29 weeks, 4 days

I am so sorry… I have no idea how I’ve left it such a long time to update! I will only say that things haven’t been that easy in the last couple of weeks for personal reasons, and that added to the lack of updates.

But back into business… 29 weeks and a half! So exciting! We’re into the third trimester now, which sounds fantastic. Long gone are the days when we worried about making it past the first trimester!

A few things have happened in these couple of weeks, so I’ll try to summarise.

NCT Classes

Last night was our last NCT class. I must say that I have really enjoyed it, learnt a lot (A LOT) and met some really nice people. All the other ladies in the class are due much sooner than me, so I’ve got a feeling that they may keep a closer relationship amongst themselves than with me (to start, they will all be on maternity leave sooner than me so they can meet up during the day, when I am still at work), but I still think that we’ll keep in touch, and I will do as much as I can from my part to meet up, etc.

We have a post natal reunion in July, where we will meet with Sue (the teacher) and hopefully we’ll have some decent summer weather so we can all take the little ones to a park or something outdoorsy 🙂

Medical Appointments

Unfortunately, I am still going to the MDAU twice a week. My urine samples are still showing quite a lot of protein (although the blood seems to have disappeared – I’ve got a feeling that it must have been the undissolved aspirin) and my blood pressure is still slightly high (although lower than it used to be before I started taking the aspirin)

In our last consultant appointment we had a scan as well and we got to see Pixie and Dixie, which always makes us very happy. We were seen by another doctor (the fourth different one!) who, despite going through my notes and noticing all the symptoms for pre-eclampsia, didn’t look extremely worried. She did say, however, that she’ll make sure that I am seen by Mr O’Sullivan at my next appointment (next week – it seems that I am going to have biweekly appointments from now on).

Also, it seems that my midwife Madeleine has left Rooksdown! I had an appointment with her on Thursday last week, but I got a telephone call a couple of hours before that to reschedule. Alex, another lady in the NCT group who also lives in Rooksdown, had an appointment with her before me, but hers wasn’t rescheduled and got to see her before she left.

So I went to the Sherborne Building for the anti natal clinic on Monday (bank holiday, yes…) for my rescheduled appointment with the midwife. I was seen by Rosie, and although she was a bit dry at the beginning, she warmed up towards the end of the visit and really liked her. I had my Anti D injection, which happened to be either in my bottom, or my thigh. I chose my bottom 🙁 It was painful, I won’t deny it, but nothing that you can’t forget about a couple of minutes later. That same day I was seen by another doctor at the MDAU. She looked at my notes quite carefully (something that I’ve noticed that not all doctors/nurses do) and did quite a in depth check. She was very nice as well and I felt comfortable with her.

And today I have booked an appointment with the new midwife in Rooksdown for my 32-week appointment. Good thing that Madeleine told me when I should go and visit, otherwise nobody would have told me that I needed another routine appointment! (although, I am being seen so often that I don’t think it matters much).

Pregnancy nags

Well, I must say that I am getting bigger, which means swollen feet (really swollen lately), back pain (although not as bad as I thought it would be… maybe it will get worse!), not sleeping great (I must get one of those pregnancy pillows!), and heartburn…. lots of heartburn. I used to think that the heartburn would get worse depending on what I ate, but now I simply get it regardless of what I eat. I get heartburn by drinking milk, eating yoghurt, cheese, and anything mild that you can think of… So I have resorted to eating whatever I fancy and having to cope with the heartburn…

I am still quite active, I would say, and only wobble from time to time when I’m very tired or my feet hurt. I do get breathless going up the stairs, but I was already quite unfit before the pregnancy! I sometimes get mild period-like pains in my lower abdomen, but they’re nothing to worry about.. I guess it’s my uterus expanding more and more everyday!

Pixie and Dixie are moving quite a lot. Today, for example, they didn’t stop all afternoon… It’s like they were having a party and forgot to invite me! It is not painful, but sometimes, if you’re not sitting properly, they can get a tiny bit uncomfortable. It can be fixed by changing position and kind of stretching so you give them more space. At the end of the day, uterus were designed to carry one baby and not two! so, they’ll be running out of space quite soon.

Friends’ kindness

I was warned about people’s generosity when it comes to babies, but I wasn’t sure how much! And yes, I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of people offering a bit of everything.

Especially clothes.

We’ve had presents from family (both families) of brand new clothes, we’ve had hand-me-downs (lots!) of baby girl clothes from a couple who we only met 6 months ago, a moses basket, toys, books, nappies, blankets, maternity clothes for me… And we have just received another massive pack with boys clothes from a couple friends of ours. And I am pretty sure that when my mum comes to visit she’ll bring more baby girl clothes from my niece’s little one… (if she is not annoyed with me and decides to come in the end!)

See below a couple of photos of the boy’s and girl’s clothes we’ve been given!

And to the last bit of today’s post… The bump update! Sorry it’s not my usual profile pic, but we just haven’t had the time. This is a photo of me at some friends’ wedding last weekend in Glasgow! (yes, we drove from Basingstoke to Glasgow, and it was a very long journey!!!)