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Thursday 28 July 2011

40w2d

Dear Belly Bump,

Very soon you will no longer be there when I look down. I have treasured these last nine months of pregnancy. I love resting my hand on my bump and feeling the wiggles inside. I loved the chance to buy a whole new wardrobe to show you off to the world. I love the feeling of being pregnant, of growing life inside me. Though it has sometimes been disturbing to see my body change so dramatically, I feel so truly lucky to have had this experience.

I think that soon I will have a very lonely belly. But a very full heart.

Tuesday 26 July 2011

40w0d: Due date

According to Franz Naegele's 1812 calculations, today is my due date. It has been 266 days since conception.

I can still feel the little guy wiggling around inside, but no painful contractions or other signs of labour.

My docgtor says that as my gestational diabetes is under control, she won't induce for another 10 days. So we still don't know if he'll be a July or August baby.

Truth be told, I'm a bit terrified of the next stage. Not so much the birth, but the whole being responsible for a new human being thing. It seems like such a huge responsibility, and I've never even held a newborn before. Now I'm supposed to be a mother? There are so many unknowns - soothing, breastfeeding, playing, nurturing...

After everything we've gone through, I really hope that I'm good at this.

New bump photos here.

Tuesday 19 July 2011

39w0d: Full term

Still pregnant, no signs of labour yet. Feeling so thankful that we have made it so far with relatively few problems.

My maternity leave started today, and as I can barely walk for 5 minutes without discomfort, I am spending a great deal of time on the couch.

I have another fetal monitoring session tomorrow - 30 minutes of listening to the heartbeat and watching my painless Braxton-Hicks contractions that are coming every 10 minutes or so.

We have a big, posterior baby, so labour is not going to be short or easy. I am planning on taking as many drugs as possible to get me through.

All in all, very happy and thankful, still in disbelief that a child will be joining our family and we are soon to be parents. We both feel that it is much more likely that I will just remain pregnant forever.