Wednesday, October 27, 2004
you, get back here
We had midwife appointment number two this afternoon. I can hear all of you people living in more attentive regions of the country gasp - yes, this was only our second meeting and I'm 23 weeks along. What can I say, they like to leave you to your own devices around these parts. My blood pressure is fine, I don't have diabetes or a water infection, and I'm measuring right on schedule. The only tricky bit was trying to hear Pip's heartbeat; the little imp wasn't co-operating today! I could feel him galloping around and we could hear him moving on the doppler, but we could only hear the blood coursing through his cord and not his little heartbeat. The midwife assured us that this was fine (you can't have cord noises without a heartbeat) and she wasn't worried about this in the least, it's just that the baby wasn't keeping still enough for her to hear his heart. Little scamp.
Heartburn update: still doing well although I won't venture into Curryland or Mexican Fiesta World quite yet.
Sunday, October 24, 2004
just as long as i don't jinx myself by saying this...
...but I've had no heartburn today! None! At all! I've been careful about what I've been eating (nothing acidic, spicy, fatty, and dammit, no chocolate), snacking on almonds and yogurt, and bought some papaya enzyme tablets at Holland and Barrett. Since taking the tablets, everything seems to be much calmer and as an added bonus, they taste a hell of a lot better than Tums. So thank you for the suggestion, Libby! Fingers crossed that this isn't a one-off for today only.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
now in the lead
It's official: my belly has now outgrown my boobs. My stomach now protrudes out further than my chest. Let me emphasize how dramatic this is by stating that I started pre-pregnancy life as a 38DD. For my bump to actually stick out further is a bit of a feat, really. I'm starting to look a lot like a snowman (or snowwoman, to be more precise), with the top smallest snowball being my head, the middle my boobs, and the biggest snowball is everything else below my boobs. Stick a carrot in my face and dress me up in a top hat, wooooweeee.
In other news, according to Babycentre.co.uk, here's Pip's progress this week:
The baby now weighs almost one pound/453 grams, measures nearly 8 inches/just over 20 centimetres long from crown to rump, and is proportioned like a newborn, albeit a thinner version since her baby fat hasn't yet developed. Although she's getting heavier every day, her skin still appears wrinkled because she needs to gain more weight. The lips are distinct and the eyes are formed, though the iris (the coloured part of the eye) still lacks pigment. The pancreas, essential in the production of hormones, is developing steadily.
Even this early, the first signs of teeth appear in the form of tooth buds beneath the gum line. Before you know it, your baby will be born, and soon after, her first teeth will come through.
You've probably gained between 12 and 15 pounds/5.4 and 6.8 kilograms. Starting now, you'll begin to put on weight more steadily, averaging about half a pound/225 grams per week.
Apparently he can now recognise my voice, which means I should probably cut down on the swearing. (Or try swearing in other languages.) It's amazing that he's now around 8 inches long; I can remember being excited when he was 3 inches long at our first scan, and fondly remember the days when he got his nickname by being the size of an apple seed. Incredible. Although I've not been obsessed by tracking my weight, I have weighed myself twice since July and it seems that I'm gaining according to "schedule". I've put on 13 pounds so far, which is fine. I bet if I didn't suffer from heartburn, it would have been a lot more. I didn't pig out nearly as much as I normally do when I go to the States, which is probably a good thing.
Speaking of which, if anyone knows of any good natural remedies to help combat heartburn, please let me know. I thank yew!
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
i've got this burning, burning, yearning feelin' inside me
What a dilemma. I have been craving spicy food for months and I've got heartburn from hell. Where's the fairness in that? I've been chewing down a few Tums a day, propping myself up with pillows at night, and eating non-spicy food, but to no avail. I just read that chocolate can make heartburn worse, so I can't even console myself with a 2kg. bar of Toblerone. Feh.
