appointments update

I had my ultrasound scan on Monday and have just come back from my 34-week midwife appointment. I am currently home sick with a nasty cold virus so I thought I would quickly post an update on how the appointments went while I'm sitting here nursing a cup of tea and feeling yucky.

 The main purpose of the ultrasound was to check that my placenta was no longer low-lying. At my 20-week scan the placenta was very low and I'm happy to report that my placenta has behaved and has moved out of the way. During the scan, the sonographer also checked baby's head circumference (300mm) and abdomen circumference (308mm). Both measurements were in the normal range. 

After the scan, I saw the consultant to discuss the results. She decided that my pregnancy can now be classed as Low Risk and I have been transferred to midwife-led care.  This means I will now have the baby in the midwife-led ward of the hospital and I'm very happy about this. At first I was concerned because the midwife ward doesn't have epidurals available, but the doctor assured me that if during labour I am not coping well and want an epidural I can be moved upstairs to the consultant ward to have one.  

The midwife appointment this morning went well. My blood pressure was normal (120/60), fundus height was good (35cm) and the fetal heart-rate was fine (138bpm). What I was most excited about though was the position of the baby: he is head-down, partially engaged, and in the LOA ("left occiput anterior") position. I googled this when I got home and turns out this is the optimum position for labour. 

I'm not getting my hopes up too much though -  he can always change positions and even if he does stay in this position, it doesn't necessarily mean my labour will be straight-forward. But knowing he is in the ideal position at the moment makes me feel more confident about my upcoming delivery...which is rapidly drawing closer!

thirty-four weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 238...42 days to go!

Baby is now 17.75 inches long and weighs about 4.75 pounds. 

Well another week has passed and things are definitely getting more uncomfortable. The weather here has been very warm (which normally I would love) but being 8 months pregnant, the heat makes everything much more of an effort. My feet are swelling now (yuck) and sleeping has become nearly impossible. And then yesterday I started to get a sore throat and a runny nose, so I think I have caught a cold. I'm trying not to moan too much, but it's frustrating to not be able to take normal cold medicine!

I have only 3 more weeks at work now and it is starting to feel that the end is near, though there is still so much to do. Hopefully by the end of this week I will have handed over most of my workload to my replacement and my last two weeks can be more relaxed.

Someone in my antenatal class recommended a second-hand baby shop to me, so on Saturday my husband and I decided to go check it out. It's in a converted barn out in the middle of the countryside so I didn't know what to expect, but it was huge and had tons and tons of second-hand baby clothes, equipment, toys, and maternity clothes! I bought 4 summer maternity tops and a TENS machine all for really cheap! It was amazing. We decided that we would be buying all of baby's stuff from there in the future. If anyone lives in the Suffolk area of the UK and wants the details, let me know!

In terms of medical appointments, I have an ultrasound scan today (Monday) and then my 34 week midwife appointment on Wednesday.  I'm looking forward to seeing baby again on the scan - he is probably going to look huge! The scan is just to check that the placenta has moved because at my 20 week scan it was low-lying. I will post an update later in the week about the appointments. 

the gallery: picture postcard

The theme for this week's Gallery is Picture Postcard. This photo of Marrakesh is a few years old and nothing to do with my pregnancy journey at all, but I couldn't resist digging it out from the photos on my computer and using it for this week's post. I hope you don't mind. 

I went to Marrakesh with my good friend in September 2010 and we wandered the narrow, busy streets in awe for 3 days. Towards the end of one particularly hectic and hot day we stumbled into the Djemaa El Fna square  in the center of the city and found a shabby cafe  to drink some tea and relax. Little did we know it was the perfect location to watch the sunset over the square. 

As the sun went down, the portable restaurants starting popping up one by one and we literally watched the square come to life! I like this photo because the colours are so vibrant and the Atlas mountains can be seen in the background. It's my personal picture postcard.  

This post is linking up to The Gallery on the Sticky Fingers blog. 

thirty-three weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 231...49 days to go!

Baby is now 17 inches long and weighs about 4.25 pounds. 

Can you believe that the baby now weighs over 4 pounds? That's a lot! And over the next 4 weeks he will put on 2 more pounds, so my bump is literally going to grow by the day. I have already gained 27.6 pounds so far this pregnancy, so it's likely I will gain at least 35 pounds overall...I'm not happy about gaining so much, but there isn't much I can do about it now. I suppose it will just mean working harder after baby is here to lose it all.  

I am feeling very large now and sleep is getting more difficult, partly because I'm waking up through the night to go to the bathroom and partly because I'm uncomfortable lying in one position so have been tossing and turning throughout the night. This has of course made me more tired during the day and therefore much more irritable at work. 

On top of general stress and insanity at work, this past week was super busy in the evenings too. Monday evening I had a committee meeting for a charity I volunteer for; Tuesday evening I had a breastfeeding class; and Wednesday evening I had my last NCT antenatal class. At the end of the class the instructor stated "Okay ladies, the next step is to go and have your babies!" I suddenly felt very unprepared!

