Archive for the 'Pregnancy' Category
No, not that one 
! But there is a treasured new arrival in this house tonight - OtherHalf has a new laptop. I don’t expect him to emerge from its clasps for the next few hours…
hmmm…. days…
…weeks…?!?!
On the topic of the other baby (because I seem to be unable to talk about anything else these days), the day after I posted last provided me with a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’, as I sat through over an hour of contractions every 2-5 minutes or so. These turned out to be ‘just’ Braxton-Hicks contractions, but whoever said those are painless was obviously of the male persuasion! To distract myself, I took it upon myself to ruin Finn’s life:
I think this may be the last haircut I give him - he’s old enough now to be slightly embarrassed by Mum’s efforts
May 22 2006 | Family and Pregnancy | 2 Comments »
Once upon a time this was a stitching blog, really it was. There’s not been much of that particular activity going on for a while, I fear. My day goes somewhat like this: get up, have breakfast, potter about for a while, do dishes, laundry, whatever, make lunch, eat lunch… collapse in a pile! I sleep on the couch for a while as Finn plays Sesame Street or similar on my laptop, then we kind of muddle through the afternoon with some boardgames/ books/ visiting friends/ grocery shopping, I struggle to come up with something vaguely resembling food for dinner, eat, then collapse in a pile again for the rest of the evening! So you see, today’s title was about the most I could come up with, given my current stores of energy.
It’s really quite surreal at the moment. When I run into people who haven’t seen me for a bit, they invariably feel the need to point out
A) how enormous my belly is, and
B) that I appear to have lost weight
which, you would think, should be mutually exclusive, but apparently are not. I have not so much lost weight, as transferred it all into my uterus! After losing about 3kg post-GD-diagnosis, I am now only 3kg more than my pre-pregnancy weight. 3kg, I’m sure you could figure out, is all (plus more) taken up by Small+placenta+fluid+etc. So, in fact, a net loss for me, yay! My face, arms, legs, backside, even breasts, are all melting into my belly. Bizzarro!
Anyway, despite the fact that I’m around the same weight, I feel ginormous, and I’m hopelessly clumsy. I had to stop regular walking due to fear of injury - I fell down a couple of steps the other day, and I seem to regularly be straining my abdominal muscles. I bought an uber-cheap and uber-crappy stationary bike instead, and so far we are getting along just fine.
In other Small-news, her scheduled birthday has been pushed back two days from June 20 to June 22. I don’t actually know why, I received this information via my answering machine, so I’ll have to ask the doctor next Thursday. My suspicion is that the hospital has just changed their regular surgery day from Tuesday to Thursday. Anyway, while my first thought should have been “great, an extra 2 days to possibly result in a normal birth…”, my first thought was actually “not another two whole days, please, no…”! But yes, the extra two days may well be useful. That brings me to 40 weeks + 2 days for the scheduled c-section - I’m actually really surprised they didn’t bring it back in the other direction. Anyway, pretty soon I’ll be requesting all the “go into labour” vibes and old-wives-tales you can spare
May 18 2006 | Family and Pregnancy | 1 Comment »
I haven’t been here lately because I have been in an utterly foul mood, and I didn’t want to say something I might later regret! I’d like to go ahead and blame it all on the hormones, if I may I don’t remember being so pissy when I was pregnant with Finn, but for the last two weeks, I have felt like I’ve had permanent PMT. Not good. Pity the fools who cut me off on the road! (Ummm, before you go ahead and flame me, I am actually doing my very best not to taint my child with bad language, so I just let my road rage simmer). But that guy - that one in the shopping centre the other day who stood in front of my shopping trolley (which was, at 5pm, being pushed by an equally irritable 3 year old) to ask if I’d participate in somesurveyorother - after he had just seen me decline the offer (politely) from his colleague, not 3 metres away… don’t pity him 
He deserved far more than the black scowl he got. I mean - looking like I did that day, in my daggiest tracksuit and unwashed hair, with my enormous belly weighing me down… did he really think I was just hankering to get my teeth into some marketing research? Yeah. Right.
You get the idea. So I’m staying away until I have something slightly better to report. Hopefully that will include a couple of exchange happy dances - once they arrive at their destinations, anyway.
Later edit: I just realised. It just hit me right out of the blue - the reason I was probably not so cranky last pregnancy was because I was allowed to eat sugar! I was no doubt getting cranky, but bingeing it away with good stuff like Tim Tams! Damn!
May 10 2006 | Family and Pregnancy | 1 Comment »
I didn’t even do any of the physical ’stuff’, but after six days of living amongst chaos, I am completely exhausted. I just wanted to check in and say all is well, the major construction works are done. Works slow to a crawl now, as the patching, painting and tiling are all up to OtherHalf and I, so don’t expect them to be finished in a hurry But the kitchen/living area is already a much better place to be, so I’m happy.
