'm overweight and most of that weight is in the areas least flattered by leggings. The leggings were a sensible choice in that I should be able to wear them all through pregnancy but I don't want to be wearing that worried, how-enormous-does-my-bum-look grimace all the way through the record of my pregnancy.

I prefer this picture:

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... where you can actually see that there *is* a bump now. It's not huge, granted, but this weekend is the point at which my favourite jeans no longer fit comfortably and I have two small but definite stretch marks. Bumpage is definitely there. Also, while it's still not a photo that makes me look good, I'm giving the bump a cuddle and genuinely smiling about it. So in many ways, this is a much more accurate bump picture, if we're going for experience rather than pure size.

Hopefully there will exist some other happy pictures of me while I'm pregnant. A friend very kindly passed along some really nice maternity clothes which feel comfortable to wear and make me look pregnant rather than fat. There's supposed to be a lot of growing over the next few weeks, so my hope is that we go on plenty of little jaunts out and about in the sunshine during the early summer. We have a trip to Eden coming up as well.

Meanwhile I need to decide whether to give up on continuity and do the 4-weekly bump pictures in different outfits (and possibly places), or if I declare that I've Started So By The Gods I'll Finish Dammit with the vest/leggings/bookcase combo. Input welcomed!

4 comments:

Carie @ Space for the Butterflies said...

I like the idea of the continuity but I might suggest turning around- at the moment your bump definition is lost in the books, it's hard to make out a clear outline because you're black on black. Try bump outlined by the wall and back against the bookcase and see if you like it better?

Mary said...

Definitely worth a try!

The first idea about the bookcase was that we would celebrate the late, great Terry Pratchett by seeing how far along the Discworld series I grew. Our living room has the prime central row of three contiguous Billy Bookcases devoted to Pterry and it seemed appropriate.

Unfortunately the sofa is in front of the area of bookcase where the Discworld series is. Moving the sofa to take the pictures seemed excessive, as did rearranging all the books.

Your idea is good, but I wonder if the continuity would be lost anyway... I think I'll have to hope that come 20 weeks Steve has a bit more time, and then we can have a photoshoot that includes different positions and outfits. Bloody hell, I really just typed that. And I'm not sure it'll be improved by adding "and lighting setups".

Jemima said...

Hi Mary!

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS!! After following your blog for a few years, it really makes me happy. :)

Second of all, I love the idea of celebrating Terry Pratchett via baby bump. Way to start baby on the path of geekiness, hehe!

Thirdly, I apologise for falling into the annoying stereotype of people (strangers!) telling pregnant women what to do but I suggest looking into sweet almond oil as a stretch mark preventative. I've not really seen it in the UK (not really looked either, though) but it's very common in my native Portugal and both my mother and 2 friends used it during their pregnancies with great results.

Mary said...

Hi Jemima! Thank you!