Well, it's six weeks to my due date; and whilst I am technically using my holiday hours up between now and Christmas, to all intents and purposes maternity leave has begun. A is currently in Ireland for her sister's wedding and I am sitting in an empty flat, surrounded by newborn clothes and terry squares (not even born yet and all this washing!)
This week has passed by in that strange fashion of being both too fast and too slow, that anyone who has been in the position of 'use-your-holiday-hours-or-lose-them,' will be familiar with. Days are mostly filled up with daily walks into town to stay limber (with lattes at the end, as a reward - decaf, of course) coming home to laundry and emails, wandering about the house doing nothing in particular and then in bed by 9:30 (mainly because I wake at 2am most days and can't get back to sleep)
At the start of the week, I was staying with my brothers whilst mum was at a wedding (so many in November) and I finally told them about the baby. I arrived late to the house on the Thursday night and mum called my brothers into the front room saying there was something I would like to tell them. When I said I wasn't sure where to start, my stepfather suggested I start where I was and go from there. "About eight months, then?" I tried; immediately J, the older of the two, looked up at me with the beginnings of a grin. M, I had to spell it out for, since he wasn't able to make the connection. Like a number of children on the Autistic spectrum, M sometimes has difficulty with big changes but he took this news quite well, asking questions and thinking of activities he could do with his new niece once she's born. J was obviously trying to play the cool teenager *insert eye-roll* but was actually quite attentive to me all weekend: sitting in the front room with me when he would usually skulk in his room, fetching drinks and snacks for me at regular intervals. Lol, I called M over to feel baby kicking one evening, since he'd expressed an interest, and even though he didn't look up from his x-box game, J subtly shifted closer, just waiting for an invitation to take his turn.
My sister was with us for the weekend too. She actually surprised me with the amount of interest she showed, not really being a baby person herself. I think she may have bought up an entire branch of Mothercare, the number of vests, socks, muslins, and tiny two-piece outfits she presented me with on arrival. She's always said that pregnant bellies freak her out (lol) but she seemed to be okay with my tiny bump. I think it may have made a difference that I always turned away from her when baby's movements were becoming more visible and that because I've always taken care to stay hydrated and keep my skin moisturised*, I still don't have stretch marks.
At last appointment with the midwife, baby and I are both doing well. My blood pressure is back up into 'normal' range, baby's heart rate is perfect and the fundus height (basically a measurement of the uterus, taken from top of the uterus to the pubic bone) is just right. I was asked the usual questions for this stage of pregnancy: daily movement (oooh, yes!) swelling (nope) have we started a birth plan? (first draft done and it's getting reviewed regularly) anything else I'd like to talk about?
...Well, yes. I've recently started wondering if the large itchy rash that I've been struggling with for the past month (that is slowly driving me crazy) could possibly be polymorphic eruption (some people may still know it as PUPPS) Apparently, the midwife was stumped by that one. She looked it up and agreed that it did sound like polymorphic eruption of pregnancy, which typically presents in the third trimester of first pregnancies, but that she'd never seen it before. She says that if it's bothering me, I should talk to my GP about it. I'll see if I can get an appointment on Monday.
The last point we covered was that baby had not turned head down yet. At this stage, it's not a big issue but the midwife says that if baby hasn't turned by our next appointment at the start of December, we will need to book in for a presentation scan to see what she's up to. (I happen to know, based on her daily movements, that the little madam is still turning cartwheels in there; so it can't be obstruction. She just doesn't feel like it yet.)
*in case you are interested btw, I've been using Cussons Mum and Me Bump Stretch Mark Cream twice daily, since week 20 - around the time my bump started to show and my skin first started getting dry and itchy.
Saturday 22 November 2014
Monday 3 November 2014
Update (31 weeks 2 days)
Well, I've been meaning to post for a while but between work and getting ready for baby, there hasn't been much energy left to do so. This one's just a quick miscellaneous entry to catch up and I hope to begin posting a bit more reliably once I take annual leave in a couple weeks.
Baby and me: According to the books, baby weighs approximately 4lbs this week and is roughly the size of a pineapple. She's a very active little girl, her busiest periods being at breakfast, lunch, late evening and around 2/3 am.
Symptoms now I'm officially into third trimester include mainly tiredness and breathlessness as baby gets bigger and puts more strain on my body; and I'm peeing a bit more often, though it doesn't really affect day to day life so much at this stage. In the last couple weeks, I've been getting some form of acid reflux. I'm hesitant to call it heartburn, since I only really feel it in my throat, it seems to be at it's worst if I've been for more than 3 hours without eating and it is aggravated by dairy (as I found out when trying to ease it with a milk and honey remedy) At the moment I'm having some success in easing it with peppermint tea.
