Friday, September 19, 2008

Giant Jeans and Belly Shot

Guess what? My giant jeans fit. Hurrah!!! Yesterday I went to work dressed completely in normal clothes, if you can call my giant jeans normal.

I acquired these jeans about two and a half years ago after purchasing a pair of jeans I loved so much I decided to go and buy another pair. We were in a bit of a hurry but it didn't matter because I knew exactly what I wanted. I rushed into the shop, picked up the right style in the same size and bought them. A few days later, down in Sydney for Anna's 30th birthday, I wore them for the first time. About an hour later I found myself hitching them up and noticed they seemed a bit long. When I got back to Anna's place I discovered that although they were supposedly the same size as the original pair, they were actually about a size larger. For the next two years they drove me mad as I often picked them up and put them on by mistake and then felt uncomfortable in them. Eventually a few months back, reluctant to sell them in case they were useful during pregnancy and post-partum, I angrily threw them in the back of the wardrobe to get them out of the way. When I started to get fat I looked all over for them and couldn't find them anywhere. Then, Toby put our bed sheets away in the laundry cupboard instead of the bedroom cupboard so when I went to get more sheets from the bedroom what did I find instead? Giant jeans!!! And that's the story of how I came to own a pair of giant jeans.

They're still a bit long ('cause I have to wear them under the bump) and nowhere near as comfy as maternity jeans would be, but given that the weather is warming up I think they'll do for now.

When you see my latest bump shot, you mightn't be surprised that I'm still wearing normal clothes. I swear it's getting smaller.


Excuse the PJs - it was bed time. Actually, I tried these on a few days ago and ended up wearing a t-shirt instead of the top because it was a bit tight, yet last night I managed to sleep in it no bother. So there you go, shrinking bump. It's probably because I'm taking control of my sweet cravings. Trying to anyway. Yesterday a colleague bought me coffee and a yummy scrummy brownie to celebrate my 100% result in the Australian Citizenship test.

Had a total disaster at the pool yesterday - my new tankini broke! I've only worn it once and the fabric came away from the plastic fasteners at the back of the bust, thankfully (I think) before I got in the pool so I didn't even get to swim. It's fixable but I figure I should try and take it back first. So back to square one with swimwear. I have to go see if I can find a suitable bikini and rash-top combination (or squeeze into my regular suit; with my shrinking bump it could be possible) so that I can get back in the pool today and make up for having done no exercise for the past two days.

I also have a bag of clothes to go through which Janette very generously brought around last night thinking I might be able to squeeze into some of them but I don't think I'll get that done before work. Anyway, I'd better go. I'm putting our fridge for sale on eBay. I'm quite excited as it's the first time I've ever sold anything on eBay, plus it feels like a big step towards getting things sorted out in the house.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

20 weeks scan

It was tempting... but we didn't find out the baby's sex. Dr. Stokes knows, which is kind of weird. He'll probably tease us about it for the next 20 weeks but at least we can ask if we ever change our minds. 

The 20 weeks scan was very cool. Dr. Stokes measured all sorts of things, such as the thigh bone, arm, head and waist circumference and Clucklette was normal in all of those things. He does this because if some measurements aren't around the 50 percentile mark, or if they aren't consistent, it can be an indication that there is some problem. We saw the umbilical cord and the blood flowing in and out of it. Apparently some babies only have one blood vessel through the cord but we have two, which is good. Dr. Stokes pointed out the baby's bladder and kidneys. We saw the heart, and the four chambers, all looking normal. We saw the brain and its various components, again all the right size and in the right place. He even looked at the baby's lip to check for a cleft palate. So far there are no signs that this baby is anything other than healthy and normal, well as normal as you can be with a Buckle and a Clewett as parents. Toby asked Dr. Stokes to measure the baby and he was 15cm from crown to rump.

The baby's head was down in my pelvis and his bum up towards my ribs. Its back was to my left-hand side, facing backwards, and its feet over towards my right, near my hip. However, Dr. Stokes said they move around all the time so it probably won't stay in that position for long.

