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2004-08-20 - 5.49pm��previous entry��next entry
29 weeks! - SPD
I'm 29 weeks pregnant!! Next week I'll be in the thirties! That seems so amazing to me. Nearly 3/4 of the way there! Arthur is now about 39cm long (or 15.2 inches), and weighs roughly 2lbs 9oz. I found several other pregnant women who had a scan at 28 weeks which showed their babies to weigh about 2lbs 13oz or even 3lbs, so maybe Arthur weighs more than 2lbs 9oz by now? But I hope he will stick close to the average - I think he's likely to anyway, given his mummy and daddy's builds and birthweights! Did I tell you our birthweights before? I probably did, but oh well. I was born 2 days before my due date (not 3 days like I had thought) and my mum was sure of her conception date. I weighed 5lbs 10oz. We think maybe that might have had to do with the fact that my daddy smoked at the time, because they kept asking my mum if she smoked, as they thought this must be why I was low birthweight. My dad gave up smoking when I was a baby, and my brother was 6lbs 12oz when he was born nearly 3 years later. Neil weighed 5lbs 8oz, almost the same as me, but he was born at 36 weeks (and footling breech as well!) so if he had gone to term he would have probably weighed in somewhere between 7.5 and 8lbs. We both were born with the cord around our necks. I hope Arthur is not getting all tangled up in there! I keep reminding him not to, and praying that his cord will continue to be a lifeline for him and not a threat to his safety. I am scared about cord accidents, even though they are rare. I will just be soooo relieved when he is born and healthy.
He is still unbelievably cute! He had hiccups today while a friend was visiting me. I told her he was hiccuping and we carried on chatting, but I could feel him blipping away against my tummy, and it was so hard to stifle the urge to grin and coo over him and rub my bump like it was a diamond or something! :) I always want to give him all my attention when he makes his little presence felt. He has been very squirmy today. He made the most enormous movement earlier that made me wonder if he'd completely changed position, but I can't tell. He's still kicking me up at the top or out to the side, so I guess not. He's the sweetest boy :)
I went to my aquanatal class last night and it was good. The lady I met last week wasn't there, so I got to chat with 2 other ladies instead. They are only about 5 or 6 weeks from their due date. I feel kind of amateur against them! I did tell the instructor that I had been having pubic bone pain since the night of the last class, and it hasn't gone away, in fact it is getting worse. She said had I noticed pain during any of the movements we did, and I said no. So she said to go carefully and watch for any signs of pain or pulling while I did the class, so we could find out if I should avoid any particular thing. She couldn't think of any movement that might have caused it, as all the exercises are gentle.
Well I did have a little bit of pain when we did squatting to the side, where you step out to one side into a squat - but only on my left side. It's my left side that's been hurting all week though. It is so painful to turn over in bed at night, and it's definitely getting worse. I also notice it when I walk for long, and today it's worse still, so I am noticing it when I get up, sit down, or open my left leg out from my body, or attempt to use any muscles in my groin on my right side as I move. I have double-checked online but I am pretty sure these are fairly classic symptoms of Symphasis Pubis Dysfunction :( It's a shame, because SPD can become really debilitating and even require crutches or a wheelchair in severe cases. I hope I wouldn't get a severe case though. My friend Katie had SPD so I phoned her today and asked her what she did about it. She said she put up with it for 6 weeks (!!) before it finally got so bad she had to go to her midwife about it. So I won't make that mistake! I'd better do something about it now rather than waiting any longer. Her midwife referred her to the physio dept at the local hospital and they gave her exercises to do, and things to avoid, and a support belt to wear. She wore it when she walked anywhere and found it helpful.
I was looking online for more information and I discovered some interesting things. SPD is almost always caused by a misalignment in the back or pelvis, and really what I need is a chiropractor who is specialized in working with pregnant women and SPD in particular, to realign my pelvis and spine. I also learnt that SPD will often result in a misaligned baby at birth - commonly posterior or with the head turned to the side, or presenting with a hand next to the head. That really made me sit up because Katie's baby was born with his hand to his head, and was slightly posterior. Then I learnt that these babies tend to suffer quite badly from "colic", and that's the exact same story for Katie's baby too. I suddenly REALLY want to sort out my pelvic issues, which I am sure I have got, because I didn't realize there could be an impact on the birth, and on Arthur. I just thought it would be a nuisance and a lot of pain for me, that's all. But it's not. And what's more, I read that another sign of pelvic misalignment (aside from SPD) is coccyx pain, or hip pain, and I have started to have pain in my left hip (though not nearly as bad as the SPD type pain), and I've been writing here for a month or so that I've been having quite bad pain in my coccyx, so it is all starting to fall into place. Basically it looks like I would be wise to find a suitable chiropractor and get things fixed before they get really bad or affect my labour and birth. I don't want Arthur to have colic either!
