Had our tour tonight. Interesting but lengthy and didn't learn an awful lot more than I knew already. But it was nice to see where this baby will come into the world! Not as nice as St Thomas's private wing which I had the luxury of staying in after D was born, but OK nonetheless :-)
Earlier today I had a massage and she worked at my lower back muscles which yesterday were hurting so much I could barely move. It feels a great deal better now. I've arranged for dad to go and see her when he comes so that she can work on his frozen shoulder, which she apparently is very good at. Well, she has changed my life. Before I started going to see her I couldn't conceive of leaving home without a tub of Tylenol in my purse incase I got one of my horrendous & frequent headaches. I've now been headache free for the longest I can remember in my entire life which is just amazing. I'm definitely going to continue going to visit her after the baby is born.
So after going to 'look' at the Bugaboo Stroller yesterday, I obviously ended up bringing one home - because that's the kind of silly thing I tend to do (spend vast amounts of money ($1500 in this case) on things I don't really need).
It is *very smart* though! I bought the black one. It's now assembled and ready to go in the hallway! It was apparently one of 6 in Ontario and they had only had them a day and expected to sell them immediately.
Had alot of Braxton Hicks contractions last night which were lasting a good few seconds each. Thought for a minute I might be going into labour but no such luck of course!
It's getting so close! Apparently the baby is now filling up a ton of space in my belly - no shit. But overall I'm still feeling pretty good. I do feel like the bump has grown slightly over the last few days and he's still as active as ever which gets a little more uncomfortable each day.
I still can't shake this wretched cold I got 3 or 4 weeks ago. I'm constantly blowing my nose and my lungs feel very congested. I don't know if this is usual in late pregnancy or what, but I wish it would stop.
It's very gloomy outside today so I think I'm just going to potter around indoors doing a few chores. Oh, and go and check out this very expensive stroller that I have my eye on.
I have one of these apparently common spurts of nearing-the-due-date energy going on this weekend, combined with an insane need to GET THIS PLACE CLEAN AND TIDY. I decided that the basement had to be sorted out - it looked like World War 3 had taken place down there. Basically every toy that D owns (which, believe me, is on a par with Toys R Us for volume) was out, on the floor, in pieces, separated from the other pieces, and it was absolute mayhem. It serves me right for not going down there often enough, but something needed to be done & done soon. Not least to make room for some of the baby toys and gear which had to be sorted through and made ready for the little one.
Enlisting G's help yesterday we began to go through some of the many cardboard boxes which had previously had bits of different toys thrown randomly into them. After a couple of hours we began to get fed up and G suggested we should go out and buy storage containers (avoidance tactic) so I agreed and we nipped out. Coming home, G then made an arrangement with our neighbour to do the driveway blackening thing that needs doing here. I wasn't particularly chuffed as we had left the basement in a possibly worse state than it was when we started, but the drive needed doing too. The drive then proceeded to take from 3pm to Midnight. Well, 3-9 followed by 3 hours of heavy drinking by them & the others who congregated outside last night, present company of course excluded from the alcohol. So, coming to bed at 12 obviously meant the basement needed TO BE CONTINUED today.
Up early this morning and spent the entire day getting it done - finally finished around 4.30pm. Looks great, worth the effort. Went out to buy dinner, cooked dinner, and then went for a walk around the block during which I felt like I was about to give birth.... the baby seemed to be very low and I could do little more than waddle painfully and hope that I could get home! I guess I overdid it a little today :) I'm going to relax now & watch Eastenders!
I was saying to G today that this pregnancy has gone remarkably smoothly and well. By this point when I was having D, I was so big & so uncomfortable that I could do little more than lie around all day catching naps when possible and wishing the days away until 'The Due Date'. This time things are completely different. I'm enjoying the last days as a family of 3, and spending some quality time with D. Physically I'm remarkably well - for example, today I got up and we made a start on clearing out the basement. Needed some storage containers so went out to buy some, came back, did a few more hours hard labour down there, came back upstairs, did some stuff outside, and am about to now cook dinner. Sure, things are not quite so easy to do as when not pregnant such as bend down to pick something off the floor, but mostly I can cope with anything that the day throws at me without too much bother.
I'm sleeping well again, waking only once or twice in the night for a loo visit. I have some heartburn and a small amount of pain in my pelvic area from the pressure of the baby, a green tummy from bruising, but otherwise I'm perfectly OK and cannot complain. I am even walking regularly with the dog. Oh, I missed out another negative.... yesterday during a coughing fit I wet myself a little....lol. But that's part and parcel of normal pregnancy, pressure on the bladder, etc. G was far more horrified when I told him than I was!
I'm sitting here right now in my usual position of feet up on the desk with the keyboard half resting on my bump. As I write, the baby is moving around so that the keyboard wibbles & wobbles :)
Please cross your fingers for me that everything continues to go well !
