Another week since I updated last, tsk tsk! It wasn't intentional, but never mind.
So I am in my second trimester, yaaaaaay! I love having the first trimester behind me! :) My baby is out of the most risky zone, which is always a relief to know! And my scan is TOMORROOOOOWWW!!! I'm so excited! We found someone to watch the boys - the same friend from church (Sarah) who watched them for the last couple of pregnancies when we had scans. Before that we used to ask my grandparents, when there were fewer children to watch, and they were less frail than they are now. We haven't told them yet (still procrastinating and not sure what to do about it!). Anyway, so happy that Sarah could come round tomorrow and stay with the boys (definitely Arthur, Matthew, and Nathan, and I would LOVE Benjamin to happily stay too, but I doubt he will), while we go to the hospital for the scan. We'll be taking Samuel, of course, and likely Benjamin, though I'm feeling slightly exasperated about that already because he is not keen on dark rooms and whines to go out straight away, and well, the lighting is very low in the u/s rooms - pretty much just the screen are light and that's it. I think he'll whine and fuss and Neil will have to take the little ones out, and then it'll just be me. I don't mind being on my own to see my baby, but I wish Neil could see the baby too without having to wrangle little ones! He doesn't mind a bit though. I hope they're fine, otherwise the staff get fidgetty and ask him to take them out (we're not really supposed to take noisy children there at all apparently, but there's nothing else for it!).
Arthur's birthday was on Wednesday - I have a 7 year old! Can you believe it?! Going back in my pregnancy blog (which you'd have to do by going to my original pregnancy blog at Diaryland, before Samuel's pregnancy, and probably the end of Benjamin's), I started writing about pregnancy and growing our family in 2003, when we were planning to start trying to conceive our first baby! And now our first baby is SEVEN - wowsers! And we're expecting our sixth :) Wonderful!
I am now going to eat birthday cake, as I'm feeling sick and need to fix it. Back in a minute! ;)
Back, and a bit better.
I just uploaded my 11 week belly picture to Sausage's belly gallery - definitely bigger than 6 weeks, lol! I am showing MUCH more this week, at 12 weeks, than even last week. I know I was showing at 11 weeks, but this week it seems my womb has "popped" up and I'm alllmost able to wear maternity clothes, just not quite! It's that frustrating in between stage where I'm uncomfy in normal clothes (and nothing fits me properly!) and my jeans are not hanging onto my hips too well, as my waist has disappeared completely, lol! But maternity bottoms are really baggy on my tummy still, whether they're the "panel" style or not. Tsk! I did find a pair today that almost did the trick, but they were just a little bit too loose to wear still. Soon though! :) I'm excited, and I have sooooo many more clothes to wear in my maternity wardrobe than my non-maternity, which is fun - it's as if I spend more time pregnant than not, by the clothing situation! ;) (which I currently DO, as of February 2004! :D )
I also made an Ultrasound Gallery for Sausage, which I'll post right before this one in a minute. Then it's there ready to add Sausage's pictures from tomorrow! :) I can't WAIT to see Sausage!!!! I hope everything is going okay in there. I did get a teeensy glimpse of my tiny one on Thursday, because I had a kidney scan again to check on the little bit of extra fluid still sitting in the kidney on my right side, where I had a kidney stone block the way in the summer and looooads of fluid backed up in my kidney. I had one of those silent consultants this time! He didn't say a word to me the whole time (except "breathe in...(wait 98 minutes)... aaand out... (pause of 2 seconds)... breathe in... (hold for 134 minutes)... and out again." I was soooo out of breath after a very short while of this!), nor indicate what he was seeing - which I found frustrating! I really want to KNOW what's going on with my kidney and not have to wait until JANUARY 26TH when my follow-up appointment with the urologist finally comes around on the waiting list!!! :/ He asked at one point if I'd ever passed a kidney stone, like he had reason to wonder (he didn't know my history as he was a locum), and I said yes. He asked when, and I said, in July. He paused and then said, "A small one?" I said no, not particularly. And that's all he said. Which leaves me wondering WHY he asked?! :S Anyway, I might ask my GP in a couple of weeks, as she should have some sort of report by then.
