Update

I am so lazy! It has been ages since writing down what has been happening in this pregnancy journal. Happily, this is mostly because things have been pretty pleasant and smooth. Some milestones/events:

* After patiently waiting night after night with his hand on my belly, my husband felt a good strong kick from Pudding. It was the largest one I have felt to date, so he was very lucky! Admittedly, it did occur after I had eaten a large serve of melted cooking chocolate (just had a craving for chocolate and it was all that was in the house!).
· We had our first midwife appointment with the family birthing suite. All went well, except when she tried to hear Pudding’s heartbeat through the Doppler and couldn’t find it for about 20 minutes – I think my heart was standing still for a good 10 minutes. She finally called in another midwife who pocked and prodded and found Pudding hiding behind the placenta. Cheeky little thing!
· I finally got a haircut. I was so ashamed of walking into my salon considering the state of my hair that I wore it tied back and wouldn’t remove the tie until I explained to my hairdresser why my hair was so horrible (‘I got pregnant and haven’t been to the hairdresser since’).
· We went to a musical over the weekend (Sweet Charity) and I think Pudding loved it; especially the part when everyone applauded – Pudding must have been trying to applaud with us judging by the movement I was feeling.
· My belly is growing daily, yesterday I noticed I could no longer do up the top two buttons of my overcoat (the bottom one had not been done up in about a month). It’s ok, the worst of winter is behind us now!

OK, think that sums it up. Must remember to be more diligent in recording this pregnancy as I am already over halfway and I think the rest will go by just as fast!

20 weeks 4 days

Ultrasound

10 fingers,
10 toes,
2 kidneys,
2 eyes,
1 nose,
1 mouth,
stunning profile,
long legs,
strong heart,
cute footprints,
likes to move a lot.

Our perfect baby!

Our little one wouldn’t sit still for long enough for the doctor to take measurements at the ultrasound, which was fine with us as it just meant longer we got to watch the amazing being on the screen in front of us as he/she wriggled, sucked his/her thumb and rolled around. We have a great 20 minute DVD (which of course we have watched and re-watched) showing incredible detail of the ultrasound. The doctor was lovely and kept saying she could watch our baby all day because it was perfect!

Our baby seems to have Mum’s height as he/she was measuring a little ahead of our 19 week 1 day mark (19 weeks 6 days). But the best news of all, our baby is healthy and no anomalies were found.

My husband almost succumbed at the last minute and asked if the baby would be a footy player or ballerina, but then decided to stick to our ‘surprise’ stance. We have offcourse tried to determine it since by watching the DVD back and pausing it is opportune places! To our untrained eyes it looks like a girl in some positions and a boy in others. Guess we find out in about 20 weeks anyway!

Hospital

The hospital visit was fantastic. It really made all this ‘baby’ and ‘pregnancy’ stuff seem real. I had an introductory meeting with both a midwife and an obstetrician and was happy to see the words ‘low risk’ and ‘normal’ written many times throughout my patient folder. I got to hear my baby’s heartbeat on the Doppler – that was amazing and very reassuring.

Only two downsides to the experience:

I had to get weighed… OMG, I have put on so much weight! I am now (cringe) 89.25 kg (with winter weight clothes and shoes on – does that make it any better?!). Mitigating factor: I am 6 foot tall, so my BMI is 27 so it is just inside ‘overweight’ if I was not pregnant and ‘healthy’ since I am 19 weeks pregnant.

However, I am officially (slightly) heavier than my husband. Aaaarrrgh!

Other (and less superficial) downside was getting a pap smear test done. I was so nervous my blood pressure went up to 180/70, and I kept asking for reassurance that it would not pose any threat what-so-ever to my baby.

I was told to expect light bleeding after the test, and always the optimist, I expected, light bleeding. You know, maybe a few, hard to discern speckles of blood… What I did not expect was that they should have given me a pad after the test because my undies were so badly stained I will have throw them out!

Thankfully all the blood came at once and despite several trips to the loo per hour for the rest of the day (and well into the evening), no more ‘spotting’ occurred.

So, after being told about how ‘normal’ and ‘low risk’ my pregnancy was I was offered to elect to use the Family Birthing Suite rather than the normal labour ward.

