6th August, 2007

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9th August, 2007 (NZ time, we're ahead of the rest of the world...!)

Well, I'm 25.5 weeks today... Everything is progressing well, as far as I can tell. I'm actually going to buy a couple of maternity shirts today (not that I have any urgent need for them, but...)
I've actually organised myself a bit and enrolled in Aquanatal classes (sounds like fun) and am sorting out Antenatal classes, but I'm in a bit of a mixer, because once I reach 8 months, I'm going to finish work, and move 3 hours north, meaning I have to give birth in a different hospital with a different midwife to the ones I've been seeing down here in Auckland... Bugger.
I chatted to Heber online last night... it's hard being so far apart. He's so excited about his son.
I've been starting to get a bit of an achey back the last couple of days, which is kinda strange because I still don't even really look pregnant. Next week is my check up with the midwife, last check up was fine, but this check up I'm having the blood test for gestational diabetes (there's lots of diabetes on both sides of my family...) and iron levels, but I'm pretty sure it'll all be good.
THREE HOURS LATER: Yay!! I start Antenatal classes next Sunday (19th August), so that should be good, although I'm a bit nervous because I'm going to do them by myself. I just went to the cinema to see 'License to Wed' with my sister... it's Ok. I went to Pumpkin Patch supposedly to get a couple of maternity tops... I got one which was on sale (Sweet!!!) and then ended up getting a baby t-shirt, bibs, and socks... Ah well...

10th August, 2007

I went and saw the movie 'Knocked Up' last night with my sister Kim and her girlfriend Louise. Me and Louise were laughing... maybe its funnier when you can relate to it more. I know my brother took a girl to see it on a 'date' (ie something to do before the obvious...) and apparently its not so great if you're planning a hot night with a girl... Wonder why...?

11th August, 2007

Owwwww! I've had such a horribly achy back the last couple of days... and I'm barely showing (it would make more sense to me to have a sore back with a large bump...) Mmmmm.... My cousin and I got talking about boil-up today (a typical Kiwi dish... watercress, potatoes and pork all boiled togather for a number of hours....yum!), next thing we were on our way to the only shop that seems to stock watercress out of season... expensive too, but it's sooo going to be worth it once it's all cooked up. Yum, just thinking about it makes my mouth water...

13th August, 2007

Yep, the boil up was great!
I've actually got a use for belly bands now! Just over the past couple of days I've noticed that my pants just aren't doing up (well, the zip does up, its mainly just the buttons...) I'm so happy that I'm actually starting to get a bu... yeah, it's not even quite a bump yet. I've also been a bit nauseous the last couple of days (eek... mind races back to the early days of pregnancy...) but I was reading on this website that it has something to do with the baby pushing on your stomach and stuff, and thank God its not bad nausea, just catches me off guard a bit.
I actually worked out this morning that the alarm clock must wake Diego, as well as myself. My alarm is set for 2.30am (I start work at 4am) and I noticed he kicked around the time it went off yesterday but didn't really think about it til this morning, because it went off, then before I had even reached over to turn it off, I got a couple of strong, sharp kicks from inside... Then he seemed to quieten back down til I was at work, where he usually squiggles around a bit while I'm dealing.


15th August, 2007

Well, I had my monthly checkup today with my new midwife Mary Anne. I was a bit nervous because I'd never met her before. Everything is going well so far, although there were trace amounts of protein in the urine test, but hopefully thats nothing. Diego's heartbeat was good and strong, and Mary Anne said by now he weighs about 850g and is about 32cm long.... stilll a lil shorty, just like his parents ;-) When I said about the nausea I've been feeling lately, she said to me 'oh, it could be your blood sugar dropping a bit during the day', and I said to her that I'd read that it can be caused by the position of the baby. She asked me where I was feeling the most movement, and I showed her (a lot of it is just under my ribs), and she said "Hmmm, yeah it probably is his position, he's probably giving your stomach a great work out...

16th August, 2007

I forgot to mention I'm going for my glucose tests and stuff in 2 weeks time, hopefully everything is still all good. I got an email from my friend last night, her and her partner moved to Australia about two and a half weeks ago, but have to head back to NZ this Saturday. I'm sad that their travels have been cut short, but I'm really happy that Amanda will be here to laugh with me through Antenatal classes, and just to talk to. Sometimes I just feel quite lost and lonely without a 'support person' as such. I get lots of support from my family, but it's not quite the same as when Heber was here. Oh well, I think everythings going to be looking up...


