Pregnancy musings: week 39
Feb. 28th, 2012 06:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julietIn fact according to the scan it's 40 weeks today (i.e. due date has arrived), but I reckon the scan is 5-7 days out so counting it as 39 weeks.
I officially went on maternity leave a fortnight ago, which for a self-employed freelancer means "sent off everything required to meet upcoming deadlines" and "filled in Maternity Allowance form". If I worked an employed-type job I might have been inclined to stick it out another week, but the thing with self-employment is that there really is no one else who can take over for me, and I didn't want to risk going into labour early & missing a deadline. Also I was bloody busy December/January (doing more work than average to build up some financial cushion) and I really, really needed a break.
So, obviously, I have spent the last fortnight DOING MANY THINGS rather than having a break. e.g. building a shed, sorting out a bunch of house-type stuff, sorting out a bunch of baby-related stuff, ploughing through a list of things that I wanted to get done pre-baby-arrival because they sure as hell won't get done after. Pretty much through all of that lot now, which is nice. I am particularly proud of the shed (constructed from skip-rescued pallets to my own design! hurrah for power tools without which there is no way I could have managed it). I suspect that this is the sort of activity that people refer to as "nesting". MUST FINISH ALL THE THINGS.
Physically, it is all really quite tiring now, and although I note that at 35 weeks I was saying that the bump felt more in the way, it now feels much bigger too (though so far I am still stretch-mark free, much to my surprise). This may be something to do with the fact that Mab's head has been moving slowly downwards into my pelvis (now at 2/5 of head palpable i.e. 3/5 of it in my pelvis) and I am therefore walking very differently and feel a bit like a Weeble. The last couple of days I've been increasingly back-achey, too. I'm still able to walk the dog (slowly); and I'm still cycling (slowly, and not for more than 3-4 miles at a time, tops), but I get much more tired more quickly than I did even 2-3 weeks ago.
I've been getting sort-of-contractions fairly often, most noticeably when walking. They seem to be a bit more than 'just' Braxton Hicks, because those were entirely painless and these are, not painful exactly, but a little uncomfortable, especially if I try to keep walking through them. I'm increasingly often having to stop and wait for a moment for them to pass off. The dog is being very patient when this happens :) Still nothing you'd call "serious", but hopefully they are doing something useful.
Midwife appointment today confirmed that all is still well with both of us, and touched briefly on the issue of induction, in the context of my dates vs scan dates. (Me: "I'm not prepared to induce anyway, whichever dates we're using, unless monitoring shows an actual problem." Midwife: "Let's just discuss that if we need to nearer the time." Little bubble over both of our heads: "Let's hope he just shows up in the next fortnight and we don't have to discuss it.") I am, however, very resistant to the idea of anything happening tomorrow, because I reckon that 29th Feb is a rubbish day for a birthday. Mab is under instructions to stay put until at least Thursday, therefore, at which point he is free to get on with it any time he likes. I am really about ready to be done with the being pregnant thing, although I am still failing really to grasp the idea of real actual baby. I assume this will resolve itself once there is, y'know, a real actual baby outside of my insides.
The being in my insides thing has been a curious experience overall, in fact. The thing is, nothing inside my uterus at this point is mine, strictly speaking, and I don't therefore have any physical experience associated with it. Obviously I can feel the skin around it, and the relevant containing muscles, and when Mab moves I can feel that, and so on; but it's been very much like having a large empty hole in my insides from which I am not getting any feedback. A feeling which has become more noticeable the bigger it's got, unsurprisingly.
It also buggers up your proprioception in ways I didn't expect. I anticipated having trouble with remembering where my front was. In fact I can see where my front is, so that's fine, but I forget where my back (or rather, bottom) is, because I am used to being a particular width, and I am no longer that width; my back is further away from my front than I've been accustomed to for the last 33 years. Curiously, sideways is also harder (I have walked into people more than once), despite the fact that I'm pretty much the same size sideways.
I've still had very very few public comments; althoughdoop and I went clubbing the other weekend & I had more people touch the bump without asking in those 3 hrs than in the entire previous 38 weeks. (Two, both women, both, frankly, off their tits; as indeed were about 95% of the rest of the building as far as I could tell. They were both very sweet & wanted to tell me about their pregnancy / their psytrance DJ friend's pregnancy / the time their mate's waters broke in the middle of a club / etc etc.) I let them off due to the aforementioned mental state (it's the same, really, as the "random strangers hugging you" thing).
The clubbing itself was great fun; I lasted about 3 hrs, albeit with numerous breaks to have a little sit down, before it got a bit too much (was having BH-ish contractions continuously while dancing for the last 30 min or so, and it got a bit wearying). Last week I also went to a Rodrigo y Gabriela gig (nice security spotted the bump & took me to the disabled seating bit) (sadly gig itself not as good as I'd hoped); tomorrow doop & I have tickets for Atari Teenage Riot, which, um, may or may not be a good idea. WE SHALL SEE. I think that's probably going to be about it for pre-baby-arrival entertainment, though.
So, yes. Here's hoping for arrival in the early part of March, I guess, and for all to go nice & smoothly.
I officially went on maternity leave a fortnight ago, which for a self-employed freelancer means "sent off everything required to meet upcoming deadlines" and "filled in Maternity Allowance form". If I worked an employed-type job I might have been inclined to stick it out another week, but the thing with self-employment is that there really is no one else who can take over for me, and I didn't want to risk going into labour early & missing a deadline. Also I was bloody busy December/January (doing more work than average to build up some financial cushion) and I really, really needed a break.
