This entry is somewhat Australia-centric (and doesn’t even take into account the tropics), but it’s what I know. Extrapolate at will. It’s all about my experiences of the advantages and disadvantages of the seasons.
Winter: First Trimester
Most women are nauseous in first trimester. For me, nausea makes me cold. This translated to massive electricity bills. On the up side, it gets two types of misery (nausea and cold) over right at the start. Also, it’s very easy to hide one’s baby belly when wearing Winter clothes (which many people choose to do for at least the first three months). Plus, if you are in first trimester in Winter, it means that when your baby is starting on solid foods (and thus on much smellier nappies) it will be Winter again – and therefore things will be less stinky in the outside bin.
Spring: Second Trimester
This worked really well for me, because the second trimester is the best time to do every type of baby preparation – shopping, moving furniture, doing extra work (a nice plan), and so on. Spring makes everything easier, which hopefully means stuff gets done before third trimester sets in.
Sidebar: It’s not all that great a time to actually give birth, because it’s just so common. Maternity wards are always over-full nine months after the holiday period.
Summer: Third Trimester
A lot of women get extremely hot when pregnant – especially in third trimester – which is a disadvantage (personally I’ve been fine, but Summer hasn’t really struck yet). The other down side is that every pregnancy involves extra fat (you’re meant to put on 12-15 kilos, of which 7-9 kilos aren’t even in your belly area), and that can make the pregnant woman feel insecure about wearing sleeveless tops and so on (which reminds me, I shall be posting a large number of pregnancy outfits from week 20 to week 38 very soon).
Summer is great for clothing, because dresses are the most comfortable and versatile type of maternity wear (far more adjustable than pants, for example), and they’re also cooler than almost anything else. The whole difficulty of taking shoes and pants on and off is very easily solved by dresses and slip-on shoes (the shoes in particular make life a lot easier).
For anyone who works in education, having a baby in the Christmas holidays is really handy for giving you a natural kind of maternity leave. It’s not so nice for the kid, who will often have friends away on holiday during their birthday, and/or get those dodgy “combined Christmas and birthday” presents.
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As I grow less and less active, my nausea is not as bad (although the range of foods that gross me out seems to be getting bigger). It’s getting replaced by muscle pain (which I’m now more or less used to) and that wacky drugged-out pregnant-lady fatigue. I’ve gotta say, the switch from nausea to fatigue is SO NICE. I was deeply afraid my ability to drive, walk, and think would be impaired – which they are, severely, and sooner than expected – but on my most tired days I just don’t care any more.
It’s not so nice for CJ, who is physically ill with the stress of all the usual life stuff plus doing almost all my chores in addition to his own (again) plus the knowledge that he’s fast becoming the only mental or physical adult in a household of three.
Six weeks until the due date.
See the milk bottle in the above picture? Louisette already weighs more than that.