21st August, 2007

Yay! 27 weeks and 2 days... On Sunday my friend Amanda and I went to the Antenatal class. I'm actually really glad she came, because she's not really shy, and pretty forward, and I'm sure she asked a lot of questions that we were all thinking but were too shy to ask... She's a very informed un-pregnant lady, and will be getting more informed over the next couple of weeks... The class wasn't too bad, just a bit long (we have one four-hour class a week for three weeks). We watched a video from about the time I was born.... no... a few years further back, about 1980, maybe 1979... called 'A sister for Hugo' (the midwife told us Hugo is now around 30, in the video he's about 3) about home birth, and the different coping techniques the lady was using. And I still have to stick with my initial assessment after watching my niece being born about six or seven years ago... A new born baby is ugly. It looks like a big purply raisin with eyes. Give them an hour or so and they look so much better, and by that stage, a few of them are quite cute, but not in the first few minutes of life.
I was also the only one in my class who's due in November, everyone else was due from the beginning through to the end of October. One of the girls there was 30 weeks pregnant and didn't have a midwife and wasn't seeing a doctor regularly or obstetrician or nothing, and just put it down to 'Oh, well, I've kinda left things a bit to the last minute and haven't really organised anything'... the midwife who took the class told her to see her during the break and she'd give her some contact details for some midwives, and during the break, this girl just disappeared, and it wasn't til we were about ten minutes into the first activity that Amanda was like 'hey, where'd that girl and her friend go?'... and they didn't come back. Strange...

23rd August, 2007

Well, I went to the hospital yesterday so they could do some monitoring, as I hadn't really felt Diego move for about two and a half days. I tried the drink a large glass of water and lie on your side trick and he still didn't move, and I tried doing the things that usually really get him going and the most I got was a little twitch... So I went in and they monitored his heartbeat, which was good, averaging around 145bpm, and the midwife there, Johanna (she was really nice) said that he's probably changed position and is either not moving as much in his new position, or is harder to feel moving. Either way, its all good on that front. Then she said to me that while I was there she'd call the maternity physio about my back pain, so I got to go straight down there and see her, which was good. She made suggestions about posture, and gave me some wacky looking stretches to do everyday. So that was all a relief.
On the other hand, I went to stoke the fire and managed to get a splinter up under my fingernail, and it can't be reached with tweezers or anything... ouch...

27th August, 2007

The second day of antenatal classes... We learnt about Caesarean sections, Water births, Forceps/Ventouse deliveries, monitoring, PND, and breast feeding, and were once again subject to videos of early 1980s... Gotta love the fluff fringe... But actually, this weeks class was a lot more interesting than last weeks, and kinda makes you want the pregnancy to hurry up so you can try all these things that you get shown... Everything seems to be fine with Diego, he moves around a bit, just no where near as much or as strong as before, which kinda sux, but I'm getting used to it. Although I've been told heaps of times that it doesn't matter if you're not really showing, its really starting to get me down, I'm 28 weeks, and just look like I've gotten bulky. My own clothes don't really fit me anymore, but maternity tops are far too big across the stomach. I went to buy some tops the other day, and nearly ended up crying because I couldn't find anything! Eventually I found a nice dress/shirt thingee (which isn't actually a maternity shirt...) It's has a tie under the breast, kinda baby doll style, but not quite, which hides my 'bulky' looking middle. I notice I'm starting to get more tired (strange... I've still got a while to go yet) and where I used to get up early for work (2.30am) without a problem, usually waking before the alarm, I just find it hard to even open my eyes now after the alarm goes off!

3rd September, 2007

Well, I've about exploded out of my clothes... I'm 29 weeks now, and kinda bummed that I need to buy some maternity stuff because I only have 11 weeks to go! Damn!
We had the last antenatal class yesterday which was actually quite good as it was a smaller group than usual, and we had a shared lunch. There was a cool video about how a baby from an unmedicated birth, if left lying on the mothers tummy will actually wriggle its way up to the mothers breast and latch onto a nipple and feed, it does this by instinct. It was amazing to watch. If the mother has been medicated during the birth the baby usually can't do it, because the medication affects it too, and sometimes if it is taken away to be bathed etc before being put on the stomach it may not be able to do it (some can, and some can't after being separated), but apparently this instinct is very short lived... Just to see that I'd try like hell not to have a medicated birth.
Jaja, I went to work today, and got there, thought it was strange that my name wasn't on the roster (they put me on a couple tables anyways - we were short staffed), so I checked it on my break - I didn't realise they'd changed my Monday for a Friday... oh well, just means more pay next week :-)
Mmmm... what else... ah ya. Trouble sleeping! I just toss and turn most nights for hours, and Diego doesn't like it, because everytime I turn, he kicks, which makes it harder for me to sleep!!! Ahhhh!!!