I sounded quite good, my husband will be able to sleep in the room with us for our stay and will be fed too, the rooms look a lot more like a bedroom than a hospital and I will be guaranteed my own private room, and all my visits from now on will be with the small team of midwives (a couple will be with the obstetrician of their unit) who will be there to deliver the baby.

The midwives let you decide how much pain relief you need, but they advocate other techniques such as massage, music and movement being used first. In the suite they are able to give labouring women gas and pethidine but not epidural. I wanted to avoid epidural anyway (if possible – I have no idea how bad the pain will be though) and if for some reason I wanted/needed it I can be wheeled upstairs into the normal labour ward.

Ditto for if something goes ‘wrong’ in the labour (or in the pregnancy meanwhile which would make me a higher than ‘low’ risk), I can just be accepted upstairs with no drama.

It all sounds great, but I am still a little worried. All the machines for monitoring the baby in normal labour wards are deemed not necessary in the birthing unit, however midwives check using the Doppler every half hour and I have read that by not using the machines the nurses will monitor other signs more closely and not rely on the machines as much as they can in labour wards.

My other concerns are that I can only stay in the birthing suite 1 or 2 nights after the baby is delivered (I can go into a normal labour bed afterwards is something is wrong, or if I feel I need more time to rest & recover), and that I won’t be able to bear the pain (although I really hate the sound of an epidural anyway, not so much the needle bit – although that is icky – but not being able to feel my legs scares me and I have heard the experience of not knowing when to ‘push’ can take away from the labour experience.

So I signed up for the Family Birthing Suite, I hope I am making the right decision… I guess I can always change my mind.

Any comments/opinions on this type of labour?

19 weeks

A shopping trip is in order

Happily, my belly is growing daily and I am starting to struggle to find any of my previous clothes I can fit into. I have a small selection of maternity wear that I will have to add to soon.

My lovely husband bought me a beautiful maternity dress to wear to my Mum’s 50th last weekend. The ladies in the shop told him it would flatter my newly found breasts and accentuate my growing bump. And boy, did it do what it was supposed to! I went from being a little rounded in the waist to looking like I had swallowed a basketball!

It was nice. My Mum was happy, she keeps telling me how ‘respectable’ my bump is and she wanted to show it off to all the guests at her birthday.

I am very excited as I have my first hospital visit this Friday and another ultrasound next Tuesday. I am getting anxious that all is well with Pudding as it has been so long between ultrasounds, and I look forward to seeing the little mite.

18 weeks 1 day

Aches, pains and twitches

I always knew that having a child would be painful, but had no idea that growing a child would be too.

My abdomen constantly has aches and pains not dissimilar to premenstrual pain. Thought I'd gotten myself out of that kind of pain for a good 9 months - obviously not!

The newest abdomen feeling started last week when I was at the cinemas. I started to get a twitch, like the annoying kind you might get in your eye when you are over tired.

But I have never had a twitch in my uterus before.

After careful examination I have deduced that it is in fact my little one kicking/punching me to let me know he/she is having fun in there.

At least this twitch is adorable rather than annoying!

Food glorious food

I don't know if it is 'normal' but I have started getting even hungrier than normal.

Pre-pregnancy I always had breakfast (2 slices of toast with Vegemite) as soon as I woke up, and then 'twoosies': my second breakfast (4 weet-bix with milk and a piece of fruit) just after getting into work.

This no longer satisfies me until lunch time. So I have taken to having 4 slices of toast when I wake up in the morning! Overkill? Maybe, but it is better than attacking the cookie jar at work at 11.30 a.m. when I can't stand waiting for lunch any longer!

Many people ask me about my cravings during pregnancy - I haven't have any crazy ones like books and movies seem to portray (does anyone have them? Let me know if you have/had some good ones). But I am addicted to 3 things:

1. orange juice - I could happily drink 3 litres a day if it weren't so expensive (I always liked O.J. especially when I had a hang over pre-pregnancy, it was the only thing that would make me feel better again)
2. eggs - I just love them any time of the day!
3. grainy bread - goes well with the eggs.

See, they are all pretty normal things to like. Not exactly 'ice-cream and pickles' though is it?!

17 weeks today