Only 3 weeks and 3 days to go
and the pregnancy ailments are now coming in think and fast...
forgetting about a disappearing pelvis (never felt it so much in all my life)
I finally now have COTECHINI instead of calves
and here they are:
I am looking for some lentils and tomatoes to go with them...
I am trying to keep calm and telling myself there is plenty of time still
but
the bump has dropped ... at least 3 cm... baby is getting ready and the proverbial internet is not helping by reminding me:
At the end of this week, (NEXT TUESDAY)you're going to reach an important pregnancy milestone: your baby will be considered full-term. That means you could give birth any day now. Walking may become increasingly uncomfortable. Some mums-to-be say it feels as if their baby is going to fall out! Your midwife will be keeping a close eye on you, and your baby's position.
Your baby is still gaining weight – about 28g a day. She weighs nearly 2.7kg and is about 47cm long from head to toe. You may begin to feel an increased pressure in your lower belly and notice that your baby is gradually dropping. This is called lightening or engagement, and your lungs and stomach will finally get a chance to stretch out a little – breathing and eating should become easier.
The terror is now quite strong... i am scared we won't get everything ready on time...
on Monday we get the crib and the dreaded "passeggino" on Saturday the moses basket and the changing station and the baby bath ...
Please baby hold on until Saturday
:)
so we are almost there
-28 ish days
paranoia is now reaching the highest level
the terror that something might go wrong now is getting stronger by the day
all of the horror stories you heard and thought they would never touch you come back to haunt you
so mini us mini mici grow grow grow
grow fast and come out healthy
we are waiting for you
...
and this is what we do to forget the waiting...
HAPYY ANNIVERSARY MICIO
last time it's just gonna be the 2 of us.... well 2.5 considering my mammoth size
...
and also trying to shock people by drinking fake Moijtos
Nobody fell for it :(
so -28 here we go......
(this is 4 weeks in case you were not sure)
we got the best present from the best friends last night:
Yes it looks like a normal pic nic basket (i always wanted one)
but when oyu open it
Our lovely friends took the time to put together things we might enjoy (foodwise) after the baby is here - comfort food and lovely food which we might not have eaten or drunk (yes CHAMPAGNE YES) for 9 months ... and to top it all it is also full of let us help vouchers:
today was a bit of a hard day at work ..
to be honest i am feeling the best i have felt in months
i can do again my usual 10 hours
and i do not need to retract into the house and just collapse into bed.. i can rest until 9pm (uhhuhh)
....
but today at about 4pm i felt like a hot flush
and i felt like i really needed to lie down
...
i looked down at my tummy and this is what was going on
(it kept going for about 15 minutes, almost non stop)
and:
..in other words i think the baby was trying to dance La Macarena....
since Richard has gone to Italy the baby has been moving non stop...
I am starting to think i should have recorded Richard's voice and played it tot he baby
I have read several times that apparently in your last trimester dreams about your baby are more frequent and vivid...
It hadn't happened to me, maybe due to the fact that i never sleep long and deep enough to go into REM phase...
but this morning after i packed up he husband to Italy i fell asleep again, and when I woke up i was very confused.. i though i was 7.5 months pregnant, but my mother was here and the baby had already been born
(it was a girl)
I felt guilty as i could not remember her being born, coming home... nothing
so i did ask my mum if the baby was sleeping.... the answer was yes...
a evil flash in my eyes and i said, well let's go wake her up as she did not let me sleep a wink when i was pregnant ....
and i woke up
... another day, another doctor....
this morning it was the obstetrician turn ...
Since last Friday i was dreading today a little bit...
i did not sleep a lot last night...
woke up at 7 and ended up being st the hospital 45 minutes before my appointment... they still saw me 15 minutes after my appointment time... they are seriously overbooked...
last time i went to the obstetrician i saw Dr. Patel, so i was expecting to see him again ... of course not,
I was called by a woman (already a good sign) and she smiled at me and we laugh over the fact that she wanted to pronounce my family name as she is Romanian and she was sure she could say it right (she could indeed)
It was a completely different experience, i did explain to her that after last week i was a bit apprehensive and she went through everything with me, every number and every line..
We had a good chat, about everything including that she used to be a gymnast (like me) etc etc etc
So as per the doctor the BABY IS FINE... all is great
it is a small baby for English standards, but as she said "you are having a perfectly normal European Baby"
Micino is 40cm long at the moment, and weights 1.726 Kg
we expect the total weight to go up to 2.9Kg/3.2Kg - perfect weight...
so i came home and relaxed (i did freakishly clean the sofa covers, but hey)
and this is what Richard found on his return from work:
Yes I do like to sleep on the floor nowadays
and i still poke my tongue out when i wake up
So it's no more doctors only a couple more midwife visits... i have 7 more weeks, and i will try to enjoy them...
Baby we are getting ready for you!!!!!!
... 33 weeks pregnant ...
only 7 to go
my hormones are completely out of control and I am teary, crazy, angry all at the same time
7 weeks....
i was looking at all of the update i receive from baby centre ... the first one was the 6 weeks pregnant check and it was dated 1st November 2011 ... it feels like a million years ago, and at the same time it seems nothing as changed... but everything has changed...
I can't run anymore, i can't work 16 hours a day anymore, i can't eat like 4 pigs anymore, i can't drink anymore.... and i have not been out properly in 7.5 months.... I am even more paranoid and apprehensive than i have ever been ...
... and the responsibility of it all is kind of crashing me....
i feel responsible already for this little micino inside, what if i did not build him/her correctly? what if i made the thing to short, too fat, too stupid, too blond, too red, too political....OMG what if my body went crazy and it made him/her with wings, scales, tail or in the shape of a big rat?????????
