Goodness me it’s been another month since my last update. Hopefully this won’t be the last one but you never know with these babies, they have a mind of their own.
Since the last update I’ve had an emergency hospital visit, a baby shower, a week away at Centre Parcs and started maternity leave, let me bring you up to speed…
Week – We are now 36+5 weeks along which means we have just over 3 weeks till our due date. We’ve already passed the one month to go mark which occurred whilst we were away at Centre Parcs.
There’s a lot of debate on the internet around which weeks relate to which month in pregnancy but I found that most sites and forums agree that week 26-40 is month 9. With your due date signalling the end of the 9th month and anything over that making you overdue. So, that’s what I’m going to work with as it makes sense to me.
You know what that means…I am now 9 months pregnant! This is crazy and amazing all at the same time. We found out we were expecting at 6 weeks, that’s 30 weeks ago!
Babies Growth – Baby now weighs approximately 5lbs, I saw the midwife again today and she confirmed that baby and bump are perfect size for my stage and everything is on track. Baby is also in the correct position, her back on my right hand side and head down. She’s actually very very low at today’s inspection. Will she come early? Who knows, we’re ready if she is…
In terms of activity, we had a scare back at 33 weeks where I had felt very reduced movements for about 48 hours and worked myself up to such a state. We were asked to come down to the hospital for an emergency check up and spent 4 hours there making sure all was OK. Lots of heart beat and movement monitoring, graphs being referred to the on duty head doctor and eventually we were given the all clear that everything was fine. Typically after being stimulated by the machines, baby started moving normally again and I felt a bit of a fraud but the midwives were so lovely and said I should come back immediately if I had any other concerns.
Since then, she’s been pretty busy especially when I am just sitting about watching TV or lying in bed. Almost all of her movements are on the right side of my belly and I can actually feel her rolling around and sometimes it feels like she’s doing the ‘worm’. If I am very still I can sometimes see my belly pop, not hugely like some ladies do but everyone is different and the movements I can see seem to be normal for me and this baby.
Weight Changes – I’m actually a little excited to write this one this time. I’ve still gained since my last update and am now up to a total gain of 36lbs since finding out we were expecting, 30 weeks ago! I am still weighing myself on a Monday evening for consistency even though I am at home now. I didn’t get to weigh in last week as we were in the forest at Centre Parcs so when I weighed in tonight I was expecting to be facing 2 weeks worth of gain. Amazingly I maintained!! The first time I have maintained since I was 15 weeks, so happy with that! I now weigh the same as I did at 34 weeks and I am sure all the walking and hill climbing at Centre Parcs has really helped with that.
Obviously I am expecting to continue to gain as we go through the last couple of weeks as this is when baby really packs on the pounds so if I am still the same next week I will mention it to my midwife but she was happy with my growth at today’s appointment.
Symptoms – These have ramped up in the last few weeks and I must say I’m starting to be over it a little. Baby has dropped down into my pelvis which although normal at this stage now means that she just feels very heavy. My bump actually feels like a weight I am carrying around now rather just part of me. It’s putting pressure on my back and causing a LOT of pressure ‘down there’. It’s particularly bad at night when I am lying down and for about 2 weeks now I have been wide awake at 4am with back pain that I just can’t shift.
The swelling in my legs and feet have continued to be pretty rough and sometimes I’ve had to make a little ramp at the bottom of the bed at night to raise my feet above my heart when lying down otherwise they are still swollen in the morning. I spoke to the midwife at the hospital about this when I was there for the movement checks and she confirmed that as long as the swelling does reduce to some degree they don’t worry about it.
I’ve also had to give up on my rings, I am so sad not to be able to wear my wedding or engagement ring but throughout the day my fingers become so swollen that it is just painful to wear them and I am more likely to lose them if I keep taking them off. I’ve not worn my rings for a few days now and still have the dent in my finger.
