[Started late afternoon, finished late evening!] Just a quick post in case I don't feel up to it later. The midwife has been this afternoon, and done my due date antenatal check. Urine was fine, blood pressure was 94/60 (pretty low!) but she said I haven't been drinking enough (true), so I'm trying to drink more now and hopefully it'll come up a little. It's low for me! But low is good. :)
Heather was here for the appointment too, and Neil stayed home and took the boys out to the park as they arrived for the appt. The boys have been a NIGHTMARE today, really really impossible and rude and going out of their way to cause trouble - the older kids more than the younger ones, frustratingly. Urgh.
We've cleaned a bit more in my room, and cleared everything that isn't birth supplies out of the room. I still have to hang the curtains back up that I washed, but otherwise the room is nice and ready for having a baby in! :) I hope everything goes smoothly and that I will have a homebirth. I love having homebirths!
Mandi felt my tummy and immediately commented on how the baby feels like she's grown since last time, which was nice! I do feel like both she and I have had a big growth spurt this past week! My tummy seems so much more round and large just today and yesterday, and I feel awkward moving about in any way, even just getting up from sitting and walking across the room.
Lydia is still head down, and still 3/5 of her head palpable above my pubic bone, so she's nice and stable. She had her back on my right side for the appt and feet pushing out on the left. She does change sides now and then, but is nearly always with her back on my left side and feet pushing out to the right. She IS bigger, but the bump measurement still came out as only 37.5cm (which correlates to the number of weeks pregnant, so the bump measurement is small for my gestation). It has come up from 36cm at 38 weeks though, and we know that she was growing fine at the scan I had then. Her heartrate was 135 to 140, what it has ALWAYS always been every single time I have ever had it checked from about 20 weeks onwards! Such a steady girlie! :)
Then Mandi asked if I wanted to go ahead with the sweep, and I said yes. It wasn't so bad. Heather held my hand, but it didn't really hurt, it was just uncomfortable. I am 2cm dilated, and my cervix is soft but fairly thick still - she wrote 1cm thick in my notes, so there is still some effacing to be done yet. It starts out at about 4cm thick though, so there has been some progress! ;) Mandi said my cervix was favourable enough for a sweep, so I said okay. She checked Lydia's heartrate again afterwards in case the sweep bothered her, but although her little feet were shovelling about a bit, her heartrate was still 135 to 140, so she was happy and unbothered by it! :) Hopefully she'll be this laid-back about labour and birth as well.
So now I wait. Mandi is on call tonight and working tomorrow, but then that's it until Saturday I think. There is a 30-40% chance of a sweep "working" - that is, starting labour within 24 hours. My own personal stats on it are good, but I know it doesn't mean a thing really. I also won't know if any bleeding is a bloody show (exciting!) or just the side-effects of the sweep (UNexciting!). She did mention that there was some blood from the sweep, but that's normal and I may have spotting for a bit today, and I shouldn't worry about it.
Last night I had nosebleeds in the night! I couldn't sleep until crazy late again, and then woke a fair bit, as I was a bit sneezy and allergy-ish. At one point I woke and my nose was itchy so I just instinctively pressed my nostril shut on the itchy side, and then felt this "swill" of hot fluid, so sat up quickly. Yeurgh. I never get nosebleeds that run or pour, in my whole life, except for during Arthur's pregnancy, but that was due to a pregnancy polyp which (very rare!) grew in my nostril and ended up blocking it and needed surgical removal at 36 weeks! It was really prone to bleeding, and I'm suddenly paranoid that another one is growing this time around, however extremely rare it was to have it happen before. There doesn't seem to be anything there though, and I have had little nosebleeds a few weeks ago when I was at the end of a cold and blowing my nose a lot - not running nosebleeds though. It took a while to stop last night, and wasn't very nice, and then I didn't sleep well because I was anxious about how I should lie and trying to make sure nothing put pressure on my nose. I woke a couple of hours later and touched my nose by mistake and the pouring nosebleed started all over again. Weird, and not fun! I was worried that it would be an ongoing problem during labour, but I've been really careful with it today and so far no new bleeding. It's difficult as I'm a bit sneezy and my nose is running a bit (allergy to something or other), but I daren't blow or wipe it! Awkward! :/ Hopefully it'll heal up and I won't have another episode of it tonight (or during labour, whenever that might be). I hate nosebleeds!
Well, it's now really late, and I need to go to bed, so I haven't got time to write any more really. By the boys' bedtime I was really feeling sore in my bump and lower back, and didn't want to move around much at all. I was having Braxton Hicks quite a bit but they hurt - I think because I'm generally sore and aggravated, probably, rather than because they're early labour contractions.
Elijah wouldn't go to sleep tonight. He had his usual nap late morning, and then they went to the park and he fell asleep on the way home (around 5.30pm). If he naps later than 3pm it's ALWAYS bad news for bedtime! He did that last week one day and was up until 10.30pm or something crazy, despite our efforts to get him to sleep. Tonight was different. Once the others were trying to get to sleep around 8pm, he had to go downstairs with Neil so he didn't disturb them. This is usual, but usually he's tired and goes off in Neil's arms while he walks Elijah about to some music. Tonight he cried and screamed and sobbed, REALLY distressed. After I finished putting the others to bed, I came down and gave him a cuddle, took him back up to bed and breastfed him, but he was still wide awake and wanting to climb all over his brothers' beds, so back down we went. He screamed and cried in the same distressed way for a total of about 3 hours straight this evening. It's 11.20pm now and Neil just took him upstairs asleep in his arms (at last) to put him into bed a few minutes ago (hence I can now go online and finish this!). He had snuggles with me on the sofa and various breastfeeds (all of which gave me some good strong Braxton Hicks contractions!), but basically it got too sore for me to continue after a while, or he'd want to get down and wander about and Neil and I are both really tired and couldn't just sit up with him while he played into the night! So we continued with the walking, feeding, etc. to try and settle him. Poor boy cried and screamed until he was nearly sick, but he was always in arms. Not like him... We turned all the lights off in the house eventually and walked him in the dark kitchen while the tumble dryer was running. It's like being back in the newborn colic days with him tonight - he seems okay in himself, just distressed about the sleep thing tonight. Maybe it's relevant to pre-labour things - that's why I'm writing about it. I remember after my sweep with Samuel, Benjamin spent most of the night crying, waking frequently and wanting me all night long. I couldn't go to him because I was back and forth to the loo with diarrhoea and other such lovely pre-labour fun! ;) I am hoping for none of that this time!
I did feel like my bowel was very uncomfy along with the general post-sweep discomfort and such, and went to the loo in the end this evening, and now I feel less uncomfy in that department, so that's good. I really need to get some sleep now, as I'm tired out. I have a sinking feeling about tomorrow, that I'll wake in the morning with a quiet womb (been there, done that!), and Neil will go to work, and my kids will be impossible to manage, and Elijah will be sleep deprived to a crazy degree, and I'll still feel really uncomfy and exhausted... Not sure how much I want to take part in that day, right now! :/ Plus it's always so discouraging when a sweep doesn't work, especially if there's a big reason (like Heather only being around for a few more days!!!).
Ah well. My nose still feels funny and "delicate" like I still need to be careful or it'll bleed again. It was horrid last night, so I'm really hoping for a nosebleed-free night tonight. I'm going to bed now, and will update tomorrow, no doubt - whatever happens! :)
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