Once the important medical stuff was over with, Dr. Stokes had a bit of a play with the 3D imaging. This is such a cool tool. You basically take a 2D scan of the section you want to view in 3D, then you slice through the images in 3D until you see the bit you want to see. Baby was all curled up with his hands over his face but we were able to slice through the arm and get a nice picture of his head and face:


Can you see it? The spine is to the bottom of the image and the head is to the top. I think it's fairly easy to make out. The 2D images are quite obscure. Now that babby is a bit bigger you can't see all of him on one image so Paul (Dr. Stokes) just looked at the relevant sections to check the things he needed to check. Most of the time it was very difficult to see what was going on. Seeing this picture here made me very excited at the thought of meeting our baby and seeing what s(he) really looks like. We don't have long to wait I suppose; tomorrow I'm officially half way through, if Clucklette decides to arrive on time. That means that the length of time since I went to England is the same length of time until the baby joins us. That doesn't seem like long at all.

Meanwhile, I'm a lot happier now that I have some clothes that fit me. And I found my giant jeans, finally, although I haven't tried them on so I'm not sure if they fit. I have a definite bump now, although it's still very small. I've noticed that some people who don't know me that well have started flashing their eyes towards my bump as though they're not quite sure. 

Toby felt the baby move the other night, which was cool although the movements are still very subtle for him. I have had a few kicks which are different to the usual fluttery movements I get. It can be quite uncomfortable and always takes me by surprise.

I have now put on 5kg.

Nana sent another parcel which included loads of bibs, a nice soft blanket and a few toys. The baby now has two shelves of goodies in the spare room. My parcel from Mam still hasn't arrived. I'm beginning to think it never will which is very disappointing. Mam is obviously upset about it too. She said it had some really nice clothes in it. I don't understand how it can just disappear like that - it has to be somewhere.

I think it is probably okay to mention now that Lucie is 11 weeks pregnant. It's very exciting going through it together and it'll be great next year when we have little bubs that can play with one another and we can babysit for each other. -->I caught up with Nirvana the other day and found out how she has been getting on with her bub, Bodhi who was born early March. Amongst other things we discussed nappies. Toby and I intend to use cloth nappies primarily (although not solely) and Nirvana had the same intention but gave up. She has offered to sell her nappies onto us but I need to do a bit more research first. I'm a bit put off because she said Bodhi felt wet and didn't like them but she has a friend who uses them and loves them. I guess it's horses for courses and you don't know what's going to work until you try. With that in mind I will buy both cloth and disposables over the next few months but won't try and get a full quota of cloth until I'm sure that's what I want to use. I'll only buy the disposables when they're on special too.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Mini bump

I finally got Toby to take a photo of my bump last week. Unfortunately it's a bit blurry but it'll have to do.
This was taken at almost 18 weeks. It was only five days ago but I think the bump has got bigger since then so we'll have to take another one. 

By the way, I love being pregnant again. I think baby had a massive growth spurt last week and made me hungry, tired and irritable. It probably didn't help that I was spending every waking hour with my nose in a teen vampire romance novel that Libbette had loaned me, rather than meditating and doing yoga and other relaxing things that must be good for the baby. Betty has now passed on the second and third books in the vampire romance sequel so I shall have to be very disciplined not to let the same thing happen again. Anyway, I did a bit of yoga at the weekend and spent some time in the garden and I'm feeling much better. I also went to the gym on Friday night which probably helped.

Another thing which must have helped is that I finally bought myself some new clothes. I got a pair of maternity trousers (bargain buy at only $15 due to some minor fault), a pair of black maternity cropped trousers for work, also quite cheap, a very comfy pair of black cropped jog pants for bumming around in which I absolutely love and will probably wear to death, a t-shirt for the gym as most of the ones I have are getting a bit short and tight, a new gym bra in a slightly larger size, a maternity floaty yellow t-shirt (very summery) and a red maternity tankini for the pool and beach. I wore my tankini to the pool today and swam 650 metres in it, which I think is a jolly good effort after the appalling night's sleep I had. I am sooooo tired!!!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

18 weeks and I'm irritated

It seems like the 18th week of pregnancy is all about irritation. Last week I was high on the happy hormones but this week the irritable ones have kicked in and I'm largely annoyed. And the fact that I have spent most of this week feeling irritated is really irritating me. When I'm not irritated I'm stressed or anxious. It's doing my head in.

