Pregnancy musings: week 30

[juliet]

Nearly week 31, in fact. I think. Seven months, and certainly well into the 3rd trimester.

I finally started looking more obviously/publicly pregnant a few weeks ago; although still not hugely so if wearing a big jumper or coat. Though having said that, I was at Bangface the other week wearing fairly fitted things, and it seemed that women noticed (a couple of women in the loos were v admiring that I was out dancing at 6.5 months pregnant!) but men didn't (a particular gold star to the bloke who was, I think, attempting to chat me up until I said something about it, at which point he said something congratulatory and shocked then rapidly disappeared.) I gather that the fundal height (height of bump from top of public bone to top of uterus, which the midwife measures at each appointment) should increase by about 1cm a week now, so it's certainly getting rapidly bigger and more obvious.

I haven't (yet?) had any comments from people in proper anonymous public (checkout folk or other dog-walkers or whatever). I don't know if this means that it's not obvious, or if I don't look the right sort of approachable :)

It's definitely getting less comfortable, in that now I have to sit up quite straight or my ribcage digs uncomfortably into the top of the bump, and I'm noticing again that I get out of breath faster and can't breathe in quite as deeply as normal. I'm feeling lots and lots of movement from Mab, which mostly isn't uncomfortable but once in a while involves a nasty jab to an internal organ. (Not that I have the faintest idea where most of my internal organs have migrated to by now, of course.) He's most active just after dinner, and first thing in the morning; least active whenever I'm on my feet doing something.

Physical-symptom-wise other than that I'm doing pretty well: slightly swollen ankles, definitely starting to get a lot more tired, occasional discomfort if I eat too much (where "too much" is "less than it used to be"). I'm slower on a bike. I've started to get Braxton Hicks contractions in the last week or two, which are deeply peculiar (& whilst not painful, are a bit irritating when they occur when, say, trying to walk round the park with the dog). I've been having more lower back pain, and for a couple of weeks had quite intense symphysis pubis pain, which thankfully largely sorted itself out with a combination of a visit to the osteopath, and time.

The List of Things To Get is nearly sorted. Most excitingly, though, we did in the end order a Christiania, which arrived just before Xmas, and it is AWESOME. Slow and trundly, but AWESOME. I love it madly already and have been pottering around to the shops on it (need to ride it a fair bit over the next month, to make its first month's service actually worthwhile).

doop & I also went to an Active Birth weekend workshop thingy up in Archway, which was useful if tiring. Learnt quite a bit about third stage (the placenta bit) in particular, which is the part of angelmine's labour where in retrospect I think we dropped the ball a bit. (All was well in the end, but I think she & I both agree that in hindsight we'd manage things differently.) Also got a thorough grounding in what-happens-when, a slightly too thorough grounding in what-if-things-go-wrong (the induction session was the one which had the highest stress-feeling in the room), and a bunch of useful positions to try out for labour.

I keep failing to go to pre-natal yoga, despite the fact that it probably would be good for me. This is largely because I have quite a lot of work on and am consequently knackered. A lot. I will have another go in the New Year. Also really I'd prefer a slightly slower-moving class, but this is the best one (by which I mean the one that I find most helpful/least irritating) available near here, so...

The work thing is probably the most stressful aspect of anything right now, in fact; am trying very hard not to panic about how much I want to get done/am committed to getting done before the notional start of my maternity leave (aiming for Feb 7th, would settle for Feb 14th). I really could do with a bit of relaxing time; happily dogrando & I are off on holiday next week for 5 days, to Cornwall with the Sidney-dog.

The whole business mostly right now just feels quite odd. Really, there's only 2 months left? I am having grave difficulty with accepting the fact that there is actually a baby gestating away in there (despite the fact that he keeps moving around & walloping me), and that in a relatively short period of time there will therefore be an external sort of baby, that I will be responsible for. The whole thing seems wildly implausible. I don't find myself worrying about it particularly (at least not most of the time), which is probably good, but I fear may just be down to disbelief.

In further in-utero music news, Mab has now been along to a Billy Bragg gig (hurrah!), the Bangface Xmas night (slept through the lot, as far as I could tell. I will play him breakcore when he's refusing to sleep on the outside, then), and Les Miserables (moderately active, probably because I was sitting down). And tonight at some point after midnight doop & I are off to the Elixir of Life NYE party, so there will be more lovely psytrance. I haven't been out clubbing on NYE for about 15 years (Popscene, in 1996. I drank a lot of vodka & threw up behind a bus stop on the way home), but figure I won't have the opportunity again for a fair while, and also the lineup is bloody awesome. Thumbs crossed that Raja Ram is on after about 2am.