35 Weeks Pregnant

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So I’ve kissed goodbye to 35 weeks and now the countdown can really begin. Just one more week and I’ll be officially considered ‘full term’. I’ve done all my homework and collated a bunch of natural labour inducers (from the whacky to the scientific) and plan to pack them all in over the next few weeks. My diet will consist of raspberry tea, curry and pineapple (I expect I’ll get some strange looks in Tesco when stocking my trolley with this lot) and my evenings will spent frantically trying to fit in hour slots of Wii, bouncing on gym balls, breast pumping, and sex.

Too much information? Trust me they’ll be nothing glamorous about it! week 35 35 Weeks Pregnant

In other news, I had my final midwife appointment last week. I had been really looking forward to sharing the news that Mini Madam had nosedived but unfortunately my midwife was at a conference. To my frustration, the stand-in was the very midwife we moved GP surgeries to avoid with this baby. Luckily, I didn’t have any real concerns to raise so could just about tolerate her lack of English, half-arsed conversation, and generally scattiness. We just have one more consultant appointment and scan left to go then we’re home free. No more weeing in pots or being poked and prodded until D Day.

Unfortunately, most of the exciting symptoms I’ve experienced over the last few weeks have dried up now. I’m still getting random tightenings and I can feel her exerting pressure on my pelvic bone whenever I’m upright, but the actual contractions have stopped. All this downward momentum has led to even more frequent trips to the loo which is beginning to get on my wick. I seem to be up every single night at 2.29am for a quick pit-stop so the Mystic Meg in me is wagging her finger furiously.

In truth, I’d be hugely relieved if this turns out to be middle of the night dash to the hospital as the drama will give me less time to tot up all my little niggles with the NHS. If I’m stuck on a hospital bed all day you can bet both Craig and I will be swapping complaints under our breaths and generally making a nuisance of ourselves. I’m actually a fairly placid person but I tend to lose all power of diplomacy when I’m feeling nervous or frustrated.

The biggest concern right now is that I’ve become a real basket case. I spend most of day crying, slamming doors and generally ranting. I’d make a great a candidate for Gogglebox but I won’t be winning any Parent of the Year awards anytime soon. I think these last few weeks are definitely going to test my metal as I’m now really frustrated, tired, and fed up. I struggle to pick up Dexter so he’s bored to death and acting up as much as I am. I tried to do some pregnancy yoga yesterday, but let’s just say it doesn’t have the desired effect when you’re being pelted with wooden puzzle pieces when your eyes are closed.

Right that’s it. Let’s get week 36 out of the way and I’ll start blogging about my ‘experiments’ to try to tempt her out. Over and out.

 

 


20 Week Anomaly Scan: The Gender Reveal

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Yesterday we discovered if our house is set to be taken over by dinosaurs or dollies.

If you read this blog regularly, you’ll know I predicted long ago this would be a little girl. According to almost every old wives tale going, the results were equally conclusive…

Old Wives Tales Gender Prediction 20 Week Anomaly Scan: The Gender Reveal

Yet despite all the intuition and so-called evidence, we still secretly hoped there would be a dinky willy on the ultrasound screen. Of course, we both understand we are blessed with this second child and are delighted to be expecting (whatever the sex), but it would have been very sweet to have given Dexter a little brother. So we’d both got it into our heads we would be welcoming a little guy and have had several rows over names. I really liked Mason, Carson, and Anderson, and Craig had his heart set on Jake. We’d kept all Dexter’s old clothes and were hopeful we’d be rescuing them from the loft and re-homing them in the nursery shortly.

It therefore came as a bit of a shock when the sonographer informed us that this is, in fact…

A very healthy, and active little girl!

Introducing my Little Madam jpg 20 Week Anomaly Scan: The Gender Reveal

I cried a little bit. Not through disappointment, just utter shock. I think it was a short bust of fear about the unknown.

Having now told all the family, and had some quiet moments to let it sink in, I’m now really excited. If she is anything like Dexter, she’ll be beautiful, funny and independent. It’ll be so nice for both of our children to have a sibling of a different sex to play with and Craig and I will get to experience what it is like to parent one of each. She’ll be our very first daughter and we’re so blessed to have her.

We revealed the gender to Dexter by buying him a Baby Annabell Doll to play with. He’s already proving to be a very attentive big brother and has smothered her with cuddles and kisses. I have no idea if he understands the significance but it has reinforced his love of all things baby. He’s very careful with her and it’s lovely to see him sat so proudly with his hands around her shoulders.

Proud Big Brother Dexter 20 Week Anomaly Scan: The Gender Reveal

Although Annabell is very girly, one thing that is for certain is that our little madam won’t be decked out in pink, and is very unlikely to wear a tutu in public! I also give it a month before Craig is Googling chastity belts.

The only unwelcome thing we did discover, was that I’m carrying my placenta low. The sonographer had to do an internal exam to be absolutely sure and seemed a little happier upon doing so, but it isn’t a foregone conclusion that I’ll be safe to deliver our baby girl naturally.

We meet the consultant to have an initial chat this Friday. I was hoping we would be told we have a full range of options (including a home birth) open to us, but it seems this might not be as straightforward as we thought. As Dexter was born via emergency c-section, we always knew we were being slightly optimistic, but our midwife had gone some way in reassuring us that a VBAC might be possible. Oh well, when it comes down to it, we only want what is best for our daughter and for her to arrive into this world safely. Besides, less choice means less night-time deliberation and one less thing to argue about!

So sleep tight baby girl. Get big and strong and mummy and daddy will see you in a few weeks time.

 

 

 

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