33-and-a-bit weeks

We have internet access!  Of course, it’s at the flat and we’re usually not.  I’m here tonight because we have movers coming bright and early tomorrow morning, but we don’t actually know how early, so I’m staying overnight and sleeping on the pull-out couch they’ll be moving.  This is good, though: not only has it given me a chance to write this post, but it has also given me a chance to do my first load of baby laundry.   Yes, all of the baby clothes I’ve bought are here, at the flat, as are sheets and tiny hats and even tinier mitts.  Hanging up the the outfits to dry, though, has brought home that I only have two newborn outfits that have legs and feet.  Oops.  It’s not exactly summer, here.

And now for the belly at 33-and-a-bit weeks…which shows me that I really have to dust my mirror.

Yep.  My belly has grown a wee bit.  You can see that my belly button has popped out just a teensy-tiny bit.  This I can handle.  Any farther out and I’m slapping on the duct tape.

 

31 weeks

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’ve pretty much reached 31 weeks.  This means that the countdown to twin heaven/hell is in the single digits: 9 weeks if I go full term, which my consultants don’t appear to want me to do (but I’ll find out more about that on the 18th at my 32 week scan), and 5 weeks if I go by the statistics that tell me women carrying twins tend to go into labour about a month early.  If I were a betting woman, I would put money on my making it to 38 weeks.  I feel good, my blood pressure and sugar levels are in the norm, my cervix is a decent length, and so on.

There, I’ve drawn a line in the sand and we shall see what comes of it.

Father-to-be and I joined the NCT (National Childcare Trust) and have been going to their antenatal classes.  I can recommend the classes: information received is geared to what the group would like to know, the instructor is fab and knowledgeable, and I feel it has helped father-to-be by giving him a framework of knowledge to work from that he did not have, seeing as he comes from a family of four, with an extended family of 7 and no small children anywhere or anywhen in the mix.

Today — yes on a Sunday — is the breastfeeding class.  Everyone is to bring a doll or teddy-bear, or two in my case, so that the women can practise different holds.  I understand the logic behind practising holds, but I am also aware that it ain’t gonna be nothin’ like the real thing.  Inert, light, silent and stiff teddy-bear ≠ squirmy, heavy, crying and floppy baby.   Still, the class will give me a knowledge framework to build upon, as I have absolutely zero experience in the breastfeeding department.

What else is new?  We have a new (used) car.  We have a new (used) car because the Jane Twin Pro baby buggy does not fit into the trunk of our old car.  This sounds frivolous, doesn’t it?  It would have been less expensive to sell the totally fab twin buggy I got for an amazing deal and buy a new twin buggy that fits the boot.  This is true, of course.  However, when we looked at the facts :

• pram does not fit in old car
• old car does not have isofix points for the car seats (which can be installed, I know)
• old car has about 130 000 miles on it
• next service on old car requires a new timing belt
• old car needs new summer and winter tires
• old car needs a new windshield because the current one is so totally sandblasted
• pram does fit in new (used) car
• new (used) car has isofix points
• new (used) car has 40 000 miles on it
• new (used) car has all wheel drive and does not need new summer tires
• new (used) car has a trailer hitch (those things cost between £400 and £500!)
• new (used) car does not need a new windshield
• new (used) car is a Subaru Legacy which means we should get at least another 120 000+ miles out of it

buying a new car just made sense.

I get to pick it up on Friday.  It’s blue.  And long.

Parking in town is going to be a bitch.

 

 

 

 

30 weeks

This is me at 6 1/2 months pregnant.

As of two days ago, the bulk and the weight finally reared its ugly head.

Thankfully, thankfully, thankfully, I have only four weeks of work left before maternity leave.  It’s going to go by so wonderfully quickly.

 

 

So this is insomnia.

It’s lying in bed, dead-tired but awake.  Just awake.  For no discernible reason.  Awake.  But tired.

Dilemma: stay in bed and turn, turn, turn, waking up husband, but possibly falling back to sleep after a couple of hours?  Or, get up, allowing husband to sleep, but then greatly reduce the chances of falling back to sleep?

