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2004-07-13 - 12.55pm��previous entry��next entry
23 weeks, 3 days - sleep, colostrum and midwife questions
Thank you for the nice guestbook messages about my nappies!! :) It is so much fun making them! I haven't made any more yet - I'm waiting for some velour to arrive from the States, and I have two velours in blue and black that I haven't managed to bleed the colour out of in the machine yet (tsk!) so they will need more washes before they become colour-fast enough to sew them with patterened fabrics. I get so frustrated waiting for fabrics to be ready!!! ;)
Well I have my eye fixed on Friday because then I'll be 24 weeks and that's the "official" viability cut-off for Arthur. If I give birth on Friday then they would resuscitate him. If I gave birth today they would not. Of course I am sooo not ready for him to be outside of me yet! So bring on the 39-week complaint zone!! :) Of course by 40 weeks I'll be truly ready for him to be out, but 39 I am currently okay with! ;) My mum had both her children at 39 and a half weeks, so I'm hoping (and praying!) that I'll be the same way inclined. Clutching at straws I know, but hey ho! I really don't want to get midwives stressing me out about induction. Bleurgh. But this is waaaay in the future still so why am I talking about it now?
Anyway Friday. I can't wait to be 24 weeks at last! It's a big milestone for me, a big relief. I know I am nearly there so it's almost the same thing, but yeah. I want to be 24 weeks. Then I know Arthur could breathe with assistance, and his survival chances would be something like 85% (although some sites say 50% and that seems more realistic to me).
On Thursday I have an appointment with my midwife (my 24 week appt) - wow, that crept up on me fast! It felt like forever till my next appointment when I had the last one, and here it is! I keep forgetting to make a list of the things I want to talk to her about. I always remember just as I'm dropping off to sleep at night and then I promise myself I'll write them down tomorrow, but never get round to it.
I want to ask her:
1) About my homebirth. Apparantly this is the appt to figure all that stuff out (according to the mw from my last appt). Can't wait!!
2) Why am I so sore down below? Just want to check that it's normal or whatever.
3) About all my blood, urine and swab results that have been taken. I don't have any results from the hospital tests yet.
4) Whether I am low on iron, as I'm so tired all the time. I have a routine blood test anyway at the 24 week appointment so she will check for that.
5) When I should start kick counts and what things I should be looking out for as warning signs (for ANY issues for the remainder of my pregnancy).
6) About blood pressure and urine, but she'll check those anyway as routine.
7) About antenatal classes. I am getting antsy about booking them since all the books and websites are telling me I need to book them NOW if I'm gonna get a place. Well, they've been saying that for 2 weeks, and I'm getting restless about it. I don't want to miss out.
8) About exercise - both tips and guidelines, and about specific antenatal exercises, and classes that she might know of that I could join.
9) Whether it's going to work with me staying at this doctor's surgery, since I am just outside their catchment area and they're not meant to be providing my health care really! Hmmm! I hope it will work. I like this surgery. But I don't know if I'll be forced to change because they may not be allowed/able to do house visits to me if I live outside their area.
There's more but I can't remember the little things. I need to write them down as I think of them. I know my appointments become more frequent after this one (at LAST! I have felt kind of unsupported in terms of midwife care so far!) so I will be able to ask questions or raise concerns every four weeks from now. I have another appointment August 12th for my anti-D, so I guess that will be at the dr's surgery, but after that I should be getting my midwife appointments at home (if the area thing is allowed). I am sooo not looking forward to my anti-D! The last one was soooo painful, and that was 250mg. The rest of them will be 500mg, so that's got to be a greater volume going in my butt, right? Ow. But worth it, if my baby IS Rh positive. I don't want to take any risks.
Arthur is kicking me sooooo much right now! The weirdest thing is that most of them are right up the top of my womb, higher than I've ever felt them before. He most often kicks me very low down, but he's definitely head-down this morning! I am slouched over slightly in the chair, so that adds to it, but these kicks are up near my stomach just about an inch or so below my ribs, which feels like the most aggressive thumping bubbling wind in my stomach EVER!! Or else a stomach with some serious muscle spasm! But it's not, it's kicks. Weeeird to feel them this high. They don't reach my ribs yet. I am slightly nervous about the day that they do! Makes them feel tender just thinking about it!
He still has plenty of room though, because he changes position several times during an active 10 minutes usually. Yesterday in one active time he was head down, head up, transverse and oblique (diagonal lie)! And I wanted to draw a picture of where I felt kicks for my diary last night, because I was getting four kick-sensations at the same instant in four different points - one out on my right side just below belly button level, one out on the left side above the belly button, one down on my left hip, practically in my groin, and the other on my cervix! Now what on earth is Arthur doing in there to make that kind of simultaneous movement?!! I am thinking star jumps. Or something!
