Hospital update 25+4

We went to our hospital appointment on Thursday afternoon, and spent a nice amount of time waiting, next to a lady in labour, which made me nicely uncomfortable!



When i got onto the bed, they did the same measurement as Heather had done on Wednesday. She measured me at 28-29 weeks. She pressed hard on my stomach which was a little uncomfortable. She came to the conclusion that Button is a normal size and i don't have to much water. She said my bump size is down to my tummy muscles being strong.


We were both a bit puzzled by this, because Heather had said they are weak, and that's why i was carrying so low. The midwife at the hospital fetched one of her colleagues for a second opinion. The second one backed up exactly what the first said.



So.. our due date is staying the same! Still, i wont be surprised if we have an early arrival. I think the constant comments I'm getting from pretty much everyone who see's me is fully preparing me for that.


They want to see me at the hospital every two weeks now as well.



Things are going to get hectic now with having to leave work for appointments and travelling here, there and everywhere. These are the appointments i now have to attend:



* Midwife at Doctors Surgery - fortnightly



*Midwife at Bassetlaw Hospital - fortnightly ( 45 minutes journey from work)



*Physiotherapy at Bassetlaw hospital - Every three weeks



*Antenatal classes - 6/7 between now and birth.





So travel costs are going to be high and I'm going to be a very busy bee!



I'm trying to concentrate pretty hard on finance at the moment. There is so much we've got to try and afford over the next few months, its quite scary. We've had our hearts set on a furniture collection for the Nursery that i am so desperate to order. I just cant stop thinking that it could take weeks and weeks to be delivered, so i don't want to leave it to late. Also, its got £300 0ff in a sale at the moment, and we don't know how long that's going to last. I just cant wait to be able to hang all Buttons little clothes up and get properly organised. Here are some pictures of the furniture, hopefully it'll be ours soon!

I absolutely love everything about it. It'll all seem so real when we've finally got it all set up. Its the most useful set we've looked at. A lot of the wardrobes we've seen just have one rail at the top, which is weird when Buttons clothes will hardly take up any space! This one has a full rail at the top, with another half rail part way down, and shelves and drawers down the other side. It really makes the most of the space and gives lots of storage.

Eeeeek i love it, i love it i love it!

Ps: Please comment to let me know what you think :)
Love always! Mummy Elce and Baby Button xxxx

Early Arrival or Big Baby?? 25+1?

Well, i had an interesting experience with the midwife yesterday. I was really looking forward to the appointment, as there were loads of questions and concerns i wanted to get off of my chest. As i hadn't seen her for 10 weeks, the bump was quite a surprise to her. She commented as soon as she saw me, which lead me nicely onto asking about my size and how 'low' i keep being told i am. She didn't seem concerned in the slightest to begin with, she said that the fact that its low doesn't matter at all. Its just that my tummy muscles are struggling to hold the weight, which is whats causing the stretch marks to be so bad too. She did my blood pressure while running through my notes, and i gave her my tinkle sample. She dipped a little stick in it with coloured patches on, and left it there while she carried on discussing my notes.

After a few minutes she looked at the stick. Apparently there were a few things in my tinkle that shouldn't be, Protein, and two others (which i cant remember). So she's had to send the sample off to the lab, and i had to have swabs. One positive thing though, is that there was no sugar present, so i may have escaped Gestational diabetes for now.

We sat and had a chat for a while, and then i hopped up onto the bed to listen to Button and get measured. She commented again saying 'that is quite a bump!'. As soon as she put the Doppler on my tummy you could instantly hear kicks and turns etc. Then, there it was, that little heartbeat that instantly brings a smile to my face every time i hear it. It was louder and clearer than ever!

Then came the time for her to do my 'fundal height' measurement. She measured my bump and stood looking at it for a minute. She said, 'well you certainly are measuring a lot bigger'. Apparently bump measures at somewhere between 29-31 weeks! I am supposed to be 25! She said that a lot of people measure bigger than they should, but not usually to this extent. She wanted to ring another midwife, at the hospital. She couldn't get through, so she told me she'd let me know what was happening.

She told me that i need to closely monitor Buttons movements, if they start to get less powerful or less often I'm to go straight to the hospital, as this could be one of two things:

* They are growing at a really rapid pace (lack of room would mean they wouldn't move as much).

* I am gaining way to much fluid in there, which would make the movements harder to feel.

Button seems perfectly happy for the time being though, but I'm certainly going to keep my eye on things.

Heather also said she wants to see me every two weeks for a while, so she can monitor my growth closely.

At the end of the appointment, she gave me a leaflet about prenatal classes that we can attend. Iv really been looking forward to this. They cover:

*Breast feeding.

*Pain relief

*Labour and delivery

* Post natal care.

She also said there will be some that i can attend through the hospital, so I'm going to look into that as well. Id like to be as prepared as possible for everything.

Heather text me after work yesterday and told me that she'd booked me in at the hospital today at 2pm for them to investigate.

I had a strange experience on the Train on Tuesday too, i have heard of 'Braxton Hicks' but for some reason was under the impression that they werent really painful. I literally doubled up on the train and thought that Button might be trying to make an early appearance. My tummy went really tight and my hips and back ached like mad, it didnt last very long but was pretty painful. Apparently this is totally normal, but if i get more than four in an hour i need to contact either a midwife or the labour ward to check everything's OK.

