Monday before last, I was drying my hair after the shower when the bathroom filled with little bright flashes, like fireflys.  I didn't think that was a good thing, so rang the hospital to ask about it.  They said to come on in, but didn't sound too worried, so I drove myself out, and only paid for an hours parking.  
Silly me, I had a blood pressure of 160/100 and edema (swelling) and so I wasn't going anywhere.  That was the bad news, the good news was that my blood work showed that my liver and kidneys were still happy with life and I wasn't spilling protien in my urine.  
I spent Monday night in the hospital, my blood pressure came down and since I didn't have pre-eclampsia, they let me go home on Tuesday.
The next Thursday saw me back at the hospital, early in the morning as I had seen my pulse with my vision getting lighter and darker.  Blood pressure 150/86, edema, bub perfectly fine, liver and kidneys still content with life, home after 6 hours with my pressure down to about 135/86.
All this meant a change in our Christmas plans.  We had been going to Newcastle to spend it with Mr b^3 parents, but we didn't want to have the possiblity of something going wrong a long way from our favourite hospital. (See alittlepregnant for what happens when one goes away and ignores pre-eclampsia symptoms).  So we had a quiet Christmas at home, my parents came over for dinner.  Bracketing Christmas are regular trips to the hospital for monitoring of bub and I.  My pressure was down to 128/76 yesterday, almost back to my baseline, so maybe this hallabaloo is almost over.
There's lots of talk over the importance of giving birth in a familiar enviroment.  I have seen that much of the birth suite and maternity ward over the past week and a half, that it really is a familiar enviroment now. 

31 Weeks 4 days

I made it! Graduation was yesterday and I now have a Bachelor of Science with majors in maths and computer science. Me, a maths major, who'd believe it? Well a lot of people now that I have the piece of paper to prove it. Back six years ago when I started this I might have believed that it was possible but with maths having been my downfall so many times it now seems incredible.
Now there can't be a photo of me without including the belly, so here's bub and I, 31 weeks and 3 days. We had another event during the graduation, bub got the hiccups for the first time, right in the middle.

Ouch

Bub has found my ribs.  Nuf' said. 


Fun when you're driving too.  At least it means bub is the right way around and not transverse anymore.

Photos, evidence of progress.

Firstly baby progress, this photo was taken at 29 weeks, 5 days. The bump is really getting somewhere now. The thing that really gets me is that I have another 2 months to go, bub has to a bit more than double in size between now and then. I'm going to be huge! Not that I mind much, I love my bump and I seem to have hit on a clothes pattern that really suits me, I feel prettier than I have in a while.
This is what our dining table looks like these days. I can clear some space in the middle for us to eat if I have to, but mostly it's my work space these days. On the right you can see the snap press that I borrow. Mr b^3 managed to pull a muscle helping me to put snaps on the nappies, it takes a bit of force to use, but it beats using a hammer hands down. On the right is the binder that I keep all of my children's patterns in. I have separate binders for different categories of patterns with each pattern piece in a separate plastic sleeve. This is one of the few areas of my life where I am super organised but if I weren't, my patterns would get destroyed so it's well worth the extra effort.
A nappy! Finished! Look at those snaps, the bright colours, the well set elastic, all in a tiny newborn size.
32 finished nappies, oh yes, oh my! All washed and ready to be put away. I was beginning to get sick of them by the end, but they're all done. Half are a newborn size and the other half are the next size up so I should have enough to last until the bub is at least 6 months old. I still need to make stuffers for them but I'm still mulling over what would be best for that.
I did have a photo of the clothes I've made but that didn't seem to make it. To cross of the list are 4 short t-shirts, 1 long t-shirt, 2 short onsies and 1 short pair of overalls.

It's almost 33 degrees outside and it's only 11.30 am. I'm beginning to appreciate the particular conditions of being this pregnant though the summer - flake out, keep hydrated and try to get through. Fortunately I get the splint off my finger tomorrow and I can go swimming after that, I can't wait.

Sewing

Yesterday I finished as much nappy sewing as I can do until I next can borrow a snap press from a friend.  Just in time, I was begining to get sick of them.  I've mostly finished 28 nappies with only another 5 to go when the press comes my way again.  This means I can move to the next lot of sewing to do - baby clothes.  I'm planning to make in the smallest sizes 
-3 short overalls
-1 long overalls
-4 short envelope t-shirts
-2 long envelope t-shirts
-4 short onsies
-2 long onsies
The pattern I have for the t-shirst and overalls seems pretty roomy, even in the XXS newborn size, whereas the onsies pattern looks smaller so I'll make more of them in the larger sizes.  The larger stuff will also have to balance out winter coming.  I'm guesstimating how much we'll need of everything, but hopefully it will be enough.  Thus far I have one pair of short overalls made this morning.

Ironing beckons for my afternoon activities, but first I'm off to pre-natal yoga.

The busy weekend that wasn't

This weekend looked packed, all booked out weeks ago.  Baby classes all day Saturday, a Christmas party Saturday night that we weren't sure we could go to, church for a friend's baby's dedication Sunday morning, followed by a barbeque, then knitting, then church again in the evening because we were on for supper.  It didn't quite work out like that though.

We fronted up for the baby class at the hospital Saturday morning but ended up leaving halfway through because Mr b^3 was feeling really sick.  A combination of flickering fluro's and sitting next to a heavy smoker did him in and we couldn't stay.  We did get what we wanted to know out of it though - when to go to the hospital and what the birthing suite looked like.

This meant we were rested enough to make it to the christmas party, but left that early because it was almost my bed time.

Sunday morning we made it to the church, but couldn't make it though the front door because Mr b^3 had a reaction to the perfume that all the old ladies at morning service seem to drench themselves in.  This led to skipping the barbeque and then we found out that knitting was canceled this week.  We actually ended up having nothing to do Sunday afternoon and trying to kill time until church.

My leg seems to be getting worse as bub gets heavier.  It's starting to ache if I'm up for more than about 10 minutes.  Yesterday for the first time I got sharp pain as well as the ache and numbness.  I can almost never sense temperature and it always feels a little numb no matter what I do.  Sleeping all night on my right to take bub's weight off the nerve relieves it for a bit, but it's bad again by nightfall.  I'm going to make an appointment with the GP today to see if there's anything else I can to to relieve it.

Healing up

I haven't posted in a while because typing one handed is a pain when you're used to touch typing.  
So, how am I?  I had the wire that was holding my finger together taken out on Wednesday.  They don't use anesthetic for that!  One of the wierdest things to feel something coming out of your bone, didn't hurt to much though.  I still have a splint on the finger that won't come off for another two weeks, but I've gotten the rest of my hand back from the bandages.
I've just installed the blogger dashboard widget, so I'll try and make more frequent posts to catch up on whats been happening.  
So to come
-Graduation - did she make it?
-What saying "P's make degrees" to your baby too often can do.
-The importance of naps
-Getting the apartment to ourselves
-More baby stuff
-Sewing one and a half handed.
And maybe some photos too.