Last night was the most rubbish sleep I have had in a while. Well I didn't get to sleep till 2am the night before, but I was sure that was because I took that nap in the afternoon. I always sleep badly at night if I nap. Tsk. But anyway, last night I was tiiiired but I couldn't sleep till 3.30 at least. I felt queasy and bloated so I guess I had some IBS or wind or something, and I can't seem to shift discomfort like that very easily now that my bump is squashing my digestive tract so much! So it just feels oogy for hooours and keeps me awake. But anyway I don't think it was just that which kept me awake. I just felt wide awake. Arthur kicked me but not too much. I dropped off around 3.30am and then woke at 5am, and then just dozed on and off. I zonked right out after Neil went to work, and slept so heavy on my left side that it was sore when I woke up a couple of hours later! But yeah. Bad sleep. So I feel a bit spaced out and naff today. I hope that's just a one-off! I need my sleep!
Today I am going to take it easy. Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen, and boy did it need it!! I scrubbed and scoured and everything. There's still more to do, and I am getting this irresistable urge to lay a new kitchen floor. I laid the old one when we moved in (2.5 years ago) but it's such a crappy cheap floor that it's chipping and peeling already. Yuck. So I want a big old sheet of lino in a decent design. For some crazy irrational reason I can't deal with the idea of NOT getting that done before the baby is here. Must...lay......fllloor...!! And Neil has to paint the stairway. And I need to borrow an electric sander from Adam at church and sand the bannisters. Or y'know, supervise! ;) I guess this is the start of nesting or something? Never been through this before so I don't know what things feel like till they happen.
Oooh my breasts have been leaking more colostrum, only LOADS more lately!! It's quite exciting!! I was on the computer a couple of evenings ago, and all of a sudden my right nipple felt cold, so I looked down and there was a small wet patch on my nightie!!! Yay! Later when I was in bed I made a lil wet patch on the sheet as well. I haven't had any more since then, well just little bits that don't make patches, but I was quite excited about the fact that my breasts are really really making food for Arthur!!! Yay! I am hoping they don't start leaking lots on a regular basis though, because I don't relish having to wear breast pads for like 4 months before my baby is even needing my breasts!
At church on Sunday a mum came up to me and said she and 2 other mums are having a clear out of things their boys have grown out of, and toys, baby items, etc. And they wondered if I would like or need any of them! That is soooo nice! I said I have been going crazy on eBay so I have lots of clothes, but I would definitely be interested to see their stuff :) I love being in that "mum" circle that I've been coveting since the age of 10!! And yes I'm serious about the age of 10.
Jo at church who has 3 children was talking to me about my pregnancy, and I told her we're having a boy. She was really flattered that I even told her! She told me I am going to make "such a lovely mum". I blushed a nice radish colour and went all bashful, but she didn't laugh it off, she looked me straight in the eye to pay me the compliment, and she was so genuine about it, and it meant soooo much to me coming from someone who has children already and who has known me for years. I could have walked on air! :) I hope I will make a good mummy. I think I will. I feel good about myself in that respect, because I really think being a mum is what I was made to do, and I know it's what I'll excel in the most out of all the stuff I've tried in my life. And that encourages me because I seem to do pretty well at whatever I put my hand to, so that bodes well for motherhood! :) Not being egotistical here, just saying. I look forward to stuff I know I'll do well at, it's exciting to get my teeth into! So I can't wait for Arthur to be here. Besides just longing to cover him with kisses, etc! :)
I have cute little packages arriving most days in the post at the moment. I have some NEW baby clothes with tags on in my purchases! Things I would have chosen in the shops. Actually one of them I DID buy new in a shop, before I got pregnant. I loved it so much - it's a little boy's outfit, quite wintery and padded and fleecy, but it's soooo cute! Anyway the size I bought was 3-6 months, and Arthur will be coming into summery weather at that age, so I was thrilled to find a new-with-tags outfit exactly the same on eBay, but for size 0-3 months!! :) It will be colllld then. I paid something like �13 for the one in the shop, and less than �1 for the eBay one. Wow. I love eBay!! I keep telling Arthur about his clothes as they arrive, and how cute he's going to look in them! He has some gorgeous gorgeous clothes, seriously. I am investing in basic tracksuit/jogging bottoms from Next or Tesco, because all the mums at the cloth nappy forum say that those are the brands that will fit cloth bums the best. They are roomy enough for big cloth bots, and generous in the sizes. So yay, I am buying next-to-new jogging bottoms in all sizes as I find them (only a couple so far from Next). I found early on with Cameron that jogging bottoms are an essential comfy baby clothing item, very good for little boys who are super active like Cam was! And judging by the acrobatics going on inside me at the moment, I am sure this little one will be as active as Cameron!
What else? I can't think of anything else for now. Yesterday I took a brisk walk which felt great, but I was so tired out yesterday in general. I looked kind of pale and baggy under my eyes, so I'm wondering about that iron. Today I know I am going to feel wrung out if I do much, so I'm going to take it easy, maybe sew, maybe watch a movie, maybe clean a LITTLE bit (!!) if I feel energetic enough. It's housegroup tonight and we have been invited to have dinner there before it starts, but I honestly think I'll be flagging hours before then, so I'm not sure if I'll go. Will think about that later.
Anyway I will update after my midwife appointment if not before :) And of course a 24 week update!!! Yay, I can't wait to reach that milestone!
Arthur says, "flodge-esh-ee-wallop" (which is what the last movement felt like if it could be translated to an audible sound!) :) xxx
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