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2006-05-27 - 9.05pm��previous entry��next entry
38 weeks, 3 days - blood pressure annoyances
Urgh, this pregnancy is just SO identical to my last one! At my midwife appointment last pregnancy, at 38w5d (I'm 38w3d today), for the first time during my whole pregnancy, my blood pressure was raised. I wrote in my diary that it was 130/90 at my appointment, after rushing around to get the room tidy for the midwives! The midwife was worried, and when she checked again at the end of the appointment, it was 130/80, so a little better. But she said she would come back in 2 days to re-check it. My normal blood pressure is so low that this was considered high blood pressure for me. She said if it had stayed at 130/90 at the second reading, she would have sent me into hospital to be monitored there and then. Well, anyway, for the remaining 2 weeks of my pregnancy, my blood pressure remained at the same level - I got sent in for monitoring when the midwife checked me again at 39 weeks, but it was normal in the hospital. My urine had no protein so that was good, but I did have a lot of headaches. The obstetrician said she didn't think they were related to blood pressure for me, as I had a bad headache when they were monitoring my blood pressure as normal.
Anyway. This week I have begun to get this weird feeling, physically, like I am overstretching my body. I have been feeling like I am physically no longer able to look after Arthur during the day on my own, even when I try and rest as much as I can during that time, because it's like... I don't know how to explain it, sort of like my body is saying I'm doing too much, no matter how little I do. I have been starting to get this physical feeling of being desperate for some practical help in the day when Neil is at work. Not because I'm tired or it would be such a help, etc, but because it's like my body is telling me I MUST have it, as it is beginning to be too much for me otherwise. I just brushed the feeling off as a normal way to feel at the very end of pregnancy when you have an energetic toddler, and I can't even DESCRIBE how physically relieved and emotionally glad I feel that it is finally the end of the week and time for the long weekend!
Neil has managed to get Tuesday off work, so I really feel like a new "phase" has begun, sort of like old fashioned confinement or something! Because, now it's the weekend, and then it's Bank Holiday Monday, and then Neil is off work again on Tuesday. So I have someone to help me with Arthur all that time. Then Wednesday will be the ONLY day that I have no help now until after Matthew is born! It is making the birth feel SOOOO imminent (which it is, of course, but it still feels so surreal to think of it like that!). My parents will be in England first thing on Thursday morning. Wednesday I have a midwife appointment so it's not a whole day without someone checking on me in some way. Then my parents are here until after Matthew is born :) So I feel like a huge weight has been lifted over how I simply was not able to cope on my own anymore, physically.
Today I have had yet another headache, but those usually go with painkillers. When this one didn't go after I had taken painkillers, I just started to wonder about taking my blood pressure "just to rule it out". And when I did, it was 135/85 :( Poo. Before I took it, I FELT stressy and tired and breathless and just like I have been feeling lately a lot, even though I am not really doing anything to cause those feelings. The thing I crave most, other than sleep, is peace and quiet away from Arthur for a little while. I feel awful about that, like I shouldn't feel that way - and I LOVE to be around Arthur! But he is soooo noisy lately - he is really getting into verbalising things and new words and sounds and stuff, and he NEVER stops chatting or shouting or something, usually to me or Neil, or just sort of commentating on life as he goes about his activities! It's so sweet, but lately I just can't take much of it for long. He's not even doing anything wrong. I just feel desperate for some quiet and I can't get away from noise in this house any more. When my head is aching or I'm feeling particularly physically stretched (which is more and more these days), then I can't bear the noise. So that's pretty much how I was feeling today before I took my blood pressure.
I thought maybe that's all it was, so I went upstairs and lay down for 10 minutes and then took it again on the bed, and it was 130/80. A little better, but not enough really. Pfthth. It's uncanny how it's almost exactly the gestation I was with my last pregnancy when my blood pressure went up. I guess I can be encouraged by the fact that although it stayed up last time, it never threatened me in any way. I mean, I never got signs of pre-eclampsia, no protein in my urine, no excessive swelling or upper gastric pain, etc. The headaches seemed to be put down to one of three possible causes (by the obstetrician I saw) - fluid retention in my head, tension, or high oestregon levels that happen at this late stage of pregnancy and can cause headaches in some women. I figure it might be hormonal - unusually bad headaches were my norm the day before a period, so those must have been hormonal, and maybe I'm prone to hormonal-type headaches in general therefore?