Midwife check-up – I saw the midwife again today to discuss a birth plan and check on baby. Turns out the best birth plan might be no plan at all. We’ve agreed that I will have baby at the QA Hospital and providing nothing changes between now and go time I will be able to go to midwife led unit rather than the labour ward. I didn’t really understand the difference until we attended our first Anti-Natal class tonight which was all about labour and pain relief options. Eek! There’s a lot to know! Anyway I definitely like the idea of the midwife led unit as there is a lot more freedom to do what you want rather than be stuck in a bed on a busy ward where there are ladies in high risk situations who need a lot more specialist care.
The midwife also measured my bump and felt baby’s position, she confirmed she is in the right place but is very very low down. This could be a sign that she will come early but there is really no way to know as she might just be comfy and decide to stay put.
Only item of concern is that there is a higher than normal white blood cell count in my pee which suggests I am fighting off an infection, although I haven’t had an symptoms of an infection I still need to take another pee sample to my GP to be tested to see if I need anti-biotics.
In other news – I had my baby shower two weeks ago and it was so lovely. Everyone came and made such an effort, everyone took a guess as to when they think little lady will make her appearance. Almost everyone thinks she will be early and after today’s check up they just might be right. We’re ready though, car seat is installed and hospital bag is packed (see my earlier post for details of what I have packed). We played some baby shower games and ate a lot of cake, baby girls was super spoilt with some truly lovely gifts.
The baby shower also opened up the flood gates for us to go clothes shopping, we had held off buying a single thing as we didn’t want to go over board and have lots of duplicate items from gifts. I’m not going to lie, it was so hard not to look at clothes but we stayed strong. Until the day after the shower, then I went a little mad and we now have a wardrobe filled with beautiful little outfits, baby grows and cosy winter fluffies to keep her toasty. It’s all been washed, which by the way is the only type of laundry that I am happy to do as it’s all just so cute hanging in the conservatory drying.
I’ve also started my maternity leave (2 weeks holiday so technically maternity leave starts on 3rd October) and we spent the first week of it at Longleat Centre Parcs celebrating my mum’s 60th birthday which is later in October but who wants to go the forest in October. It was such a lovely week with family, seeing my aunts and uncles and everyone getting to do activities they wouldn’t normally do. There was very little I could take part in but I did play a little table tennis, pool and bowling on the Wii at the lodge. There was also a LOT of walking, the forest is such a beautiful setting but my goodness it’s hilly. No matter which direction you walked in there was an uphill climb at some point and I was so slow. Kev even resorted to pushing me up some of the hills when I lost momentum and came almost to a stop.
Whilst at Centre Parcs my Mum had a Spa Day with her sisters to celebrate her birthday, obviously being pregnant I wan’t able to participate in 90% of it as the sauna rooms and hot tubs are not suitable. As a treat instead my Mum booked me for a ‘Mum To Be’ pamper which included a leg and foot massage to help reduce water retention (Lord knows I need that), a belly mask to help moisturise and reduce appearance of stretch marks and a facial. It was so relaxing but I don’t think baby was very impressed with the cold feeling of the mask, she was kicking like crazy which is very distracting when you’re trying to enjoy a facial. It was such a lovely afternoon and we were all so chilled out when we left that I almost didn’t notice the 30 min uphill walk back to the lodge…
I had such a lovely last day at work, the team bought baby girl some lovely gifts and my colleague made a beautiful cake that was devoured before 11am. Not all by me by the way…I did practically nothing all day as all of my work had been allocated to other members of the team so all I really did was eat food and chat to everyone I won’t get to see for a few weeks before I get to take little lady for a visit.
I think that’s everything from the last month, wow, a lot happened and a lot has changed. I still can’t believe this pregnancy could come to an end at any point. On one hand I’m not ready mentally for labour or the thought of not being pregnant anymore but then again, I just want us to have our baby in our arms, to give her cuddles and bring her home.
Let’s see if I manage another update before she makes her grand entrance…
Rachel xx
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