Wow, the weeks are FLYING by!! I can't believe I will be 25 weeks pregnant tomorrow - only 15 to go until my due date!! I LOVE that I'm now into that precious stage with the baby known as "viability" - phewwwwwww! I always breathe a sigh of relief when I pass 24 weeks because the baby has a chance of survival after that. The likelihood of survival if he's born from now goes up with each passing week, and I'm so glad to be on this side of 24 weeks again! :)
Today I finally braved the bathroom scales for the first time in absolutely ages! ;) I weighed 10 stone 11lbs, which surprised me somewhat. I was sure I would see something like a stone more than that, since I started out at 9 stone 13lbs this pregnancy - my heaviest starting weight yet! So far I have only gained 12lbs which I LIKE! It doesn't mean much because the real packing-it-on weeks are still way ahead of me (especially the last month!), but I'm still happy to have gained 12lbs so far. I checked my diary for my other pregnancies at the 24-week mark, and found that this is my lowest weight gain so far! Maybe making an effort to not pig out on sweet foods IS making a difference?! I am eating some sweet treats actually, over these last couple of weeks, so I was expecting to be gaining hugely now, but so far it seems to be okay. I am still not buying any sweeties, and trying to only home-bake anything sweet I want to eat (so far flapjacks and sponge puddings, which only have half the sugar of normal sponge cakes anyway). I have had some Ben & Jerry's recently for the first time this pregnancy, which I could not resist because it was HALF PRICE people! C'mon!! ;) But I think that's it. No chocolate as such (BOY would I like to have some though!).
At 24 weeks in my other pregnancies, I had gained 18lbs with Arthur, 14lbs with Matthew, 17lbs with Nathan, and 18lbs with Benjamin. I am not sure if there can be a connection that early on in pregnancy, but it's interesting to me that Arthur and Benjamin were my two babies who weighed over 8lbs (Benjamin being nearer to 9lbs than 8lbs!), Nathan was early so it's hard to tell but I think he would have been over 8lbs if he'd gone to term, and Matthew was my little 7lb 11oz boy! Interesting that my weight gain seems to match their birth weight stats... I wonder if only gaining 12lbs so far this pregnancy will have any bearing on Samuel's birth weight?! Time will tell! :)
It has been a couple of weeks again since I updated and I should write a nice long entry with alllll the news, but I am not feeling all that well this evening and think I will just go to bed. I have sore scratchy throat, but I have been absolutely nowhere to catch anything viral. I did paint one wall of the living room yesterday while the boys were out at the park, and then, well, that's the only room to "live" in so that's the same room I stayed in for the rest of the day and through the evening. The paint was low odour/toxicity but it still smells painty, you know? Anyway by the end of the evening I had an annoyed throat, and I wondered if it was to do with the paint. Or not. It has persisted today and I just feel tired out and "heady". Hopefully I'm not coming down with anything. I have also had bothersome IBS for the last week or two and even woken up with horribly painful cramps from it one night. I was in such a deep sleep and dreaming, and it took several "contractions" to even rise to the surface of the dream/sleep. I was confused about whether I was in labour (not having a clue how pregnant I was at the time, lol!) and woke up rocking my hips like I sometimes do when I'm in labour to manage the pain at the peak of contractions! It was THAT painful. Ow. But just IBS. I have had bouts of it quite badly during pregnancy before, but in general it's not too bad when I'm pregnant - not as bad as when I'm not, anyway. So I think this is just a bout. But it makes me feel yucky and uncomfortable and just a bit sort of unwell in the whole of my digestive tract really, while it's there. That coupled with the throaty feeling tonight just makes me feel under the weather, but I hope I'm not actually ill in any way, just "irritable" in a couple of different zones, hehe! ;)
I can't actually think of much else I was going to say anyway, though I'm sure there must be plenty! Things are fairly uneventful at the moment, pregnancy-wise, which is a nice stage to be at. My energy is fairly normal, but I get tired easily if I'm silly and don't go to bed early enough. Neil is still at home and still doesn't have a job, so we have absolutely no money whatsoever, but it's GOLDEN having him here. The boys are loving it, and so am I. Neil is doing lots with them, and blessing me with lie-ins every single day (can you believe that?! Such a star hubby!). He is tired too from staying up late and the boys' antics, but happy. He is having job interviews and I know that at any time he could get a job and suddenly I will need to adjust to being the sole parent during the day to alllll these little boys, and increasingly pregnant with my new tiny precious. I am really cherishing the rest I am getting while I can, and getting as much nesty stuff done while I can too. I don't think there will be much time for preparations once Neil is working. I have really not given much thought to what NEEDS preparing actually, this time, for a new baby! I think maybe it's because we've done it so many times and also it's always a pretty recent thing, so surely we have everything we need fairly close at hand?! ;) And because he's a boy, even more so. Of course everything for a brand new baby (clothes, towels, etc) is in the loft, so that will need getting down and washing again, but not till later. We have to swap the bedrooms around first before I can even do that, so I am just not thinking about such things yet! I will need to buy newborn nappies and breast pads but that's probably it. I guess I'll start to think about it in a few more weeks and make lists (I love that part!). First I am way more focused on the various decor and furniture changes that need to take place before lists of things are going to be much use! And that part is loads of fun! We don't normally do that kind of thing, but we're changing everything around this time to make the best of the small space we're living in.
