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2004-10-31 - 10.16am��previous entry��next entry
39 weeks, 2 days - still here....
It's the last day of October!!! I'm still here. Arthur's still in there. November tomorrow though, and then there really is no turning back! :) My parents are on the road all day today, driving up France and crossing the Channel to get to us. I feel like Christmas is right around the corner... no, not Christmas exactly... just something as exciting but also slightly unknown and scary. It's so much more real every time we reach a little milestone, like October being finished, or people travelling to see my new baby! It means he's a-comin' - woohoo!!! But I still can't believe it's really going to happen.
Yesterday I had one of those days which I've heard other pregnant women talk about, and which I've always thought, "How silly to think that!" I just have had this overwhelming feeling that Arthur is NEVER coming out! I think that's got to be a fairly common feeling at the very end of pregnancy when nothing is happening, especially if you've started trying all sorts of things to get labour started. But I always thought it was silly before because it's soooo illogical. Of COURSE the baby will come out eventually! He has to. But yeah, yesterday I really honestly truly had a time where I thought he is never coming out. They are going to have to remove him from me because how else is he coming out?! Hehe!
Yesterday I bounced on my birth ball for a total of about 2 hours altogether. He is definitely engaged now. I am peeing a lot - sometimes like 10 minutes after I just went - and my pelvis hurts at a whole new level to before! If he moves his head it feels like he's pushing my cervix open or something weird. He punched me on the cervix yesterday! I felt the little elbow rise a few inches below my belly button as he drew his fist back and then POW, a jab punch on the cervix! :)
Yesterday he was very quiet most of the day and I got kind of worried. But I listened with the doppler and he was fine. He made up for it during the evening though - he got hiccups 2 times in 2 hours, and pummelled and wriggled for a long time! This morning he kicked me in the ribs as I was waking up. So he's a busy boy in there still! I can't believe he can still be this active with so little room!
Yesterday I was really crampy, just a constant feeling, like when I have my period. Not quite as bad as when I have my period, but close enough. I didn't do much yesterday. I spent some time just lying on the sofa playing on the playstation! That was fun :) But that's when I noticed how crampy I was. It reminded me of lying on the sofa playing a game when I have my period, because I was always aware of having that sort of burny crampy pain in my lower back and lower abdomen all the while I was playing. It's not on-and-off, it's just crampiness. But I hear that's a good sign so I am not complaining!
Last night I woke up quite a lot, either to pee or to turn over (which hurts a LOT now, so I have to be fully awake to do it), and I kept being aware of this bad tummy ache or crampy feeling. I was too sleepy sometimes to figure out if it was a Braxton Hicks contraction, but my tummy didn't really feel hard or anything. Sometimes I dozed off into dreams about having crampy pains and thinking, "Oooh this is it!!" but when I woke up I realised it wasn't. Weird night.
I have gingivitis. I don't know how, but yeah. My gum all along the bottom left teeth is swollen right out from my teeth :( My gland is up on that side of my jaw and the whole thing hurts sooooo much. Way worse than the crampiness! I have been taking paracetamol for it but it's not taking much of the pain away. I have had it before though, so I know it will clear up and probably take about 3 days to feel better. I read once that gum disease can put you into labour, so you have to be careful with it earlier in pregnancy. But maybe it will work in my favour at this stage?! Who knows.
I wonder when Arthur's birthday will be? This time next year we will be getting ready to celebrate his first birthday, and we'll know exactly when that will be (obviously!), so it seems weird that we just haven't got a CLUE right now, even this close to when it will actually happen.
I need to read "Three in a Bed" by Deborah Jackson again. I'm suddenly inexplicably nervous about co-sleeping and I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. That book is really excellent and I felt soooo confident when I read it the first time. It's been ages since I read it, so methinks it's time for another read of it.
Our friend Dave from church is coming round today with a FAN HEATER!!! Yay! That's the last big thing on our homebirth list! Granny has one or two old sheets for us, which Mummy is bringing over tomorrow (yay - can't wait to see my mummy!!), and we have 5 old towels (which will have to do!). Neil found a single duvet cover at a charity shop which will go with the old sheets. We have no pre-made meals in the freezer though, so Neil is going to the supermarket today and we are going to make serious quantities of spaghetti sauce (we ate the last batch - tsk!) and various stews and casseroles, to freeze for easy meals after the baby is born. Michelle from church phoned to ask if we would like meals brought to us from people at church for a week or two after the birth - isn't that lovely?! I think we will take them up on the offer, but not for the first few evenings probably, and I am soooo picky about what I like, so maybe we'll just specify the meals we like and if anyone is happy to make them then we would appreciate it for a week-ish. Something like that.
Today we are going to tidy the junk in the spare room. In some ways I've missed making a nursery, but on the other hand it's a weight off, not having to make a room in the house ready for a new person. He will just be part of what we already have, in our bedroom with Mummy and Daddy, in our bed. If he hates our bed or we can't sleep a wink with him in it (!), at least he has a Moses basket for the first 6 weeks ish, and during that time we'll be able to buy a cot if we need to. I don't want to though. I am hoping co-sleeping will work great for us, as I love the idea of sleeping as a family together, and waking with my little boy in my arms, or seeing his little eyes peeping at me when I open mine. Aww :) I hope it works for us.
I haven't taken my blood pressure since being at the hospital. I decided it would be better not to. The midwife will ring me tomorrow and arrange a time during the week to come and see me, and she'll take it then. I have had a couple of those headaches, but they are mild and the doctor said she didn't think they were connected to high blood pressure, so I'm choosing to ignore anything that might worry me! I did phone the hospital for my blood test results, and my liver is functioning "perfectly" apparently, so that's good! :) So I have been given a clean bill of health, and I just neeeeed this little baby boy to come out!
My hands hurt such a lot in my fingers. It's distracting at night, and I find it hard to get into comfy positions that will let me have my hands at an elevated level so they don't get too swollen and sore during the night. I put them on my pillow next to my face, but that's not very comfy for both my shoulders when I'm lying on my sides. Anyway, NOT LONG TO GO!!! (I hope!) I really really really really hope that Arthur will come like tomorrow or something! For some reason, Monday 1st November (tomorrow) has been stuck in my mind for a while as THE day, but I daren't really acknowledge that thought too much incase absolutely nowt happens and I get all down because I was soooo sure that would be the day! So you didn't hear me say that, okay?!
I will update as regularly as possible though, because I know it drives me CRAZY to read someone's diary when they are 39/40 weeks pregnant and they don't update that often so I can't tell what's happening from day to day! I will try to update even if there's nothing much to say, most days. My mum will visit a lot from tomorrow though, so I'm not sure if I'll have so much time to write here. I will try though. And of course, unless things happen extremely suddenly and catch me offguard, I will write an entry to say I'm in labour when it does happen. If it ever does! Which it has to of course. I just can't wait to meet Arthur! I wonder what he'll look like?
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