It's been a week and a half so I had better update again! :) I'm feeling horrible with a coldy-achy-sinusy-throaty lurgy tonight, which Neil had and then Matthew, Nathan and Samuel this weekend. It is kicking my butt tonight and I feel yuck. Lydia just woke up full of snot, so I guess she is next! The other three boys are okay for now. They have just got over an adenovirus which took them a few weeks to cycle through (didn't affect Neil and I), so it's starting to feel like a long time that we've been kicking round some form of sore throat or cough or general malaise!! Can't wait to be better!
The good news, I *think*, is that my morning sickness is suddenly improving rapidly! In past pregnancies, when I get a virus of any sort, morning sickness somehow seems to improve, or even disappear while I'm unwell, and then as I start to improve it comes back in. So I can't say it's cleared up - maybe it's just because I'm unwell? But it was improving these last few days! I was only feeling sick before a meal, although it lingered after eating too. Still a big improvement!! :) I can't drink normal water yet (that's the true test - that and biting my fingers/nails - yuck, I know!), but today I did take some paracetamol with a small glass of TAP WATER! I just couldn't bear to swallow it with a strong fizz of sparkling water (which I'm getting bored of, but at least it doesn't make me feel nauseous!) on my sore throat, so I got a glass of water and just downed it quick. I did feel a wave of nausea as a result, but I noticed it was very mild compared with how it used to make me feel, so I'm cautiously optimistic! :) I was 15 weeks when my morning sickness with Lydia went away, though all the other pregnancies have had very different gestations for my morning sickness to clear up, so we'll see. I also chewed my little fingernail off (sigh) last night with zero consequences, while watching a movie, so maybe... In any case, it is getting much more bearable, which is always the case after 14 weeks, and I'm SO THANKFUL to have reached this stage at last! It seemed to last forever, but actually now that I'm here, it has gone pretty fast. :)
I am still just about able to lie on my front to sleep, and dreading when I can't, because I am such a tummy sleeper! I can sleep on my side or back too, but when I'm pregnant I get real trouble with hot feet, and restless leg syndrome which is UNBEARABLE and keeps me awake for hours. If I lie on my front, I can get to sleep quickly. If I can't, it's hours and hours of misery lying awake. It makes that big a difference, and I know that pretty soon I will not be able to get comfortable with my bump lying on my front. Some nights it is uncomfortable now, and I have to move to my side instead, but it seems to depend on the baby's position. I can sometimes feel the firm shape of a little back pressed out against my tummy now! :) Still low, below my tummy button (my uterus nearly came right to my tummy button this morning though - the highest yet! - though it usually is a couple of inches below still), but bigger than palm size. My hand - fingers to wrist, can cup it comfortably. :) At 13 weeks, my baby measured just over 7cm from head to bottom, so two weeks later I am guessing that that shape and size in my palm is about right for the little curve of a back. :)
I am not feeling much in the way of movements. This baby is super calm and quiet, compared with most of my others, though I think someone (Samuel??) was calm and quiet too. If it was Samuel, he was THE most laid-back and snuggly gorgeous baby, my easiest little baby for sure. As a newborn, he would wake, feed, sleep on my chest for 4 hours, repeat. Occasionally poo. As he got a bit older, he changed it to, wake, feed, coo and smile and be happy and delightful, sleep (preferably on me, as he loved to snuggle). Occasionally poo. ;) I don't know if his early fetal behaviour had any connection to his behaviour as a baby, but if it did - WOOHOO!! ;) A calm and laid-back baby would be wonderful! I am nervous about surviving colic again, but I'm still here after several colicky babies, so I guess we'll make it either way! ;)
So I don't feel many movements, and if I do, I am usually lying VERY still on my back or reclining. Then I might feel a TEENSY pop to my tummy, or a sensation of "something" moving ever so slightly. Or a tiny little squirm. That's it! Maybe my placenta is anterior, but I think this little one is just not the big mover that some of its siblings have been! Only 2 weeks further on from this gestation, Matthew gave my hip such a kick that my bottom shifted sideways on the chair I was sitting on, haha! He's the same today at age 9, one hundred percent! ;) Yesterday was the strongest movement I've felt from this baby so far. Neil sneezed particularly loudly, and it gave me a sudden jolt of adrenaline as I jumped. Within seconds, I felt two little tiny pop-like taps slightly to the left of centre, a couple of inches above my pubic bone. That's about as fired up as my little one seems to get at the moment - from a quick burst of adrenaline! ;) So at least I'm feeling movements, even if they're teeny and not very frequent yet.
