38 Weeks Pregnant - Low and Ready to Go?

I am now officially waddling!
Today I attended my 38 week checkup with the Midwife.  It turned out to be a whole family affair as hubby was working from home and able to come too.  I was not sure how interested he would be but he was very proactive and asked lots of questions. I was proud of him!

This was the first appointment that I have had that has had a student midwife in attendance.  This made the appointment longer than usual as everything was checked twice, first by the midwife, then by the student.

My urine sample and blood pressure were both normal.

Then we moved to the bed so that they could examine my bump.  First the Midwife listened with a pinard horn.  This is the first time she has done this at either of my pregnancies and I can only assume it was for the student's benefit.  She then listened with her normal doppler.  Blue bump's heartbeat was a nice steady 150bpm.  He was still sitting head down and the Midwife said he was very low, probably 3/5th engaged.

36 Weeks Pregnant - Uncharted Territory

This week I am 36 weeks pregnant.  This is an especially important milestone for me as C arrived at 35 weeks and 5 days gestation.  I have never made it to 36 weeks before.  Although extemely relieved to be here (preterm labour is no fun), it did make last week a bit of an anticlimax as I couldn't help but wonder if this baby was going to make a similarly early appearance!

I am definately bigger this time around but do not have the same hip problems I had when pregnant with C. Aside from the increasing tiredness and generally imobility, I am feeling pretty good.  Labour does not feel imminent... but then it didn't with C.  I was enjoying a perfectly normal afternoon until my waters broke.

20 Weeks Pregnant

This week I am 20 weeks pregnant and today was my Anomaly Scan.
My appointment was at 4pm, the latest I have ever had scan, which meant a long wait beforehand.

I suspected by this time there would be a long delay to be seen however it was actually only about 20 minutes.  We made the wise decision to leave C with my parents as a fractious, hungry toddler would not make for a pleasant experience.
We were ushered into the room and informed that there would be two sonographers carrying out the scan, one trainee, one trainer.  This was fine with us and the trainee began the scan.

A Very Late Early Birth Story

Watching someone give birth on television last night made me realise that I never actually blogged C's birth story. Although 15 months ago, I feel writing it down now might help me focus what to put in my birth plan this pregnancy.

I am sure many of you saw my tweets during labour last year and therefore are familiar with how the situation unravelled however hopefully this will piece it all together and fill in any blanks.

16 Weeks Pregnant

This week I am 16 weeks pregnant.  I always consider this a bit of mini milestone being half way between the 12 and 20 weeks scans, and, if you believe the week by week pregnancy guides, this week baby puts on a growth spurt meaning you actually start to look and feel properly pregnant (if you didn’t already).  Also, in my case it is the week I am beginning to feel the first flutterings of movement.  A very reassuring feeling!