Anyway. He scanned my right kidney for a while, and then my left one, and then he had me lie on my back and started to scan my bladder. As he went to do so, I said, "Oh, there's a baby down there!" because he didn't seem to know - thought I'd give him the heads up, haha! I also tried my best to squirm my head around to see the screen, but it was turned to the consultant - I could just about see a sliver of the screen, and I was aware of seeing a baby and some movement briefly, but just as a grainy blurry movement, not actually being able to see body parts. Anyway the slight glimpse of an alive baby was precious all the same! :) Dr. Silent said nothing at all! At the end he stopped the scan and said he was finished with me and I could go. I sat up and turned to get off the bed, and then I saw the screen with the last image frozen on it. It was a tiny little person in a starfish pose, hehe! Looking from behind the baby's back, all the limbs were stretched out like a dear little starfish, with the head at the top, aaaahhhh so precious! :) What a busy wiggly little person he/she must be (as already demonstrated at the last two scans!)! He turned and saw me sitting there smiling at the screen, and said unfeelingly, "There's your child. Viable." lol! He was so blunt and non-chatty it was funny - the way he said that! But it was still music to my ears: viable! Yay! That means ALIVE and kicking! :) I can't wait to see more of my sweetie pea tomorrow!
I've been having some Braxton Hicks contractions here and there - I am reminded to write it because one has just started now! :) They do start earlier with subsequent pregnancies. I am now able to verify the feeling I get because I can press my hand into my tummy a few inches below my tummy button and feel that my womb is a little hard ball at those times. I have also started to feel Sausage move and wiggle a little bit here and there, and sometimes a Braxton Hicks will be followed by a wiggle :) I feel like this baby is already showing personality, definitely different from some of my others even now. I love that! I mostly feel Sausage move when I am lying on my side, slightly turned onto my back as I'm feeding Samuel (or Benjamin, once) at bedtime or nap time.
My milk is still there and seems fairly normal in quantity to me, except that Samuel has pretty much doubled his appetite this past week. He seems extra hungry for food at meal times and snack times, and will feed from both sides when I nurse him. He isn't usually disinterested whenever I offer him the breast, even if it isn't really time for him to feed yet. So I wonder if my milk is less plentiful this week? Benjamin is still breastfeeding and seems just as before, though he's 2 and I don't think he's fussed about quantity or anything like that! He likes the taste of milky, but mostly I think it's a comfort thing. He nurses several times a day and at bedtime, on demand usually, though he does demand and I say no, probably two or three times in the day as well. I am tending more towards making sure Samuel has all he needs before offering Benjamin some, now that Samuel seems extra hungry. He may just be having a growth spurt I guess, but I have to consider that it might be the milk supply, given that I'm now 12 weeks pregnant. They both still gulp and swallow heftily for quite some minutes, so it doesn't seem to me like there's a shortage - and they'll do the same a couple of hours later if offered... Anyway, maybe it's starting to slow up a bit. Samuel isn't waking more than usual at night to feed though, so it's not desperate! :)
I've felt really sick this week with the morning sickness. Some parts of the day on one or two days I wondered if it was starting to ease up. But some evenings I have felt like it's the worst it has ever been! So I don't think it's going anywhere just yet! I feel sick as soon as I start eating for the day. Some mornings I really dread having to eat breakfast! Although it will start anyway if I let myself get hungry, so there's not much difference. And NOW after all this time ALL foods are giving me a horrid bitter aftertaste (that's usually something that starts early on but didn't this time) which makes my mouth water, which REALLY aggravates my nausea. I also have much more post-nasal goop when I am nauseated - vicious cycle. I can always tell when my nausea seems to be getting better when I am not having to blow my nose so often! Weird but true, with all my pregnancies. Swallowing goop really makes me feel sick, and yet the goop comes WITH the nausea as part of my morning sickness, for some reason. Anyway I have all the above at the moment. Bleurgh.