My bleeding picked up again early last week. Still old blood, but heavier, and a bit more reddish than before. I'm so easily anxious about the bleeding now! A couple of mornings later, I woke up and lay there in bed for a moment, and just fractionally tensed my abs without thinking, and instantly a lot of blood came out, so I ran for the loo. I thought it was another big bleed starting, but thankfully it was old blood, and it settled down after a short while, though it made me a bit crampy in the meantime. Today is the first day that I have had minimal brown spotting - almost nothing at all this afternoon! :D I'm excited, as it's been weeks since I had almost nothing in the way of spotting or bleeding, but it has now been 3 times in a row that it has got to that point (or even completely stopped spotting) for anywhere between one day and a few days, and then a sudden big bleed again. So I am paranoid and can't relax about it (or dare to go without a pad!) yet.
Elijah (3) seems to be having a crisis of realisation at the moment. Last week he came over to talk to me (standing up), and his head is almost at my bump height now (he is teeny weeny, but also I have short legs, ha!). He looked up to talk to me, and there was a bump in the way of his normal view, lol! His face was a picture! He put his hands on it, and then asked why my tummy was like that, and when I told him it was the baby growing inside, he wanted to move my top and jeans so he could see my tummy properly. When I shifted my waistband for him, his eyes went round! He seemed happy and smiled and patted my bump, and has talked about the baby growing pretty much every day since, but suddenly today he said that he didn't want the baby to come out. He was huffy and grumpy and didn't want to make eye contact, and certainly wasn't happy about the baby inside! ;) So this is new! I don't think we've had this before, even with all our children we've had. Maybe I'm just forgetting someone in the old memory banks, but it doesn't seem familiar to me at all. In the end, he got that that the baby would HAVE to come out eventually, all the same. But he said he wanted to "leab it here, and we all go to turts." - which, translated, means he wants us to leave the baby at home while we all go to church!! Hmmm! We talked about how the baby might feel lonely or sad, or need Mummy, or milky, or a cuddle, like he would if it was him left at home while the rest of us went to church (as if?!!!)!! So he seemed to get that, but still seemed unimpressed with the whole thing! He also asked how the baby even got in my tummy (I told him Daddy put a seed in my tummy and it grew into a baby), and then why Daddy had to go and put a seed in there, haha! ;) He was pretty grumpy about it! But I am hopeful that he'll come around over the months. There's plenty of time, and everyone else is HIGHLY enthusiastic, so that's going to help, I think! It's always the 3 year old who has the issues, every single time! Even if he's already got a younger sibling. They never (EVER) have issues before age 2, with a new sibling. I love the small gaps! :)
Okay, Lydia is waking again, so I think I will call it a night. Back soon!
Monday, 13 July 2015
Saturday, 4 July 2015
13 weeks, 4 days - scan update! :)
I'm sorry I didn't update yesterday! It's past 1am here, but I fell asleep nursing Lydia to sleep, and woke at midnight to a spectacular storm. Torrential rain and frequent lightning - so fun to watch! THEN I felt sick, so I had to eat a sandwich and basically as many peaches as I can tolerate. Peaches are a serious thing for me this pregnancy, and I'm so thankful they are in season! :) For a couple of weeks (maybe 3??) I have been eating 3 or 4 a day if we have them. They quench my thirst and taste amaaazing, and make me feel better quite quickly from the nausea, even if it doesn't last all that long.
Anyway, so I should be getting back to bed, but I realised I hadn't updated, and wanted to. The thunder is pretty loud so if it wakes someone I'll have to finish this tomorrow.
So, my scan actually ARRIVED!!! So surreal! :) I forgot to drink much beforehand, so when the scan started, the sonographer said that my bladder wasn't very full and the baby wasn't in the best position for measuring. After a few minutes of seeing my tiny one (no glimpses of the nub, even!), she sent me out for 15-20 minutes to drink some more and see if my bladder filled a bit more.
Before the scan, driving to the hospital, I became irrationally nervous because I realised I hadn't felt the baby move for 3 or 4 days. I have marked little footprints on my chart on days where I felt the baby move, and I haven't had more than 2 days without one since starting to feel movements weeks ago. So I started to get nervous, and wished that I had had time to use my Doppler that morning for peace of mind. I was praying about it as I drove, and thought that the upside was that if my baby was alive and well, and had a boy nub, I would be 100% rejoicing that he was alive and well, NOT focusing on the fact that it was another boy! ;) I definitely was longing for a girl nub sighting, you know? I feel bad admitting it, and you know I would absolutely adore having a seventh boy (I mean, HOW blessed?!?!), but with my sort of "hunch" about the baby being a girl (or wishful thinking?!), I have rather latched onto the idea of a sister for my only daughter, and another baby girl to delight in for us ALL, and the fact that all the boys are hoping it's a girl, and Neil has said how nice it would be if this baby is a girl, and HOW I would love to use the phrase, "My girls." *heart swell* :)
But the one thing I really didn't want was to feel disappointment over that sweet little angled nub, if that's what I saw in the end. REALLY didn't. It felt so wrong to have ANY disappointment over a gift - a true gift - from God himself! So I prayed. And I was breathless with excitement and anticipation by the time I went in for my scan!
