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2006-06-06 - 10.49pm��previous entry��next entry
39 weeks, 6 days - due tomorrow!! And nappy stash photos!
Evening update time again :)
TOMORROW is my due date!!! I can't believe I have completed the whole 40 weeks of pregnancy tomorrow! I can't believe that when anyone asks me when I'm due, after tomorrow I'll be referring to the PAST! It suddenly feels like such a lonnnng journey and I feel so tired now I'm right at the very end of the complete road. But I do admit to feeling a huge sense of pride at having got there! :) It's quite something to be 40 weeks pregnant!
This morning I took a shower and checked my cervix. Can't find the darn thing. Well, I think I could just reach the edge of it. The midwife came today (it wasn't Pat, but another really lovely senior midwife) and the student who is assigned to me. It was a really good appointment. They forgot the pee sticks so I didn't get my urine checked, but my BP was 120/70 - yay! I don't know why it was up before, but it does seem to be pretty much back to normal again now for whatever reason. Maybe I was just extra stressed before Mummy was in the country!
Anyway, I asked the midwife about my cervix. I said I couldn't even find it and she said it must still be tucked up at the back then. I asked her if that really did mean that labour wouldn't happen for a while, and she said (to my great relief!) that it doesn't necessarily work like that. She said they could be checking it now and it would be far back, and then 3 hours later I could be calling them to say I'm in labour. It can move down quickly when it's time. So that feels like a relief to know, and I'm not dwelling so much on what my cervix is doing now. I'm still curious to know what it IS doing, but I probably won't bother to check it so much now!
The midwife offered me a sweep, as she said they do offer that now at 40 weeks, and again at 40+5. I really never wanted any form of intervention, however mild or non-aggressive, but part of me was tempted to say yes for a while. I stalled on my decision by asking her a million questions about potential risks of the procedure, what benefits they expect to see from it, etc. She said there were no risks, and that the idea is that a sweep (where the midwife sweeps her finger around inside the cervix, to seperate the baby's membranes from the actual cervix which is supposed to trigger a surge of hormones that can start labour off when the cervix is already "favourable" for labour to begin) should be followed by labour within 4 days of the sweep, if the cervix is favourable at the time. Well, I thought that my body would probably do that on its own anyway. I mean, my labour with Arthur - or the pre-labour bit at least - started 2 days past my due date, so that would only be another 3 days anyway. So I trust my body to do it without any help. Plus I know it would hurt! So I declined, which they were fine with. They are coming back at 40 weeks and 5 days, if I haven't had Matthew by then, to offer it again. I think if I still have no signs of labour at 40w5d that I will be absolutely desperate for a sweep, hehe! But we'll see.
The student midwife was so sweet! She seems so excited about my upcoming homebirth! I remember being ULTRA excited about even hospital births with ladies I had never met before when I was a student midwife, and I know a homebirth with someone you've followed antenatally is a BIG deal for a student midwife :) So I'm really glad to be exciting for her! It's so sweet and flattering to see her excitement over it. She was trying to sound all casual and asking me if I felt like it might be soon :) She did my antenatal check and my bump measures 39 weeks. Matthew's heartrate is good and strong again, still slow to my ears, but perfectly normal. She felt his position and he's where he always is, but his back was on the other side of my tummy. I notice that he does go over there sometimes, but he spends nearly all of his time with his back against my tummy on my right side. Only occasionally do I find him over on the left, and he never stays there long.
When she felt for his head, she felt quite high and then let the midwife feel. The midwife also felt from quite high, then paused and moved an inch further down, then frowned and actually started to feel the TOP of my bump! For a moment I thought, "Oh no! He's breech!" but it was just that she seemed to expect to find his head and when she didn't find it high up she checked to be sure his head wasn't up at the top! When she found only a little bottom (aww!), she pressed RIGHT down into my pelvis, down below my pubic bone even, which was a bit painful. THEN she found his head! She was surprised he was so low for a second baby. She said his head was so well engaged that she couldn't wiggle it even a bit, it was totally solid within my pelvis! Yay! He's such a good boy :) So he's ready. Everything is ready actually. It's time for him to come out!
