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2006-02-15 - 9.23pm��previous entry��next entry
24 weeks pregnant!!
I totally missed 23 weeks! It has been waaay too long between entries, I'm so annoyed at myself! But oh well. Arthur has had his leg in plaster and I caught The Sewing Bug, so I haven't had any spare time to update at all. I will just have a lot to write this entry! :)
I sewed the first nappy for Matthew! It's a Cuddlebuns in their "Preemie" size, but it's ENORMOUS!!! It would be too big even for a 3-month-old if you ask me, it's crazy that they are calling it preemie-sized! So I spent a while adapting the pattern and made another. The new nappy I made from the adapted pattern is a little bigger than a size 0 Kissaluv, but smaller than a size 1 Tots Bot (and obviously smaller than a size 1 Kissaluv). The size 0 Kissaluvs were WONDERFUL on Arthur from the day he was born (his first nappy was a size 0 Kissaluv, just an hour or so after he was born!) so I know I don't want Matthew's newborn nappies much bigger than those to start with. The "Preemie" Cuddlebuns was as big as Arthur's size 2 Kissaluvs!!!! Well, longer in the rise, but slimmer fitting. Crazy.
Anyway. So I will keep the preemie Cuddlebuns for when Matthew grows into it (it's way too small for Arthur, and not absorbent enough). I made a newborn Cuddlebuns out of some cute knit fabric and soft white sherpa, and then I made a matching set of Cuddlebuns - a standard sized one for Arthur and a mini one for Matthew!! I posted a photo here in my other diary, if you didn't already see it there. I am so pleased with how they turned out! I am going to make a TON more. I have a new pattern coming in the post (along with ALL my Christmas money's worth of new fabrics, threads and coloured poppers (snaps) from The One Stop Diaper Shop and Sewshoppe.com! :) The pattern is one I haven't tried or heard of before. It's a Very Baby Diaper pattern, designed by the people who do The One Stop Diaper Shop. I like the look of it a lot. It looks quite like Cuddlebuns, but I love that they have different sizes (so I can make a proper newborn size for Matthew) and how versatile it looks. There is a pattern for a side-snapping fitted diaper and that's the one I want to try out! They do other patterns for AIOs and wraps which I'd love to try too, but each pattern costs money and I guess I shouldn't buy more than one. I have a ton of other patterns anyway. But I'm addicted ;) Anyway so that is coming in the post, and cute labels to apply to the nappies when they're finished!
I LOVE shopping for fabrics and nappy making stuff online! Apart from the pattern and labels, I am getting lime green sherpa, some cute knit prints, four different coloured snap sets (ones I am running out of at home), more varigated threads, some cranberry coloured lightweight windpro, and a couple of basics that I'm running out of - a couple of yards each of white interlock and white PUL. Yay! I can't wait to sewwwwwww them!!! I am sewing-CRAZY at the moment! I can't wait for the evenings when I get a chance to sit and sew for as long as I can manage it until bedtime! This is not giving me much quality time with Neil, but he is very happy about getting so much extra time playing his computer games at the moment, so I guess it's okay for now! ;)
Anyway. Stuff that ISN'T sewing-related!...
I am twenty-four weeks pregnant at last, yay!!!!!! Matthew is now "viable" and they would make every effort to save him if he was born now. He would also have a chance of survival, as his lungs have just begun secreting surfactant, which is necessary for them to breathe air. They are WAY too immature still though. Some websites say the survival rate at 24 weeks is 85%, and others say 50%. I think both are enormously high considering how premature 24 weeks is! But I can't bring myself to believe the 85% stats. Surely it's more like 50%, at best? Anyway, he has a chance :) But I hope he will stay in for another trimester yet! I am not anxious about it though, as I have no real reason to be. That's the weird thing (GOOD thing though!) - this pregnancy I just feel soooooo relaxed and easy about everything. Like I know everything will be fine. So much so that I am not really worrying about the stuff I got anxious about last pregnancy, like the baby coming too early, or incompetant cervix, or stuff like that. I just feel more secure I guess, having done it before without those problems. It's odd for me not to worry about things (!) so it's noticable, in a good way!