When she started the scan, the sonographer said that she would have a quick look for herself for a moment, and then if all was well, she would switch my screen on so I could watch. I don't think I drew breath in those few seconds before she said, "Little heart ticking away there!" Aaannnd relax! :) Then I was back with the focus of spotting that nub! So, like I said, I saw no sign of a nub in the first few minutes. When I came back, the baby was still in the same awkward position, but the sonographer said my bladder was a little bit more full so the visibility was better, and she might have to send me out again if the baby didn't change position, but she got on with the scan all the same.
The baby was lying on its back sort of up the side of the sac, with its bottom up at the top, lol! Little arms kept doing slow content movements up over the head and in front of the face. So sweet! The sonographer didn't want the little bottom up high because it made measuring the length of the baby (to date the pregnancy) more difficult. She wiggled the scan probe against my tummy over and over, and you could see the little one being jiggled about, but absolutely calm and laid-back, didn't move at ALL, other than the odd stretch, lol! Very laid-back baby, one of my most laid-back, I think. And possibly stubborn... which *certainly* isn't in the gene pool... :P
My eyes were straining, straaaaiiiining, for any sign of a nub. The first flash-through glimpse I got was of an angled (45 degree, pretty indisputable!) "thing" near the right area. I'm delighted that I didn't get a sinking heart feeling, I just thought, well that's that, then! :) I was really eager to get more views to confirm it, so I watched eagerly. I didn't get another view for a while, as the sonographer was also looking at the huge haematoma which is a big crescent shaped area around the gestational sac. It doesn't seem any smaller at all, but she said not to be too anxious about it, because it's almost all black on the scan now, which is the same as the amniotic fluid, and means it's liquefied. She said that it will do that before it reabsorbs, so I'm hopeful that it will now clear up. I am bleeding quite a lot at the moment, every day. It is all dark brown and more liquid (sorry!), so that concurs with what she found, and I'm hopeful that it means the haematoma is going to be reducing soon, with the bleeding out and the possible reabsorption. Anyway, it's still very large for now, but apparently not bothering the baby! :)
THEN I saw a great profile shot. She said she would print it out for my picture (ONE PICTURE FOR £5!!!!!), and pointed out the little hand near the baby's tummy, and then sort of cross-sectioned through the baby a little bit to show me the other hand up and over the baby's head, and THAT'S when I saw the nub really clearly. Not the 45 degree thing I had seen before (she showed me the umbilical cord going down and then under the baby's legs round the bottom), but a flat white line with no angle - NO ANGLE, people!!!! I almost gasped, but managed not to because I would have looked odd, since I don't think she had any idea, lol! The only thing was that it was slightly awkward being sure of that non-angle, because of the baby's bottom being tilted up the side of the sac - I sort of had to twist my head to see it right - and also, I had Lydia's VERY clear nub etched in my mind's eye, and this one was more grainy as an image, and not as clear or very obvious as Lydia's was. So it made me second-guess now and then as I watched. But every time I saw it, there was no angle! Definitely a flat nub. Forked at the end, and I couldn't remember if that meant anything boyish, but there was no denying it was a girly nub, and I could hardly breathe for excitement and disbelief thinking that I was 13 weeks and 3 days, looking at a girly nub - almost a certainty that this baby was a girl!
But TWO girls in a row?!! After six boys in a row?!! Could it possibly even BE?!!!