Well, I guess I should let somebody know about my blood pressure. My next appointment isn't till Wednesday so that's a long way off really, considering how frequently they wanted to monitor my blood pressure when it was at this level last time. But, it's weekend, so the community midwives office will be closed until Tuesday now. I know I can phone somewhere else in the maternity unit, but they'll just over-react probably, not knowing my history or stuff, and get me in to be monitored when it probably isn't even necessary, since I can monitor it perfectly well from home and I know what to look out for if it gets worse. Last pregnancy, my midwife knew I could take my own blood pressure and had my own sphyg and stethoscope, so she was happy for me to just monitor it myself over the week between appointments at the very end.
So I think that's what I'll do. The only thing that worries me is that last time I was told to rest and so I did. I rested all day long! Oh the luxurious bliss of having no children to look after when you're on your first pregnancy! ;) Boy did I get a lot of rest that pregnancy compared to this one! I took soooo many naps. I have been desperate for naps this pregnancy and simply unable to take any, because of Arthur. He hasn't been the type of toddler who will nap long enough to let Mummy nap too, which has made it extra hard.
So this time, I can't get the rest I had last time, and I worry that this will make a difference between my blood pressure sitting high but steady like it did last time, and going up even higher. Hmmm. We have SO much to do this weekend, and Neil is tired out too, and couldn't do it all with Arthur to look after as well. So I don't know. But we've decided I'll rest as much as I can over the weekend and keep a frequent check on my blood pressure (I'm checking every 2-3 hours at the moment and it's staying pretty much the same - a little lower this evening (130/75) which is good). If things change then I make a phone call and probably go to be monitored. If not, I sit tight till my midwife appointment, and let her decide what should happen. I know there was no concern over inducing me last time, so I'm not expecting that unless it goes really high, but there was some question for a while over my homebirth plans. I hope everything stays okay, and that it's just another blip that my body seems to "do" during my pregnancies at a certain stage. I can't believe how absolutely identical things are to last time!
Last time though, my blood pressure was normal during my labour at home, which was a surprise! But once I had transferred to hospital, it was crazy high - 165/90 or something! They didn't seem concerned at the time though, maybe because things were so far along? Anyway. I thought I should update here about it, since it's significant, and who knows what'll happen over the weekend.
Other than that everything is fine! My bump seems a weird shape today, like it has HALVED in size! It's so weird. Where the top half of my bump, above the tummy button, used to be rounded, it's now gone like a flat slope, like it has disappeared! So I am presuming from such a dramatic change, that Matthew is engaged, well and truly. He could still pop up again, especially overnight, but he's very low today. It is hurting me sitting here at the computer. It feels like I have the worst trapped wind waaaay low down, almost under my bottom. Which I guess is the owchy pressure of Matthew's head, lower than it has ever been! He now weighs over 7.5lbs so I'm not surprised that his whole weight pressing through his bony head on my tenderloins (!) is painful!
I have been getting lots of mucousy discharge, which is normal at this stage, and I've had some like that for a while now, but it's definitely increasing. It's not a show though, just things gearing up I think. I feel desperate to blow up my birth ball and bounce on it, but scared that I'll make my cervix "favourable" too quickly and then Matthew won't wait till my mum is here! I neeeeeeeeeed my mum here when I give birth. He has to wait till Thursday! Although, my pregnancies seem so identical in the timing of things that I'm starting to wonder if I should expect almost an identical gestation of going into labour too? That would put me at a couple of days past my due date. Which feels like AGES, but I know it will pass quickly.
I am due in 11 days now! ELEVEN DAYS! That's so so so so close. Anything could happen, any time. Nearly single digits for the days left now! On Monday I will be able to say my baby is due NEXT WEEK!!!! Wowee! It's so exciting! :)
I didn't weigh myself. I don't care to any more! I am still eating like CRAZY - huge portions, and I seem to be grazing all day long. The last two days I have really wanted a lot of fruit and veg to snack on. Usually I am big on chocolate, and also chocolate. Sometimes I also like chocolate. If you get what I mean! ;) But yesterday I had to grate a raw carrot and just eat it - yum! And today as well. And I want orange juice and apples and stuff.