Matthew now weighs in at about 600g (approx 1lb 5oz) and is 30cm (about 12 inches) long from head to heel! That's getting so big! I can't believe my littlest one is finally into POUNDS and not just ounces! He has fingernails, eyelashes and eyebrows, and has good blinking reflexes and even rapid eye movement when sleeping! He can hear me very well, and is even beginning to pick up all sorts of sounds outside the womb now too. At the weekend, we went to see my Granny for her 80th birthday, and I was holding Arthur in her kitchen, on what used to be a hip (!), and he suddenly did a loud unexpected squeal because he saw that someone was making him a sandwich (bless his heart!), and Matthew JUMPED!! He gave me such a kick and then that was it! It's the first time Matthew has actually responded to a sound that his brother has made (wow that feels strange/lovely to say "his brother" about Arthur!), so I wanted to note it here :)
Arthur is napping at the moment so I will no doubt be finishing this entry later on. Neil is at work so I need him to take a belly picture (it's that time again!) when he gets home before I post the entry anyway. I missed the 22 week belly shot so this one is the first since 20 weeks. I think I will have changed a LOT since then!!! I feel so big and heavy today, though I know I'm not really. I just look 5-6 months pregnant, which is what I am, and that's not the enormousness of the end of pregnancy. But I FEEL big. I have been growing very fast lately, as I think Matthew has been having another growth spurt. The last big and noticable one was between 20 and 21 weeks, and between 23 and 24, Neil and I have really noticed another fast change, both in my bump and in Matthew - how big he feels to our hands and how big his feet and limbs are when he kicks us, and also how high he comes up to now.
My uterus is nearly 2 inches above my tummy button - I should measure it actually. I haven't done that yet but I have my 24 week antenatal appointment with the doctor on Monday (at 24w5d) so she'll check with the tape measure then. I'm not remotely concerned about what it will measure, just curious really. Everything is fine and normal, whether it looks 2cm too much or 2cm too little. I learned to take measurements with a pinch of salt last time, so I don't pay that much attention to them now. I just like to note them to see how I grow as the weeks go by! My appt was meant to be today but the doctor's surgery cancelled it. I think my doctor isn't well this week or something, so it's Monday instead. It's just a routine one - pee, measurements, heartbeat, blood pressure, etc. But I'm looking forward to it anyway! I love all these milestones throughout pregnancy!
I was thinking today when I was out for a little walk with Arthur, that I am getting vaguely near to the end of the 2nd trimester! Yikes! Nearly all methods of dividing the trimesters up say the third trimester starts at 26 weeks or 26.something weeks. Last time I went with 27 weeks. I can't remember why, but I think I know that by then I am DEFINITELY in my 3rd trimester! So I will probably do the same this time. But that's only 3 weeks away!!! So close already! Where is this pregnancy disappearing to?! I almost feel sad that it's going to be over in no time. I know that by the end I will WANT it to be over so I can hold my baby and stop aching, etc, but I love being pregnant so much. I remember missing it and feeling kind of wistful to do it again when Arthur was FOUR WEEKS old!! I wonder if that feeling will happen again this time?...
Oops, Arthur woke and now it's the evening and he's asleep again! Neil just took my 24 week belly picture, so it's in the gallery - yay! I need to smile more for my photos. But my bump is definitely bigger than the last photo! It stands out way more than before, low down, exactly how I carried with Arthur. Also I basically look exactly the same as in my 24 week picture with Arthur, except for that low down out-front bit being more sticky outy than before, which has been the case all along. I guess those are my shot-to-pieces abs! ;)
I also weighed myself today, but not too accurately since it wasn't first thing in the morning before eating anything, which is how I always weigh myself. Usually that can put the measurement up by a lb or two. I was feeling soooooooooooo heavy and just like my body felt tired of carrying my belly, so I got on the scales out of curiosity, and I weighed 9 stone 7lbs!!!!! Wow. That's 7lbs more than when I last weighed myself, which I think was at 21 weeks or a couple of days after that. I know I have entered a much faster stage of weight gain now though, and my appetite has definitely been matching that. So if I take a lb off today's weight to account for having eaten a HUGE breakfast right before (!!), my total weight gain so far this pregnancy is 14lbs. I can't find many times where I noted my weight gain in my previous pregnancy - there isn't anything for weeeeks after this stage, but I did note that at 23 weeks I had gained 18lbs, so I am still gaining less than last time so far. I still think I am going to gain plenty and be as big as I was with Arthur. I just have a feeling! Plus I am NOT holding back on what I feel like eating, which lately is Coke (which I'm trying to limit!) and Cadbury's Creme Eggs. Jemma, thank you for your message (it really DID help) but you're a wicked wicked woman!! Suggesting Cadbury's Creme Eggs like that to a poor vulnerable pregnant woman, hehehe! ;) Of course then I wanted some and Neil is so sweet with me that he bought me a pack of TWELVE, which was reduced (by me) to only TWO in 3 days. Yeurgh! I loooove them right now :)
Today and yesterday are the first days in AGES that my appetite seems to have started to slow down. It feels like I suddenly grew upwards (towards my stomach) in the past few days and I am noticing a sudden increase in having painful wind again and feeling kind of queasy and full easily. Also I get so that I'm not that interested in food, or I feel like I can't eat much. I do still eat my whole meal easily, but I think Matthew has grown upwards suddenly, so that my stomach and bowel is having to adjust to the changing space. Either that or the huge appetite I had was because he was having an enormous growth spurt (definitely true anyway!), and now he has slowed down so I am not needing to eat quite as much.
