So much to say, but no time! I am tired out, and it's nearly 11pm. I am trying to listen to my body more and rest, but I'm not very good at it!
I have had 2 scans since I last updated - one at 34 weeks because my routine midwife appointment gave the midwife concern that maybe Rosalie was on the small side, as my bump measured 33 weeks (really not something that concerned me at ALL, but they seem a bit paranoid here about my baby's growth, so hey ho). I went in the next day, and she was fine - measuring pretty much spot on. They estimated her weight as 5lbs 1.5oz at 34 weeks. Her tummy was the biggest for dates, and her little leggies shorter than her dates, bless her! :) I do have some children with my short legs, so it looks like Rosalie is another of them! :)
Then I had my 38 week appointment (all of these are at home, as I am under the homebirth team and they only do things at home, yay!), and everything was fine, my bump measured 38 weeks, and the baby was 4/5 palpable (starting to engage, which is good/unusual for an 8th baby), but she couldn't be 100% sure that she was head down. Because she didn't want me to go into labour and THEN have a query over the baby's presentation, she sent me for a scan on Christmas Eve, late in the afternoon. Neil worked from home, thankfully, so I could go, and honestly I think it was just about God providing me with my hubby close to home on Christmas Eve, without a 2 hour drive back! I was already stressing about the chaos of organising overly excited children for some nice Christmas Eve traditions and stockings and all that, without Neil home from work yet! But, because he worked from home and they let everyone off at 2pm, it was as though he had the day off by the time that time of day rolled around! :) Slightly frustrating to have to be away at the hospital having a scan close to stocking-hanging time, but never mind!
Of course she is head down. :) Her tummy is the biggest-for-dates measurement as before, measuring 39 weeks! :) Her leggies measure 37 weeks, and her head, which was 35 weeks last time (at 34 weeks gestation) measured 36 weeks this time... They wanted to double check, but it was the same, and they said everything was fine... I hope it is! :/ They estimated her weight on Christmas Eve as 6lbs 9oz, which is lovely! :) Now I hope she won't take until 41 weeks to arrive (which she very well could), because I would love her to be 7.5lbs or less! I love teensy babies, and she has some sweet little hand-me-downs from Lydia that she won't fit if she's over 8lbs! ;)
I have gained a LOT of weight this pregnancy! More like my earlier ones. I now weigh 12 stone 5lbs, which is something like exactly 4 stone from my pre-pregnancy weight (I *think* I was 8 stone 5lbs, but I can't remember if I was 8 stone 7lbs... I think it was 5...). That's 56lbs, people!!!!! That's what I gained with my first two or 3 pregnancies, and at least one other (Samuel??). I didn't gain as much with Elijah or Lydia, but I was at my lowest pre-pregnancy weight before this baby, and frankly I don't think 8 stone and 5lbs was good on me. I need to be a bit heavier, but I had health issues and lost too much weight, in my opinion. So maybe I needed to gain more this time? I hope I don't lose too much too fast again after this baby. I look and feel better when I am between 8.5 and 9 stone, I think. So yeah, big weight gain this time! ;) I don't caaaaaare! :D It's all in a good cause and it'll fall off. Not straight away, but most definitely after a while, and then I can't stop it once it starts, even when I want to. Right now the down side is feeling very huffy and weighty when getting about. My thighs are huge, and I have more chins than I used to have! :P Getting upstairs is pretty exhausting, but other than all that I really don't care one bit about how much weight I've gained. It's great for my upcoming milk supply! :)
My haemoglobin levels are fine, and have remained fine at various checks, but my iron stores (ferritin) were low when I asked them to check at 28 weeks - at 14. I got my results back at 34 weeks from the re-check, that they had DROPPED to 10!! :( That was a bummer because I had been supplementing with Floradix, so I couldn't understand why they had gone down. It explains my exhaustion and ringing ears, dizziness, and breathlessness that I'd been putting down to "just pregnancy". Also I learned that I probably have had very low iron stores for many years, with back to back pregnancies and bleeds and so on. I was put on proton pump inhibitors (omeprazole) for 2 years for GERD, which I took myself off last year, when I was feeling so unwell all the time. I haven't had GERD trouble since really, but since then I have learned how much those drugs mess you up! They prevent iron absorption (amongst many other things), so I probably have not been able to absorb whatever iron I was getting in my diet anyway, along with many reasons that my iron stores were being depleted as well. I hope that now I'm off the PPIs that I'm absorbing iron again, but I'm not so encouraged by the drop in my ferritin levels even with natural supplements... The baby is taking more iron from me than ever before in my 3rd trimester, so it could just be that what I'm getting is going straight to the baby and then some, at the moment. The doctor wanted to put me on iron tablets, but my bowel and general digestive tract is not a cheerful part of my body at any time (!!) and the side effects from those tablets can be horrible. I decided not to take them. If I was anaemic with low haemoglobin, I would take them and hope it didn't do a number on my bowel, but since I'm not, I decided to double my Floradix AND take a double dose of Spatone daily, which is something I haven't tried before. It's spring water with a very high natural iron level. The only thing is, I have been really poor at remembering to take it since I started! :/ So it hasn't been consistent at all. I am trying to eat red meat 3-4 times a week minimum, and not take calcium with it, make sure I have vitamin C with it, etc. I'm hoping it's coming up, but I will keep taking as much iron as I can naturally well beyond the birth, so hopefully it'll rise if it hasn't already. I think the midwife will test my blood again before I'm discharged, maybe even before Rosalie is born... So we'll see. My Vitamin D levels were great though! :) First time in years for that, so yay! :)
