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2004-10-26 - 5.38pm��previous entry��next entry
38 weeks, 4 days - more photos and NEXT WEEK!!!
Thank you all soooo much for all the lovely comments on the photos!!! Neil thanks you too! :) I have more photos today � see what you guys have done?! You�ve started me snapping billions of photos and now you�ll be sorry, hehe! I�ll post them in a minute.
First of all � OH MY GOODNESS!!! � I can now say two scary things about my due date! Firstly, there are only 10 days to go!!! And secondly, Arthur is due NEXT WEEK!!!! Wow. How surreal and mind boggling is this?!! I can�t believe how much I�m struggling to get my head round it all. It�s so exciting but kind of a bit scary at the same time. My feelings rush from giddy excitement to trepidation in a matter of seconds, back and forth, over and over, all day long (and when I�m awake at night too!). I can�t wait to meet him. But oh my gosh, I have to give birth. But yay, my little boy will be here! But nah, surely it can�t really be happening. But oh wow, it IS!! But yikes, I have to get him out first. Etc.
I am extremely uncomfortable all the time now. It�s really become more noticeable in the last few days. My pelvis hurts soooo much all the time, if I move a leg, or any part of my torso, even while sitting or lying. Particularly whilst lying down actually. It feels like someone hit me in the pubic bone with a hammer. Today I planned to hit the charity shops for cheap old sheets (still can�t find any!) but when I got up this morning and hobbled around like I usually do, I noticed that walking wasn�t getting any easier after the first few minutes, so I have had to admit that I can�t realistically go out and do anything anymore. Neil will have to do the charity shops and get the shower curtains from Tesco for me. I�m okay right now, sitting still in this chair, but the act of getting up from the chair is really painful, and the first few steps are even worse. My left hip is complaining a lot, and the small of my back hurts a lot more of the time now. Ow. But I am guessing it MUST mean that Arthur is lower in my pelvis than before, which is a good thing! So I�ll just get on with it. Not long to go now anyway.
You guys will not BELIEVE this (I can�t), but my stupid darn �completely removed� noggin is actually growing back!!!! I can�t believe how aggressive it is. I know the Top Nose Guy would be amazed to hear this, because he was absolutely sure I would have no further bother from the thing (hence no follow-up appointments made). He said there was a small risk of recurrence, but much further down the line, since he had removed it completely. Tsk. Pesky thing. I waited a few days after the clot came out, to see if it was just scar tissue, but nope. It�s a pretty good size already, but not blocking my nose or anything. At least I�m right at the end of pregnancy now. I really really hope that afterwards, the lack of pregnancy hormones will make it disappear for good! Otherwise I have no idea what they can do for me, and it�s a depressing thought that it could bother me for a long time.
I am still having a lot of tummy aches and general achiness in my bowel, etc. I have to go for a #2 a couple of times per day now, which is CRAZY frequent for me. I am super constipated though, and nothing I eat or drink seems to be changing that. I just ache and have the urge to go ALL THE TIME. And then can�t. Which gets annoying! But I am guessing that either my body is preparing for labour by clearing out a bit, or else the urge is due to Arthur�s head pressing low down on my bowel if he has engaged. Either way it�s due to something good and useful, so like with the pelvic pain, I am happy (ish!) to just get on with it. I feel like I can bear a whole lot of things now that the end is so near.
Today and yesterday I have been sewing like crazy to finish the nappies and wraps that are sitting around half-made. Today I have nearly finished 2 Christmas wraps for Arthur, but I still need to bind the legs with microfleece. And I also sewed 3 size large (20-35lbs) nappies that were pinned and prepped for months! They all have a flannel print outer, baby blue velour inner, and snaps to fasten. Here�s a photo of them:
So those will be put away for much later on! I have just discovered three Cuddlebuns in the �just cut out� stage � tsk!! I really want to be finished with sewing nappies for a while now. But they WILL be gorgeous nappies if I can just finish them. I have two wraps that are just cut out as well, and I STILL need to make more maternity pads. I made a ton more absorbent inserts the other day, and one more pocket cover. Maybe I should just give in and buy a ton of disposable pads?
I have a midwife appointment tomorrow! Yay! I can�t wait to hear how Arthur is doing and where exactly he is at these days. I can�t remember when my appointment is, but I think the midwife is coming round after lunchtime, in the afternoon.
Neil and I unpacked the birth pool and the kit that we bought with it!! It�s bigger than we expected, but then it is the deluxe size, as I thought the smaller one might be a bit small to relax in. But this one is pretty big! It took Neil about 30 minutes to inflate it, and it looked quite tiring too, so I hope he�ll be okay doing all that and then supporting me during labour! Here�s a photo of Neil finishing off inflating the pool:
And a couple more photos of us trying out the size of the pool!
After we inflated the pool and sat in it excitedly for a while (!!), we realised that we had to move all the furniture around to make more room in the lounge for the pool. So we did that (I did the little things while Neil moved the actual furniture), whilst watching the Star Trek movie that was on TV at the time! It took most of the evening, but it was soooo worth it. Now we have one of our sofas under the stairs which is really cosy, and with that chest-full-of-drawers over on the other wall, the room is suddenly hugely spacious and square-shaped, instead of long and thin! We had no idea it could look so good, and we are going to keep it that way after the birth. Even better, the pool now fits in the lounge with plenty of space to walk around it and even sit on the floor or sofas around it too. So there is plenty of space for 2 midwives, my mum and Neil, and still ample room for me to move around as I want or need to during labour. We didn�t do a trial run of filling the pool, because it apparently takes TWO HOURS to fill the pool!!!! And it would probably use all our hot water. And then we�d only have to empty it again and clean it ready for the birth. And we haven�t yet figured out an easy way to drain it. So yeah, I think we�ll leave that to trial and error on the day! Anyway I�m glad to have inflated it and moved the furniture. I feel more ready for it all to happen now.
I got a letter this morning from the hospital, from the head of midwifery! It says there�s a definite possibility that there will not be enough midwives available to attend my homebirth, due to an unusually high number of women booking homebirths for November :( I don�t know what to do about that really. I just hope Arthur comes in the first few days of November, because I am guessing that it will get busier and busier as November progresses, for all those November due dates. I just hope that no matter when I give birth, there will be enough midwives to attend me at home. The alternative is going into hospital to the midwife-led unit, but it�s still hospital isn�t it? And I don�t want to leave my house. I hate the idea that I could still be let down over this when I know I have a right to give birth where I want to. The letter said that if the community midwives are already called out to two homebirths when I go into labour, they won�t attend me and I�ll have to go into hospital. I guess if that happens I will choose to wait at home as long as I possibly can, and maybe in that time someone will deliver and a midwife will be free to attend me at home again. I know it sounds crazy, but I am not averse to - �oops� � ending up being too far gone to possibly transfer to hospital if I wait at home long enough, and they will simply HAVE to send someone to me, even a paramedic or something. I don�t think that�s a risk to me or Arthur, because we are both having a healthy normal pregnancy, and I am not expecting birth to �go wrong�. Birth isn�t meant to go wrong. It�s a natural process. Things go wrong when you go to hospital, not when you stay at home, statistically. Tsk. I really really hope I am able to have my homebirth after all.
My November due-date groups are starting to produce babies! I can�t wait till it�s me!!
Oh I had more to say probably, but Neil just got home early and I want to find out why and see if he�s okay. Back tomorrow (probably) to tell you about the midwife appt! :)
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