I am also very happy about the state of Things Gestational. She’s not breech! We have one head-down, bum-up baby, which is wonderful news. I tentatively drafted a post two days ago in which I speculated that might be the case, but I decided not to tempt fate, and wait until today’s growth scan. Words like ‘perfect’ and ‘beautiful’ were murmured by the sonographer (wheee!), and the growth estimate puts Small at just above average - as in, not ginormous Combined with a BP of 110/80 last week, and great blood glucose levels for the last three weeks, things are at last looking smooth (touchwood-touchwood-touchwood!). If only it weren’t for that darned 40-week deadline. We shall see… I’m through making any predictions with this one!
May 03 2006 | Family and Pregnancy | 3 Comments »
The Hiccup Stuff
Or more accurately, the hiccoughs. They have started. Finn hiccoughed in utero for about the last two months. (Didn’t stop for about a month afterwards, either). Looks like Small will be following suit. I think it’s so cute! Much cuter than my abdominal bits are feeling and looking lately, anyway.
The Wall Stuff
The Wall, it comes down this weekend. Be afraid. Be very afraid. You know, I’d really like to take Before and After photographs, I would. If only I could get the kitchen and living areas clean enough to do so first! (Actually, I’ll probably have to, since the tearing down of said wall will necessitate some tidiness, after all).
The Dyeing Stuff
#1 - I’m very sad at the loss of my dyeing space, due to Wall-goings-on and the rest of the kitchen ‘rearrangement’. Am going to see if I can manage enough space in our stupid tiny laundry area to set up, but it may well be that my dyes go away for the forseeable future.
#2 - Hoping to squeeze this in before packing the dye-bits’n'pices away. Mum gave me some yarn to try dyeing. I picked up a couple of Landscape dyes (easy-peasy no-extra-acids-needed wool dyes) from Kraftkolour on the day they were closing their doors (sob! They went mail order only, how sad). So I’m going to try a couple of vareigated yarns. I don’t really knit - I can manage a scarf or a cushion though, so I’ll let you know how it turns out.
#3 - Also on the dyeing, I just wanted to remind those of you who’ve bought some floss that you probably should rinse it in cool/lukewarm water prior to stitching with it. I do rinse fairly extensively after dyeing, but there is always a chance of some excess dye left clinging. I’ll add this suggestion into my sale page shortly.
The Employment Stuff
You may remember a bit ago I decided not to take on the offer of a job, as documented here? Well, my lecturer has come back to me with a modified offer - would I like to do some marking? This can (mostly) be done from home, and it won’t begin at the very start of semester, so Small should be 2-3 months by the time I start. I said yes, I’m interested. I’m probably going to slap myself later - my university is not renowned for its generosity s’far as remuneration is concerned. Nor does the time allotted to mark assignments come anywhere close to the actual time that marking takes. But… I figure, it keeps my brain alive, keeps my toe in the water. It could be a good experience.
The Stitching Stuff
Um… no 
Must try harder.
Meep. Where does the time go? Finn has been at kinder all morning and I have acheived nothing. Zero. Zip. Nada. Except a very ordinary blog post. Sigh.
April 26 2006 | Dyeworks and Family and General Ramblings and Other Craft and Pregnancy | 2 Comments »
I knew it was going to be difficult raising a girl… but I had no idea she would be causing so much trouble so soon
So intent is Small on defying her mother’s wishes for a ‘normal’ delivery (note I’m just talking about the exit-location here - I’m totally pro-drugs!) that she is taking nothing for granted. Let’s examine the facts:
1. One previous C-section - this already stands me in good stead for a second surgical delivery. My hospital of choice is not anti-VBAC, but their policy states subsequent pregnancies should not progress further than 41 weeks, and, most importantly, no chemical inductions will be performed. I understand the reasoning for this, I do (these drugs are associated with a higher risk of uterine rupture at the previous scar site). But this one factor plays a big part in this whole situation.
2. Blood pressure ‘issues’ - currently my blood pressure has been at normal levels for about 5 weeks. This is good. However the increased BP might make a reappearance. If I do develop pre-eclampsia, making it necessary to deliver early, no chemical induction… so, straight to caesarian.
3. Gestational diabetes - currently under good control - I was not placed on insulin, the few high readings I recorded earlier in the piece were attributed to a ‘learning curve’, and all is OK on this front so far. But simply having this diagnosis means my time-limit is now 40 weeks. No GD patient will be allowed to progress past this point. Again, hospital policy. Again… no chemical induction.
These three factors considered are enough to make you (and me) fairly confident that I won’t be having a normal delivery. However, clutching at straws, I’ve requested a ’stretch and sweep’ - kind of a ‘manual’ induction, if you like. Just to see if I can go into labor at all. (As I doubt I would go into labor naturally before 40 weeks - I was late with Finn). They have consented to do this… at 38 weeks. That early, it probably won’t make an iota of difference. Grrr.
Anyway, just in case all of this wasn’t quite enough, there’s a 4. Wait… you’re gonna love this. I did. (I think I’ve finally reached the point of a slightly resigned ‘what next…?’)
4. She’s breech.
Ahahahahaha….. hmmmm….
(Petulant child)
We’re booked for a June 20 (surgical) birth-date. Nine weeks tomorrow… and counting 
April 17 2006 | Family and Pregnancy | 8 Comments »
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