The week before Christmas, I had some crazy strong Braxton Hicks contractions that were very regular, every 5 minutes for a couple of hours, and many of them painful. The ones that weren't were unpleasantly tight and very distracting. I didn't want the children around me, and it reminded me all too much of the start of Lydia's labour. It was late in the day so Neil was home part-way through, so at least that wasn't a stress. Eventually I decided that no way was I ready to have a baby yet (Samuel's birthday was like two days away, lol!) with so much to do, so I got stuck into the bedtime routine with the children, and the contractions gradually faded out, thankfully! I SO did not want to have a baby before Christmas! Especially right on top of Samuel's birthday. His birthday has been so stressful to prepare, AGAIN - every year it is. I don't seem to cope too well with a birthday so close to Christmas, and the thought of adding another one was suddenly overwhelming! I'm SO relieved to have both his birthday and Christmas out of the way at last. I don't want Rosalie to arrive too close AFTER Christmas either, because I think it's going to be nicer for her to have a birthday that's separated from Christmas a bit. I am hoping to go to my due date or a day or so later, but then NO FURTHER, lol! Because Nathan's birthday is Jan 12th and I like my sanity gaps between preparing big family events! ;)
Since that contract-y evening, I have had some evenings of very strong Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing as regular as that first one. I also thought I was getting a dental abscess after 3 days of a really sore gum at the back, which developed like a blister-type-thing on top on Samuel's birthday (the 21st). So the next day I went to the dentist and he said no abscess. :) It's much better now, so I guess it was just gum irritation like he said. After my appointment I went into town to do some last minute Christmas shopping, which I would otherwise NEVER get the chance to do alone. People stared at me everywhere I went, lol! I guess I am looking VERY pregnant now! ;) My bump is big, and also very low (like I usually carry). I must have looked ready to give birth right then and there in the shopping mall! ;)
Anyway, not being used to walking for any extended period of time, I pretty much had contractions and back pain for the rest of the day. Also Rosalie was SO quiet, I was getting nervous. I hardly felt her move at all, and when I poked her knee, she at least responded but it was just to lift it up slightly and then put it back again. After a whole afternoon, I was about ready to call the midwife. I had already tried orange juice and lying down, and so on. All of a sudden she seemed to wake up and move more normally, so I don't know what that was about. My midwife came the next day anyway and she was fine and wiggly then, with some hiccups too, and fine again at the scan, so... She has been quiet this morning, making me nervous, but wiggly and active ever since. She seems to be completely out of space in there right now. All her movements are squirms or slight part-way stretches of one leg, etc. She really doesn't move vigorously at all like she used to, and it makes me so nervous! I have counted the times she's moved since I got up this morning and so far she had 10 different sessions of movements, so I guess she's fine and I need to stop getting frantic about it!
I lost a little bit of mucus plug the day after my Braxton Hicksy evening, nothing since then until this morning I had a tiny bit more when I wiped. NOT blood-stained so it doesn't really mean a lot, other than my cervix is maybe possibly thinning out a little bit. The midwife said with all the contractions I've been having, and it being my 8th baby, I am to text her the MINUTE I think it's the real deal, lol! She lives in the next road and will be right over! ;) The only thing is, my midwife only works 3 days a week, and even then she is going on annual leave from right before my due date to 6 days AFTER my due date! :( I am sure she won't be around when I do go into labour, and I don't know anyone else from the midwife team! I won't have Heather with me. :( She is finally starting to feel better since the week before Christmas but she has made it clear that she can't be a doula for me this time. I am so sad and anxious about it, but I can't really tell her that. I have asked my best friend from school to come and hold my hand. I haven't seen her since Arthur was a baby, and before that, not for close to a decade, so we haven't really kept in touch much outside of Facebook. BUT she was always the most steadying influence for me, especially with my tendencies to be anxious about everything. She hasn't had children and has never been at a birth, and is worried that she won't be any use, but I know my body and my labours, and I told her I just need someone WITH me, to hold my hand through the hard contractions, etc. Neil will be doing the childcare, or could be needed at any moment, so I need someone like a doula who will be 100% dedicated to being by my side at all times, just so I have that security to look forward to. If I have to go into hospital, then I would want someone with me, and it wouldn't be Neil because he would have to stay home with the kids. I wish SO MUCH that Heather could be okay and come to be with me... My friend Katy lives just over an hour away from me by car, and she said she is on annual leave from my due date for a week, which is perfect really. She's willing, although she would need 2 hours notice to get to me, and I hope that I would have enough time... I tend to be in denial for AGES in early labour, that I'm actually IN labour, so would have a hard time deciding to call her until I was sure, and by then I think 2 hours might be too long....
Anyway. I am praying it all goes smoothly. I am getting nervy about the actual process of getting Rosalie into my arms! It's so hard to bear the hard stage of labour and the actual pushing stage is overwhelming, but OH SO WORTH IT!!! I can't WAIT to hold her and have her actually here in my arms at last, but I'm apprehensive, shall we say, about the slight hurdle of getting her here! ;)
Okay, I absolutely have to go to bed! I tend to do better at updating here in the last days of my pregnancies, so hopefully I'll update again much much sooner. I am 39 weeks pregnant tomorrow (only 8 days to go, today!!!) and it's absolutely surreal to have arrived at the very end of my pregnancy already! So blessed to be ripe with child, with a lovely round tummy and a wiggly new life on the inside, and I know that maybe this is my last chance to experience it. I am not in a hurry to get any of this wonderous privilege over with, even though I am looking forward to meeting my baby girl so very much. It's such a blessing, and really way too fleeting!