Today I have been having times where I have felt VERY periody and crampy, in my front and lower back at the same time. I notice it whether I'm walking, sitting, or lying down trying to sleep. Sometimes it comes in waves and it's so yucky and crampy that it makes me grimace and hope it will pass soon, so things are definitely starting to warm up. I don't always have a solid bump when I get those feelings though, so I know it's not always because I'm contracting. I have felt periody-crampy for a lot of the day, more than any other day so far. The midwife said that if I felt that way, things were definitely moving along. When I was breastfeeding Arthur at bedtime tonight, I had two painful contractions that hurt low down both front and back, with a REALLY tight bump at the same time. I wonder if they hurt more because I was lying on my side though - my bump felt so tight and pulled-on with its own weight lolling over towards the mattress! Maybe it wouldn't have felt that way if I'd been sitting or lying straight, or had some support under my bump? I have had an awful lot of Braxton Hicks contractions today, some of them really strong and patches of time where I've had them every 2 minutes for a while, etc. Right now I have lower back ache, like very mild period pain, or like a mild strain in my lower back muscles after exertion. They feel sort of burny. I feel crampy at the front, but again, my bowel seems a bit annoyed so I never know how much of the discomfort is that and how much is my uterus. Hmmm.
Anyway. Matthew is going to miss the having a rare and interesting birthday of 06/06/06, but oh well. I was disappointed at first when I realized he was going to miss that date! But I'm wondering if he'll be a due date baby, if things are starting to warm up? I'm not convinced he'll be born in the next 24 hours, but he still COULD be, and that would be cool, to have my baby ON my due date! Only 10% of babies are actually born on their due dates so that sounds like a nice thing to happen! June 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th just sound to me like nice birthdates. The 9th would make Arthur and Matthew exactly 19 months apart in age, as Arthur was born on November 9th. The prettiest looking date to me is June 10th :) It's just such a nice round number! Plus it's Meg's birthday! ;) But it's a little bit longer than I'd hoped to wait! Any dates beyond that just seem sucky because they feel TOO far away!!! I hope he has one of these nice dates as his birthday!
Let's see, did I miss anything else out about the midwife appt? Oh I got my blood results back from AGES ago (34 weeks I think) when I last had them done, and they're all normal. The midwife asked if everything was ready, and I said yes, with the exception of the house being not-really-tidy enough for my liking, to give birth in! But she waved that off as seemingly unimportant. Other than that, we are completely ready. Oh, except for the bedrooms and somewhere for Matthew to sleep! We need to fit the double bedguard that just arrived in the post to the spare bed, in case I end up sleeping with Matthew there. And Neil has tomorrow off work to search for the cotbed fittings once and for all. If he doesn't find them, we'll abandon the darn thing and set up the travel cot (Pack n Play) as a back-up. We have the Moses basket down as well. My hospital bags are completely packed and ready, my mum's "labour" bag is sitting on top of those, and my sterile homebirth pack is waiting too. My birth ball is inflated, my baby is engaged, and I am just waiting for labour to begin! They reminded me that I need to contact the hospital labour ward when I go into labour, and tell them I'm having a homebirth, so that they page the on-call midwife to get things started for me. Last time I think I called the community midwives' office but I'm not technically meant to do that for labour. The student was so grinny and excited as they left, saying, "See you very soon!!" :)
Today I have been sooooooooooo very tired, more so than yesterday I think. I had trouble going to sleep last night as I thought, as my feet wouldn't stop burning and throbbing, and my legs were soooo jumpy and restless. I tried my legs vertical against the wall again, but it didn't work this time and I started to feel not great about being on my back. So Neil got the fan down for me, and I set it going towards my feet. That worked a treat!!! With the fan blowing on my feet, I went to sleep really quickly, which was a big relief! I had the fan on me all night. It's getting quite warm and muggy at night now the weather has gone all hot and summery, and the forecast is for it to get hotter and hotter over the next four or five days. I hope I go into labour and give birth BEFORE it reaches the hottest temperatures that are predicted from Thursday/Friday onwards! I am NOT good with hot weather. Thank goodness for the fan! We don't have air-conditioning in houses in this country :( So tonight my feet are burny and swollen again and I'm going to use the fan. I didn't get to sleep till nearly midnight last night and I REALLY needed to sleep earlier than that. I slept okay the rest of the night though.
Today, my whole body has been desperate for sleep. I have found it hard to keep my eyes open, and just want to lie down all the time. I didn't really want to just leave my mum with Arthur and lie down all day, but by about 3.30pm I came over all tearful shaking poo from one of Arthur's nappies down the loo! I just felt too tired and too breathlessly exhausted to do anything more, and I felt like I couldn't climb the stairs even ONE more time that day. So I told my mum I had to take a nap, and she was fine with that. I lay down upstairs with the fan on, and heard her and Arthur playing downstairs for 20 minutes, and then they went out for an hour's walk. I got up 20 minutes before they got home, to put Arthur's tea on to cook for when he got back. I had to drag myself up out of bed though, I just felt so exhausted to my bones. I didn't sleep, but it was good to lie down. I am going to go to bed after I post this diary entry. Neil says he is going to try and help me get more rest tomorrow, the sweet thing! :) He's going to let me lie-in till 10am for a start, which sounds like HEAVEN to me! I seem to sleep better in the morning than at night, so I can't wait for some good sleep that doesn't end with me having to get up because Neil is off to work and I need to start my day with Arthur. And I know that even with all the stuff he has to do tomorrow, if I come over too tired to do anything, he'll make it so that I can lie down whenever I need to. My mum is coming over mid/late morning for the rest of the day, so she'll be able to help with Arthur again. It's lovely to see them together. He loves her so much, and she loves him back even MORE fiercely!