Don't go and see The Stepford Wives remake. Truly bad. We went last night as part of G's birthday treat. It was great to get out (D happily stayed with a babysitter) - we went for Thai food at our favourite Thai place, and met up with some friends there. The food was awesome and everyone really enjoyed it. One friend had brought a cake for G & he was very touched by the whole evening surprise. After dinner - the movie. I also discovered that sitting for however many hours in a cinema chair when you're 8+something months pregnant is really difficult, especially if you're extremely full up from eating too much food. Also the movie wasn't too gripping so my concentration was more focussed on my discomfort and the continual dropping of my busted wallet and losing of my credit cards that I managed to do throughout the movie.
Today have been running some errands - got my car cleaned (in and out) and had my eyebrows waxed. This whole 'beauty' routine is funny, I've never been into it until recently and I can see why people spend so much time and effort (and money) on it because once you start you seem to need to go again more often. The problem for me is I find it mostly extremely tedious. I don't get much in the way of enjoyment from lying there while my face is pummelled or sitting for hours watching my toe nail polish dry. I know many people do enjoy it, but I don't..... I don't even like getting my hair done because I get stir crazy sitting for hours waiting for it to be coloured or whatever. Still, I suppose we must suffer to be gorgeous, and it's worthwhile making a small effort during pregnancy when the rest of my body is so big and icky! My cousin was saying she had a fake tan done the other day, by a beautician. I couldn't face having anyone SEE my body right now, let alone touch it!
Hectic Day.
9am - High Risk Clinic appointments. Saw the nurse and I've LOST WEIGHT! Only 1.5lb but I'm still very surprised, I have not been eating differently --infact worse! The nurse said it's absolutely not a cause for concern. My BP is 90/70 - on the low side of normal. Saw the OB next, and she was very nice, even let Dylan use the Doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat which he was absolutely thrilled with. She measured me and said I'm measuring at 34 wks (which I am) so this baby has definitely stopped gaining at a great rate of knots, which is good. Heart sounds good! I asked her about pain relief after the c/section -- recalling that after D they'd only give me something crap like Tylenol or Voltarol and it didn't touch the pain. Here you get Tylenol 3's and Advil combined - fannntastic. Gotta love the narcotics! Endocrin next and sugars are fine!
Drove home and dropped off G (who had come to get a blood test done) and D, and went straight to see the Dermatologist about my itchy arm. He diagnosed 'NeuroDermatitis' and prescribed me with some super strong cream. He also informed me why I have darker skin on the one arm.. it's called a 'Beckers Nevus' and sadly there is no cure either medically or cosmetically other than chopping off my arm.
Home.
Lunch.
Massage. Very nice - needed it this week.
Home.
Pedicure. My first. Feet now look *amazing*. Am going to go every 4 wks.
Home.
Shower.
Evening Festivities for G's birthday starting in 1 hr.
I'm blooming knackered already!
D and I surprised G with a bike for his birthday, which he's been wanting for a while! D is excited too because it means he gets to go on bike rides with his dad.
Buying the bike when 8 months pregnant was an experience. On Monday we went to buy it, and it came in a box and needed some assembling doing (front wheel, pedals, handlebars etc). The guy at the shop loaded it into my car for me as I couldn't lift it. When we got back I realised I couldn't get it out of the car either but fortunately one of my neighbours was on hand to put it into the garage for me. We cunningly disguised it behind some other boxes.
Yesterday I got fretful that it was a bit crappy to say 'Happy Birthday G, your present is in a box in the corner of the garage'... but I obviously couldn't move the thing and didn't fancy building it myself (as it would fall apart very quickly!) so when I was getting D off the bus I asked a couple of the dads if either of them could help me out. Thankfully one of them was happy to, so he came over in the afternoon and built it for us! What a star! He carried it upstairs and we hid it in the spare room with a ribbon on until this morning when D & I wheeled it into G to surprise him.
As the bike was under construction yesterday, my helpful neighbours kid was playing with D and then another kid from the street showed up so the 3 of them went inside to play XBox. When my helpful bike builder had to go and do a few errands before his wife came home his son wanted to stay so I said he could... and the other kid stayed too, along with his babysitter (who is a young girl with absolutely nothing to say and extracting conversation from her was like pulling teeth). The kids got a bit lary and trashed the house so I suggested they go outside. Outside turned into a wrestling match too so I decided they ought to learn to play cricket - a nice gentlemanly relaxing game. Or not. The game involved alot of me running after the ball which at this point in my pregnancy was I'm sure a very funny sight, and the kids rugby tackling each other whenever anyone tried to get a run.
Consequently I was absolutely utterly & exhausted by the end of the day!
G has gone into work this morning but will be home this afternoon to spend his birthday with us. I also have another birthday surprise for him but that's coming tomorrow. I need to clean up the house but cannot face it - wondering if I can stick 2 weeks of it until the Molly Maid comes or if I will have to cave in before that. My nesting instinct is here again and I'm freaking out about the state of the basement. Have told G he must clean it this weekend!
