Boy or girl?

So many people have asked me if I know what we're having. I'm fed up with answering "a baby", and so thought I'd see what theories the internet would come up with. For the past couple of weeks, I've been calling Bubble "he", but am not really sure why. But according to this link, it could be anything, including an asexual being!

Evidence for it being a boy:

• I am craving salty or sour foods
• I am craving protein -- meats and cheese
• Dave is gaining weight, right along with me
• I am having headaches
• I've added my age at the time of conception and the number for the month I conceived and the sum is an even number

Evidence for it being a girl:

• I had morning sickness early in pregnancy
• My left breast is larger than my right breast
• I am craving sweets
• I am craving fruit
• I crave orange juice (see the pattern - I'm just craving food!)

Evidence for it being an asexual being:

• I hang my wedding ring over my belly and it doesn't move!
• My pillow faces neither north nor south when I sleep

Oh how we laughed!!!

Any more theories? Oh well, what will be, will be! I'm just happy to be having a baby!

Water baby?

Today, I braved the swimming costume horror and managed a few lengths
of the local pool. My osteopath told me it would be good for me -
something I really knew, but hadn't done anything about. Before I went
my belly had been feeling sore and heavy, but I'm feeling a lot better
now. Bubble seems to like it too, as he has been quite chilled and
quiet since. The plan is to try and go twice a week - there's suitable
adult-only sessions on Monday evenings and Friday lunchtimes. It can
only be good for me and help me get a bit fitter.

Not the best couple weeks...

It start a week past Monday. Dave had had a stomach bug over the
weekend, but I thought I'd got away without catching it. Ha, what was
I thinking! At work on Monday morning I suddenly felt really rough -
stomach pains and nausea. The locum coordinator managed to get me
emergency cover, and I got home early afternoon. I was only physically
sick once (as Dave had been) on Monday evening, and didn't have any
diarrhoea (which Dave had had), but didn't really feel great until
Wednesday.

Then this Monday I had a little accident at work. I stood on a
kick-stool to reach some tablets down off a shelf, and as I was
stepping off again took a bit of a tumble - not surprising when I
later found out that the kick-stool had been broken. I landed on my
feet and didn't bang anything, but jarred my back and gave myself a
bit of a shock. Went to see the GP on Tuesday morning, having already
felt Bubble move, so not being too concerned. Se confirmed it was
muscular a told me just to rest, but not much so that I seized up!

Luckily I was already going to the osteopath on Tuesday afternoon, so
she did some work with me to loosen things up and straighten the
kinks, and my back - and hips/pelvis - are feeling a lot better now.
Back again in a couple of weeks for more work, but things are moving
in the right direction - including my pelvis which the osteopath
confirmed is straighter than it was.

But that's not the end of the bad fortnight. Not long before shop
closing time yesterday, my head felt not-quite-right ad then the
horrible blurred spot in the eye started. I knew straight away - a
migraine. I haven't had one for about 18 months, so thought those days
were behind me. But this one was a bad one. Dave managed to get a lift
across to bring me home, by which time the blurred vision had gone and
the headache had started in earnest. Feeling like my head was going to
burst and that I might throw up it I moved too much, I went straight
to bed. A fairly restless night and my head was still banging this
morning, so no work for me again. I'm feeling a bit better now - at
least I can emerge out of the darkened room, without cringing away
from the light - but my head is still fairly bad. With only really
being able to take paracetamol, I'm realising how much the triptans
eased the symptoms. I'm just a bit worried now that this is the start
of a whole load again, but fingers crossed that it's just a blip.

I'm wonky!

I've been suffering a bit with niggling pain in my pelvis/hip/buttock.
Don't know exactly what area you'd call it, but it's kind of inside
the top & back of my pelvis. I've had the pain before - even before
being pregnant (when it tended to be after I'd slept on a hard surface
at camp!) - but it's been worse over the past few weeks. I was
recommended an osteopath to go and see, so off I toddled yesterday.
And the diagnosis - I'm wonky! For whatever reason, I don't stand with
my hips levels and my spine cures. There's no difference in leg length
or anything like that, so it's "just" a case of straightening me out.
After spending an hour at the osteopath with her working my joints and
muscles I was given an exercise to do until I go back in a fortnight.
Sounds simple enough, but I have to stand with my bum, back, shoulders
and head as flat against the wall as I can for a minute every hour.
I'm having to push myself to stand like that - it doesn't seem
natural, but I guess that's my problem - my natural is not right!