I'm anxious about putting on too much weight. I'm irritated with my wardrobe and having to try a multitude of things on before I find something that fits, albeit with a safety pin or hair band. I'm stressed at the thought of having to buy new clothes on a budget. I'm upset at the fact that my mother and my sister went shopping for maternity clothes for me and posted them three weeks ago and they still haven't arrived. I'm beginning to think they might be lost as I've had two parcels from Nana in that time, which is a real shame given I'm having such clothing issues.

It all got way too much for me when Toby asked me to write a list of all the clothes I might need to buy whilst pregnant, including underwear, so that we can budget for it!! I mean how the bloody hell am I supposed to know that?!! I can see his point. We are trying to save for furniture, home maintenance, a trip to the UK, me being on half-pay for a year then god knows what after that but we'll never have as much as we have now because even if I go back to work full-time I'll have to pay for childcare. Not forgetting all the baby paraphernalia. But I mean really, have I ever been pregnant before? No! I have a grand idea that I can buy a few long tops and wear trousers and skirts below my belly but I don't really know how realistic this is or how long I'll get away with it for. Plus there was the fact that I was due to replace some clothes that died last summer anyway.  I went for a swim the other day and could barely squish my tits into my swimsuit. Similar story in the gym. It's all just too much. I just want to go out and replace things when the need arises but it seems that's not going to work for us financially.

I realise that all pregnant ladies go through this. I also realise that the irritability is natural but it doesn't make it any easier to deal with. Come back happy hormones... I want to love being pregnant again.

Anyway, regarding the weight thing. I've decided not to worry about it. It's easier said than done though. I really just have to stop giving in to cravings. At least they're subsiding a bit now. But I'm just so hungry all the time. I don't see how I'm not going to put on at least 15kg during this pregnancy. I've already put on 5kg and I'm not even half-way there and the baby is tiny. Toby tells me he has heavy bones so perhaps the baby does too. The good news is that I have just found a website which tells me that weight gain should be based upon BMI. My pre-pregnancy BMI was 20.31, which is the low end of the ideal weight range and I can expect to gain, or should aim to gain between 11.3kg and 15.9kg. I'm happy with this. I also read another website which says most healthcare providers don't weigh women after the first appointment because it causes too much anxiety. I'll say. The same website said that many women gain most of their weight in the first 20 weeks, so just because I have gained 5kg by 18 weeks doesn't mean that I will continue to gain at the same rate. Indeed some weeks I lose weight and others I stay the same then all of a sudden I'll put it on. I've never been so damn obsessed about my weight before and this needs to stop now. In fact I'm considering asking that they don't weigh me at my next appointment but hopefully the happy hormones will be back by then and it won't be such an issue.

Another parcel arrived from Nana.This one had a towel in it which was on our list of things to buy before February so it's great to be able to tick that off. It also contained a beautiful shawl which my great Nana bought for my mother's christening. Great Nana died just before I was born and Nana always said she was my guardian angel. She enclosed a photo of my mam lying on the shawl on her christening day at 6 weeks old. It's weird seeing baby photos of my mam, especially when I'm pregnant and thinking about the fact that she used to be pregnant with me. It brings to mind the whole circle of life thing, how it just keeps going on, how one day my baby might have babies and grand-children. It's not even born yet. It's too weird. It's like thinking about how big the universe is. I have to stop it now. Incidentally my mam was a very cute and pretty little baby. What a strange thing to think about your mother!!

I did my Australian citizenship test yesterday and got 100%. Ha! That's one in the eye for pregnancy brain. However PB did make me lose my birth certificate. Couldn't find it anywhere and I was supposed to take it with me to the test. I convinced myself it was at work so the ladies told me I could bring it in today. After today I'd have to get a copy certified by a JP, who would also have to sign a passport photo of me, and I'd have to fill a form in and post it all off. Lots of hassle. I got to work this morning and couldn't find it anywhere so had to drive home after lunch in the bucketing rain and look for it again. Eventually I found a copy I'd requested from the registrar three years ago and took that along. I still have no idea where the original is but it must be around somewhere. Of course the whole episode was very irritating and I'm particularly annoyed that everything is still in boxes and we have no decent furniture 10 months after moving house.

The baby is getting very wriggly now and I'm sure Toby would be able to feel a few of the movements. Unfortunately he doesn't have the patience to keep his hand on my belly for long enough to feel something. Last night, seconds after he moved away the baby did this little kick that must have been palpable from the outside too. It can't be too long before the kicks are obvious.

I have to go. I'm getting really hungry.