Still no colostrum. To be honest I'm quite perplexed by it! I guess I expected to see it when I did last time, or near enough the same time. Or even earlier, possibly. I tried expressing after a bath yesterday but got absolutely nothing. So I will continue to wait! I am excited about it arriving though, whenever it does :)
I carried Arthur down the road today during our walk, because he was getting tired (it was only a short local walk so we left the pushchair at home) and he fell and scuffed his hands so I picked him up to comfort him, and then ended up just carrying him a while. But OW. I shouldn't do that anymore. It hurt really sharply in the back of my pelvis on my left side (the same side I got horrible pubic bone pain in last time). I tried shifting him from "hip" to "hip" (they aren't really hips anymore, that's why I am doing the "s!) and carrying him square on my belly but it hurt just the same to scissor my legs as I walked. It still hurts now so I guess that's the end of carrying him about so much. I will still pick him up and cuddle him though, while I can! :)
I wore a huge bulky winter coat done up at the front on our walk, and I LOVE that I was still noticably pregnant! We met one of our neighbours, who made a big fuss over Arthur walking and smiling so cheerfully at her, and then patted my bump and asked when I was due!! Yay! I LOVE the part where I shoooow!!! I am still really thrilled to be seen out and about with my little one-year-old and a bump :) I was looking forward to that for ages, and now I'm there with a big enough bump! Yay!
My friend Katie (who is due 2 days after me and has a 20-month-old son already) found out she is having a girl. I am really happy because it made me realise how MUCH I have adjusted to having a boy already since my last entry, and how happy I am about it. I thought, "Ohhh, she's having one of each... (wistfully)... How lovely..." but RIGHT after that it felt like I was even happier with my own situation than if I had been in her situation, having a girl, because I just thought, "But I'm having two little boys, close together! How WONDERFUL!!" And I just couldn't be happier! I am amazed at how bonded I feel with Matthew already. I just love him so much. I know I can't possibly feel as bonded with him during my pregnancy as I do with Arthur, because I haven't held him or met him or had time to learn his ways or interact with him yet, and of course I have had 15 months to intensify my absolute adoration of my sweet little firstborn! So I am okay with the fact that I will always feel more attached and bonded with Arthur than Matthew during my pregnancy. That is absolutely normal and I'm fine with it.
I just know I'm going to love them both the same when he's here, and that feels so wonderful! I feel so confident that my heart will just double in size and there will be plenty to share. I can feel it is bigger already :) You remember I mentioned in my diary, months back, that I called Matthew (then "Sprout"!) "my sweetest love" and immediately felt this huge sense of guilt towards Arthur because of it? Well this morning I was getting Arthur ready for something or other, and I said, "Come on then, my sweetest love!" and was completely unprepared for the big guilt wave to hit in MATTHEW'S favour!! But we went out this afternoon and I found a book at the Early Learning Centre called "You're all my favourites!" about three little bears whose Mummy and Daddy love them all just the same. I bought it of course :) It's so cute, and I am going to read it with Arthur, and later with Matthew, and probably even later with any other children we have. It's such a sweet little book and I'm kind of glad to find a book that covers something like that. I always want to reassure my boys (and other children that may follow!) that we love them equally and they couldn't be more perfect in our family.
I know there's a TON more stuff but my dinner is ready and I'm DESPERATE to sew after I eat it! Otherwise I won't have time before bed to sew anything. So I will try to update again if I think of more stuff. Except the Jane Powertwin arrived (completely as new as if we brought it home from the shop!) and it's in the loft waiting for Matthew :) And he has three new outfits from eBay which I have to stroke daily :) And that is all. I'll update again soon, hopefully!
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