In other unfair food-related tales of woe, while we were in California, I suddenly went off fish. Although we live on an island, we seem to get really rubbish seafood in this part of the country (I swear it's frozen and flown in from Halifax or something). Whenever we travel to coastal regions of the States, we make it our mission to fill ourselves up with fresh seafood. This last trip, we went to a seafood restaurant and I had...it pains me to say this...chicken. I managed one seafood meal (a fantastic "Carolina Hot Pot"; tons of fresh seafood simmered in a ginger, garlic, and chili broth) but mostly ate burgers, chicken, and pasta. How exotic, I know.
I've had the strangest food aversions. Most of my friends have been sensible about it, for example, they went off slimy foods because they made their nausea worse. Perfectly understandable. Me, I go off things for no good reason. I'm not nauseous, I've not gone off anything particularly slimy, gooey, stinky, or otherwise icky, and it seems to change daily. My lovely, understanding husband leaves it up to me to decide what we eat each night, based on my preference du jour...and often times cooks it for me. I can't grocery shop without having a panic attack anymore because I cannot decide what I'll want to eat two days from now - or tonight, even. I long for the days when I had cravings; at least then I knew what I wanted to eat, even though it sometimes meant eating a variation of the same theme four times a week.
But I musn't complain. At least I've avoided morning sickness (so far, touch wood) and on the most part, I eat normally. Just don't ask me what we're going to buy tonight at Sainsbury's. Gah.
Monday, October 18, 2004
i like that one 'cos it's red
We went to Babies R Us yesterday, which turned out to be a much more pleasant experience than I anticipated. Normally, every time I read a baby equipment catalogue or go through a baby store site, I break out into hives. How do I know which car seat is the best? Do I really need a travel system, or should be just use a regular pram? 3 wheels or 4? What are differences between baby monitors, apart from the price? Aiiieee! Too much choice! Aaaaiiiieeee!!
So with slight trepidation, we headed into Cambridge to do some test drives. The buggies/prams/all singing, all dancing travel systems were surprisingly easy to sort through. Some were obviously too heavy and bulky, others didn't have many useful features, and some appeared to be pricey for no good reason (£300 for a pram that doesn't come with a car seat? Bah.) We tried out a few that seemed to fit the bill: I could lift it, it was easy to figure out, and it had stuff on it that we needed. Plus, the one I liked the best was red. I like red. We looked at car seats, cribs, monitors, bedding (I love how boy things always have dogs on them), and tried out nursing chairs (dangerously comfy). I made notes of the ones we liked and will see if we can get them cheaper at Kiddicare. Baby shopping no longer scares me and I have now armed myself with notes and preferences for various items. Oh yes. Hear me roar.
I still can't think about labour and delivery yet (really, the thought of how this baby must come out of me at some point freaks me out) but as the weeks go by, the reality of becoming a parent becomes much more tangible. Before the bump starts to show, before the first "real" movements are felt (i.e. the movements that are undoubtedly baby), it's all a little surreal. Even after the first scan, I was hesitant to run out and start buying little scratch mitts and teddy bears. Since the 3D scan when we found out Pip's a boy and I started feeling a lot more movement, I truly do understand that this is all very real. And it's a very good feeling. I no longer fret on a daily basis about things going wrong and I don't feel like I'm jinxing things by talking about "when the baby comes" or buying things in preparation. I was speaking to someone the other day and mentioned something about "our son", and although I tripped over the words slightly, they were so very nice to say.
But I think it'll still be a while before I can watch stories about birth on the Discovery Health channel. Blergh.
Saturday, October 16, 2004
baby's first outfit
Although we didn't buy much in the States for Pip, we did buy him his very first jaunty outfit at OshKosh:
Now that we've had the big scan and all was well, let the rest of the shopping commence! Also, I wanted to mention my newest food oddity. Although I've not really had any strange cravings (I don't think pregnant women get cravings for pickles and ice cream outside of film and TV), I have noticed that some of my tastes have changed. I have been a huge fan of BLT's lately, which to most of you, may not seem odd at all. The reason why this is a tad strange is because I hate raw tomatoes - that is, I used to hate raw tomatoes until around three weeks ago. Now I'll eat them in BLT's. *shrug* I still want spicy food most days, but have been avoiding it due to a daily dose of heartburn. Mr. Tums is my new best friend.