Bump news - my bump seems oddly smaller. I guess the baby has shifted position slightly or something. Slept well again last night too except for lower back pain.
Since my Fragmin dose was increased to 7500IU's my stomach and hip area have returned to an extremely bruised state. I'm thinking I need to wear green to co-ordinate with the nasty looking injection sites that are now covering my abdomen. That reminds me, I must go and get my prescription today.
D and I went out to sort out G's birthday yesterday and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of the day from so much walking around. This did have a positive effect on last nights sleeping pattern though - 8 hrs without waking! A miracle!
Thursday is yet another day of appointments this week; I have the High Risk Clinic first thing followed by a Dermatologist appointment about my perpetually itchy right arm, followed by a massage (which I need badly this week due to achey lower back pain).
On another note - G and I are absolutely loving having Eastenders back! I know it sounds sad, but it's a link to the UK which we'd missed greatly when it was taken off the air by BBC America. It's something that's completely missable when you're at home, but when you move away it's somehow like looking into a window of life back where you came from. OK yep, it sounds sad.
4 weeks isn't long really is it? But it feels like forever sometimes. Apparently the baby, at 34 wks gestation now has a 99% chance of survival outside the womb - yay! :)
I think the baby has also 'dropped' slightly over the last few days. My bump seems to be a little lower and my pelvic area is slightly more uncomfortable when moving around. D didn't really drop much at all and 2nd babies invariably don't so I'm not expecting him to drop down too low, which by all accounts is a relief otherwise you end up feeling like you've a giant watermelon between your legs! Plus, if he did drop down low into position I think I'd feel more uncomfortable about the idea of a c/section, there's something a little bizarre about having to lift him back up and out.
Physical discomforts remain about the same. I've had a little more sleep over the last couple of days, I still have a cold, the heartburn is a little worse and I'm now on 2 x Zantac daily, and my need to pee frequently is no better. My memory is definitely getting bad, I'm absolutely incapable of retaining any information. I am also finding it increasingly difficult to walk around too far, the shopping that we did over the weekend was exhausting. I have more to do today as well as D & I need to go and get G's birthday presents for Wednesday.
Fathers Day today - G was extremely touched by D's presents.... some cute things he had made at school, a basket ball net and ball + a photo of himself. I bought him an hour long massage at the Massage Therapist I go to. D's card was very funny, he put that his dad was 40 yrs old and his favourite thing to do was WORK. I hope G realises this is how his kid sees him, and stops working too hard! :-)
We popped out this afternoon and ended up getting a pressure washer thing from Crappy Tire so obviously G then spent the next couple of hours washing down various things outside the house!
Hoping D can go back to school for the last 3 days of term tomorrow. He isn't too keen but there's no physical reason he shouldn't. I think he's embarassed of the pox scabs over his body, but they're not contagious at all now. I could do with the morning lie-in!
Still feeling crappy, bad sniffles, cough, sweats, etc. D's pox are starting to clear up though, which is good news. They've gone all dark and scabbed over, and are beginning to disappear. Now comes the itching!
One of D's school friends came over yesterday afternoon and I ended up chatting with his mother for a while which was nice - I made a new friend (awww). Later in the day we were outside so D could play and chatting with our friends across the street who have a very difficult son that suffers from ADHD and they think Asperger Syndrome too. He's hard work and can be (and is increasingly) very aggressive. He has constantly hurt D in the past and D has never stuck up for himself so I have been trying to drum into him that he must hit back. I don't like to encourage him to be violent but I think this kid needs to learn that if he hurts D, he's going to get hurt himself. Anyway, the kid thumps D twice and D is v upset. Then he comes after him again so I say (in full view of the kids father) 'Hit him back' and D thumps him good and proper twice on the back of the neck. Kid runs off hysterically crying. Good one son!!! Later, D asks if he can have a gold star for hitting him (what do you say to that!!)
After spending an hour this morning cleaning up D's old Pram, we did some more shopping for the nursery today. Didn't need much - a mobile for the crib and a couple of baskets to throw nappies and such like into. Obviously came away several hundred dollars poorer and with bags full of all manner of things we suddenly discovered we 'needed'. PBK has alot to answer for.
Tomorrow is Fathers Day and D has some cute things for his dad that he made at school. I have something else for him that I think he'll like, and I can't wait for him to see the card that D's done for him (more on that tomorrow!). Annoying thing about Fathers Day is that no doubt I'll have to get up first in the morning and get the coffee on!
I feel bloody awful. My head hurts, my nose is streaming, everything is woolly, I'm tired, I'm hot with a fever, and I want it to stop NOW. The light at the end of the tunnel for me today is that I have a massage at 3.30pm and G will actually BE AT HOME so that I can LEAVE THE HOUSE.
