 |
jehann's diary |
|
jehann's diary |
Well hello diary. It really has been a while since I communicated to you. I am sorry it just seems that the time has flown and also although the check ups I have had have not seemed so dramatic in nature, when you have the scans you can not be in any doubt whatsoever of the existence of a little one inside you. Chris and I just end up making moo cow noises every couple of seconds.
With the second
scan the baby did not look so much like a skeletal creature but actually far
more human like. The amount of detail they can pick up is absolutely incredible,
checking the hemispheres of the brain, the little heart beat, kidneys, limbs and
even to check whether there is a hare lip there or not.
The screen really shows it all and it then seems strange to see the
actual dimensions of the baby on the scan print outs, as they seem so diddy.
From this time forth, the mamma clothes
have completely dominated my daily outfits. Clothes I used to wear all the time
are now pushed to the deeper recesses of the wardrobe and may even not see the
light of day ever again. Well
we’ll see. My friend Mari has lent me a lot of her maternity tops which have
really come in handy and I have invested in some trousers, jackets from Dorothy
Perkins and H & M for work. It has surprised me how few stores actually
provide normal, rather than blooming mother earth ensembles, but I must admit
that comfort is important.
Since the scans I have had check ups
with the mid wife. These have been on a
monthly basis up to week 36. This has been a difficult time because although the
check ups look at essential things like blood pressure, heart beat and growth of
the baby, you do not directly see anything. I always have found hearing the
little heart beat very reassuring. It sounds
like Willy Carson in the Grand National with very fast regular beats but you
know something is definitely there and it is active.
I was rather worried about feeling
movements as I have had some periods when there have been very distinct
movements and other times when I have not been so aware of them.
I did experience some very strong
kicks which I afterwards discovered are known as Brakson Hicks (I am not sure of
the spelling). These are apparently
preparatory contractions, getting the muscles working in preparation for the big
day. As a result I called in at the
clinic to have a trace done just to make sure everything was in order.
I had the trace which seemed fine but the resident doctor decided to keep
me in over night to have a scan to check the water levels as she felt this may
explain why I had not felt the movements more directly.
I must admit I did not really expect or want to stay in over night, and
used the excuse of not having my contact lens solutions as a rather feeble
excuse.
It obviously didn’t work and Chris
went home to prepare a bag for me.
Everyone there was very helpful and nice
but I did not find the experience particularly pleasant. In the ward where I
was, there was a woman who seemed to be in labour and was producing very high
pitched, repetitive whining noises. There
was another woman who had a trace on her which was quite noisy, and to take the
biscuit, there was a couple of women recounting various nightmare pregnancy
stories. I normally can get to sleep
easily but was restless that night. The next day I was woken up for breakfast
and actually was able to put faces to the different sounds I had heard.
One of the ladies who was a few weeks less advanced than me said she had
also just come in for a check up and had been kept in all week.
I suppose if I were closer to my
expected delivery date I probably would not have found the experience so scary
but it made me realise that things could
happen sooner than I had expected.
I phoned my work to say I was in
hospital. I think they thought initially that I was about to give birth. Chris
came early in the morning to give me support. The
high pitched whining resumed fairly soon after. I
am not saying that I will not make similar noises myself, but hearing it
objectively hit home. I was told that the
scan would not be until midday at which point I asked if I could go home and
come back later. They said that
they wanted to do another trace to monitor the baby’s and my movements.
I was strapped up for about 30 minutes. Everything seemed ok and soon
afterwards it was time for the scan. We bought a card as it was a bonus to be
able to get another set of pictures.
The baby looked fine and seemed to be wriggling all over the place. It’s
little face was all scrunched up but it still looked quite cute. They took measurements from different angles to gauge the amount of
water around the baby. The result
was that the water was slightly more than average but not serious which would
explain why I had not been so receptive to the movements inside.
Just before they let me go they said
that they would just give me another trace as there had been a dramatic dip in
one of the baby’s traces which may have simply been the baby pulling the
umbilical chord but equally may be a sign of distress.
I finally had the trace at about 6.30 and was kept on for an hour.
I did not want to look at the monitor in case somehow I willed there to
be another sudden drop. Fortunately
this last one seemed to be fine and I was allowed to go back home (hooray), much
to my relief.
My boss was very understanding and said
that I should stay at home the next day to rest.
I also phoned up my mum and dad to tell them subsequently what had
happened as they were quite worried.
I am now currently at nearly 38 weeks,
very scary indeed as basically it could happen at any point with little warning.
I intend to carry on at work until week 39, but hope that my waters do not
dramatically break.
Up until
a few weeks ago we had only a pair of bootees and a pair of socks.
We have become better prepared with garments provided by others (Jacky,
Mari and Chris’s Uncle Liam, who has been a major benefactor).
My mum has also bought some little baby grows and first vests, and even
knitted some cardies so all told the baby is going to be fairly well decked out.
Christopher has also been a very responsible daddy driving up to Liam’s to collect essentials and doing some DIY to help store the junk we have accumulated over the last few years.
Mari and Jacky have told me about useful things to take in with you to hospital (a nightie is not apparently enough). We have bought nappies, cotton wool, sanitary towels etc.
I won’t go into detail.
Well diary I hope I have sufficiently
filled you in on what has happened in the past few weeks.
Just a short time left. Who
knows the next time I write it may all have happened (eek!).
Bye for now,
Jehann