I'm feeling pretty puzzled at the moment really, like i now have no idea when this baby is planning on making an appearance. I hope we can get a clear idea again this afternoon, because at the moment I'm feeling quite unprepared, especially if Button could arrive up to 5-6 weeks early!

So i will probably be blogging again this afternoon, hopefully with a bit more news.

Love always, Mummy Elce and Baby Button xxx

Another bump photo from week 23!

24+3

I actually can’t believe how fast time is going. It’s actually getting scary. So, we are now 24 weeks and three days pregnant, and Button (according to magazines etc) will be about 14 inches long! Our pregnancy is now 'Viable'! Which means that if little Elce was born now, there would be a chance of survival, and each day from now on, that chance will be greater. Still, fingers crossed they will carry on cooking for now!
While we're on the subject of early births, I still can’t help but feel a little paranoid that there may be indications of Button arriving early. I’m getting really distressed by the number of people telling me my bump is strangely low. Its approx 7-8 people a day! Even patients at work! Its really beginning to feel like something’s not right. They might as well be walking up to me and saying 'Hi, your bump looks worrying abnormal'! That, along with the fact that baby’s head was so low at the scan, my bump getting big quickly and a few other more recent premature symptoms im really starting to doubt my due date. I've got an appointment with Heather (my midwife) on Wednesday though so im going to ask her about it all and hopefully get some reassurance :)
Iv started making a book for Button. I've spent hours on it and im really proud of how its going (although I think there’s a few printing issues with it I need to look at). It’s full of photos and information on different family members, how I and Adam got together, our wedding etc. As a nice little keepsake to show Button where he/she came from. Im hoping to be finishing it and sending it to print within the next couple of days.

Buttons really active now, Adams felt his first kick and my tummy is moving around loads. Some kicks are even a bit uncomfortable, but i dont mind. Its lovely having little reminders that they are ok in there. Im starting to notice a bit of a pattern of when the baby is awake and asleep. I always get kicks when i first wake up, and as i settle down in the evening, often a little bit of movement after lunch and in the early afternoon, and lots of movement on the bus home! (I think thats Button looking forward to seeing daddy :) ).
Theres lots of wriggling going on in there right now :)

Some factors of pregnancy have become less than pleasant over the past few weeks. I now have really bad stretch marks that seem to be taking over the whole of my stomach, they itch like mad and are really frustrating. I've been applying Bio Oil twice a day for months, but they are still really bad. If they look like this at the moment, i bet i'll be covered by the time baby is actually here.
Iv been struggling alot with back and leg pain still. I should be going for physio at some point next week, so maybe this will help, but its really getting painful.
Sleep is becomming a thing of the past, which everyone is saying its to 'prepare me for when the babys here', but i have literally been sat in tears at 3am because im almost going full nights with no sleep, then having to face a full day at work. Its just frustrating because it doesnt seem to be one particular thing thats keeping me awake, just general discomfort, aches and to much thinking i think. Iv tried alsorts, nice warm bath and a massage from my sister before bed, trying to really wind down, but nothing seems to work. I seem to be back to an average of 5 toilet get-ups a night too, which doesnt help. So if anyone has any advice, please feel free to comment.
Its funny really, id always thought that i just havent recieved any comments on here, but i found them all the other day, quite a lot of them, that i had never noticed, so if you have ever commented on a post, i didnt mean to ignore you!

Another thing thats bothering me at the moment is the fact that iv got to start making some serious birth decisions. Its the hardest possible thing to do. I dont know how your supposed to make such huge decisions about something, when you have no clue what its going to be like or how your going to cope. It isnt lack of thinking about it either, i must think about labour approximately 20 times a day! And its what i spend most of my time awake at night thinking about too. I've just got all these thoughts whizzing round my head, water births, epidurals, pethedine, gas and air, active birth, positions, birthing balls, caesareans, and episiotomy. It’s all driving me a little mad! I feel like its going to be some of the biggest decisions of my life, something I don’t want to be getting wrong!

Adam, Button and I went out for a lovely meal on Monday night, thanks to Abi and Paul buying us some meal vouchers for Christmas. We spent the evening at Il Rosso in Mansfield and thoroughly enjoyed the quality time together to discuss our current situation. We talked about money, the house and what sort of parents we want to be. It was really lovely chatting about it with him. It made me feel even more excited because we both seem to have the same views on parenting.

I'm feeling quite optimistic about my remaining time at work now too. I've got 9 days of actual work left before a week off with monkey for our wedding anniversary!!! (How fast that’s gone!) then I have four weeks at work, then another week off, then four weeks back then I finish! It’s just nice to know that i've only got four weeks in one go before I can chill out and prepare for my baby.
On the cravings front, we're very much back on fruit juice! I am almost getting through a carton a day, which I don’t suppose is a bad thing really; there are much worse things to crave.

More exciting news, we think Button may have a name! We'd pretty much chosen our boys name a while ago, as it was literally the only boys name we could agree that we both liked. We have been struggling to decide between two girls names that we really like, but I think we may have come to a decision!

So, things are going well, im still loving every second of pregnancy, even though it feels like a pretty unattractive, and often quite painful period of my life. I know this baby will be worth every little ache and every stretch mark that’s going to come my way!
Here is an updated bump photo, taken just before we left for our lovely meal, 23+5 :)