I ended up sleeping in D's room last night so that I could get some uninterrupted sleep (if you discount the 4 visits to the loo) without D waking me -- leaving G to cope with him if he woke as he was insisting on sleeping in our bed still due to his poxyness. I don't know if it helped me because I still feel crappy, but I guess I got more sleep than I have been having so maybe I do feel better only I don't know it yet due to this poxy cold.
Last night I went to the Drug Store to get my new prescription for Fragmin. I'd phoned it in 2 days earlier, knowing that they have to order it, and was told it was ready so I drove over there and was handed 1 box of 5 needles.
Ummm, no, my prescription was for 6 wks worth???
No, this is what you need.
No, it is not, I need 42 needles not 5.
No, this is correct
No, it is not
Hang on, let us check
............................................................................PAUSE FOR 10 MINS
OK, sorry, we did the order wrong. We'll have to order them again.
Hang on while we process it through again.
............................................................................ANOTHER LONG WAIT
That'll be $99.95 please
You're kidding? For 6 wks worth of needles? ($99.95 is 10% of the cost, meaning the actual cost is $995).
Sorry, yep, these are more expensive than what you had before
If this pregnancy doesn't kill me it'll bankrupt me.
Meanwhile, during the extremely lengthy waiting around in the drug store I ended up talking to a woman who was getting a prescription for Fragmin too. She seemed extremely anxious and freaked out by it so I was able to put her mind at rest and answer some questions she had about where to inject, and that there wouldn't be too much bruising (even had to get my enormous belly out and show her!) and she seemed extremely relieved to be able to discuss it with someone. Turns out she was pregnant but had suffered lots of prior miscarriages.
It's 3 years today since I moved to Canada!
To celebrate this event, I'm feeling ropey. I am coming down with a nasty cold, bit of a fever and stuffy head / nose, and I'm exhausted from too little sleep. No matter what time I go to bed, I don't get to sleep until around 1.30am because the baby goes absolutely nutty for an hour or so around that time, and I need to visit the loo every 5 minutes as a result. Then on top of that, the last 3 nights I've been woken by poor D who's suffering with his Chicken Pox..... last night at 3.30am he fell out of bed and hurt himself so we were awake for a while as a result. And G has been going into work early this week so there's no chance of a lie-in for me.
Poor D is now absolutely covered from head to toe in red spots. Some of them have crusted over which is good, it means they're on their way out, but others are appearing by the minute. It's very strange, Chicken Pox, a bizarre illness covering your body in horrid sores.... and largely harmless other than the itching! I'm having a hard time pursuading D not to scratch, I'm the scratch police at the moment and constantly berating him for doing so. Which of course he can't understand, it itches! He won't get into the Aveeno Oatmeal Bath either which really helps with the itching, because he says it's like bathing in porridge and you're not supposed to bathe in porridge.
A couple of friends have lent me summer maternity wear so I now have more of the stuff than I have regular clothes. Included in the enormous selection of stuff is a pair of black shorts.... which I am (gasp) WEARING. As shorts go, they're rather nice, they're longish and tight on the thigh in the manner of cycling shorts (without the nasty lycra) and quite flattering from behind. I could not have forseen myself wearing shorts at 8 mths of pregnancy, but stranger things have happened I guess! Of course the legs are not wonderful, they look podgy and not brown enough yet, but if I put a pair of high-ish sandals on I can almost pass for glam mum to be.
I'm feeling extremely exhausted at the moment. D has several billion more of the pox than yesterday and is obviously a little sorry for himself and just wants to be sitting quietly watching TV. He woke at 3.30am (after I'd managed to drop off only at 1.45am) wanting a drink and needing some kiddie Tylenol as he was slightly feverish, and then stayed awake for quite a while. And of course, then decided 6.30am was late enough to stay in bed and mom could you please wake up???
I also had a rare moment of 'the house needs tidying up a bit' this morning so that's added to the current exhaustion level. I'm definitely going to hire a Molly Maid before the baby comes to get the place into order as the bigger I get, the less I feel inclined to clean.
We are afflicted with the dreaded POX in the Jones household... that is to say D woke up this morning covered in Chicken Pox. As usual he handles illness remarkably well and has been in fine form all day, even playing outside with a couple of his buddies (who have had it) once or twice. I've stocked up on Calamine lotion and some childrens Benadryl which apparently relieves itching somewhat and we wait for more spots to appear (which they are doing by the minute). He's not complaining of itchiness YET but that will come.
I had a minor panic earlier wondering if I'd had it or not. I had to call the hospital and cancel our tour of L&D which was scheduled for this evening (much to my disappointment). I'd been rather looking forward to it, the appointment has been booked since January and it seemed like such a milestone to have reached it, plus I am very keen to look around the place and have a load of questions for them to find out what they provide, what I need to bring, Vitamin K for the baby, etc. The thing is, D was excited about going too, as was G, and I didn't want them to miss out and I didn't want to go alone, so I've rearranged it for the end of June (30th).
