38 weeks in one word: Painful.
It's not uncomfortable anymore - it's getting to a point where it's painful. Literally, pain. Every now and then I try to remind myself that someone, somewhere out there, is praying to have what I'm having now, a growing healthy baby cooking up nicely. A textbook pregnancy - says the midwife.
But I can't deny that it's not all rainbows and roses. I said it before, pregnancy is a whole new level of normal. And this, is a whole new level of pain.
Rainbow sans roses on our recent trip to Milton Keynes
And I'm only talking about irregular, pre-labour (if it's even that?!?) contraction kind of pain. And backache. Not even the 3:10 contraction when you're officially in labour. Not even the real deal. Who am I to talk about pain again?
Remember when I said I was feeling heavy pressure in my pelvis and crampy period-pain like backache when I made the trip to Nottingham and Leicester last time? I genuinely, hopefully thought that would be the start of things. How naive I was. The pain, they're staying, yes, but not actually starting anything.
As I'm typing this, my tummy is rock hard, Seed's squirming around against the confined space that already is. I have to lean back to make some space for those tiny little legs and arms to flail around, otherwise I'll get a jammed foot somewhere underneath my ribs.
My back hurts. And you're talking about someone who lives on monthly ibuprofen for period pain. Yes, I do get really bad period cramps and backache, up to the point I could be paralysed by them. But this, is a whole new level of backache. And ibuprofen is a no-no in pregnancy. Paracetamol? We can all laugh now, thank you very much.
Pain is worse in the evening and at night. That's when I wake up and look at Adam fast asleep wondering if it's worth waking him up for I'm-not-sure-what. I mean, I know I'm not in labour. And he can't really do anything. But the pain.. Maybe it's worth waking someone up for?
(I never did, though).
Salute to mums of 5. (Heck, even mums of 2. Or 1. ALL mums).
On the bright side, (there's always a bright side, you just have to look for it and acknowledge it!), 1st May has come and gone, so my OCD can now chill. It doesn't matter much when Seed's going to come out now, apart from the pain of course. I've accepted that he can stay as long as he likes, although please please I sure hope induction is not going to be part of it!
We've got a midwife appointment tomorrow, and although I doubt it's going to change anything, maybe it'll bring some good news! Oh well, here's to wishing.
Update on Friday 5/5/2017, post midwife appointment.
Apparently my bump is now measuring at 90th centile, when previously it's been consistent at 50th centile. It's a really steep jump from being average to being, umm, massive. (Midwife didn't say that, I did). So we're booked in for a growth scan next week, in which I really do hope that by then Seed would've already been here. Again, here's to wishing.
Also, we've been told that Seed might just be occipital-posterior (OP), which means that his back is against my back (back-to-back baby). Again, previously his back has always been on my right side, I could almost always feel the smooth curvature of his spine there. While most back-to-back babies rotate spontaneously to occipital-anterior (OA) position while in labour, some just won't. And they can take longer to be delivered, and more painful too. Ouch.
Tell-tale signs are quite obvious in my case. I suspect he turned some time around last week, as I started having this backache at that time. OP babies can cause more backache than others as their back/spine, which is the heaviest part of their body, put in a significant pressure on mums' back. I could also feel wiggly movements just above my pubic bone, which might just mean that his hands/fingers are facing forward (baby's thumb-sucking!). The other thing is a dip/flattened shape of the tummy around the belly-button. Yup, definitely there.
While these news are not the most exciting to some, they definitely give me something to think about. 90th centile could mean anything from baby's just packing up fat at the very last minute to polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid) for whatever reason. Or maybe baby's positioning at time of measurement was slightly off resulting in weird numbers, who knows. But now the possibility of induction is there.
And being back-to-back.. (I prefer sunny side up, btw!). I have to start thinking about optimal foetal positioning (OFP) more seriously now. Basically it's the movements/postures that can encourage babies to turn/rotate to OA before labour. Not sure if there's any scientific evidence behind this, but there's no harm in trying, I suppose.
Anyways, I'm thankful that my midwife picked these up, so I can at least (sort of) prepare for it. Even more thankful that Adam was there for the appointment (he couldn't always be, talk about marrying a doctor). Not that he had a lot to say, but it's nice to have him around. I mean, who would've thought we're getting a growth scan at the very end of this pregnancy? And the fear of labour and induction.. That just magnified to another level.
This pregnancy is (literally) taking a whole new turn.
Update on Friday 5/5/2017, post midwife appointment.
Apparently my bump is now measuring at 90th centile, when previously it's been consistent at 50th centile. It's a really steep jump from being average to being, umm, massive. (Midwife didn't say that, I did). So we're booked in for a growth scan next week, in which I really do hope that by then Seed would've already been here. Again, here's to wishing.
Also, we've been told that Seed might just be occipital-posterior (OP), which means that his back is against my back (back-to-back baby). Again, previously his back has always been on my right side, I could almost always feel the smooth curvature of his spine there. While most back-to-back babies rotate spontaneously to occipital-anterior (OA) position while in labour, some just won't. And they can take longer to be delivered, and more painful too. Ouch.
Tell-tale signs are quite obvious in my case. I suspect he turned some time around last week, as I started having this backache at that time. OP babies can cause more backache than others as their back/spine, which is the heaviest part of their body, put in a significant pressure on mums' back. I could also feel wiggly movements just above my pubic bone, which might just mean that his hands/fingers are facing forward (baby's thumb-sucking!). The other thing is a dip/flattened shape of the tummy around the belly-button. Yup, definitely there.
While these news are not the most exciting to some, they definitely give me something to think about. 90th centile could mean anything from baby's just packing up fat at the very last minute to polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid) for whatever reason. Or maybe baby's positioning at time of measurement was slightly off resulting in weird numbers, who knows. But now the possibility of induction is there.
And being back-to-back.. (I prefer sunny side up, btw!). I have to start thinking about optimal foetal positioning (OFP) more seriously now. Basically it's the movements/postures that can encourage babies to turn/rotate to OA before labour. Not sure if there's any scientific evidence behind this, but there's no harm in trying, I suppose.
Anyways, I'm thankful that my midwife picked these up, so I can at least (sort of) prepare for it. Even more thankful that Adam was there for the appointment (he couldn't always be, talk about marrying a doctor). Not that he had a lot to say, but it's nice to have him around. I mean, who would've thought we're getting a growth scan at the very end of this pregnancy? And the fear of labour and induction.. That just magnified to another level.
This pregnancy is (literally) taking a whole new turn.
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