So, obviously, I have spent the last fortnight DOING MANY THINGS rather than having a break. e.g. building a shed, sorting out a bunch of house-type stuff, sorting out a bunch of baby-related stuff, ploughing through a list of things that I wanted to get done pre-baby-arrival because they sure as hell won't get done after. Pretty much through all of that lot now, which is nice. I am particularly proud of the shed (constructed from skip-rescued pallets to my own design! hurrah for power tools without which there is no way I could have managed it). I suspect that this is the sort of activity that people refer to as "nesting". MUST FINISH ALL THE THINGS.
Physically, it is all really quite tiring now, and although I note that at 35 weeks I was saying that the bump felt more in the way, it now feels much bigger too (though so far I am still stretch-mark free, much to my surprise). This may be something to do with the fact that Mab's head has been moving slowly downwards into my pelvis (now at 2/5 of head palpable i.e. 3/5 of it in my pelvis) and I am therefore walking very differently and feel a bit like a Weeble. The last couple of days I've been increasingly back-achey, too. I'm still able to walk the dog (slowly); and I'm still cycling (slowly, and not for more than 3-4 miles at a time, tops), but I get much more tired more quickly than I did even 2-3 weeks ago.
I've been getting sort-of-contractions fairly often, most noticeably when walking. They seem to be a bit more than 'just' Braxton Hicks, because those were entirely painless and these are, not painful exactly, but a little uncomfortable, especially if I try to keep walking through them. I'm increasingly often having to stop and wait for a moment for them to pass off. The dog is being very patient when this happens :) Still nothing you'd call "serious", but hopefully they are doing something useful.
Midwife appointment today confirmed that all is still well with both of us, and touched briefly on the issue of induction, in the context of my dates vs scan dates. (Me: "I'm not prepared to induce anyway, whichever dates we're using, unless monitoring shows an actual problem." Midwife: "Let's just discuss that if we need to nearer the time." Little bubble over both of our heads: "Let's hope he just shows up in the next fortnight and we don't have to discuss it.") I am, however, very resistant to the idea of anything happening tomorrow, because I reckon that 29th Feb is a rubbish day for a birthday. Mab is under instructions to stay put until at least Thursday, therefore, at which point he is free to get on with it any time he likes. I am really about ready to be done with the being pregnant thing, although I am still failing really to grasp the idea of real actual baby. I assume this will resolve itself once there is, y'know, a real actual baby outside of my insides.
The being in my insides thing has been a curious experience overall, in fact. The thing is, nothing inside my uterus at this point is mine, strictly speaking, and I don't therefore have any physical experience associated with it. Obviously I can feel the skin around it, and the relevant containing muscles, and when Mab moves I can feel that, and so on; but it's been very much like having a large empty hole in my insides from which I am not getting any feedback. A feeling which has become more noticeable the bigger it's got, unsurprisingly.
It also buggers up your proprioception in ways I didn't expect. I anticipated having trouble with remembering where my front was. In fact I can see where my front is, so that's fine, but I forget where my back (or rather, bottom) is, because I am used to being a particular width, and I am no longer that width; my back is further away from my front than I've been accustomed to for the last 33 years. Curiously, sideways is also harder (I have walked into people more than once), despite the fact that I'm pretty much the same size sideways.
I've still had very very few public comments; although
doop and I went clubbing the other weekend & I had more people touch the bump without asking in those 3 hrs than in the entire previous 38 weeks. (Two, both women, both, frankly, off their tits; as indeed were about 95% of the rest of the building as far as I could tell. They were both very sweet & wanted to tell me about their pregnancy / their psytrance DJ friend's pregnancy / the time their mate's waters broke in the middle of a club / etc etc.) I let them off due to the aforementioned mental state (it's the same, really, as the "random strangers hugging you" thing). The clubbing itself was great fun; I lasted about 3 hrs, albeit with numerous breaks to have a little sit down, before it got a bit too much (was having BH-ish contractions continuously while dancing for the last 30 min or so, and it got a bit wearying). Last week I also went to a Rodrigo y Gabriela gig (nice security spotted the bump & took me to the disabled seating bit) (sadly gig itself not as good as I'd hoped); tomorrow doop & I have tickets for Atari Teenage Riot, which, um, may or may not be a good idea. WE SHALL SEE. I think that's probably going to be about it for pre-baby-arrival entertainment, though.
So, yes. Here's hoping for arrival in the early part of March, I guess, and for all to go nice & smoothly.
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no subject
Date: 2012-02-28 10:30 pm (UTC)Hope all goes smoothly, whenever it happens.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 02:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 04:53 am (UTC)I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't feel entirely real to you for a while. Between the sleep deprivation and how surreal it is...
(Can I use the word real one more time in this comment? I'm not sure.)
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 07:56 am (UTC)Random memory
Date: 2012-02-29 04:53 pm (UTC)Re: Random memory
Date: 2012-03-01 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 08:58 am (UTC)I wish you all the best of luck. Looking forward to hearing how it goes...
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 02:13 pm (UTC)I think I've been quite lucky generally in terms of the physical impact (other than the first few weeks of 'orrible nausea) - am hoping that this continues for birth itself & post-birth recovery!
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 11:36 pm (UTC)glad things are still OK. Ditto on impressiveness of how much you are achieving. Please do try to get some rest now - you aren't going to get another chance for a while!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 11:21 am (UTC)Today I was thinking of pottering round the garden a bit (which is mentally restful & not v physically taxing), but in fact despite the lovely weather it's still a bit early to actually *plant* anything much. So instead I shall sit out there for a while in the sunshine and then go in the house & watch some more Glee :)
no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 12:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 11:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 12:06 pm (UTC)