While I was telling the HRC secretary this (as she books all my appointments) I mentioned that D had the pox and that was why we couldn't attend and she immediately put me through to the Nurse who asked if I'd had it. I thought I had, but wasn't sure. Dad thought I had, but wasn't sure. The only person who knew for certain was the person who gave birth to me and obviously the lack of relationship there means I can't get any information about my medical history very easily... very annoying and frustrating. Fortunately my sis was online and able to contact her and determine that we both had it in 1981, so I should be safe... as it can be risky for the baby during pregnancy.
This afternoon I had an appointment with the Haematologist to discuss the birth and afterwards in terms of anticoagulation, which was very reassuring although as usual with these things one tends to come away with a totally different set of questions than one goes in with! Anyway, the long & short of it is that the amount of Fragmin I'm taking has been increased, effective today, from 5000IUs to 7500IU's, up until the day before the birth at which point I stop. This increase is to 'provide some extra coverage as we don't want any fun and games like you had last time' (my PE) and I was reassured that it is still a relatively low dose. The day I have the baby I don't have any shots, and then the day after they will start again - one of the Haematologists will visit me in the hospital and prescribe the future doseage but he guessed they would start me with 5000IU's in the morning and another 5000IUs in the evening, and after that assuming I don't have any extra bleeding episodes, increase it again. I will continue on the Fragmin shots for 6 wks after the baby is born, and I won't have to take any Warfarin/Coumadin which is a result.
The only thing I'm a little nervous about is the new instruction to take a shot at noon the day before the surgery. This gives less than 24 hrs and the anaesthetist and most of the things I've read online suggest 24 hrs would be better. I might ignore that specific bit and give myself my last shot on the Wednesday night, either that or gradually change my shot time so that my last one is early Thurs morning so still 24 hrs prior! While I want to avoid a PE, I also want to avoid permanent paralysis due to bleeding into my spine as a result from the anaesthesia.
It's getting close! 33 wks today, meaning there's just 5 to go until July 23rd.
My blood sugars have been a bit wonky which I am attributing to the fact that I've cheated ALOT on my GD diet in the last few days, so I'm now being more strict and hopefully they will return to normal otherwise it's Insulin time for me. Goodbye ice-cream and hello salad.
Yesterday my ankles swelled up for the first time. Very attractive. Actually it was only the one, and it wasn't very noticeable. I don't recall any swelling with D, but it's normal anyway unless your face / hands swell up and are accompanied by headaches and an extreme rise in BP in which case you need to get checked out for Pre-Eclampsia. Anyway, the swelling had gone this morning after lying down all night.
Mosquitos are loving me. Apparently pregnant blood is very tasty, and I got bitten 3 times yesterday while eating outside at the restaurant. 3 lovely big unsightly red bumps on my legs which will no doubt take forever to disappear!
We have another hot day today but so far the hot weather is not bothering me too much. The day last week when it was over 100 and very humid was hard going but otherwise I'm quite enjoying being out in the sunshine and not puffing and panting with discomfort as I thought I would be. I'm not so keen on being in enclosed spaces without much air... the HRC last week was horrendous until they put a big fan on to move the air around, but mostly I'm feeling good so far. Maybe I will even be able to stand a couple of trips to Heart Lake with D once school breaks up next week (argh).
Had a gig today which was not the most fun I've had recently! It dragged on forever and there was not much in the way of an audience watching either, which tends to make it not feel worthwhile. We played reasonably well, some of the pieces especially, D won a music box in a raffle, and got himself a couple of big balloons so he was happy! Afterwards we went out for dinner at the Terra Cotta Inn (very nice food) with some friends and sat outside chatting, which was far more enjoyable than the first part of the day!
I find playing is getting a little more taxing on the 'bump'. My breathing isn't really affected (yet) but obviously using my diaphragm alot puts some strain on the whole area, and I end up with this achey tight feeling which gets worse the more I play. Thankfully I think this was the last gig before the baby comes.
Didn't get up until 10.30 (always a bonus) and went outside with D to try out his new Electric Scooter which is extremely cool and loads of fun (even though no doubt unwise in my current condition I had to try it, obviously!).
His mate from down the road then came over and they were playing together for a bit and then D went off with him and his grandad to McDonalds for some lunch giving us a rather nice hour off. We pottered around the garden mowing, strimming, watering (well OK, G did while I sat and watched), then D came home with his friend and they went inside to play in the basement while we sat outside and ate lunch ourselves and chatted with various people for a couple of hours. I somehow managed to get some nasty sunburn even though it was only around 20c today.
We then went off to IKEA to find some closet organiser type furniture but they didn't have anything which would fit into ours successfully so we came home, via the Indian Take-Away, ate that, went back outside, played more with the scooter and now about to watch a movie.
All in all a rather nice way to spend a Saturday - outside in the fresh air!
Oh, and the curry has given me dreadful heartburn.