The nursery progress is going well. My father-in-law has just finished painting and putting in some new power points and we have cleared the room ready for the cot to be assembled. The only problem is that our cot and crib are currently on back order at Mamas & Papas. I'm hoping they get delivered soon, otherwise we might have to think of other options. 

I am planning on getting the Ektorp armchair from IKEA for the nursery too. It looks really comfortable for breastfeeding and you can also get a ton of different covers for it from a company called Bemz; so the chair should theoretically last forever as we can get different covers in the future if we want to redecorate or move the chair to another room. Once everything has been set up I will put up some pictures of the nursery to show what it looks like. 

special delivery: the essential one

Drawstring bag

After a couple long, hard days at work it was such a pleasure to get home Wednesday evening and find that a parcel had arrived through the door from The Essential One, a fabulous company that specialises in all the essential clothing you need in baby's first year.  They sent me a bundle of products to add to my hospital bag; I have only just been getting my bag ready, so this was impeccable timing!

The first thing I noticed when I opened the parcel was how lovely the packaging was. The clothes all came inside a bespoke cotton drawstring bag which was simply wrapped in tissue paper. I like how they used minimal packaging. The drawstring bag can be used over again and the tissue paper is recyclable, so I didn't feel like there was any wasteful packaging. The bag itself is also so cute! I will definitely be using it in the future to carry spare clothes in the changing bag. 

Vests

The products in the bag were all super adorable too and what came across immediately was the quality. It's hard to portray in images how nice the fabric is, but trust me on this: it's amazingly soft and very high quality. The clothes are all 100% fully combed, soft handle cotton and it shows. 

Baby grows

In the bag came 2 vests, 2 baby grows, a baby hat and a pair of scratch mittens. All of these are going straight in the hospital bag and I expect I will use them all within the first few days that baby is here. The colours of the items sent to me are very neutral but The Essential One also have boy and girl colours. I do like the neutrals though, and the yellows and beiges are really nice (again - hard to portray this in the photos).  

I was so pleased with the quality of these clothes compared to others I have bought in the high street shops. After looking through the brochure I was also impressed with how reasonable their prices are too - so impressed, in fact, that I went straight online and put through an order for some of their adorable baby blankets! 

the gallery: morning

Recently, when not raining, the mornings in Suffolk have been gorgeous!  The rapeseed fields are in blossom and the skies have been filled with beautiful clouds. Or at least that's what my husband has told me. I must confess I haven't been waking up early at all unless it is to go straight to work, and I didn't take this picture, Mr M did. He is very good at getting up and out, enjoying nature on his bike or with the dogs. I, on the other hand, have been very good at trying to enjoy as much sleep as possible when I can.

Everyone tells me I need to make the most of sleep before baby boy arrives...or maybe I'm just lazy, not sure yet. 

This post is linking up to The Gallery on the Sticky Fingers blog. 

thirty-two weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 224...56 days to go!

Baby is now 16.7 inches long and weighs about 3.75 pounds. 

Yet another week has passed and I've been so incredibly busy that it truly has flown by! It was only a 4-day week at work, but there was so much to get done that I have worked long, stressful hours. I am training up a new person and dealing with my usual tasks. I keep counting down the days...only 22 working days left now.

Thursday was particularly bad at work and I was so busy that I forgot to drink water throughout the day; I even nearly forgot to eat my lunch. When I got home in the evening I started getting period-like cramps and they were getting more and more painful. I did some online research and found out that dehydration can cause uterine contractions! I quickly drank 2 pints of water and rested -  after an hour or so the cramps went away, but it was frightening! I have been making more of an effort to drink lots of water since that experience; scary though right?

After a horrible week at work I would have loved a weekend doing nothing, but the weekend was very busy too. Saturday we had NCT antenatal class all day from 10am to 4pm. I thought it would drag, but luckily our instructor kept the activities varied and also booked us a pub lunch which helped break up the day. The day included discussing C-sections, assisted delivery, the 3rd stage of pregnancy, and parenting issues.  I particularly liked the parenting session because we chatted about controversial parenting decisions like whether or not to use a pacifier (or dummy), whether or not to hit your child, whether or not to breastfeed in public, etc. 

100 miles - done!

And then Sunday, Mr M had a charity bicycle ride. He did 100 miles in the Suffolk Countryside and I went to the finish line to meet him. It was a gorgeous day outside and I enjoyed being there to support him and his brother who also rode in the race. Mr M usually does this ride every year and when we were sitting on the grass afterwards (eating very healthy cheeseburgers) we imagined what it will be like next year with a 10 month-old little boy crawling around on his blanket waiting for his daddy to cross the finish line. It was such a nice thought and it made me really excited to meet our little boy in a few weeks. 

midwife & NCT update

It was a busy day yesterday: I had my 31 week midwife appointment and my NCT class on the same day. I thought I would write a quick blog post to say how they went otherwise knowing me and my baby brain I will completely forget the details by the weekend.

The midwife appointment was in the morning before work and it went well. Everything was "normal" according to the midwife. From the scribbles she put in my maternity notes I can make out that my blood pressure was 100/60; fundus height was 31 cm; position was "ceph"; and fetal heart-rate was 148 bpm.