Oh, the last two days I have been eating like crazy! My mum said it sounded like I had worms (how nice!)! I just would eat a proper meal, and still feel hungry after it. Or else feel like I'd eaten a meal, and then not TEN MINUTES later, my tummy would start scrunching with hunger! I was really confused by that at first, because I was sure I couldn't possibly be hungry enough for my tummy to scrunch up when I'd JUST eaten a meal, so I ignored it. I figured it was some digestive process or something! ;) But I just got hungrier and hungrier, so in the end I ate a few pieces of toast, or a bowl of cereal. For two days running I ate 5 good sized meals a day! Today I am back to normal appetite, from waking this morning, so I think Samuel must have been having a big growth spurt or something! I wasn't doing anything demanding so it can't have been anything to do with burning calories, other than what Samuel was burning for me. My bump does seem really big to me now, for 24 weeks. Three babies have now been born at church over the summer from the latest "batch" at church (I'm the last in the batch this time, by a couple of months) and I kid you not, I am the same size as the lady who just had a baby, when I saw her at church 4 days before her due date! She was carrying neatly, but not especially small. Weirdly enough I am actually measuring (to my own measurements!) spot on for dates, but I also always seem to "carry big" - all out the front and very noticable! I always get comments when I'm pregnant about how "big" I carry my babies, even though I'm not really big for dates as such and the babies themselves are average size (ish). I am really filling out my maternity clothes now which is lovely! :)
Samuel is kicking lots and lots, and I love feeling all his wiggles and pops. He isn't a big "limb-sweeper" like a couple of his brothers have been. His movements are smaller and "peppy". I can tell when he's sleepy and calm in his movements, or when he's feeling alert and energetic, just by the way he is moving and kicking. He has done a few little fiddly movements with his hands that I can feel, usually low down, but he doesn't seem to do those much. Nathan was BIG on fiddly hand movements - he is the only boy who has Neil's long delicate fingers actually! The others all have my hands and fingers (so far!). Samuel's position changes all the time, and at any given time I'm not sure what position he's in. He's still quite little to be really aware of that kind of thing all the time. I can usually see if I lift my top, whether his back is up against my tummy, and if it is, which side it's on. I can see his back rounded out against one side of my bump usually, and it changes a lot. I have also noticed that he's transverse a LOT. He also likes an oblique lie lately, and when he kicks at my hip, the other end of him rebounds in my other side, higher up! :) I have yet to feel him have hiccups or see him practising breathing, which I had been able to by now with the other boys I think. Except Matthew - I think it was nearer to 28 weeks before I felt Matthew having hiccups for some reason. The others were all 20-22 weeks I think. So I'm waiting, waiting! I ADORE baby hiccups, and can't wait to feel Samuel's for the first time! Often I feel a couple of rhythmic little taps or jerks, and freeze, wondering if it's the start of hiccups! But it hasn't been so far. Soon, I hope! :) His kicks seem very gentle and little compared to what I think I remember of the other boys at this kind of stage. But my memory could well be impaired, haha! My main comparison with all pregnancies is Matthew, since he was my most vigorous. He was a hefty kicker from 15 or 16 weeks, seriously. This baby has not reached even that kind of vigour yet. I think Benjamin was similar to Samuel. I will have to go back and read a few entries from my diary that I wrote during Benjamin's pregnancy, and find out!
I just can't WAIT to meet him!!!!!! I love him so much already!! :D
Well, I had a break a while back when Benjamin woke to breastfeed (still going happily, especially now there's colostrum, thankfully! Trying to feed him less between his bedtime and morning waketime, but on demand (aplenty!) during the day still!). Now it's quite late and I don't feel quite as yucky. I am going to glance over tomorrow's maths lesson for Arthur and then go to bed. I'm glad to be planning to take December and January completely OFF school to focus on birthing, recovering, and adjusting to sweet tiny Samuel's presence in our home! It's nice not to worry about school during that time, but I am eager to get back to it in February all the same! I hope it will be manageable with 5 little ones! :S I will cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess.
I STILL haven't got a belly picture! :( I'm really slacking on that this pregnancy, and that's sad because then I won't have a nice record to look back on for Samuel. I MUST get one this week! Last pregnancy at 24 weeks I got Neil to take one of me with all the boys, and it's still one of my favourite photos with me in it! So maybe it would be fun to have another one for this pregnancy?! I think I will try to organise it, if the boys will cooperate! If not, maybe just a normal belly picture before the week is out, to try to make up for lost time!
I'll update again when I can! Comments have all but stopped here now, but oh well. I guess I don't update often enough. Oh but Legolass, don't worry about asking questions!!! Thanks for yours - I am always happy to answer questions! I was anxious about morning sickness before being pregnant, and it was scary when I did feel so nauseous with Arthur's pregnancy. I was too scared to eat because I felt so sick, and *VITAL TIP* do not, I repeat, do not ever do that!!! Eat, nibble, whatever you can to just keep putting things in, because I discovered that the less you eat, the worse the morning sickness, and I got myself in a vicious cycle. I have never actually been sick (sooooo thankful!) when morning sick, but after not eating for ages with Arthur I did get the dry heaves once or twice. I felt better for starting to eat again. In my experience, I just feel sick from waking to sleeping, for a few months. Some pregnancies I don't feel sick till the end of the morning, but then it lasts till bedtime. Other pregnancies I feel sick if I wake in the night too. Different times of day affect how sick I feel. It's usually anything from moderately motion-sick-feeling to nauseous enough to be sick at any moment (though not actually doing so). It does suck! I found it near unbearable the first pregnancy, and in any pregnancy the first week or two are the hardest. But there is definitely an adjustment of some sort so that it doesn't quite feel so dreadful after that. Also subsequent pregnancies have been more manageable even if the nausea is really bad, just because I've been there and done that, I guess. It DOES go away, and it IS 1 million percent worth it - even for someone who is deathly afraid of vomiting! :) Thanks so much for your comment!
Okay, bed! Back soon! :)
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