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Sunday, February 29, 2004
When I turned up for my checkup on Friday the clinic was all in a fluster as a baby had just that minute been born! How exciting. And the girl who'd been in our 'class' last weekend had hers last week too. I must be next!
After my checkup I had an hour of reflexology, which was just fabulous. Why have I never had it before? She took quite a thorough medical history then settled down with my feet (oddly, one of the questions was whether I'm a cat person or a dog person but I think this was after the history-taking and into the chit chat. I think). She exclaimed over the narrowness of my feet and wondered whether I had problems balancing - did I fall over very often (it really was very entertaining!) After a while my hands started to tingle so I sat up - she said it is very normal and to do with the energy starting to flow around. Weird. Anyway, the upshot was that I have a very stiff back (I know, I know. I am just stiff, always have been) and I'm going back to see her next week to try and loosen that. It is a big baby, as revealed by my feet (my midwife also says it's a big baby, though I am not clear in either case whether they mean big for me or big compared with a japanese baby. Oh, the midwife also said she thought it was a boy but then backpedalled swiftly saying "50% chance"!) And she thinks it will come a few days before its due date - probably the 7th! (Which would be very convenient, being a weekend) Except that my stiffness might delay it a few days more. My midwife thnnks it's coming around the due date too. Eek - not long to go and that cot has still not arrived! Oh and she wondered whether I or anyone in my family had smoked because my lung area is a funny colour. I think that might be my shoes...(wonder where my lung area is?!) My dad thinks I might have stood in something nasty... Tuesday, February 24, 2004
38 weeks
Did somebody say nesting instinct? You stay still long enough, you're going in the washing machine! It's very odd though - I can stand back and know I am behaving erratically but can't do anything about it. I have a list of jobs I really want to do but that doesn't stop me, for example, putting the kettle through the dishwasher. From the garbled telephone conversation I had today (fedex man: can I speak in Japanese? Me: No) I think my cot should arrive tomorrow. Hooray! That is top on my list of things to do before the baby can arrive [haircut - check. Return of the king - check. Aunty - check (oh if any of you don't read turquoise you should know that my niece arrived on Sunday). Cot, bags packed, photos in albums - not yet. I have filled the freezer to bursting point too but that isn't stopping me continuing to cook. We might get scurvy but we won't starve.] At the pregnancy group this morning I was sitting next to a girl who was bemoaning the fact that she's developed a sweet tooth since starting her third trimester. So have I! I exclaimed (having lost mine entirely for 6 months or so). Well, she clearly doesn't know a sweet tooth from a hole in the ground as she said she'd bought a box of after eights and had one a day; she'd had the occasional square from a chocolate bar, and had eaten two chocolate-chip cookies in one morning! I see her sweet tooth and raise her whole packets and tubs of lovely sweet things. Thursday, February 19, 2004
arg!
Wel I may not have gone in for all that first-trimester puking and what have you but one symptom I have in far more than my fair share. My books all warned that I might get grumpy and irritable in the last month and have I ever! Don't mess with me...especially don't ask if I (or my sister) have had the baby yet. I guarantee I won't forget to mention it when it happens, OK?! Tuesday, February 17, 2004
37 weeks
Officially full-term. Meaning the baby has 5 weeks to get itself out before they start threatening to do nasty things with drips and needles. We're going to see the return of the king this evening, after which it can come any time it likes as far as I'm concerned. Obviously it would be nice if I had a chance to enjoy a bit of my leave first, and if the cot arrived before the baby, but it's not important. I'm not sure I'm nesting exactly - isn't that supposed to be a compulsion? - but I am on a one-room-a-day programme of tidying and sorting (and throwing away). Chucked out all our out-of-date medicines yesterday which was quite satisfying. Of course I am starting with the small, easy rooms! Two bathrooms and the spare room done to date. Nothing else to report. The midwife said everything was just fine yesterday (and I'd lost 0.5 kg which was a bit of a bonus!) but that I'm not to put on any more weight now. No food after dinner in the evenings - not even any fruit and definitely no sugar. A warm drink is OK (I'm categorising cocoa as a warm drink not as sugar. And you can't have cocoa without a biccie, it wouldn't be right). Monday, February 09, 2004
I had my last fortnightly checkup this morning, will now have to trek to the clinic once a week. It's due a month today! A quiet day meant that I had my feet massaged simultaneously by two midwives; I could definitely get used to this treatment. I was a bit disgruntled to see I'd put on nearly 2 kg in the past fortnight (but am consoling myself with the thought that I only put on a few hundred grams the fortnight before that. I am now heavier than most of Cameron's colleagues though. By the way, if any of them are reading this: no he is not a batchelor* just because I am about to have a baby, and if you try to persuade him otherwise I will come and sit on you!)
I asked what I should pack in my bag and was given a leaflet all in difficult Japanese...but our teacher is coming tonight so Cameron will just have to hold off on the advanced grammar while I have 'towel, nighty, toothbrush' translated. Baby is still curled in the same position as last time (it must know when we're going to the clinic and line itself up because I'm sure it was the other way round a few days ago). Oh and Kai-san (the midwife) thinks that Western women are warmer than Japanese women, probably because we have a better metabolism - and this is a good thing. So we can all feel smug, girls. I also made a quick expedition to the baby shop in the hope that the moses-basket stand would be in. They did have one but it stood all of 6 inches off the floor. Not much use then. And they have no sheets large enough for my cot. Pah. *Japanese women traditionally go back to their mothers when they have their babies and their husbands are officially batchelors for the duration. I might have told you before, in which case I apologise, but one of my favourite stories is one of Cameron's friends who, when asked (nudge nudge) what he was up to as a batchelor shyly confessed to taking his motorbike apart in the kitchen! Wednesday, February 04, 2004
35 weeks (and one day)
And I'm beginning to feel like I'm done. My belly button popped out sometime when I wasn't looking in the last few days (euw) and I think things are starting to move south as the pressure is definitely more on my bladder than my ribs again. Oh, and I have stopped sleeping; I can't even drop off on the sofa in the afternoon, which is most unlike me. We're nearly done with shopping too - my parcel of nappies arrived yesterday and, Kavitha, I know I said I wouldn't get excited about something silly like nappies but really they are cute! Pastel shades and all soft (even Cameron said they were like teddy bears). And I have finally made a decision about a cot, which is on order and should reach us in 2 weeks or so (we won't talk about postage costs). Then all I need is sheets and blankets for said cot and I think we're set! |
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