Week 14

Mum

Welcome to the second trimester! The next three months will be the most enjoyable part of the pregnancy. Your energy levels will be up, your sex drive will return, and while your bump is finally beginning to show, it’s not making you heavy or uncomfortable yet. Your morning sickness should have gone away. Best of all, you don’t need to go to the bathroom as often as you did in the first three months or as often as you will have to in months eight and nine.

Spoil yourself and your partner, you both deserve it. Take that last pre-children holiday. Have a spa treatment (just to be on the safe side, avoid soaks in hot water, and aromatherapy oils). Have a movie marathon while drinking mocktails and sparkling grape juice. Enjoy!

Dad

In the second trimester, with the baby bump finally noticeable, you’re probably feeling like this whole fatherhood lark may actually be happening, and happening to you. No pressure, but as a dad, expect to have a huge impact on your child’s life right from the moment he or she is born, and even before (more about talking to the bump on a special daddy-to-baby telephone later).
If you are like most New Zealand fathers, you will probably spend a lot more time with your baby than your father or grandfather ever did. It will doubtlessly give you an enormous sense of meaning and purpose. However, there are only 24 hours in a day. You will want to spend many of them with the baby. You will also need to sleep, eat, and maybe even have a shower (or, in parents-of-a-new-born-baby language: Indulge in a luxury known as … wait for it … wait for it … a shower). Add to it the very real time commitment of earning money for three and helping out with household chores … would even Superman cope?
Superman might not, but you will. Every dad does, which is why every dad is miles better than Superman. Don’t worry, you still have half a year to figure out how to do it. You might need to spend some time figuring out how to manage your work-life balance once the baby arrives. The resulting bond you forge with your child will be well worth the effort.

Baby

You may be as big as a lemon, but you’re anything but a lemon, trust me. You are awesome. You are fantastic. You rock. Your facial muscles have learnt to squint, frown and grimace. Your kidneys are processing pee. You even try to suck your thumb! And your neck is looking more like a neck. Wow!