37 and a half weeks and ready to pop!

Hey guys,

 

Been an interesting couple of weeks since my last blog, Have been seen my the midwife for my 37 week appointment, who has reassured me that the baby is well and happy and still engaged which Is great news!

 

 I also met with the health visitor last week who gave us our treasured red book and some information about breastfeeding and local support groups in the area.

Its very reassuring to know that there is always help available in this area, the antenatal and postnatal teams here seem to offer so much more compared to the bare minimum that we experienced in Norwich.

For example, there are 2 surestart centres in the immediate vicinity, 1 within walking distance, and 1 a short bus ride away. Between the 2 of them they do baby massage, post pregnancy yoga with your baby, breasteeding cafe's, baby and toddler play groups just to name a few.

I am fairly confident that if we wanted to , we could find a club/class/workshop to attend every day of the week if we felt so inclined to do so .

 

I can now say with complete confidence that me and Andy are absolutely ready for our baby to be born now, sadly im still struggling with some aspects of the pregnancy, my hands and ankles have finally succumb to swelling, so much so that I have to wear my wedding and engagement rings on a chain around my neck ! I have 2 pairs of shoes left that I can squeeze into, but if I do too much walking then the balloon very quickly and take aaaaaages to go back down to normal ;(

 

My iron levels have also gone down again so I have agreed to go onto a strong iron supplement for the remainder of the pregnancy, whilst this isn't particularly pleasant, I do at least have energy again and the dizzy spells have stopped. I do recommend any mum to be who start feeling dizzy to go to the doctor and get checked out, you don't want to run the risk of keeling over and hurting yourself, or your baby just for the sake of a blood test and a nasty tasting pill ;(

( I have included some links at the bottom of the blog explaining a little bit about what you can do to help all of the ailments should you wish to know)

 

So now we play the waiting game, made all the more fun due to my increasing discomfort levels , and the knowledge that my good friend Mrs Morris gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter last week!

Fingers crossed our little one appears soon as she has a whole queue of people who are so eager to meet her ;)

 

But for now, its bye from me, the behemoth  bump & of course soon to be daddy musk.

 

P.S for all who are interested here is a picture taken last week showing how big me and the baby have grown in the last few weeks!

 

(taken at 36+4)

 

All information posted below comes directly from the nhs choices website, it is not a substitute for seeing a doctor, should you have any concerns seek medical advice immediately.

Varicose veins in pregnancy

Varicose veins are veins that have become swollen. The veins in the legs are most commonly affected. You can also get varicose veins in the vulva (vaginal opening). They usually get better after the birth.

If you have varicose veins you should:

• try to avoid standing for long periods of time
• try not to sit with your legs crossed
• try not to put on too much weight as this increases the pressure
• sit with your legs up as often as you can, to ease the discomfort
• try support tights, which may also help to support your leg muscles – you can buy them at most pharmacies
• try sleeping with your legs higher than the rest of your body – use pillows under your ankles or put books under the foot of your bed
• do foot exercises and other antenatal exercises, such as walking and swimming, which will all help your circulation

Try these foot exercises:

• bend and stretch your foot up and down 30 times
• rotate your foot eight times one way and eight times the other
• repeat with the other foot  

Feeling hot in pregnancy

During pregnancy you’re likely to feel warmer than normal. This is due to hormonal changes and an increase in blood supply to the skin. You’re also likely to sweat more. It helps if you:

• wear loose clothing made of natural fibres, as these are more absorbent and breathe more than synthetic fibres
• keep your room cool – you could use an electric fan to cool it down
• wash frequently to help you feel fresh

 

Swelling of the joints

 

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/pages/swollen-ankles-feet-pregnant.aspx#close



 

the 35 week mark!

Howdy and Hello from me and Andy ;)

 

What's New???

 

The last few weeks have been nice and calm, as many of you know me and Andy have recently moved house, and we are finally established in our new bungalow in Belton :-)

we have 2 bedrooms now ,one of which is our brand spanking new nursery , here is a picture of our cot bed with the baby's ever growing cuddly toy collection!

What you cant see is that the walls are a pleasant buttercup yellow so that we can adapt the room as the baby gets older. We do of course have some pink items, such as our moses basket but I couldn't fit that in the shot!

The other aspect of our nursery that I utterly adore is our wardrobe and our collection of outfits!

This is not all of the clothes and outfits that we have, and I have no doubts that we will end up getting many more over time, but for now I am very proud of the items we have ;)

 

I will attempt to post some pictures of the rest of the house on my next upload, this one is a bit of a rush job as I'm really tired at the moment!

 

*************************************************

 

Also this week me and Andy went to our antenatal workshop at the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital , I would love to say that it was really interesting and informative and we learnt loads, but in reality all we learnt is that I apparently have a "neat and tidy bump"... as opposed to an untidy bump??

They broke the day up into 2 halves, in the morning the midwife discussed how to recognise labour, and what the stages of labour were. Followed by a skimming over of different methods of pain relief ( natural, gas & air, water birth, Pethidine, Epidural ) I feel fortunate that I already knew what pain relief I wanted , as the information offered was not overly enlightening, however it seemed useful to some of the parents.

In the afternoon we spent a few hours learning about how to feed our babies and how often we should wash them, sadly there wasn't any videos we could watch, however I did recommend a brilliant video that I found on youtube by mothercare which was very useful.

 

As you can probably tell, me and Andy were not overly enamoured with the day,  we learnt a little bit, but I think we probably learnt more from the independent books that we have read ( Jo Frost Confident Parenting and The Pregnancy Bible)

 

********************************************************

 

What's new with Mummy

 

Sadly my iron levels have plummeted again and have had to succumb to the use of iron supplements, in conjunction with an iron heavy diet. I am sure this will solve the problem, and I am of course more than happy to suffer the foul taste if means our baby arrives safely. On the plus side, it does mean that I can drink loads of orange juice ( as vitamin C aids the absorption of iron ) and justify eating a large steak, wrapped in bacon with all my favourite veg, including Spinach and broccoli !

The only downside is that until the tablets kick in I have approximately Zero energy levels, which makes going out , just a little bit of a chore!

 

What's new with baby

 

Our baby seems very content still, she is still moving around , but not as much now - we suspect she has run out of room! however she still loves listening to music, and still wriggles around a lot early in the evening and when Andy gets home.

 

Well that's all for now, Hope everyone is well, let me and Andy take this time to invite you to come and visit our new abode, just get in touch with us either on facebook or send us a text/email

 

Bye for now

xxx