In Canada there's a grey market for watching American Satellite TV. The companies are not allowed to sell their services here, but obviously the signal comes anyway so an enormous amount of people rip it off - several million by all accounts. There are two US Providers - and one of them recently rather cleverly changed their system so that it is no longer possible to rip it off, or at least nobody has found a stable way of doing it yet. Of course, this was the one we had, so bye bye hundreds of dollars worth of gear and bye bye decent TV. I must point out that were I able to subscribe to this service legally I would do - D loves Nickelodeon which is far more wholesome and entertaining than anything he can watch on Canadian TV, and they have better movies, more choice, not to mention BBC America. It was because of BBC America that we hooked up to the US Satellite in the first place.... they broadcast Eastenders only 3 wks behind the UK. But then, alas, they decided to stop showing it. This was shortly before the system went down for good so at that point we decided not to bother and just stick with the Canuck stuff. Someone offered us a system for the other Sat company but we turned it down, until I read this week that Eastenders is back, and on the other one! So we now have yet another box of gadgets by the TV at great expense.
It's almost time to get Patriotic for Euro 2004. Never watched it when I was back home, but suddenly it seems important to be supportive of my country and hang St George's Cross flags from the window of my car.
In bump news - I didn't really have much in the way of morning sickness earlier on in this pregnancy, just a few occasions where I felt a bit queasy. It's coming back. I woke up feeling really icky this morning. Apparently this is normal for this point, but urgh. I only seem to feel better once lunch is eaten.
I am also making a determined effort to check my blood sugars properly which I've got really slack about recently. Only because it's boring and they're always OK, but they could actually still go wonky so I need to be more diligent about it, effort has started this morning and after b'fast I was a little too high, doh.
Had my 32wk growth check scan today and all is looking very well indeed. They told me that he passed his 'Biophysical Profile' with 8/8 which apparently means his body was doing all the things they were looking for (heart rate constant, swallowing, diaphragm practising breathing etc) within a certain time limit, and that he's now measuring in the 60th percentile for growth which is excellent news. Last scan he was measuring in the 75th so he had obviously just had a growth spurt at that point and has now calmed down a little! The nurse says that if he stays on this curve he should weigh between 7.5 and 8lb at birth which is great. My amniotic fluid levels were normal (very relieved to know that after last time) and all in all he looks great. He's still curled up with his feet near his head, but his head is down which is a good thing. They estimate his weight at 5lb 2oz which seems big to me (i.e. bigger than 60th percentile) but I guess they know best! And as I know from experience, the weight guesstimates are often way off. All in all though, wonderfully reassuring.
Prior to the scan I sat in the waiting room at the HRC for a couple of hours as they were running very late, which was hot & bothersome and jam packed full of people. My weight gain is still brilliant - 1.5lb in the last 2 wks which is great, and BP still normal. Dr C happy with my diabetes and the OB happy with how the baby looked and sounded!
In other medical news, I went to the Walk In Dr yesterday about this blooming itchy arm that I've had for the last EVER. His verdict convinces me that my actual family doctor, while great for prescribing narcotic painkillers, is bloody useless in all other areas. This is the same GP that told G that people worry far too much about Diabetes these days, and ignored his dangerously toxic sugar levels and put his health at serious risk. I've seen him about this arm ... which is so itchy it wakes me at night and only sheer willpower is stopping it from being red raw from scratching.... about 5 times. He's given me cortizone creams, he's given me anti histamimes, and a few times a cream to treat it as if it's a fungus. None have helped because it clearly is not an allergy or a fungus, and it's still just as bad as ever, and there are scars and sores from where I've been scratching it. The Walk In DR took one look and said it is almost certainly not any of the things Dr Crap has treated me for, and that I need to see a Dermatologist. In the meantime here's a nice strong cream to stop the itching (has done). Doh.
As we were lying in bed last night, about to go to sleep, there was an almighty crash which scared the beejesus out of me. Sent G to investigate and it turned out that the culprit was the 8ft long rail in my closet collapsing under the weight of my clothes. G insists this is because I have too many clothes, which of course I don't agree with at all. I guess we're going to have to go to IKEA or somewhere to buy some kind of new inside-closet-organiser type thing as the existing thing has ripped itself off the wall.
D has gone on his first 'field trip' with school to a nearby farm. He was *so* excited about it this morning he could barely contain himself. Some of the parents are apparently driving to this place and meeting the children there. We are not doing that, school trips are all about the excitement of going off for the day with your classmates and being independent.... not having your style cramped by your mother!
Once again it's extremely hot outside. Another downside to this heat is having to expose my increasingly large amounts of flesh. Today I have shorts on and it's not a pretty sight. Yesterday after school I put the sprinkler on out the front to a) water the lawn and b) give D something to cool off in. He was having a good time running through the water and then some neighbours kids came over and ended up spoiling it by wrecking the lawn making big mud holes in it and screaming at everyone.
