36 weeks 2 days - getting there

And maybe getting there faster than time would indicate. But I'm getting ahead of myself. To start were I last left off, bub is fine, perfectly average in size. Goodness only knows why I was measuring small but bub isn't, all hunky dory.

The past few days my edema (swelling) has been getting worse, my feet look like balloons, my ankles actually bulge outwards, the moon face look is back and often my hands look pretty plump as well. Today we had another appointment with the OB, not Dr H this time, he's on holidays, but a locum instead.

Given that my pressure has been creeping up again over the past few weeks I was expecting it to be up a bit but 85/140 was still a bit of a surprise. It's a bit funny in a strange way watching a doctor get concerned, but try not to show that anything is wrong. She took my blood pressure 3 times, the first time she didn't pump the cuff up high enough, the second time she didn't seem to believe it, third time was the charm. "Do you think that you could give a urine sample?" Trying to sound innocuous but I don't think I would have gotten out of there with out giving one. The sample showed that my kidneys have managed a trace amount of protein, which has never happened before.

So add together higher blood pressure, trace protein and bad edema and all sorts of alarms start going off. I don't have pre-eclampsia, but I might be headed in that direction. My pressure isn't quite high enough and my kidney's aren't spilling significant quantities of protein but it's enough that I have to go in on Saturday for another CTG (foetal monitoring) and my next OB appointment is on Monday.

The funny thing is, I'm not worried. I'll be at term next week and bub and I are being closely monitored by good doctors and midwives. The hospital is only 10 minutes away and I know what to look out for if any more symptoms develop. If something is going to happen, it's going to happen and all I can do is rest with my feet up and try to take care of us.

And what does one do with your feet up all day in summer? Well I have a book called 200 crotchet blocks and hook and some yarn if that's a hint. I'm not actually trying to make all 200 blocks, only about 48 or so to make an afghan for bub, I've made a few before but I wanted on that was big enough for the whole cot. Thus far I have 35 made so barring things going south in a hurry I should get it finished before bub arrives.

The nursery is almost finished. We have pretty much everything we need, it's just a matter of trying to put it all away. I bought the fabric for the curtains yesterday, but I forgot to buy thread so I can't make them until the weekend.

Oh, and before I forget, my sister threw me a baby shower last Saturday. It was supposed to be somewhat of a surprise but I had figured out most of the details. Even still it was a bit surprising and it was wonderful. It was great to see most0 of my friends together and to realise just how many friends I have. Our friends from our uni day's ended up staying until midnight talking but it was good to catch up with most of them before the bub is born.

I'm going to stop promising photo's. They'll arrive someday.

35 weeks 2 days, 8 months

Please excuse the pasty face and dull expression, I'd just gotten out of bed. I mentioned to Mr b^3 that we should do a new photo that day and he got the camera out straight away. I feel enormous but apparently I'm not big enough for dates so I have to have an ultrasound today to check if bub is big enough. It doesn't seem to be much of a big deal, about 25% of women have this and not all of them have small babies.

My blood pressure is still pretty good, but creeping up a bit again over the past few weeks. My diastolic has gone from 70 (when I was back to baseline) to 74 last week and 78 this week. It's still a ways from being a problem, but it's another thing to watch.

Ooh, and bub has started to drop. Not engaged all the way yet, but starting into my pelvis. This has resulted in bub doing a YMCA impression and punching my bladder and kicking my ribs at the same time, but it's a sign of progress.

I've declared the sewing finished. We have enough newborn (000) size clothes, enough of the next size up to get us though until I can make some more and quite frankly I'm sick of trying to make interesting non-gender specific clothes. Sheets are made with lots of brown and actually look pretty good. The only really pressing thing left is curtains and I'm hoping to get them done in the next week or so. I would have done them earlier but all the sunout fabrics, especially the children's ones were nauseatingly cutesy. Instead I'm going to us plain furnishing fabric with separate sunout lining.

Since I stopped the sewing I've been knitting and crocheting. Photo was taken to the knitting, but I forgot to upload it. Maybe next post.

33 weeks, 6 days

First things first, my blood pressure has gone back down to baseline.  This means that I don't have to rock up to the hospital every second day for monitoring, a very good thing.

I'm still a bit woozy at times, particularly after I shower, this is probably because showering is the most physically intensive thing I do these days. 

I feel soooo unfit, though I know that most of the reason that I'm out of breath all the time is because my lungs are running out of room.  I had such high plans for keeping fit, I was going to walk to uni everyday, then join the gym so I could use a tredmill to walk in the aircon.  Then my leg went and I couldn't walk long distance anymore.  That was ok, I would go swimming everyday instead, then I broke my finger.  The only reason I was going down the staircase I broke my finger on was that Mr b^3 had driven me to uni because my leg finally couldn't take the walk.  My finger healed but with my blood pressure doing what it has and with me getting woozy with any activity, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try.

Excuse my wingeing, I know how lucky I am to only have this to winge about.  Bub is healthy and everything that is going on with me will clear up when bub is born.  I must admit though that I'm really looking foward to getting to the end of this.  Now is really the time to start counting down, rather than up.