thirty-six weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 252...28 days to go!

Baby is now 18.75 inches long and weighs about 5.75 pounds. 

Oh my gosh - look how huge I am! I can really feel every little movement from baby now that he is so big (nearly 6 pounds - gulp!) and wow does he like to kick and nudge me in my sides.  At least he seems content in there. 


There is not much new to report this week: I had no medical appointments and my work-week was super short thanks to the Jubilee bank holiday. I must admit my feelings about work ending this Friday keep changing. One minute I'm so excited to be finishing, and the next minute I'm completely terrified! Someone at work today bought me some adorable little newborn bodysuits and it made me feel really bittersweet about leaving everyone for a year...I mean a whole year....that's a LONG time. I'm sure I will get used to it though.


In terms of how I'm feeling generally, I have actually been feeling pretty good, surprisingly. I have moments where I get stuck on the sofa and Mr M has to literally hoist me out of my seat. And I have moments where I'm emotional and close to tears for no apparent reason. But I can't really complain because overall I am functioning well and have no serious medical issues. Every once in a while I get a sharp pain down below and I freak out a little about my impending labour, but then the pain goes away and I forget about it. 


I am taking tomorrow as holiday as I have my 36-week midwife appointment and an NCT meet-up. Hopefully the appointment will go well. And I am looking forward to seeing the ladies from my NCT class again and am hopeful that we can continue to meet up regularly once our babies arrive. 

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. 

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.

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!

my first nct class

I just got back from my first NCT class and it wasn't as painful or cringe-worthy as I thought it would be! 

A bit of background for those that don't know, the NCT (National Childbirth Trust), is a charity in the UK that supports parents. They run antenatal classes, breastfeeding support groups, social events and lots of other stuff for parents.

Mr M and I signed up for a 6 week antenatal course that is being run in village about 15 minutes from where we live and tonight was the first night. Including us, there were 6 couples in attendance.

The night consisted mostly of introductions to the NCT and each other and a background of different events and social activities that our branch runs. We chatted about the local hospital where we will all be giving birth, then went through a brainstorming session in small groups listing out things we want to learn in the course. Finally the instructor showed us some diagrams of a pregnant women's body as she goes through different stages of pregnancy - that was pretty mind-blowing. I can't believe how squished up my internal organs are at the moment! 

Overall, I thought it was really good fun. There were some awkward moments, like having to do introductions and flip charts, but in general it felt really informal and relaxed. I think the best part was meeting other couples due all within a couple weeks from us. And to top it all off they provided free tea, coffee and chocolate!

twenty-nine weeks pregnant

Pregnancy day 203...77 days to go!

Baby is now 15.25 inches long and weighs about 2.5 pounds. 

Things seem to be getting much more crowded in my uterus these days. Over the past week I have noticed a definite change in the way baby is moving; the movements are more like strong nudges in specific areas rather than flips and kicks all over the place. Last week the midwife said that baby is head down and lying towards my left side, with his feet up near my right rib-cage. I think he has stayed in this position because I swear every few hours at work a foot pokes out from under my right ribs. It's odd - and can be a little uncomfortable - but it's still a lovely feeling a nice distraction at work every once in a while. 

I've been trying to stay active, but in truth I've been pretty idle recently. I don't have time during the week to exercise because I'm worn out in the evenings after work. Plus I get some pain in my bump if I do anything too vigorous. But Mr M convinced me to get off my butt and go on not one, but two country walks this past weekend! 

Despite my efforts to keep my weight gain to about 1 pound per week, I have continued to pile on the pounds faster than this. I gained 4.5 pounds over the past 2 weeks, bringing my total weight gain to 22.3 pounds so far in my pregnancy. I'm not too worried though as I know baby is healthy and I can always lose the weight after he is here. 

After a number of interviews, my boss finally hired someone to cover my maternity leave and she accepted the job offer. She starts on the 8th May - that's only 2.5 weeks away! It's our busy period at work, so I'm worried that I will be more stressed because I will doing all my normal work plus training her up.  I should probably feel relieved that she is coming to take over, but I'm not just yet. I'm sure I will be eventually.

NCT classes start this coming week. I'm excited about them, but also a bit  apprehensive and not sure exactly how useful they will be.  At the very least it will be nice to meet other women near me who are due around the same time.

midwife appointment

Yesterday I had my 28-week midwife appointment. I was only 27 weeks (+4 days) at the time, but the midwife wanted to see me before my Glucose Tolerance Test scheduled for Monday morning. 

The midwife checked all my vitals and everything was fine. My blood pressure was 110/60 (that's normal right?) and my uterus was measuring at 28 weeks. They checked for baby's heartbeat (148 bpm) and checked my urine, which was fine. And then I was ushered swiftly out the door. 

Before I got pregnant I imagined what midwife appointments would be like. I thought the midwife would chat and ask me loads of questions and do a huge range of detailed tests and we would laugh and it would be such fun! It's not like that. Maybe it's because my pregnancy has no complications, or maybe the midwives are extremely busy, but every appointment has been a quick check - I ask my questions, they are answered sharply, and it's over and done with in 10 minutes. It's odd.

My NCT antenatal classes start in a couple weeks. The course lasts 6 weeks and each session will be 2 hours long in the evenings. I'm hoping that all my silly questions and concerns will be answered thoroughly at these and I will start to feel like my pregnancy is slightly more important than a 10 minute check-up.