A Sad Day

Today we got the sad news that Scott's last living grandparent passed away.

His grandmother, Jane, was a lovely woman who had accomplished so much in her 80 years. I loved hearing stories of all the travelling she had done with the church and also how the grandkids used to drive her nuts!

Rest In Peace Jane. You will be missed and always loved. 

 

I only wish you could have met your great-grandaughter in time x

Oh What A Night!

Well yesterday we had a bit of a fright and ended up at Forth Park Maternity Hospital, sitting on a trace machine at 10 o'clock at night! I hadn't felt Little Lady move since about 1pm, which is very unusual for her when I'm having a lazy day - usually that's when she has a good wriggle about! So I had some dinner about 7pm and waited for her to start wriggling. Come 8pm I hadn't felt a single movement. I really started to panic then as I always get movement from her after eating. So I phoned the Maternity Hospital and let them know what was going on, they advisd me to drink something cold and fizzy and lie down for an hour to see if she would pick up then. Two pints of ice cold cola and a choc bar later, 9pm creeps around and even after some vigorous prodding from Scott, she still hadn't moved.

Needless to say I'm in tears at this point, thinking the worst has happened. We grab my maternity notes and head over to the hospital. Luckily it's very quiet and we're seen to straight away by a midwife. She was an absolute angel and was very patient and reassuring throughout our exam and trace. She took my blood pressure (135/96! I'd worked myself into a complete state!) and got out her doppler to detect our Little Lady's heartbeat. That tiny heartbeat is the best sound I have ever heard! Once she found it we were strapped to the trace machine for half an hour to have her heartbeat and movements monitored. The second the detector was placed on my belly she gave a huge kick and I burst into tears! Trust her to wait til the last possible second to let us know she was doing ok.

The trace showed that she was moving frequently, albeit very light movements that I couldn't feel. The midwife said she was probably just a bit cramped in there now and was finding it hard to move as much, so she was taking big naps instead. We were so relieved heading home! I've kept a close eye on her today and she's been a big wriggler so she's made up for all the stress she gave me yesterday!

Speaking of being cramped in there... We visited the community midwife on Tuesday for our routine check-up and upon measuring my bump the midwife has determined she may well be a big baby! I am currently 38 weeks and bump is measuring at a huge 42 weeks! So because of this, and due to border-line high blood pressure, we have been referred to the consltant at the Maternity Hospital to see what the plan of action for her nirth will be. As she seems to be such a big baby already, they may decide to induce me at 40 weeks (I will be 39weeks 5 days at the appointment) so my Little Lady could be with us by next weekend!!

I really can't believe how fast this has all come around, it seems like only yesterday I got that faint pink line on my home test! I really can't wait to meet our baby. I'm already so much in love with her, I couldn't imagine her not being a part of our lives - and we haven't even met her yet!!

35 Weeks Baked

The Last Piece!

Well today we picked up the final piece needed before Little Lady arrives - her buggy! We even had a test run in the living room with one of her teddy bears :)

It's certainly feeling much more real that she'll be here with us soon!!

Speaking of which... she may be here sooner than expected! At my midwife appointment last week we found that she is no longer lying head down & back-to-back with me, the little monkey has completely shifted and is now transverse :( She should ideally be in the vertex position by now, ready to enter the world...

But she probably takes after her Daddy with being stubborn and has flipped on her side into transverse...

Needless to say it will not be easy to deliver a baby this way!! So I have to return to the midwife at 36 weeks for her to check the baby's position and if she hasn't turned then I will be sent for a scan to verify her position and determine the reason for her lying this way. According to the midwife babies only lie this way when the placenta is low-lying and covering the cervix (baby's exit route). As noted in all my other scans I don't have this problem and my placenta is lying nicely near the top of my womb.

If it turns out that Little Lady is definately lyng transverse then we have two options:

1) The midwife/doctor tries to turn her manually and point her head down, or
2) We head for a C-Section

I have spoken to nurses about the turning process and the chances of her staying head down after being turned are only 40%, which doesn't inspire me very much. So it looks as though a C-section may well be on the cards.

If this is the case then the midwife has said she would not let me reach full term (40 weeks) in this pregnancy and the C-section will probably take place around 37 or 38 weeks...!! That's a maximum of 3 weeks away! The reason for the early delivery is because they don't want to risk me going into labour before a full-term C-Section. This could be quite disastrous as the umbilical cord or placenta could come out before the baby does, therefore Little Lady would be starved of oxygen and put into unnecessary distress.

I'm not happy with the fact I may have to go for a section, my dream was to have as much of a natural, un-aided birth as possible. I've had my heart set on this since the beginning and now it looks as though I'll be getting the complete opposite.

On the other side of that thought I know that at least Little Lady would be born safe and healthy via a section and there wouldn't be any complications with her birth. That means more to me than my own wishes for a natural birth so I would be happy to go along with the section if that's what is required. We'll just have to wait another week before we find out what's happening...

34 Week Update

Well today makes me 34 weeks pregnant! That means there's only 6 weeks to go until our due date but in reality it's only 3 weeks until Little Lady is considered "Full Term" and she would be healthy enough and fully developed if she arrived early.

This week saw the arrival of the dreaded cankles :( My feet have swollen to giant proportions and I've actually went up two (yes, 2!) whole shoe sizes whilst being pregnant! Argh! I now have man-sized feet :( And it's impossible to find shoes that fit, even open flip flops have my feet hanging over the edges. So for the rest of this pregnancy I may well be house-bound so that I can happily walk around barefoot...

So today we also start preparations for Little Lady's eviction - hey, if you don't pay rent, you can't stay! I have started drinking raspberry leaf tea to help tone up my uterus and hopefully help shorten the second stage of labour. All my fiends swear by the stuff and it helps your uterus return to pre-baby tone quicker than if I wasn't to use it. So it's tea to start off with and once I reach 36 weeks I can start on the tablet form which has a higher potency.

Also on the eviction process "to-do" list is get on the birthing ball! Little Lady is currently in the head down position, which is great, but unfortunately she is also lying with her back to my back. This will make labour harder and a lot more painful if she stays that way so the midwife has suggested I get on my birthing ball and have a bounce for 30mins every day to try and get her to shift around. I've also been told to try and sit forward as much as possible to let gravity take its course and help her body "swing" forward. So no more lying on the sofa for me! I've put the laptop at the dining table to encourage me to sit on a chair instead so I can lean forward more.

If none of this works by my 37 weeks appointment with the midwife then it looks as though they will have to turn her manually, which looks VERY painful! So we're trying to aoid that at all costs!

Please Little Lady, turn around for Mummy!

The Nursery Is Finally Complete!

Well it's finally finished! We got the last bits and pieces yesterday for the bed (waterproof sheets, etc.) so I've spent the morning putting the final touches on the room. I absolutely LOVE it! Scott and I aren't entirely fond of the colour pink so we've tried to keep it mostly neutral, apart from the bedding set which was adorable and I couldn't leave the shop without it!

Everything else we have for Little Lady is neutral/unisex with bright bold colours, there's nothing worse than seeing kids with pink everything or blue everything! Plus we'd like our kid(s) to be as creative as we are and we feel bright colours will help stimulate them better :)

Womb Mosher

It would appear that Little Lady likes nothing more than moshing to some Metallica, looks like she takes after her Daddy already!