I still have the weird smell-cravings, but they are maybe a touch less intense these days. I still love stinky bus fumes and creosote, but I don't sit at home longing to smell them like before! ;) Toothpaste is still soooooo good though! I think it's something to do with my gag reflex. It's being really weird. I love brushing my teeth because when I brush reeeally far back, the combination of the toothpaste taste and the friction near my gag reflex is absolutely fantastic! I have discovered that I don't seem to HAVE a gag reflex at the moment - I can brush my tongue as far back as I can fit the toothbrush in my throat without any urge to gag, and it feels sooooo great, hehe! I am so sad that it is probably just a quirk of pregnancy and will go away in a couple of weeks! But at least it has made up for the lack of steamy dreams I've been having this pregnancy. Boy did I have some humdingers last pregnancy! ;) But none at all this time :( I think the toothpaste and weird stuff like that almost makes up for it this time though!
On the subject of personal pleasures (!!) it is occurring to me that there have been NO parsnips whatsoever since Matthew was conceived! Wow, that's quite a break. It was the same last pregnancy though, more or less. Last time we only resumed at the end to try and encourage Arthur to come OUT, hehe! Maybe we'll do the same this time, but I can't think of anything I'd rather do LESS, except maybe throw up! For me, parsnips + pregnancy = yeeeurghhh! And that's just the way it is. Neil is wonderfully tolerant and patient about it, like he always is. I think it helps that neither of us have a big parsnip drive in any case. I think if Matthew isn't showing any signs of arriving by my due date then I'll want to do anything to get things going, mainly because of the window that my parents are here. I am pretty sore these days though, so I do not relish resorting to parsnips!
On Thursday this week I went to Fellowship Group and met a teeny tiny baby boy! He is Catherine's baby, one of the four of us at church who are due within weeks of each other - she was due first, in mid-May. He is a couple of weeks old and sooooooooo tiny! I was so taken aback by his size that I asked how much he had weighed, and was even more surprised when she told me 9lbs 3oz! So that means Matthew is going to be even SMALLER than that tiny baby, which I honestly can NOT imagine for some reason! I guess it's so true how you forget when you have a toddler, how tiny a newborn is, even though you've been there and done that, and you have the outfits in front of you, and the photographic evidence of your first baby BEING that small, etc. You still get blown away by how tiny they are - even 9lbers! But seeing him made me mushily broody and I am just longing to hold my tiny, soft, wibbly-headed baby boy now! I am so excited because it really is going to be SO soon that I will get to do that! :)
Okay, that's all for today. I want to do some sewing if I am up to it. I'm being careful, honestly. But I don't want to grind to a halt on all activity unless my body shows me that I need to. I'll check my blood pressure again later too. Last night I finished sewing two newborn wraps I'd been making, and today I want to put the fastenings on two newborn nappies that I made a while back. Neil finally put a change of clothes for himself in the labour bag, so I am pretty much all ready if I need to transfer to hospital now :)
We are planning to shift or dismantle a lot of furniture this weekend, upstairs in the bedrooms. Then we can get down from the loft the Moses basket, and I think we are getting the swinging crib down (forgot we had that, as we didn't use it for Arthur at all once we got the Moses basket!). I can't think what else. Neil started putting shelves up in the spare bedroom today for my nappy-making fabrics. Tomorrow he'll finish those and then we can transfer the fabrics over to those and put the free-standing shelving unit that they've been living on in the loft to free up some floor space. I need to varnish some other shelves for storing nappies on above the tumble dryer (where we've found it to be the most convenient place to keep the nappies). Arthur's nappies all live neatly piled in categories on the tumble dryer, but with two in cloth we'll need extra shelving. Which will look nicer and be more efficient anyway, so I'm glad we're doing it! But it has rained all day so I haven't been able to varnish outside (I won't do it in the house, even with a low-odour varnish). We also need to fix the stairgate at the bottom of the stairs to the wall permanently. It needs moving a little - I found Arthur straddling the gate yesterday!! And today he fell off it from that same position while Neil was getting lunch in the kitchen and I was upstairs for a couple of minutes. So that needs changing!
We'll be busy, but I will take it easy and listen to my body, and keep a close eye on my blood pressure. And basically rest and have to watch poor Neil do everything if it comes to it. If my blood pressure goes UP then I'll phone the hospital. I don't think it will, but I'll be careful just in case.
Okay I will be back again soon! I would like to update more frequently now it's so close to my due date - I'll try to keep up here more often! Thanks SO much for the reassuring messages about my worries over coping with two such little ones. They helped so much :)
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