Unfortunately a chiropracter is going to be super expensive, but somehow we are going to have to afford it, because this pain is definitely getting worse and affecting more and more things I do throughout the day. Night times are pretty bad for the pain now, even when I'm not trying to turn over. I could see the midwife and just get referred to the physio and get a support belt, but according to some of the information I read, that can be like putting a plaster on a wound, rather than fixing the problem, so it could persist and still affect the birth (like it did for Katie), and it's very likely to recur and worsen with each pregnancy. Sounds like I'm painting a negative picture, but it's just what I am reading, and I think it makes sense. So I need to find a chiropracter and hope it's not too expensive, either that or hope that I don't need too many treatments! It's apparently really important that I get a chiropracter who is specialized in SPD and treating pregnant women. Not sure where to find one local to me, but I'll have a look.
Anyway so the class was good. I coped fine with all the exercises, and I LOVED the relaxation bit again! The very second we started stretching our muscles out at the end, my feet went into that same cramp as last week! I told the instructor again, and she said it sounds like I am just working muscles that aren't used to activity and they are protesting at being stretched after unusual work. It went off pretty quickly once we finished the stretches so that's okay.
I am feeling soooo heavy these days. I know I am still looking quite small compared with some pregnant women at 29 weeks, but man I feel big and heavy all the same! Today I ache a lot in my back and ribs, but some of the backache might be to do with exercising my back yesterday when it's not used to exercise. It's hard to get up from the sofa now. I need to rock myself up several times before I have the momentum to get out of the chair! Either that or Neil pulls me up. When I'm down on the floor I feel so huge and clumsy - I can't get up very easily and I move around like I haven't got much control of my body. I seem to fill the whole floor when I am crawling about trying to get up (!), and I feel very ungainly and cumbersome! I am not loving pregnancy any less, but I am starting to feel tired of not being able to move like I want to when I want to. I can't make any sudden moves because it's amazing how pretty much any turn or motion will somehow use or put strain on the groin in some way, and that just hurts such a lot now I have this SPD-ish pain. I'm sure it's SPD, albeit mild for now, but I should get a diagnosis really before I start saying "oh my SPD..." etc. But I'm sure I have it. Because ow. And in all the right places and with all the right movements. Ow.
I have done a fair bit of sewing the last couple of days! I decided I would make CLOTH maternity pads for after the birth, so I bought a pack of disposable ones (handy to have anyway) so that I could see the kind of absorbancy and size to make them. I figured I hate disposable pads of any sort anyway, so I could only find cloth ones more pleasant to wear. I'm not thrilled to have to wear ANY pads because yuck. But obviously you have to after the birth as bleeding can be pretty heavy for some weeks. So yesterday I made 3 pads, which is a good start! I made a "pocket" piece which is a layer of PUL (waterproof) fabric, and a layer of soft microfleece to go against me, and I shaped it so that it has those wings which fold under the panties. I added a popper (snap) to fasten them underneath, and I made a slit in the microfleece for the absorbant inner to be inserted. Then I made reeeally absorbant inners out of scraps - thick towelling, old clothes, whatever I could find that is really good and absorbant! So far I have 3 pockets and 3 inserts. I reckon I will need 20 or so.
I also started making a newborn nappy wrap today. I ordered some John Lennon print fabric with cute little cars and the words "beep beep" all over it. It's white and the design is small so it looks very cute as a fabric for a little baby! It's woven cotton so I decided to use it on the outside of a wrap. I used a layer of white suedecloth for the inner, the John Lennon fabric outside, and a layer of PUL in the middle. I'm nearly finished sewing the elastic in place, and I'm going to bind the legs with white microfleece to prevent wicking (sorry about all this cloth nappy jargon!). Anyway it's looking really cute already! I made it so that it has a notch cut out for Arthur's cord stump too :) I will post a photo when it's done.
I can't remember what else I was going to say. Oh my noggin is still there, but applying the antibacterial cream is going okay and hasn't given me any nosebleeds yet! It's no smaller yet though, so I hope the cream is going to work.
My tumble drier just finished and I have more wet washing to go in it, and Neil will be home in 10 minutes or so, from work, so I think I'll finish for now. I'll update again soon though! :)
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