Well the only other thing I wanted to say today was that I FINALLY got around to taking photos of Matthew's newborn nappy stash! I'm so glad I found time! He has more newborn nappies than Arthur did, because he has all that Arthur used plus a few that I've made or bought since then. Oh but Arthur had some Honeyboy diapers, and I am selling those so they're not going in Matthew's stash. They are such beautiful and cute nappies but they were pretty useless on Arthur. I had no idea he could be such a power wee-er, as a newborn! He peed right through them in no time, despite them being top quality Malden Mills fleece (which is water resistant). He is fine with fleece WRAPS, but not fleece all-in-ones. I'm just glad I didn't make a ton of them, as I would have had a crisis on my hands and ended up needing to go and buy a ton of other nappies fast! It's a shame to see them go though. They are so cute and soft!
Anyway, the following photos will bore some of my readers silly, but those who have a cloth fetish will probably enjoy them, hehe! ;) Here is Matthew's entire newborn nappy stash!
Four wraps made by me!
These are copied from the Tots Bots redrap size 0 - they are great-fitting wraps, very generous but tiiiny enough for a newborn, and I just bought one and drew round it carefully to make my own pattern. I made one out of lavender windpro Malden Mills fleece (Arthur used this one), and just a few weeks ago I made another out of soft sage lightweight MM windpro - it is the most BUTTERY soft fleece ever! I also made two out of John Lennon print fabric. The white one has cars all over it and it was the best wrap I had for Arthur. It outperformed all the others, along with the Bummis Super Whisper Wraps. It has white suedecloth inside and a layer of PUL sandwiched inbetween the print and the suedecloth, for the waterproof bit. I bound the legs with white microfleece to prevent it wicking (leaking). It worked wonderfully, so I just made another out of a baby yellow Lennon print, baby yellow microfleece and PUL, and this time I used poppers on it instead of velcro. I hope it works as well as the other one! Anyway, here are those wraps:
Bought wraps
These are two Bummis Super Whisper Wraps - a well-used Noah's Ark print one that I bought second-hand for Arthur, and a new froggy print one that I bought for Matthew :) I wish I had more of these, but I guess I have enough wraps in newborn size! The other gorgeous wrap is a Lovebums wrap that I bought from someone second-hand, but she had not really used it as her twins were soooo tiny that they seemed to never fit it right. It's super cute, and I couldn't resist! It looks like it won't fit Matthew right away though, as it's bigger than the others, despite being newborn size.
Size 0 Tots Bots
When I was pregnant with Arthur, I bought 2 size 0 Tots Bots from someone second-hand, which are impossible to find as they don't actually make them for normal sale in size 0! They fitted Arthur nicely and were sooooo tiny, though they were a little more bulky than I was crazy about. Also he grew out of them in the rise quite quickly. Before he was born, I made a few replicas of these nappies in other fabrics, and I happened to make them a bit longer in the rise and out of less bulky fabrics, so they ended up fitting him perfectly for ages! This photo is of the two size 0 Tots Bots and the first replica I made, completely out of soft white stretchy cotton sherpa. I fasten them with a nappy nippa (snappi):
Homemade Tots size 0 replicas and newborn Cuddlebuns
Here are some homemade nappies! I made four Tots size 0 replicas out of a soft towelling bathrobe that was given to me by Neil's youngest sister as something to make nappies out of! I loved it because it was just THE softest towelling ever, and in pastel stripes, and it just looked lovely for nappies! I only used it on the outer layer, to fasten with a nippa, and used absorbent fabric for the inner soaker pad, and soft white microfleece for the layer against the baby's skin. These fit Arthur beautifully and were so soft and trim on him. He fit them for a long time, longer than some of his other newborn size nappies. I'm excited about using them again on Matthew! The other two nappies in the photo are newborn Cuddlebuns (my adjusted pattern - theirs still seemed ENORMOUS, even the newborn size!). They are both a stretchy knit print outer and microfleece inner:
Stacinator So-Simple wrap and a homemade pocket nappy
The Stacinator wrap doesn't really count as the newborn stash because it's so big! It didn't fit Arthur till he was in size 1 nappies, but then he grew out of it pretty fast once his little leggies got chubby! The other nappy was my first attempt at a pocket-style nappy. It has yellow microfleece on the inside, a layer of PUL, and navy printed fleece on the outside. There's a hole in the microfleece layer through which you can stuff the nappy with absorbent stuff. It was meant to be a size 1 nappy but it came out small and ended up fitting Arthur really well as a newborn. I hadn't planned on using AIOs much with a tiny newborn in case they didn't hold the runny poo very well, but this one did fine. It's a bit basic, but it's in the stash nonetheless! :)
Kissaluvs size 0!!