I think ceph stands for cephalic, which means head-down. She also wrote that baby was "free" which I think means he is not engaged yet...so overall everything seems fine for being 31 weeks. My next appointment is at 34 weeks and is scheduled for 30th May. 

NCT class last night was all about pain relief. It was good to go through all the different types of pain relief available, but it was scary too! We discussed all the options available from natural things like hot baths and massage all the way up to the hard core options of epidurals and opiates.  For each type of pain relief we went through the pros & cons.

I found out that the medical options for pain relief at my hospital will be Gas & Air (aka Entonox), Pethidine (aka Demerol); or an Epidural. I wasn't aware about all the negative side effects that some of these drugs can have and it scared me a little. For instance, Pethidine crosses over the placenta, effecting your baby and potentially making him "drugged" for a day or two after birth. 

We also talked about something called a TENS machines, which I didn't know much about. I'm thinking about getting one because it's a natural way to deal with early stages of labour and can be used in combination with Gas & Air. If anyone has used a TENS machine in labour I would love to hear about your experiences.

I decided after the class that my favourite options at the moment are hot water, TENS machine and Gas & Air. But I'm not going to rule out any of the more hard-core options completely because who knows how I will feel once the contractions start.

product review: MaterniCare

I was recently sent some MaterniCare Pre & Post Natal Nourishing Cream to try. This was incredibly great timing; my bump has grown rapidly over the last few weeks and I have been looking for something to moisturise my expanding tummy to avoid stretch marks and itchy, dry skin. 

I have been using the cream for a couple weeks now and I can say that I really love it! The cream has a light, fresh fruity scent and contains lots of lovely ingredients such as almond oil, avocado oil, and pro-vitamin B51.  

I have been rubbing the cream on my tummy and hips every day and can notice a big difference in the softness of my skin compared to any other lotions I have tried. My husband even commented the other night that my bump felt really soft, which is always nice to hear :) 

It's hard to say whether or not the cream prevents the appearance of stretch marks because I have been lucky enough to not have any (yet!). What I can say is that it makes my skin amazingly soft  and I plan on continuing to use the cream throughout my pregnancy and afterwards. 

If you want to learn more about MaterniCare and healthy skin in pregnancy go here. To try some of this lovely cream yourself, you can buy it from Forum Health here.

This product was sent to me for review purposes, but the opinions expressed are 100% my own x

thirty-one weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 217...63 days to go!

Baby is now 16.25 inches long and weighs about 3.3 pounds. 

It's been a very busy and productive week both inside my uterus and out. Baby is growing rapidly; he has put on over 1/2 pound this past week and will continue to grow at this rate until he arrives! I expect my bump will start to get huge soon, even though it's already rather large.

His movements are now very strong and every once in a while a forceful kick under the ribs really hurts! Luckily it's only once in a while and  and the pain is bearable. 

Work this week was hectic again, but I feel like I am starting to get to a point where all the hard work and long hours are paying off.  My replacement starts on Tuesday and I have a full 6 week training period with her, which is nice because I feel like there is a lot to hand over. During the next 6 weeks, my boss decided that he would temporarily move into another office (the 2 of us usually share a room), I would take his desk and my replacement would set herself up at my old desk/her new desk. I feel very posh and important sitting at his desk. It's such a change from my old shabby desk tucked into the corner that I find it really odd. 

I am attending a family wedding this summer when I will 38 weeks pregnant and have been putting off buying a dress.  A few days ago I finally decided to order this dress from Seraphine. I thought it might be too casual but as it's a day-time wedding and is taking place outside I'm hoping I can get away with it. The dress fits well but is too long on me, so I am going to try and take up the hem an inch or two.  

This weekend we picked up our pushchair from Mamas and Papas, but it is still sitting in it's huge box in the garage for now. It will probably stay there until I'm off work at the end of June and have the time and motivation to put it together.

We also made great progress on getting all the hospital bag stuff purchased. I think we pretty much have everything now except for a nice baby blanket. I can't decide if I should buy an expensive hand-made crochet blanket (like this) or a cheaper knit one from the local baby shop (like this). Decisions, decisions... 

the hospital bag list

Things have been extremely hectic at work and I haven't had much time to think about anything other than numbers and complicated spreadsheets, so it was a nice distraction to go back to the second NCT class last night. We mostly discussed packing the all-important hospital bags. 

I found out last night that the average first-time mum is in labour for 24 hours and then stays in the hospital for 48 hours after delivery! Yikes, so I could be in the hospital for up to 3 days? I had no idea it could be for that long. I guess the hospital bag issue is more important than I first thought. 

Our instructor suggested we pack two bags over the next couple of weeks: one bag will be used during the delivery in the labour ward; and one will be used in the post-natal ward with baby. The theory is that once I've had the baby and move to the post-natal ward, Mr M can take the labour bag home to lighten the load a bit. 

So here is the list (sorry it's illegible, but you get the idea). I'm hoping that over the upcoming long-weekend I can buy some things and start crossing items off the list. Let the packing begin!