I am not particularly expecting my morning sickness to disappear soon, because only Matthew's pregnancy was nausea-free at 12 weeks. Arthur was 16 weeks, Nathan was 18 weeks, Benjamin was 14 weeks, and Samuel TWENTY weeks, urgh! So I'm only 12 weeks pregnant and continuing to HOPE that soon it'll go away, but statistically speaking, it might not for another month or two. We'll see! I'm just grateful it's manageable. I am feeling sick but able to eat food fine. I can also enjoy my food so long as I don't let myself get too hungry to start with. I am loving three slices of toast and marmite for breakfast these days, and a yummy meal in the evening is really enjoyable. I am avoiding garlic and anything very oniony (including leeks) and so long as I'm doing that, eating is fine and doesn't make me feel worse for it, usually. It's 2 minutes AFTER finishing eating that I start to feel horrid, because that's when the bitter taste and watering mouth begins. Then I need to nibble when the nausea sets in and keep on nibbling with short breaks until I can escape from it by going to bed and falling asleep for the night! Often I get in bed feeling SO nauseated and hoping I won't be sick, but I feel fairly confident that I just need to fall asleep and then I'll feel better.
I think my nausea has been aggravated this week by my womb popping up. My whole intestines are REALLY annoyed about the shift in location, haha! I am having some IBS and just feeling horrid and bloated with it, and that makes me nauseated when NOT pregnant, so it's not really surprising that I feel yucky with it now. It might even be the only reason that my nausea is worse this week. Neil says it rings a bell from previous pregnancies at the time my womb popped up, like there was an adjustment period and my IBS did not appreciate it for a week or so! ;) I hope it calms down soon.
I'm still feeling very tired, but not too bad if I rest/sleep enough. Neil is always wonderful about letting me lie in, and I feel quite well rested this weekend, despite night wakings and TWO days out - to Hampton Court Palace on Thursday with Neil and the boys, and to the zoo yesterday, both for Arthur's birthday. Hampton Court Palace WORE ME OUT, and I felt really unwell after about an hour or so of walking. I got that sudden "warning" thing where my body yells at me to sit down, and I MUST immediately or else I very quickly progress to nausea, shakes, breathlessness, etc. I had no choice but to keep walking, as Benjamin was trailing behind and the others went on ahead too far for me to signal for help! I got slower than Benjamin in the end, and had no breath to answer him when he chatted to me. Once we got to the others, and I explained, I was able to sit on a bench for a while and eat some chocolate (found some in my pocket). I don't think it's a blood sugar thing with me - I think it's either just plain unfitness (though I'm not convinced about that) or a need for protein - or fluids, with my low blood pressure. Anyway I was really nervous about going to the zoo for more hours, only 2 days later! But it was fine. I did get that feeling after a couple of hours but sat down straight away. Eventually it wasn't really going even when I was sitting, so Neil sat with the boys while I went slooowwwly to a nearby gift shop and bought a Toffee Crisp and a fruit drink. I sat down and had those and felt LOADS better after that. I was fine for the rest of the time, but I did take it more gently from then on.
I really need to start making sure I get plenty of sleep at night, so I will have less and less time to update online as I try to put that in place. The boys often aren't asleep until 8 or 8.30 - well, the last boy anyway! We stay with them until they're asleep, all but Arthur and Matthew. And Matthew is one of the first to fall asleep usually, anyway. By then, it's 8 - 8.30pm. I know I'm not going to fit much in online if I'm trying to get to bed by 10pm which I really MUST start doing, pregnant or not. I want to start getting up much earlier in the mornings (before the boys are awake!) to get my priorities straight and pray and be ready for the day. Never tried such a feat before, and rather nervous that I will fall flat trying, but I really want to start doing it. So I think my online time will have to be squeezed out to a large degree. I am not sure what else can possibly give!
Anyway, I will update tomorrow hopefully, with the scan pics and details - yay! Hope to get a glimpse of that little genital tubercle! :) Lately I have noticed I'm enjoying tomato ketchup on my food more, and marmite on my toast (both salty). AND after my last entry here, I seem to be more interested in protein. Still not craving it as such, but definitely wanting to add cheese to my pasta sauce, or baked beans with breaded fish, when I don't normally. And chicken - enjoying chicken this week! :) So, it's probably a boy after all! ;)
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