Preparations going well!

Over the last few weeks we seem to have progressed in leaps and bounds
in preparing for Bubble's arrival. It really started the weekend that
Mum and Dad came and helped us move the furniture. Since then, we've
collected stuff from Stuart and Rach (baby bath, moses basket etc)
been and bought some extra chests of drawers that we needed (and
managed to avoid too much "Ikea tax" in the process), had a serious
look at pushchairs and car seats (although Dave won't commit any
deposits to it yet!), and got some tester pots of paint for the
nursery walls.

I'm starting to think more seriously about the birth. Can I have a
water pool at home anywhere - is there room, and can I have it
upstairs? What other pain relief options do I want? Just the last
week, I've been thinking that it's going to come early - not mega
early, but for whatever reason I'm not convinced I'm going to go to
term. Maybe that's part of the instigator for me trying to get things
sorted. The midwife doesn't seem to want to talk about it yet. I'm
sure she's said before that at about 27 weeks they like to come and
look at the house to check out parking, room size etc, but then last
time I saw her, she said it could wait until the new year and "not to
worry". I'm not worrying, it's just that by then I'll be 30 weeks plus
and that doesn't seem to me to allow much time.

I sent off a deposit for a NCT antenatal class, and have had an email
back to say, basically, that they're full, and are trying to fit me in
somewhere. I'm still going to the yoga class, which is good as we have
lots of discussion at the end over herbal tea and chocolate biscuits.
We're also booked into an active birth workshop with the yoga teacher
in January, which will no doubt be good. The midwife seems to think
that I should automatically get sent details of their classes, but
didn't seem too convinced. So what do I do? Just go with the flow, and
wait and see if NCT can come up with something? Ring up and hassle
them, or the midwives?

Talking of NCT, we went to a nearly new sale this morning. It's was
chaos with hoards of people queueing up. Still, we got a few bit of
basic clothing and a few small toys, a nice butterfly floor mat and a
mobile. I was hoping there might have been a puchchair or something,
but it's seems those had gone by the time we got in (and we were there
before they opened the doors!)

Bubble's been far more active over the past few days - to the point
where sometimes it's making me feel a bit sick (it's like a churning
in my stomach, and although I know it's a nice thing really, sometimes
it doesn't feel that way! At least it's not keeping me awake at night
- yet! Dave's really feeling it now as well, which he's happy about -
I think he felt a bit left out before, not really knowing what was
happening and not feeling entirely part of it, but now there's
something physical it makes it more real.

Daddy can now feel it

I'm now getting more excited (Daddy) about the impending arrival of Bubble. Not only have we started 'nesting' at home, but I can now feel it move occasionally. It's normally at night when Mummy is relaxed and it wakes up, but I can definitely feel some kicking and movements. Only the strong ones at the moment apparently, but there's something there!

22 weeks gone and counting!

Furniture Removal

This weekend has been spent moving furniture to create some space for
Bubble. My Mum & Dad came to help which was great. The little spare
bedroom is going to be the nursery, the study has become - or will
become - a playroom, and the study has been moved downstairs into the
garden room. All very complicated!
Daisy seems confused by the whole thing - we're suddenly going to be
using the garden room a whole load more, which was previously "her
room". And it's not helped by the fact that there's now a safety gate
across the playroom door to make it a dog-free zone for Bubble. She
certainly showed her objections this afternoon, when she left us a
smelly present while we were out shopping!
Now we just need to get a couple more bits of furniture, sell the bed
that's now in the garage (and the carpet that's been in there for a
while), and do some painting and decorating. Just? Well, that's the
"just list" for the actual rooms, there's still everything else that
needs thinking about - the birth, clothes, pram, names, etc etc etc!

A good week

It's been a good week this week: the scan; feeling pregnant, rather
than just fat; Bubble dancing away inside me. Maybe I'm just a late
bloomer!

Properly pregnant

Hurrah! I'm properly pregnant. By that, I mean I have a bump rather
than just being fat. It's official. A customer at the shop - who
hadn't been told (I checked!) - asked me when the baby's due, and then
wished me good luck. I could have given him a big hug!

Hurrah!

All is well with Bubble. Growing well (no change to the due date) and nothing abnormal detected on the scan - and there is only one! Even I could pick out bits on the scan - the spine, the four chambers of the heart - but a lot just looked like a blur of grey and white. The radiographer did point out other bits - hands, face etc, but we just ahve to trust she knows what she's talking about!