At least I have a reason for remaining awake this time.  Two, actually: hunger and back pain.  Yep.  6 1/2 months pregnant and it seems I finally have the back pain I kept being told to expect.  Not in a bad way, thankfully.  Just a niggling, achy, pelvis-is-probably-out-of-alignment kind-of way.  Not surprising, really.  My pelvis is usually slightly out of alignment because of a small discrepancy in leg lengths.  Thankfully, there is a massage therapist/chiropractor-type-person who works about a five minute walk from where I work and who specialises in working on pregnant women.  I’ll be giving him a call today.

And hunger in the middle of the night?  This is the first time I’ve woken up feeling hungry, but I’ve also just about reached the ‘only able to graze’ stage so I figure this may be happening more often.  Which poses a bit of a conundrum: do I risk waking from hunger and not being able to return to sleep, or do I eat before going to bed and wake up with wicked heartburn?  Hmmm…now that I write that down, it seems an obvious choice.

Right.  It’s 4:50.  I think I might try going back to sleep.

 

 

Forgotten, then rediscovered.

About six years ago, I came across a lovely, soft corduroy material that was exactly what I wanted at the time for a baby blanket.

I bought enough for two, making a blanket for my friend, Mar, who was expecting her first child, and then beginning work on my own.  Graeme and I had begun trying for kids at that point, and I had no reason to think that I wouldn’t soon be in the family way.  I spent hours on this blanket, and I think it is some of the finest quilting I have ever done.

The years went by and no pregnancy ensued.  The blanket was packed away and mostly slipped from memory (mostly on purpose).  But, today, I came across it, again.  And, today, I was justified in pulling it out, shaking it off, and taking pleasure in it for the first time in years.

 

28 week scan

Okay, so I don’t have any pictures to show you.  I can tell you, though, that the babies are still average size for average singleton babies…which is good, but sore.  About every third day I have an awful time of it.  My belly becomes tight, tight, tight, and my skin feels like it is being s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d.  Which it probably is.  Tonight is one of those nights.

 

 

 

Pretty much 28 weeks

Not much to say, really.  Touch wood,  the heartburn seems to have been a one-off.  I’m still feeling well.  I even went camping this past weekend and slept in a tent.  (Granted, on top of my thermarest was a very thin mattress for a bit of extra comfort.)  And, honestly?  I had a great night’s sleep.  I didn’t even need my hot water bottle, thanks to the two little furnaces I’m carrying.

 

 

Ow.Ow.Ow.

It’s almost 3am.  I am so very tired.  I can’t sleep, because I can’t lie down.  I can’t lie down. because then my heart tries to burn its way out of my chest.  So I am sitting.  This doesn’t mean my heart is happy; it means that my heart is sitting, grumbling in a closed room, leaning forward in its chair with legs bouncing, waiting for the moment when I crack open the door so that it can spring forward and slam its way through.

I should have hung the door so that it opens inward.  I bet you anything solitary confinement room doors swing into the room.

Tomorrow, I buy antacid and then we’ll see who has the upper hand.

P.S.  Hubby is back from Kazakhstan tomorrow.  I’m not sure there’s enough room in the bed for four of us.  I think he’s in for a rough of time of it these next three-ish months.  (I say three-ish, because my due date is 12 December, but I’ll probably go into labour no later than end of November.  My how time flies.)

 

Almost 26 weeks

Remember reading the novel series The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?

No, me neither.

I did see a trailer of the film, though. Four friends share a pair of pants (dear UK friends: not underwear) that magically fit all of them even though they were different shapes and sizes.

That’s this maternity shirt.

I’m friend number three, and we all agree this is by far the bestest maternity shirt ever.  So.Very.Comfortable.

Caution: shirt may make my belly appear smaller than actual size.

 

It’s 4am and I can’t sleep.

Note that this is not the same as “it’s 4am and I’m not tired.”

I’ve probably been awake since 3:00, but have given up and turned the light on.  I am so tired.  So very tired.

Hubby is in town tonight and I have the bed to myself.  Sleeplessness happens when he is here, too, but then I tough it out, trying not to disturb him.  I always fall back to sleep eventually when I do this, but only after a couple of or several hours.

Why am I awake?  I don’t know.  Actually, that’s not true.  I’m awake because I needed to pee.  The question I don’t know the answer to is why am I still awake?  Practice for those 3am feedings ahead of me?  It’s only going to get worse, isn’t it?

Okay.  Leaving you with a disturbing fabric swatch:

Bear Lures Naive Girl Into Woods. "I owed the wolf some money I couldn't pay back," said the bear. "I didn't see what happened next."