the state of things, by which I mean me
Nearly 38 weeks pregnant now. The home-birth midwife team are on standby to come dashing round at the first sign of labour, apparently. If I was to have the baby now it wouldn't be considered premature! Gosh. I hope I don't have it now. I still have 2 full weeks of teaching, rehearsals, exams, church services, and sorting-out-of-house-and-finances to do first.
Anyway, how am I doing? Boringly well, just like last time. Still no varicose veins, haemorrhoids, stretch marks. No swollen ankles (which is actually better than last time). Lots of kicking and hiccuping going on in there, and the baby has started to drop down into my pelvis just a little.
It hasn't been a fun pregnancy, though. Queasy until week 24. Then, after 2 weeks of blissful health, I caught a chest infection which knocked me out for 4 weeks (Matt and River had it too, so we were all pathetic together). Just got over that and then a week later came down with some kind of sinus infection which left me bunged up and sleepless for 2 weeks. Then, just before I got over that, the Braxton Hicks contractions started -- and they always make me feel a little bit sick. So there we are. Out of the last 32 weeks I've had 3 weeks of feeling good. Oh well. Other women have had it much worse than me, I know.
I had to have a glucose tolerance test to see if I had gestational diabetes. I don't have gestational diabetes, but I do now have a hatred of glucose tolerance tests. You have to starve for 15 hours, have a blood test, drink half a litre of Lucozade, wait 2 hours, then have another blood test. Why would anyone choose to drink that vile stuff voluntarily? Synthetic and gassy and nasty and awful. By the time I got home after the second blood test I was shaking and queasy, and didn't feel better until I'd had a lovely solid meal.
River is growing fixated with my bump. Since we told her there was a baby in my tummy she's developed several coping strategies:
First she started pretending all her toys were babies, and she'd role-play as their mummy. Lots of wrapping things in blankets, holding near her stomach for "booby", pushing around in her little toy pram, and putting them down to sleep and shouting "wake up baby!" when they'd been lying down for a few seconds.
Then she started pretending to be a baby animal while I was the mummy animal. "Mummy pig, am I in your tummy? *snort noise*"
Then she developed a high-pitched voice to use when being a baby, complete with little "a-wah a-wah" crying sound effects.
She's tried hiding inside my cardigans and t-shirts, claiming to be in my tummy, then being "born" by climbing out. The baby is apparently going to climb out of my tummy and say, "hello, River!" by the way.
If I do her night-time bath then I have to carry her like a baby back to her bedroom and keep her all wrapped up in her towel for a few minutes while she pretends to baby cry.
A couple of days ago I was explaining that the baby would need to have a lot of booby as they couldn't eat lovely foods like she could. Her response was "Maybe the baby comes out and is River, and I am the baby in your tummy."
It's interesting seeing all her different tactics. I don't know how she'll cope when the baby does finally arrive. She still comes into our bed every night after her first wake-up. She still demands boob at nap-time, bed-time and first thing in the morning.
It'll probably all work out in the end.
I have posts I'd like to write about crafting and the allotment. Will do my best to get them written before the baby's born, as it'll be basically impossible to do anything after that, won't it?
Anyway, how am I doing? Boringly well, just like last time. Still no varicose veins, haemorrhoids, stretch marks. No swollen ankles (which is actually better than last time). Lots of kicking and hiccuping going on in there, and the baby has started to drop down into my pelvis just a little.
It hasn't been a fun pregnancy, though. Queasy until week 24. Then, after 2 weeks of blissful health, I caught a chest infection which knocked me out for 4 weeks (Matt and River had it too, so we were all pathetic together). Just got over that and then a week later came down with some kind of sinus infection which left me bunged up and sleepless for 2 weeks. Then, just before I got over that, the Braxton Hicks contractions started -- and they always make me feel a little bit sick. So there we are. Out of the last 32 weeks I've had 3 weeks of feeling good. Oh well. Other women have had it much worse than me, I know.
I had to have a glucose tolerance test to see if I had gestational diabetes. I don't have gestational diabetes, but I do now have a hatred of glucose tolerance tests. You have to starve for 15 hours, have a blood test, drink half a litre of Lucozade, wait 2 hours, then have another blood test. Why would anyone choose to drink that vile stuff voluntarily? Synthetic and gassy and nasty and awful. By the time I got home after the second blood test I was shaking and queasy, and didn't feel better until I'd had a lovely solid meal.
River is growing fixated with my bump. Since we told her there was a baby in my tummy she's developed several coping strategies:
First she started pretending all her toys were babies, and she'd role-play as their mummy. Lots of wrapping things in blankets, holding near her stomach for "booby", pushing around in her little toy pram, and putting them down to sleep and shouting "wake up baby!" when they'd been lying down for a few seconds.
Then she started pretending to be a baby animal while I was the mummy animal. "Mummy pig, am I in your tummy? *snort noise*"
Then she developed a high-pitched voice to use when being a baby, complete with little "a-wah a-wah" crying sound effects.
She's tried hiding inside my cardigans and t-shirts, claiming to be in my tummy, then being "born" by climbing out. The baby is apparently going to climb out of my tummy and say, "hello, River!" by the way.
If I do her night-time bath then I have to carry her like a baby back to her bedroom and keep her all wrapped up in her towel for a few minutes while she pretends to baby cry.
A couple of days ago I was explaining that the baby would need to have a lot of booby as they couldn't eat lovely foods like she could. Her response was "Maybe the baby comes out and is River, and I am the baby in your tummy."
It's interesting seeing all her different tactics. I don't know how she'll cope when the baby does finally arrive. She still comes into our bed every night after her first wake-up. She still demands boob at nap-time, bed-time and first thing in the morning.
It'll probably all work out in the end.
I have posts I'd like to write about crafting and the allotment. Will do my best to get them written before the baby's born, as it'll be basically impossible to do anything after that, won't it?