8th October, 2007

Ok, I'm not too sure what happened to my page, I've been sick for a week and when I came back to update it, its somehow deleted nearly a months worth of entries... Bugger!
So, as I mentioned, I've been really sick, I came up to Northland to stay with my Mum for a few days, and ended up going to the doctor, where I was told I had a really bad sinus infection, and put off work for a week and a half, so I stayed up here as I couldn't go back to work, and have spent basically the whole week in or close to my bed. Annnnnnnnd, I'm finally feeling better, but had to go back to the doctors, as I broke out in an itchy burny rash all over my body!!! Ahhh!!! It's just really not my week! Despite being sick and full of anti-biotics (pregnancy safe ones!) Diego seems as happy and as active as ever, if not more!

11th October, 2007 (34 weeks and 4 days)

While I was up north, I had a bit of a scare, Diego had only moved about three times during the day, and then he moved maybe once during the night (and this is a very active baby), so first thing on Tuesday morning, I went into Whangarei Hospital for monitoring, he actually moved a few times on mt way into the hospital, and he was really still for the first 15 - 20 minutes of monitoring, and then they gave me some forms to fill out, and I had to lean at an odd angle to fill them out, and that started him off, kicking and stretching and moving all over the show, all back to normal - sigh of relief!!! Mum suggested that maybe he'd been so still because of the antihistamine I'd had to take because of the rash... Could be.
I went and saw my midwife yesterday for my fortnightly check-up. Everything all good.... jeje I still have lovely low blood pressure :-) Buuuut.... the dreaded iron levels... I kinda neglected to take my iron pills while I was sick (lets face it - they were the last thing on my mind!) and according to the midwife I'm looking too pale again, so I have to start taking them again, and get more blood tests done in a couple of weeks... :-s
I can't believe my baby is due NEXT MONTH - it's kinda trippy to be able to say that he's due next month... The end is in sight!
I spent one of my days in bed cutting tags off baby clothes, and sorting out everything, then on Monday (my first real day out of bed) I went to my Uncles' house with 2 large bags of baby things to wash and dry, so I got all that done, then Uncle Cliff and I went and bought a cute little ducky vinyl to recover the bath/change table that I've got, and the roll was so huge, I think I'll be good to make a portable changing mat too :-)

15th October, 2007

Damn! I'm really starting to feel it now. I just feel so heavy, and even work has become way more tiring. Its just harder to get around and everything, even getting up off a seat, turning over in bed... getting out of bed! It now all requires extra effort :-s
Well, this is my last week of work, I only have Saturday and Sunday left to work, and I'm finished!!!

18th October, 2007

I just keep feeling heavier and heavier... Today I went with my sister to pick up her new Cross-Trainer (what the....?!), but I think my blood pressure must have just done a real nose dive (and that hasn't happened in a few months!)... I felt so light headed and sick, and then I really REALLY needed to go to the loo, so we stopped at a Mobil station, and the guy was like 'oh, we dont have toilets available to the public anymore' Grrrrr! It pissed me off! Seeing that I'm pregnant, and looking really sick and pale, he could maybe have offered to let me use their staff toilet!
I'm also wondering if baby has maybe started to drop... It seems a bit early, but for about the last 4 or 5 days, I feel like I'm always heading to the toilet, and I often feel like there is pressure on my cervix... its really uncomfortable... And I don't feel as much movement high up now...

21st October, 2007 - week 36!!!

I just finished my last day at work today! Yay! I'm so glad. I think I timed when to leave on maternity leave pretty well, coz yesterday nearly killed me! They were short of roulette dealers, so I was on roulette, then roulette again, then some more roulette, and then another for good measure. My back was so sore, and I was slowly waddling around coz it hurt so much! At least today I only had to deal roulette for an hour, black jack for bout an hour in total, and then sweet, sweet deck checking with Belinda (who's 34 weeks pregnant). Its a pretty cruisy job and gave us lots of time to talk. Poor Belinda, her Mum is in China and won't be here to help her til baby is about 2 or 3 months old, and she's completely unprepared to have her baby, and her midwife isn't amazingly helpful. So today was her last day too, and all the managers who'd had kids were giving her advice, and their phone numbers and suggesting the things she needs to do etc (like asking for a Mandarin interpreter, or a Mandarin speaking midwife - part of the problem is that she doesn't always follow what the midwife is talking about)... Anyways! Hopefully that all works out for her!
Once again, sleep is something that for the most part isn't really featuring in my life :-s And everyone keeps telling me it will be like that after baby is born (and I'm sure it will be for a while - but not forever!). The thing that gets me is all these people going on about how much I'm going to hate it (come on people! Where are the positive stories?!?) and suffer so much during labour and be miserable... and all this from repeat offenders! Two of them have 2 kids each and the other has one, but wants another in the next year or so... It can't be all that bad then...