Yay, Kissaluvs!! THE best nappy in the entire WORLD for a newborn! I will never recommend another newborn nappy as highly as Kissaluvs size 0. They are the bees knees. They are cute, fit beautifully, and are trim, virtually leakproof, and soooo soft. They have a snap-down front for the healing umbilical cord, and somehow they amazingly seem to last and last in the fit. These fit Arthur for absolutely ages, well beyond all the other newborn nappies that he outgrew. They are completely fab! I have six unbleached kissaluvs with pastel varigated thread around the edges (the stack on the right) which I bought new for Arthur, and they are still as-new. The other stack consists of 3 second-hand unbleached kissaluvs that were pretty well used, so are a bit less soft and have bleached white in the wash. They are still fine though, and have no stains. The other three were bought new for Arthur - one peach coloured, one lavender coloured, and one lemon with lavender inner. They are still soft and lovely! Yay, I can't wait to use cute lil size 0 Kissaluvs again! :)
Very Baby fitted nappies, made by me!
These are my latest pride and joy! I bought a Very Baby AIO pattern which is soooo cute, but I wanted soft fabrics throughout rather than a PUL outer or an AIO (all-in-one) for a newborn, so I just made them as fitted nappies which would require a wrap over the top. I made two out of flannel print outers (blue with daisies, and white with chickens). Both have aplix (velcro) fastenings and white sherpa in the soaker pads and the inner layer against the baby's skin. Then I made two more out of soft stretchy knit fabrics, and I like these way better than the woven flannel fabrics. I wish I had time to make more of these ones! They are SO cute and tiny! I wondered if Matthew would even fit in them, but they compare quite well with the size 0 Kissaluvs in size, so I guess he will! The knit prints are cream with earthy tone leaves, and white with a farm print on it. For the cream/leaves one, I used some seriously LUSH dark chocolate velour on the inside, and sherpa in the soaker. And for the farm print one, I matched some soft stretchy red interlock fabric with the red on the barns in the farm print. I love this nappy! It's my favourite one that I've made, as I like the bright colours. They are so soft and feel so stretchy and nice! I used aplix for fastenings, but the stretchy knit nappies are sooo stretchy that I sewed a crossover tab on the wings for a trimmer fit. They look and feel like they are going to be Matthew's trimmest fitting nappies. Anyway, I am so proud of them! I hope they do the job and fit Matthew well, because we've never tried Very Baby diapers before.
So that is the entire stash! Matthew has 8 wraps (including the Stacinator) and 25 nappies! That's pretty good for a newborn! It will certainly be enough, as we coped fine with fewer nappies for Arthur and we had a broken tumble dryer at the time too! We did end up having to use some of our flat-fold terry nappies that we'd bought for burp cloths, in a few desperate moments! But they are sooo bulky and nowhere near as cute, so we didn't use them for nappies once we were back on top of the nappy laundry! I have a LOT of cloth wipes, but possibly not enough for two boys full-time in cloth nappies, so I might have to run off a few more if it looks like we'll be short of them. We used cotton wool and water for a while with Arthur at first, and that just got OLD and also fiddly very quickly! Then we used sensitive baby wipes for a short while, but baby wipes just SUCK. They are so yucky smelling and chemical-ish. Cloth wipes are just the best! :) I haven't let a baby wipe near Arthur's bum since he was a newborn, and I don't want to buy any at all this time to use on Matthew. So I hope we have enough cloth wipes! They are so easy to whizz off if not, so that's okay.
Anyway, this entry is getting too long and it's getting way too late! I am going to revel in the physical loveliness that is brushing my teeth (still sooooooo sad that I probably won't have this relationship with my toothbrush in just a few short days or weeks!) and then go to bed. I have heartburn. And Matthew has hiccups. And otherwise, we are both still sitting pregnant! I will update when that starts to change though! :) And probably a normal evening update tomorrow, otherwise. Thank you again for some sweet messages in my guestbook - they continue to cheer and uplift me every time I see them! xxx
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