Pregnancy musings: week 35

[juliet]

In fact, officially I am now at 36+3, which means that as of next Tuesday Mab counts as 'full term'. (By my dates that's the week after.)

Bump is definitely much more in the way now. There was a couple of weeks where I could feel it getting in the way of my diaphragm, and was getting mild indigestion which I put down to "not enough space in stomach". But then somewhere around last weekend/the start of this week, everything suddenly moved down slightly. I now feel like I have more room to breath/eat, but also feel alarmingly heavy around the mid-section. Partly I suspect this is due to the fact that until really about a fortnight ago the vast majority of the extra weight was still mostly somewhere in the region of my regular centre of gravity, whereas now it's definitely sticking out.

Bending over to do my shoes up has become a bit of a hassle. Generally I'm tiring more easily, but I went climbing last week (albeit very gently), and I'm still cycling places. Just... slowly. If I take it slow & calm I'm fine, but if I start stressing out about being late or needing to cycle faster, it gets quite tough. (So am not doing that, then.) I do feel tired, but that's more to do with the fact that I have a long list of work-stuff to finish off before I go on maternity leave, so I've been working rather harder/longer hours than I would prefer to. Nearly there now -- two articles and final edits of the balcony book to get done next week, and then that's IT.

I had a couple of weeks of really nasty sacro-iliac/lower back pain, but went back to the lovely osteopath who fixed it for me. There's a lot more stress on my lower back now, though, so I'm off back again on Monday. I am allegedly very slightly anaemic (10.9, where 11 counts as 'anaemic'), although not remotely functionally so. The midwife I saw at 32 weeks said I could get a supplement prescribed if I wanted (no ta), but the ones I saw this week put a bit more pressure on me so (very grumpily) I have booked a GP appt to get the horse pills.[0]

Anyway: this week's midwife appointment confirmed that he's slightly engaged (4/5, which is to say that 4/5 of his head is still above my pubic bone i.e. 1/5 is engaged). At this stage he might yet disengage and re-engage before finally heading for the exit. He's also head down (good) and right-occiput-anterior (facing roughly backwards, with his back to my right-hand side) which is OK but not great; left OA is better in terms of going into labour. The placenta is over on the left, though, so there's less room over that side. All of this was particularly pleasing, though, because I've been poking around myself and had come to the same conclusions (head down & ROA).

The movements have changed a bit; less like someone swimming around all over the place and more squirm-y, like someone in a tight sleeping bag or something. Which is, of course, because there is less room in there now. Still plenty of movement, though, especially when I'm lying down, at my desk (am getting movements right now!), or in the middle of the night. And just after eating FOOD. I seem to be getting fewer Braxton Hicks now, or maybe I'm just not noticing them as much.

Midwife appointment also included discussion of birth plan (all fine, no need for any big disagreements with the midwives, thankfully), and the delivery of the Home Birth Kit, which is now safely tucked away out of the dog's reach. Also 4 goes at measuring the fundal height (size of bump, roughly), which got 3 different measurements. Eventually they settled on 33cm, which is 3cm 'out' by their dates and thus about at the point where they offer a scan to check growth. However, given that by my dates it's only 2cm out, heartbeat is good and strong, he's engaged (which can shrink the bump), and there's plenty of movement going on, we agreed instead that the midwife will come back next week to measure again & see where we're at.

I continue not to actually really believe that there's an actual baby going to arrive, probably sometime in the next 6 weeks or so. Perhaps I will grasp this at some point before he arrives? Or, on the other hand, perhaps not. I guess it's OK either way. I am certainly rapidly reaching the point where I'm ready

In further 'music' news: Mab has now been to more lovely psytrance (slept) and an Ultrasound gig (woke up in the middle). I have tickets for Rodrigo y Gabriela at the end of Feb, and also, um, Atari Teenage Riot. An ATR gig at 40 wks pregnant may... not be entirely a *good* idea, but never mind! If I don't fancy it on the day (or have already given birth...) I can just not go. But they were awesome at Bangface last year, and tickets were only a fiver!

Right, must go catch train to BRIGHTON for lovely weekend away with doop!

[0] From the other blood-count figures, I don't actually think that I am iron-deficient anaemic; if anything I'd be more concerned about my B12 count, but they checked that earlier in pregnancy. It looks more like what's called "normal haemodilution of pregnancy". Given the total lack of symptoms, I don't like taking supplements just because of the numbers in this instance. But it's not really worth arguing about at this point. I'll just stop taking them again if they upset my stomach. There were mutterings of testing again, but the more experienced midwife said not to bother. I'm not prepared to have another blood test so will decline if offered anyway.