25th October, 2007

I went to see the midwife yesterday - my last appointment with her as I'm moving to Northland. Apart from baby being really quiet and not moving much (we did some monitoring just to make sure everything is ok) he's starting to measure small for dates... All of the rest of the way through he's been right on target size-wise, but when they measure the height of the uterus, he measures under by nearly 2cm, and Mary Anne said he feels quite small too... So she's put in a note for the new midwife to maybe consider a growth scan... I hope everything is ok. Im happy to have finished work, but kinda sad to be leaving Auckland, I'm quite happy living here with my brother, and my sister and cousin next door... Its going to be a bit lonely up north I think.

30th October, 2007

I went and saw my new midwife today, her name is Ange, and she was really friendly and easy to talk to, so thats a relief. I ended up being there an hour, we did a birth plan (Yay! Finally got that done!) and signed consent forms for different things for when Diego is born. I've decided on a water birth, and they have a large spa pool in the maternity unit for that (sweet!) or if that is unavailable (apparently its not often used, so I should be OK) I can hire a pool for $70 - $75, so all in all thats good. She measured up baby and said, yes, he is growing, but he's just not going to be a big baby (hey, I can't see a negative side to that at the moment!!!).I'm going back in a weeks time for another check-up, but it's also going to be a one hour appointment so they can show me around the maternity ward. With the consent forms, I've opted for baby to have the three oral doses of Vit. K, and to only be given the injection to help expel the placenta if it's really neccesary. I feel a lot better now that there's something on paper, thats been signed and acknowledged by myself and the midwife.

7th November, 2007

Well, only 11 days til my due date!!! Getting close!!! I went to the hospital for a checkup yesterday, and lets just say that it didn't exactly inspire confidence in their services... I had been away for the weekend and someone from the hospital had phoned and left a message saying that they were expecting me a 1.30pm Wednesday to see Margaret (not Lennette, who I'd originally been booked in with)... Fine. I went there, and they said to me 'No, there must be a mistake, Margaret is out in Ruakaka today doing postnatal visits'.... Grrrr They were the twits who called to tell me it was Margaret that I'd be seeing! And then they said 'Where do you live? Maybe she can come out to your home and see you tomorrow' - super GRRRRR... I'd just driven 35 minutes from where I live to get to the hospital! I explained to them that I'd originally been booked to see Lennette, and Lenette who was sitting at the back of the office said 'I'm Lennette! What was your name?' And yep, I still seemed to be booked in with her... Kind of. She said to me she'd meet me at the delivery suite lounge in 20 minutes coz she had to finish off a couple things first - she was only bout 10 minutes, yay! But... They'd 'mislaid' my notes - not lost them mind - just mislaid them :-s Next we went on a tour of the maternity ward, including the delivery rooms... nearly all of which were occupied, then she found one of the large rooms that was open and said 'Oh, in here is one of the larger rooms for different procedures', and we walked in, and I had barely had a chance to look properly (probably lucky!) because Lennette quickly grabbed me and said 'Don't look too closely, they haven't quite finished cleaning it!' and walked me out the door just as someone came in with the cleaning stuff... Nice. Then we went to go to another empty room so she could do my antenatal check up, but the bed and everything still had rumpled sheets all over it... Another quick clean-up. Then I was lying on the bed so she could measure the fundal height and feel for baby's position etc. She's recommended a growth scan, because now he is quite a bit smaller than he should be, but his head is engaged. She went to take my blood pressure reading - no stethescope, so she took off to find one, then put the pressure cuff on my arm to pump up.... and it was leaking... Quick hunt for a portable electronic blood pressure thingy... What a mish! She said she'd understand completely if I had no faith in them, but she said when there's a crisis they work really well....

9th November, 2007

At my last appt on tues the midwife said she wanted me to have a growth scan, coz baby seemed small for dates, and I went in for the scan this morning (Friday) and after the sonographer kept leaving then called in another one (all the while trying to convince me nothing was wrong) and then had me taken straight up to the delivery suite, I figured something was up! It turns out baby is very small, which isn't great coz 6 weeks ago he was measuring perfect, and he doesn't have a lot of amniotic fluid... So after waiting around at the hospital for a few hours, they decided that they're going to induce me, because he'll do better out than in. Oh yeah, internal exams generally aren't used in NZ, so I had my first two today! One after the other, and the 2nd one was A LOT more in depth than the first! I now understand why you guys say you're in agony after having it done. Ouch. Soooo, the midwife reckons that by tomorrow night I should be a Mum... Wish me luck (as my birth plan sails out the window... goodbye water birth! goodbye spontaneous onset of labour!)