Now if you'll excuse me, at least two hours have passed since lunch I think it's time to eat again. Hold the pickles.
Friday, October 15, 2004
he's riverdancing in there
I think I've got Pip's daily routine sussed out now. It seems to consist of the following activities, repeated hourly throughout the day and night: wiggle, kick, poke, jab, toss and turn, prod Mummy's bladder and cervix, squirm, shimmy, and shake. It's a bit strange because it feels like suddenly one day the vibrating/fluttering movements I felt for weeks turned into this. It still takes me by surprise somewhat, and I find myself saying "Oh!" out loud when I feel that first kick after long moments of stillness. On the other hand, it comforts me to no end to feel him wriggling around.
Oooh, feels like he's finally decided to take a nap now. I'm sure the dancing will start up again once this banana I just ate kicks in.
Thursday, October 14, 2004
happy and healthy
After a bit of a stressful journey to the hospital (traffic was a nightmare), we had our big scan this morning. Very pleased to say that all is well and little Pip is doing splendidly. He weighed in at an estimated 451 g. and measured 22 weeks (just under a week bigger), and all of his organs/face/skin/bones/extremities are normal. As the sonographer was measuring his femur, we could see that Pip is indeed a little boy (even though they won't tell us at this scan). He rolled around, waved his arms and legs at us, and gave us a few kicks. If the baby's activity inside the womb is any indication of what he'll be like on the outside, we'll definitely have our hands full.
My placenta is high and posterior, and I think this is why I've felt Pip moving around for quite a few weeks now. His latest trick is tapdancing on my bladder. He's so very talented.
Here he is, just slightly bigger than the last pics and facing the other way:
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
peekaboo
As I mentioned before, the scan was amazing. We got a full 15 minutes that was captured on DVD, which is truly unique. It's one thing to try and remember what the scan was like with the fuzzy thermal images you get from the hospital, but it's another to be able to see it in its entirety whenever we want. We also think Pip will find it rather cool to be able to see himself in utero when he's older.
He was incredibly active this time around (as opposed to the 12 week scan when he wasn't up to much that early in the morning - but the large Chai latte I had shortly before this scan may have helped) and we got to see him yawn, stretch, and use my womb as a trampoline. He was a bit modest at first and wouldn't uncross his legs so the nice scan lady could see his bits, but eventually she managed to get a peek. It might have had something to do with the fact that she was training two other women during my scan, so he may have been shy around 4 women at the time.
And now for some pictures!
Side profile (it looks like he's blowing bubbles, but that's the umbilical cord):
Facing the front:
Apparently, it's a boy - although we couldn't really tell:
A 3D image; we think we see a grin!:
The 3D images weren't that great, but we knew they would be blurry at this point. The baby is still a bit small at 19 weeks and doesn't have lot of fat on him. This means that they can't pick out a lot of details until the baby's around 30 weeks along, but it was still pretty cool.
We have our detailed scan tomorrow morning at the hospital, and I'm a bit nervous. Although he looked perfect in our San Diego scan, they're not qualified to look for any abnormalities and of course our untrained eyes are of no use either. He's definitely a lively little boy, and it's no wonder I've been feeling him move for several weeks now. The flutters have evolved into thumps and prods, which will undoubtedly become distinct kicks and feet hooking under my ribs in a few short weeks. I feel him every day now, mostly after meals or when I'm stressed during plane turbulence. I cannot wait for the kicks to become strong enough for Paul to see and feel.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow, and another scan pic to come afterwards. Wish us luck, please.
Saturday, October 02, 2004
mystery solved
It's a boy!!! The scan was absolutely amazing, and the people there we so nice. We were in there for at least 20 minutes and the entire thing was recorded on DVD as well as in a few still images. Simply amazing.
Scan piccie updates when we return. Until then, we shop shop shop for little boy things. Woooooooooooooo!