Parentcraft Class: Birth In October, we attended the first of our parentcraft classes; and in the two hour session on birth, we covered quite a lot of ground. This session was an open class led by our midwife and we were apparently a larger audience than she was used to - about twenty of us in all, mostly couples. The class covered early signs of labour, when to call the midwife/go to the hospital, the process of labour (with some rather amusing props) birthing positions and a discussion on common forms of pain relief.
We were a little disappointed that this was only a two hour session instead of the multi-week course they used to run, feeling we could have benefitted from separate sessions on the various topics covered (as always with the NHS, it came down to funding) but on the whole, we found it to be a positive experience. We went at a pace that covered everything neatly within the session's allotted time with most questions getting answered or referred to an appropriate and accessible source. We liked that time was taken to explain the birthing partner's role and techniques they could use to help at different stages of labour. It was especially comforting to hear the midwife offer honest accounts of her own labour and the experiences she had in supporting other women during theirs.
Bump Band: As my belly finally started to expand (the waistline still oddly narrow in proportion) I took the time to hunt around in town for a support band that would bridge the widening gap between the waistband of my trousers and the hem of my shirt (because I'm far too hot most days to dig out the winter wardrobe) What I hadn't counted on were two things:
1: There are no mother and baby shops in the city centre. You have to drive (or in our case, take the bus) to a shopping mall miles out from the city centre to find so much as a Mothercare. The alternatives for those of us who don't have all day to jump from pillar to post are either go online or hope they carry what you're after in Boots or the maternity corner of one of the department stores (yes, corner. Apparently, it's not worth a full department any more)
2. My size is apparently not big enough to be expected to need a support band. Everywhere I looked, I could find nothing for the smaller bump.
It took three stores and five staff members to eventually find something in my size.
Baby and me: According to the books, baby weighs approximately 4lbs this week and is roughly the size of a pineapple. She's a very active little girl, her busiest periods being at breakfast, lunch, late evening and around 2/3 am.
Symptoms now I'm officially into third trimester include mainly tiredness and breathlessness as baby gets bigger and puts more strain on my body; and I'm peeing a bit more often, though it doesn't really affect day to day life so much at this stage. In the last couple weeks, I've been getting some form of acid reflux. I'm hesitant to call it heartburn, since I only really feel it in my throat, it seems to be at it's worst if I've been for more than 3 hours without eating and it is aggravated by dairy (as I found out when trying to ease it with a milk and honey remedy) At the moment I'm having some success in easing it with peppermint tea.
Parentcraft Class: Birth In October, we attended the first of our parentcraft classes; and in the two hour session on birth, we covered quite a lot of ground. This session was an open class led by our midwife and we were apparently a larger audience than she was used to - about twenty of us in all, mostly couples. The class covered early signs of labour, when to call the midwife/go to the hospital, the process of labour (with some rather amusing props) birthing positions and a discussion on common forms of pain relief.
We were a little disappointed that this was only a two hour session instead of the multi-week course they used to run, feeling we could have benefitted from separate sessions on the various topics covered (as always with the NHS, it came down to funding) but on the whole, we found it to be a positive experience. We went at a pace that covered everything neatly within the session's allotted time with most questions getting answered or referred to an appropriate and accessible source. We liked that time was taken to explain the birthing partner's role and techniques they could use to help at different stages of labour. It was especially comforting to hear the midwife offer honest accounts of her own labour and the experiences she had in supporting other women during theirs.
Bump Band: As my belly finally started to expand (the waistline still oddly narrow in proportion) I took the time to hunt around in town for a support band that would bridge the widening gap between the waistband of my trousers and the hem of my shirt (because I'm far too hot most days to dig out the winter wardrobe) What I hadn't counted on were two things:
1: There are no mother and baby shops in the city centre. You have to drive (or in our case, take the bus) to a shopping mall miles out from the city centre to find so much as a Mothercare. The alternatives for those of us who don't have all day to jump from pillar to post are either go online or hope they carry what you're after in Boots or the maternity corner of one of the department stores (yes, corner. Apparently, it's not worth a full department any more)
2. My size is apparently not big enough to be expected to need a support band. Everywhere I looked, I could find nothing for the smaller bump.
It took three stores and five staff members to eventually find something in my size.
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