It behaved itself well for all the measurements and checks, but then wouldn't pose for the photograph. We still got one, but it's not very clear. Never mind, you can't have everything.

It's such a relief that my worries didn't come true - now I can start to get excited.

So now we can get on with the job of really preparing. Mum & Dad are coming in a couple of weeks time to help us move furniture around, so we can start to get nursery & dog-free playroom downstairs sorted. The following weekend we're off to Stuart & Rach's to raid their cupboards for baby gear. And then - you never know - I might be able to persuade Dave we can do a bit of shopping!

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the 20-week scan. I'm still worried about it, still
niggling that something will be not quite right. But I've got to go to
find out, otherwise I'd just keep worrying and that's not doing me any
good at all.

I haven't really slept properly for a few nights (not just with the
worrying - bad hotel beds don't help either!) and now I'm tired as
well, which doesn't help the emotions. It's not taking much to set the
tears flowing. I'm trying to be positive, but for some reason it's
difficult. Hopefully I'll have more cheerful things to say tomorrow.

20-week scan

We've got the 20-week scan next Tuesday, and for the last couple of
days I've had niggling worries about it. Don't really know what about
it. Kind of the "What if..." thing, I think. I woke up last night and
was laid awake for a bit thinking about it. I really want it, because
I want to see Bubble, but I guess I'm scared that there's something
that I'm not going to like. I've got no groundings for this at all,
and maybe it's just me.
I mentioned it at the yoga class today, and it was pointed out that I
don't have to have it if I don't want it. Should I have it to set any
worries to rest? Should I not have it and just trust that nature will
make it's own way and everything will sort itself out?
I know Dave is looking forward to it, but I just don't know. It's all
quite scary - more so than the 12-week one, for some reason - and I
don't know what to think.

Yoga Classes

Been to my first pregnancy yoga class this afternoon. It's run by
Olivia, a woman trained under the Active Birth Centre
(www.activebirthcentre.com) and is designed to prepare you for labour,
birth and early parenting. Some gentle exercises, massage and
relaxation and then a chat over a cup of lemon and ginger tea! I've
never been to anything like this before, but everyone was friendly
enough and it wasn't too strenuous (although I'm aching just a little
bit!) I felt like the baby of the class - everyone else's babies are
due before the end of the year, so I'm quite a long way behind them,
but I've been reassured that new people join the class all the time,
so I'll soon feel like an old hand!

Bubble flutters

Over the past few days I've been feeling flutterings. Difficult to
describe really - a bit like gentle bowel movements, or butterflies.
People tell me that it's probably the first movements of the baby.
Great! It's not that often, and they're really faint - I have to be
quite relaxed and still to feel them at all. I'm hoping that it bodes
well for the future - a nice quite baby who isn't too much of a pest!!
Hmm, somehow I think not!

On a slightly different note, I'm having to spend money on clothes. I
bought a few bits a couple of weeks ago, but need more. This morning
at church I had a normal t-shirt (no maternity tops clean) on with a
cardigan over the top. I felt hot, but couldn't take the cardie off
'cos the t-shirt didn't really cover everything - not the best idea in
church! So I've just placed a few bids on eBay, so hopefully I might
have something to wear in a few days time. So far, the shops in
Sheffield have been not too helpful: Next wasn't stocking maternity
until they'd moved to the bigger store in Meadowhall (which might have
been this weekend actually); M&S have a small range in Meadowhall, but
nothing in town; not much at H&M fit me. Any more ideas? Where do
other people find all their nice maternity clothes, without spending
an absolute fortune?

Too much to do!

We're now 17 weeks through, and don't seem to have done anything to
prepare! Help! We've had a brief looks at pushchairs, have got a
long-ish list of names, but that's about it. There's furniture to move
around the house (and the house needs tidying/cleaning before we can
do that), decorating to do, shopping to do, money things to sort
out...

And that's without thinking about the pregnancy and birth, which I
guess should really come first. I've registered for NCT classes, but
haven't heard anything yet. I've just found out about someone in
Sheffield who does pregnancy yoga and Active Birth workshops, so I'm
going to sort that out as well. The more I read, the more I'm
convinced that I want a home birth, so there's things to think about
for that - making sure tings are clean, we've got everything we need
etc etc, and of course a birthing plan. Maybe I'm thinking a bit in
advance, but judging by what I've read you can never start too early!

I know there's about 5 months left, but Christmas is in the middle of
that (thinking money and energy here) and I certainly don't want to
leave everything until the last minute.