39c outside today - that's 102 in real money (like most Brits I calculate cold in Centigrade and hot in Fahrenheit) and it feels very hot indeed, at least *I* feel very hot indeed. The air conditioning is cranked up in the house and for that I'm grateful.... there's nothing worse than not being able to cool down. In England nobody has air conditioning at home because it's not worth the expense of installing for a couple or three weeks per year of heat so you have to grin and bear it and suffer without sleep or coolness.
Not that I'm a huge fan of air conditioned environments, the fake chill to the air is just not the same as being naturally cool, I find it leaves my body a little confused, but it is certainly preferable to being overheated. I compensate by having the ceiling fans turning to keep the air moving around which does take the edge off the slight fakeness of the Air Con a bit.
I remember back in the 'good old days' of running UKChat from home in the UK, when the heat got too much the servers would start to seriously suffer. G had a little office with a rack of servers in it and the temperature in that room was significantly greater than the rest of the house, and if you added heat from outside too it became utterly unbearable and the CPU's would heat up and occasionally blow up. We eventually fixed this by buying (at enormous expense) a portable air conditioner to run in that room only. Of course this was only one of the trials and tribulations of hosting from home, which also included dog hairs clogging up servers and bringing down UKC, fuses blowing when someone (innocent whistle) would turn on the Iron or the Kettle and bringing down UKC, or the electric company stupidly installing one of those key meter things which we would inevitably forget to load up and cause frequent power failures until we convinced them to take the stupid thing away again. And lastly but not leastly Murphy's Law which meant the servers broke down every time we went away for the weekend or on vacation. Oh I am glad to be relieved of that responsibility!
There's a point during pregnancy when everything becomes impossible to do, especially GETTING COMFORTABLE. I think I'm approaching that point ... not quite there yet, but the signs are definitely beginning to appear.
Sitting is becoming increasingly difficult. My tailbone hurts. Alot. I think this is due to breaking it when I was younger, apparently once this happens it never completely heals up and during pregnancy when ligaments are stretched, it gets easily aggravated.
Walking - getting even more uncomfortable by the day. Every time I am on my feet for long my stomach tightens up, especially at the top, and it gets very sore.
My lower back hurts, the muscles have gone into some kind of spasm due to not being supported by my stomach anymore.
My sciatic nerve hurts so that when I'm in one of the only comfortable positions I can find (lying down) my back and legs begin to ache.
The heartburn is dreadful, I've been trying to limit myself to 1 Zantac at night and coping with Maalox during the day. It's getting less effective.
My complaints are mild, I'm happy to suffer for the sake of having a health baby, I just felt like having a whinge today!
Meanwhile, 32 wks of pregnancy means there are only 6 to go! Apparently the baby now weighs about 4lb (in my case no doubt about 6lb) and has hair and fingernails. I also have about 50% more blood rushing around my body than usual to accomodate the baby and my extra needs (hopefully this doesn't mean more blood to go all clotty!).
My friends threw a Baby Shower for me last night. Being a Brit, and not accustomed to the 'shower' traditions (be it for wedding or baby) I've never even attended one let alone had one of my own.
They went to so much effort too, they had decorated the house with banners, streamers and balloons, provided tons of food & games, and lots of people came... it was excellent. And the presents! I am completely overwhelmed by the generosity of my friends in buying us loads and loads of lovely things for the baby :)
Another highlight of the evening was a Porno Pinata in the shape of a Stork - containing lots of rude things .... very funny indeed!
All in all it was a brilliant evening & I am really lucky to have such good friends :)
It's common in North America to have your child circumcised at birth. Apparently a little less common here in Canada over the last 5 yrs as they stopped providing it as a freebie, but certainly in the USA people who don't circumcise seem to be in the minority.
The whole process seems abhorrent to me, I can't believe people routinely cut off something that is there for a purpose. I've also discovered it's absolutely not worth discussing with Americans who think you're crazy if you're not doing it... that your child will be dirty, have problems with it, and be a penis outcast amongst all his snipped friends.
Although I've not done an intensive study on this (!) I think it's true to say that it's unusual in the UK to find a circumcised male unless he is Jewish, or had it done for medical reasons. Which is why the whole concept is so completely foreign to me.
We were talking about this 'procedure' the other night and those of us of British descent were fairly against the idea, whereas one of my Canuck friends was insistent that as and when she has a son, he'll be snipped. Didn't think much more of the topic until yesterday when a friend asked me to watch his two boys (2 and 4) for 5 minutes while he ran home. The two yr old instantly said he needed to use the loo so I brought him in and being small, he required some help to get his shorts undone, etc. Well, he stood there and I couldn't help but notice he'd been circumcised and man did it look WEIRD on a small child! It looked completely wrong!
Needless to say, neither of the little Jones boys will lose that particular part of their anatomy unless necessary!