(granted most of these would be quite cool :P )
Yes all of this paranoia are swarming in my brain.... may the gods of Olympus protect this silly baby because i can see myself turning in the mothers from hell.... the "maglietta di lana",do not forget your hat, do not run too fast....OMG I am going to be all of those things i hated in my mother and more...
DAMN GENES
so there is nothing more to do than take it easy:
Tomorrow is the appointment with the "Ostrich" and i am a bit worried ... i hope everything will be fine...
if i have failed this would be a massive fail....
I have to go on my own as Richard cannot come, i really did not want to be alone, but i can't face to take anyone else in case is not good news....
As we all know i have been plagued with backache...
the baby as moved and the pain is a bit improved, but still sitting still at work has been very very challenging....
so today i brought this to the office:
and started Blowing at 7.15 am.... at 9am this was the result:
Enter my saviour Mr Daniel who was very good at blowing my ball
(everyone commented how naughty it sounded, i love that by not being English i can get away with these things.... me foreigner, me no understand; yeah right)
and after hours of trial and errors here is a much happier Barbara that works her day away:
here I am:
... the only antidote to actually staying "inside" the duvet was taking me out shopping....
result?
too tired to even enjoy it, and i bought a pair of leggings that i thought were size 16 (yes i now have to buy size 16) but were in fact size 10 :(
massive fail
.... there are no pictures to show for the scan...
it was not a good day...
I was expecting so much, as last time it was soo amazing... we had not seen our baby for 2 months, so we were both quite excited ...
we got there early as usual, just to be told we would have to wait, I do not even want to make a big deal out of the waiting; let's just skim over and get to the part where a little funny man came out of the visitation room and called our names....
I immediately did not feel confident ( I am not very happy when a man i do not know has to rummage through my bits, sorry men)... we got weighted (60.8 Kgs if you are interested a gain of not even 7kgs from he beginning of pregnancy) ... we got measured ...1.61m (the man of course did not care i was wearing high heels, nor that having not looked at my notes i had grown a good 3 cms in the last 3 months......)
alarm bells started going on in my mind...
We got in and got introduced to MEDIBOT or as the NHS calls him Dr Lai ....
... after this the most hairy and horrible 30 minutes of my pregnant life followed....
strapped to a mini bed, not a word to us
manhandled, poked for blood, and tested for blood pressure
(they had to test me 9 times for blood pressure.... i started to get so anxious they could not get reading)
...
First up the funny man, turns out to be a trainee that prods my bump with ultrasound and strange images come up on screen.... no words from the "doctors"
...after 15 minutes i get so anxious as they are not saying anything tears start streaming down my face.... i am saying i am uncomfortable... nobody cares... Richard dries tears...
another 15 minutes... where Medibot snatches the probe and starts prodding me all over again ... at this point i am so tense it is bloody painful....
time's up a tissue is handed to me to dry the gel .... a paper is handed to Richard not to me, medibot announces all is fine, this is the last scan, go ....
We go out, i am shaken, upset and a bit furious...
I cry for 30 minutes....
A complaint is on its way to the hospital, I am sure Dr Lai is very competent and knows his job, but ,oh my, he needs to learn some manners... he has transformed what was supposed to be a magical day in a crap horrible experience....I was honestly so shaken i could not even face going to work .... I hid all day under the duvet....
These are the results of the scan....
.... on Wednesday we see the obstetrician, i am still sure there is something wrong and they did not want to say anything....
this did nothing to reassure me and relax me...
hopefully i will feel better after Wednesday
just a quicky quick update
finally after months of waiting a dear friend from Australia came to London
just a quick visit,
nothing fancy
but it brought allof us back together like in the good old days..
I did not fall asleep, I was horribe only after the time
and i had to make everyone laugh with my interpretation of
WHALE ON A CHAIR
Just in case this baby ever though i was ever normal......
Went to see the midwife today ... finally after 3 months i was bored of waiting for them to fix me an appointment and i called up and made one ....
First thing I was asked was: "Why didn't you call before?"
I politely explained the obstetrician told me i did not need to, but as i felt a bit insecure and hormonal i just wanted to be reassured.... midwife proceeded to trash the obstetrician and explained to me why all doctors are stupid....
(this did not do anything for my confidence in the NHS and their communication skills)
..
Anyway
...
I was a bit worried before going as i honestly thought there was something wrong with me; I thought I had too much back ache and since last night I also suffer from terrible pain in my groin that caused me to cry all night ...
The midwife was quite good as usual but (as they have so many people and cannot spend more than 20 minutes with any patient) she always talks so fast and I am always a bit apprehensive i sometimes space out and do not hear all of the conversation.....
In bullet points these are the info receive today:
I have to do my birth plan (homework to be turned in in 4 weeks)
I got prodded all over my bump (it was f***ing painful i tell you)
Baby seems fine, even a bit big (!?!@~~@****!?) (we will know more at the 32 week scan on Friday)
Baby's heart was strong and had good rhythm
Baby's position? Head down getting ready, but all to the left side of my abdomen (which is causing the horrible groin pain) - baby has to turn - must turn baby......How do we turn baby?????
Midwife did suggest we buy the yoga/pregnancy ball do a couple of exercises to alleviate the pain and to encourage the baby to turn to the right side....
Which exercises???
stay on all fours (on the ball??????)
straddle a chair (still on the ball?)
move your pelvis round in an 8 shape (this i can do on the ball)
As it happens we do possess a yoga ball already, and this is our interpretation of the recommended exercises:
