8 weeks, 6 days - ultrasound!

Sorry to take a few days to update on the ultrasound! I went for my early scan at 8w3d, and everything looks wonderful! :) I'm so happy and thankful! There is one sweet stumpy little baby in there - as I watched the baby on the monitor, I had such an urge to change the nickname to "Stumpy"! It seemed so fitting - such darling stumps for little legs and arms, and such a short "stump" of a little person in general, hehe! But Matthew chose Crispy - actually I have written it wrongly all this time, because he meant it like a Rice Krispie, so the spelling should be "Krispie" (cute little piece of cereal, as opposed to dried out 'n' crunchy, as in "crispy duck"!), and I love that. So Krispie it is! Stumpy, in my heart, as well though! :)

The baby measured 2 days ahead, so they have dated my pregnancy as 8w5d and told me to wait until my 12 week scan for confirmation of dates. I'll go with my original dates for now in any case. I will be 9 weeks pregnant tomorrow! I am glad for the nausea part to be passing quickly. I have found that if I COMPLETELY avoid any trace of onion, I have actually quite manageable morning sickness. Nausea all the time, but bearable for sure. Onion? Even in tomato ketchup or stock or gravy? Three days of misery, where I can't function properly. I'm so grateful there's something simple I can do to help myself, but I really really feel silly when I eat something without thinking and then have the sinking feeling knowing that the next few DAYS will be hard to get through. Hopefully I'm learning! ;)

The technician was really nice and gave me two pictures! They're pretty much the same, but see?! My Krispie little stump stretched out a tiny leg! I don't know that it's meant to be possible to do that yet, but it certainly looked like that's what was happening. Those teeny leggies aren't even fully developed yet! The baby's length from crown to rump was 2.1cm - awww!





I love the beautifully round amniotic sac around the baby (the fine white line) in the larger gestational sac (the black part). Such a perfect bubble! I am SO completely in love with this little baby all over again, and yet again sitting here marvelling at the fact that one can fall in love so deeply, equally for multiple multiple children. It never runs out, it just multplies, and it's a wonderful thing to experience.

I had some quite heavy spotting (not flow as such though) later after the scan, and the next day, but it has pretty much faded off now. I asked about the source, but she couldn't see any evidence of a bleed in there. Perhaps I'd had a small bleed and it had pretty much finished bleeding out, I don't know. Anyway she saw nothing to worry about, so that's reassuring. I asked what I should do if I continue to have bleeding or spotting and she said to call the Early Pregnancy Unit and ask the advice of the doctors there. They may check my scan and advise me over the phone, or they may ask me to come back for a re-scan. I hope I just don't have any further bleeding. That would be nice! :)

Well I have now been up and down to Elijah three times since starting this post, and it's getting really late now. I don't know if it's the fact that he had beans for lunch today for the first time, and thus has some wind, or the fact that he cut his 5th tooth yesterday... Anyway he's wakeful! So I had better go and snuggle up next to him and try to get some sleep! Just had to update, because I really should have days ago - sorry!

Will try to update soon! :)

7 weeks, 5 days

Too late to even start a post, but it's Monday in the morning and I know that'll be it for a while, before I'm able to update again! The weeks are so busy! There's stuff I MUST write about, so I will try to be quick. Elijah is due to wake for a feed pretty soon, so we'll see.

My nausea is easing. At first I wasn't concerned about that, I mean, I'm still nauseous. But this is the 4th or 5th day that it's definitely not "bowl-worthy". At first I thought I was just doing a really good job "managing" it more efficiently, having learnt my strengths and weaknesses for this particular pregnancy (which happens around a couple of weeks after it kicks in, usually) - what to eat, what not to eat, when to eat, what subtle signals to recognise and IMMEDIATELY respond to, and in what way, etc. Those things help a bit, either in somewhat easing the symptoms, or at least if that doesn't work they might help the symptoms not continue spiralling any worse.

But hmmm. The evenings are okay. I can eat, and it doesn't take me all evening to pick through a plateful of a quarter of a portion of food that I can barely look at, with endless pauses to pace about hoping I keep what I just ate down. I am forgetting I felt like that - that's how much better it is, and now that I'm noticing the difference it's starting to unnerve me just a little. I would expect this, HOPE for this around the 12 week mark, but at 7 weeks? Hmmm.

The spotting continues, without any days in between now, and yesterday was the heaviest day of spotting so far. It's still only brown, which is old blood, and that is a VERY reassuring sign, I know. But... I am feeling uncomfortable and crampy pretty much all the time. I feel heavy and achy low in the pit of my abdomen, and am aware of "leaky" sensations a lot through the day, and as much as I strive to ignore it and feel confident that it's nothing to worry about (probably), it still does start to just nag at the back of my mind a little, especially with the nausea easing up so much. I am reassured that when I don't eat for a couple of hours, the queasiness that's always present ramps up to really yucky nausea and I can't think of any food to eat because it all makes me feel too horrible. So that's good, then.

Heather reminded me of the contact I had (through her) last pregnancy - the head of community midwifery at the hospital (her title now is Clinical Midwifery Manager, which is a very high-up position at our large local hospital), who - if you remember - made all the consultants go away and ended up coming out to my house and delivering Elijah in the end! :) She's lovely, and a very good friend of Heather's. I contacted her to self-refer this time around, and Heather suggested I call her again since I was getting nowhere with trying to get an early scan without having a GP referral. I had her extension number and also her bleep number, and felt really awkward bleeping her incase she was in the middle of an important meeting (!!) but Heather said she knew she wouldn't mind. And she didn't! :) She said, "Leave it with me, honey, I'll see what I can do!" And voila, a lady who I don't know called me the next day apologising for the delay, and telling me a scan has been arranged for me on Friday this week!! Wow. I am so grateful for wonderful contacts. Such a blessing! :)

So at least I have that to look forward to. I hope everything will be fine. I hope it's just another subchorionic haemmorrhage, like all the other bleeds have been over the years. That would make sense, and if so I am just grateful that I haven't had a heavy red bleed, since that's the usual symptom of one. Sometimes I've had a big bleed that has just "sat" in there and reabsorbed, and I've lost a little of it as brown bleeding or spotting over weeks and weeks. I think I prefer that to suddenly having loads of red bleeding - that's so scary. I hope it's just that, and not that I've lost a twin or something, and that's the reason for the drop in severity of nausea. If I have, I hope that I will see evidence at the scan. I would prefer that than to never know.

Heather is still wanting the scan to confirm either the presence of twins or a singleton. My womb is really palpable, even when I'm sitting up, and I'm wondering perhaps if the achy discomfort might be to do with it being a bit squashed where it is, like I usually have around the 10-12 week mark. But it could just be because my womb is irritated by the bleeding - I have had plenty of experience of that too. It could easily just be that. Friday is less than a week away now, but it feels like a while to wait, even so. I'm nervous, but not scared. I will be going on my own, as usual, because Neil has to stay home to look after the boys. He will take the morning off work for it, though I am not sure his boss will be thrilled. We don't have anyone else who can watch them for us. Heather was going to come with me to my scan but she is being a doula for someone who is having to have a planned caesarean on Thursday, so she'll be away on Friday too.

I want to post the photos of the boys that I used to announce my pregnancy on Facebook, but I might have to do that another time. Everyone has been so nice so far! One lady from the church we used to go to only mentioned the fact that we need to move house, etc, but I asked her if that was code for 'congratulations' which I think got the point across! ;) She congratulated us then! I told a lady at church today that I'm expecting another baby, and she was thrilled and said she would pray that we find somewhere to move soon, so that was nice and positive, and I enjoyed it. :) It's a shame there has to be any caution in approaching people with such wonderous news, that they might not be 100% nice in response... But so far, so good! I haven't approached my grandparents yet, but I plan to do so with a cheerful photocard, congratulating them on their upcoming 10th great-grandchild! ;)

I still haven't taken a belly pic. Must do that soon!

What else, quickly? I have been feeling quite faint or dizzy sometimes, lately. This morning and church I felt so weak and exhausted and faint and weird. Things looked too white and I got worried for a while that I'd have a "moment" or something with a baby in my arms! :S But I didn't, and Elijah fell asleep on my tummy for basically the whole service, and I felt quite a lot better by the end. The children came in early from their groups and handed out potted flowering plants to all the ladies (it's Mothering Sunday (mother's day) today in the UK), and that was lovely! I am such a very very blessed mummy, and so thankful for all my blessings! :)

7 weeks pregnant

I meant to update much earlier than this - it has been almost a week! Frustrating comments and nausea have left me without as much desire or ability to post as usual. And tonight I have to be quick, or as quick as I can be, anyway! ;) I feel really nauseated and just want to go to bed and shut it out.

This week has been a week of probably my worst nausea yet, amongst my previous pregnancies. I think times with Arthur's pregnancy and evenings with Matthew's pregnancy might be similar though. I am SO thankful not to be throwing up. Still keeping the bowls around though! ;)

Several things have happened that I need to make note of! Oh, I forgot to start a belly gallery! I can't believe I forgot! I always start those at 5 weeks, and here I am 7 weeks pregnant without having given it a moment's thought until now! :S I will try to sort that out soon.

I am spotting. I have been spotting for most of the past week, on and off. I will spot for a couple of days and then nothing the next day, and then new spotting again for a couple of days, etc. Right now it's fading off after 2 days. I tried to get an early scan but they insist I have to have a GP referral, and I have good reasons not to approach my GP re. my pregnancy at the moment. I am reassured that it's brown spotting, and not red, and that I've been here and done that with all my other pregnancies (except Samuel's) to some degree or other. Also I feel reeeaaally sick, so that's definitely a good sign! :) So I am planning to hang in there for now. I should get a letter this week from social services to say they have closed the case (at last! It should never have happened!), but I feel better if I wait for that first, to be sure. After that maybe I will go see a doctor that I haven't seen before at the surgery and ask for the referral for a scan. I will feel better seeing what the source of the bleeding is, as always, and also to know for sure what is going on with my little one. Right now I am trusting that all is well, and praying that I do not have any red bleeding, because that would worry me more. I am generally uncomfy and somewhat crampy whenever I spot or bleed during pregnancy - it seems to make my womb irritable - so that isn't the most comforting feeling either.

We told the boys at the weekend! :) They were, predictably, absolutely ecstatic! :) I made a treasure hunt with rhyming clues and wrapped the items that the clues led to, all of which were clues themselves. There were only 4 - a toy with the number 7 on it, a piece of paper saying "October", a framed photo of all 6 boys that we have in our living room, and a Willow Tree figurine of a couple having a cuddle with both of them laying their hands on the pregnant tummy of the woman. :) I videoed the whole process, but it took several minutes and I decided to video it on the smart phone, without realising that it would be a MASSIVE file that would never upload or transfer anywhere due to its size! :( I have managed to get it on my laptop at last, but can't seem to do anything else with it! It's great quality, so maybe I'm going to end up having to do something really lame like video the laptop playing it with my camera, which is much poorer in quality (which is why I didn't use it in the first place! Tsk!). I definitely will share it one way or the other, but it's taking me a while to try and figure it out.

Anyway, they were screaming and jumping up and down, and Matthew went a bit berserk! I was behind the camera, but when they realised and started jumping up and down, I was so overwhelmed (totally didn't expect it!) that I had to blink tears away for quite a while to see through the viewfinder properly! I found it really moving and got very emotional that my children were beside themselves with joy that we were going to have another baby :) Nathan remained the calmest so I asked him afterwards if it was happy news or if it might take a bit of time to get used to, and he looked at me like I was CRAZY and said, "No, it's NICE news! I'm just thinking of ideas for what to call the baby!" :) The boys have chosen the nickname "Crispy" for while the baby is in my tummy and we don't know if it's a boy or a girl, and thus has no name yet. Matthew wanted that when I was pregnant with Samuel, but Arthur had already chosen Cornflake for him, and then when I was pregnant with Elijah, Matthew was thrilled that he would get to use Crispy at last, but after we okayed it, Nathan suddenly said, "What about Sausage?!" and Matthew graciously told him what a great name that was, and said we'd use that instead! :) So I'm really pleased that he gets to use his Crispy at last! Arthur told me that he was so happy that he could barely finish reading the last bit of the poem I wrote that put the clues together and announced the news to them, bless him!

I told Arthur this morning about my morning sickness. I haven't mentioned it to the children otherwise. He said, "Ohhhh, THAT'S why you keep sneaking off to have a snack! And why we haven't been doing school much lately! I hope it carries on for a few more months!" Cheeky! He isn't too cooperative with spelling and maths lessons lately. Sadly for him, later that very morning I pulled out the spelling books and we did a lesson! ;) He did otherwise teach himself the month-by-month climate and natural habitat of the Gobi Desert, along with general knowledge of all the creatures that live there, this morning, so I'd say he's doing fine despite my lack of ability this past week! ;)

So my little Crispy is now about 7mm long! Like a little baked bean! :) At exactly today's gestation, I saw my first baby for the first time. I was bleeding during Arthur's pregnancy, and being new to it, I was sure I was losing my baby. We couldn't see him at all at the first scan, and my follow-up was at 7 weeks exactly. There he was, a beautiful little baked bean with a bright flickering heart! :) Very fitting to call him "Bean" during my pregnancy - that's just who he was! So I know that's what Crispy looks like on ultrasound today. Crispy is busy forming an oesophagus, developing kidneys from the ureteric buds, and growing outer ears! Amazing. He/she already has limb buds which are developing sections (forearm, upper arm, shoulder, hand plate), and his/her brain has already tripled in size in the last couple of days.

I have been able to feel my womb since I first thought to check at 6 weeks and 3 days. I thought I must be crazy at first, and was surely palpating a stool (!) or something instead, haha! ;) But 3 days later I most certainly could feel a proper womb-feeling shape (just the smooth solidness - I can't explain, but I know the feeling of uterus from anything else. It feels muscular), about 3 inches across, just pushing forwards. It doesn't stick out as such, but is easy to find. It's sitting way above my pubic bone - probably comes up just about halfway between my pubic bone and my tummy button, which is reeeeeeeeeeally high for before 7 weeks pregnant! :S Of course immediately everyone's thoughts go to twins, and I guess that's a possibility, but I also wonder if it's normal to be able to feel your womb much sooner and much higher when you have had lots of babies, especially lots of babies close together. Everything is much looser and flopping around in there, lol! ;) So while I am drawn to gently feeling the top of my womb each day, I am slightly baffled while I do so, wondering what (if anything) it means! I'm nervous about twins... I think, "How will I manage?!?!" but I know that God is the only one who can give the gift of twins, and so if He is pleased to do so, He must mean to enable me. Otherwise, I am trying not to jump to conclusions and dwell on that really. I will wait and see if I can get a scan next week. I still haven't heard back from the midwives with my booking appointment and 12-week scan appointment, and I should have heard from them a week ago, so I might chase them up soon. Just in case the self-referral form didn't go through or something awful like that! At 7 weeks, if they haven't received my referral, my hospital will be fully booked and I will be forced to go to a different one. I absolutely can not do that (for many reasons), so I am getting nervous that it didn't go through or something! :S

What else? I told my brother on the phone that we're expecting another baby. He is always pleased for us, and he was this time, but then confided that he was anxious that I would be at greater risk with each baby of "snuffing it" in childbirth like women used to do in the old days when they had lots of babies - bless his sweet heart! He was asking me to consider not having "many more", and then explained his worries. I reassured him with the latest research! :)

I am still dropping hints at Facebook, and enjoying myself very much, hehe! So far, after the ones I mentioned last entry, I have referred to Matthew's 7th birthday, posted a link to an article titled, "7 ways to praise your children for 7 days", talked about Arthur having lost 7 teeth so far, and this photo of my sweet little Samuel - slightly blurred in the background is the framed photo of the boys and the figurine! :)



Today I dropped two hints - the first referred to my school-age children playing upstairs, while the 4 little ones were downstairs with me. Well, I now have 3 school-age children! ;) And the second was just spur-of-the-moment - it's such a beautiful spring day today, the first one this year, and I posted about how lovely it was, and that there were signs of new life everywhere! :)

I am supposed to have the photo that I planned to take, to announce my pregnancy, by now, but I haven't sorted it out yet, so I guess I'll keep dropping little hints! ;) It's fun anyway!

Okay, I feel too sick to carry on, and I need to sleep anyway, but I will update again soon!