I'm occasionally scared, scared more than I can put into words, that something will happen to me during the course of this pregnancy / birth, and that I'll not be here anymore.
There are risks involved in me being pregnant, we knew them before deciding to go ahead. They're hopefully not too big risks, but they are risks nonetheless. I'm still frightened, now and again.
I'm not scared for me, I am scared for my boys. I love them so much, this little new one included, and I can't stand the thought of them going through the pain of losing a mummy, a wife.
Dylan is such a loving, caring, sweet boy.... I don't ever want him to suffer any pain. In my fear that this could happen, I feel so guilty, so awful, that I would risk anything that could potentially cause him that much suffering. I love him with all my heart. I know that when this little one comes along I'll love him too, and I sincerely hope that I will be around to enjoy them both for many many years, and I hope that they know now, and will always know, that I love them more than it's possible to put into words.
The day Dylan was born changed me forever and showed me that I'm capable of love far and beyond anything I thought possible. He's an absolute joy, he's loving, kind, funny, smart, and I cannot believe I had a part in creating someone so amazing.
He's lucky in that he has a great dad in G... at least I know that if something did happen to me, he'd be in good hands :) I know I have alot of faults as a wife, no doubt as a mum too, but I love G so much and he's a terrific husband and dad. I couldn't ask for anything more, infact I have much more than I deserve in him xxxx
This is so maudlin, I hate writing this, I hate it, hate it, hate it, it's so..... unsatisfactory, I can't write enough, I can't put into words how I feel, I feel stupid writing it........but I have to... I have to put it somewhere and know it's there if they need to find it in the future. G doesn't read this ... hopefully he will never have to.
I feel a little bugged by things today. Little, unimportant things. I remember when I was pregnant with D, and extremely neurotic with it, everything bothered me to a huge extent. God forbid someone did something to piss me off. This time I've been mostly the opposite, calm and relaxed, not really having time nor energy to get pissed off with things which are not important (plenty of 'real' things to worry about without needing others!). Sometimes, though, stupid things sneak into my brain and wind me up, and today is one of those days. Maybe I'm just tired!
Someone posted on a BBS I visit, this morning, about their mother - their story was eerily similar to mine. They were asking for advice, I only wish I could give some! There's no easy way to deal with the feelings of rejection from a parent, especially when you've just become / about to become a parent yourself. The thing I find most hurtful I think, is that now that I have a child of my own (and another on the way - incase anyone didn't know) I know what that parent-child bond is, or should be. I have such a strong overwhelming love for my son that I cannot imagine ever turning my back on him... and knowing that is one of the reasons it's so hard to accept that my own parent doesn't feel that way about me. Still, I think I've come a long way in my acceptance of it over the last few months, and at the end of the day I suspect that I'll never be completely happy about the situation, but if I can accept it, that's the main thing.
G & I both walked to fetch D from the school bus at lunchtime and the usual mothers were there waiting. They didn't really say anything to us (they were engrossed in conversation). When I got in I looked in the mirror and noticed that I was wearing a maternity shirt which has shrunk in the wash and my belly was extremely exposed, and not only that but my flies were undone and gaping open. No wonder nobody spoke to me :)
D brought a note back from school announcing exposure to Chicken Pox in his class. I called to check because the note was fairly generic and obviously sent to parents of all classes, but it turns out that one of the kids with it is in D's class so he has definitely been exposed. Hopefully he won't have it, although there would be some merit to catching it at this young age and getting it out of the way. It can be of concern for pregnant women but I am pretty sure I had it as a child. Unfortunately I can't check because my dad is away.
Rogers launched a new toy for us yesterday which of course G was first in line to get. An HD PVR, FINALLY! At last we have joined the 21st Century and can record the TV easily, pause live TV, and also do it in HD...hurrah!
As part of my quest to pamper myself during pregnancy, I went for a 'Deep Cleansing Facial' at the Spa this morning. An hour and a half of total torture, why do we put ourselves through it? The steps involved in this 1.5 hrs of hell were as follows.
1. Cleanser
2. Peeling mask
3. Exfoliating Scrub Cream
4. Belt Sander used to rub it in
5. 15 mins of VERY HOT STEAM blasted in to my face leaving me unable to breathe.
6. 30 mins of squeezing EVERY SINGLE BLACKHEAD out of my face - of which apparently I have (had) ZILLIONS.
7. Mini vaccum cleaner sucking out anything that was left
8. ELECTRIC SHOCKS applied liberally to my face to 'sterlize' it.
9. Facial Massage (this bit was actually quite nice)
10. 10 min 'firming mask'
11. Toner
12. Moisturiser
13. AT LAST - HOME!!
I am also under strict instructions to not touch my face for the rest of the day, which of course is now the one thing I am absolutely desperate to do.
Feels good though :-)
This afternoon - 1 hr massage ....ahhh the life of Riley (although G would disagree as he is 'working from home' and D is off school with a cough so he's been left babysitting, lol).