So I still do, somehow, have this disbelief thing going on! ;) The sonographer was very kind and gave me THREE pictures! :) She put two behind the first one and said not to show them! There was a moment where the baby put a little hand in front of its (I can't bring myself to say "her" quite yet - have to wait for that gender scan!) face, and I said, "Awww, so sweet!" So she printed me one of that too. :) The images were more grainy and zoomed in than some of my previous scans at my old hospital, and it turned out that NONE of the three pictures gave a very good view of the nub, but here they are anyway. Little monkey stayed with bottom up in the air most of the time, despite me turning onto my left side for a minute, and then back, and then my right side for a minute, etc. And all the jiggling with the probe! ;) There was a slightly flatter position for a moment and the sonographer used that time to measure the length, which was 71.something millimetres, and thus a gestation of 13 weeks and 2 days. I said I was sure I was 13 weeks and 3 days, and she said that was pretty much what the scan showed, but that they will go with a due date based on the scan rather than my dates from now on. Which is January 5th - my great-grandmother's 119th birthday. :) If it IS a girl and she's born on her due date, it would be so sweet to name her Emma (my great-grandmother's name), but I don't think we would, as Neil's sister has two daughters called Ella and Emily, and I can just see my lips tripping over each other at family gatherings and calling for Emmallamily to hold Elimma's hand or something. :P
Anyway, I am sticking to my ovulation based due date of Jan 4th. The previous hospital used to only change the due date if it was outside of 2 days from your original date. I am okay with them *thinking* I'm due on the 5th though, because it gives me an extra day to go past my due date! :)
Here are the pics of my sweet treasure-baby!
Little hand over face!...
The third photo is the position that the baby finally got into (hardly much change, but enough!) to measure the length.
So, the nub in the first photo is hard to see, but I *think* it is that little button-y thing poking out between the buttocks. Not 100% sure though. If it is, it's a girl, pointing down and out like that. :)
The second photo has a pretty good view of the nub, but none of them are as good as Lydia's white stick of a nub - really really visible in those pictures at that link there! :) Anyway, the second photo above shows a little white line near the lowest part of the tummy with a little white "forked" pair of lines at the end of it, and that is definitely the nub. Since the lines are all pointing off towards the legs, I am really hopeful that it means GIRL! :) The third photo doesn't show the end of the nub, but you can see a white line (maybe slight fork further down it) parallel to the spine, pretty much. If it's a girl it should be parallel to the spine. Any angling up means boy, generally. I really did not see the slightest bit of angling on this baby's nub, and because of my experience last time, I am hesitantly very confident that I'm having another GIIIIIRRRRL!!! I can't believe it, but I know (again from experience!) that it will sink in! I can't wait for my next scan to confirm it. It is booked for August 21st, when I will be 20.5 weeks. Cannot WAIT! I want to yell, "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! IT'S A GIIIIIRRRRLLLLL!!!!" again, and plan names and pinkness, and squeal a lot with 100% confidence, etc! But I am honestly so confident from what I saw. I posted the pics at ingender, of course (before even updating Facebook, haha!) and have had no boy guesses. I even had one of the experts respond, saying girl! :) Yay, yay, yaaaay!
I absolutely squealed in the car on the way home, lol! And I stopped off - I just HAD to - at the shopping centre near home, to buy myself a yummy sandwich and Belgian bun, try on some clothes (haven't had the chance to do that for YEARS!), and nip into Tesco, where I found myself *uncontrollably* buying sparkly nail polish and a newborn-sized sleepsuit that I passed and HAD to have, with "Little Sister" in silver lettering on the front! I know I am a crazy woman (this is one of the things you love most about me, right?! :P ), but who cares - it was only £5 and, as I said to Neil afterwards, I will gift it, return it, or stroke it longingly on a daily basis, if this baby does turn out to be a boy, ha! ;)
Neil was not with me for the scan, for the first time EVER at a regular scan, because we had nobody to watch the children, and even if we found someone to watch them, Lydia is absolutely inconsolable at this age with anyone outside of family. Some of our other toddlers have been like that, but where we used to live, they didn't have a policy about children in the scan rooms, so we always took our youngest (sometimes several youngest!) with us. This hospital, as well as being stingy with the photos (though the actual sonographer was very sweet and generous!), have an absolute rule of NO CHILDREN in the scan room, and "only one person to accompany the patient"!!! Tsk. So we are stuck. I really hate for Neil to miss these scans, because although he's not very connected to the babies when I'm pregnant, and thus doesn't mind missing them, that's the very reason I WANT him to be there, because it's a rare opportunity for him to actually CONNECT and maybe feel something towards the baby, or the pregnancy in general. :( There's only one scan left, and I am hoping (planning?!) to be able to find someone to watch the children, including Lydia, who I really hope will not be 100% miserable or difficult for whoever is watching them, so that Neil can be with me to see our little one, and find out for sure what we are having. It was weird getting home and him having to ask what I thought the baby was, and then saying, "Really?!!" when I said I thought it was a girl. I feel sad that we didn't get to see, talk about, and process together at the time. Also I was accosted by boys asking, "Did you see the nub?!!" and "Is it a girl?!! I feel SURE it's a girl!! Is it, is it?!!" as I was still closing the front door, let alone having had a moment to privately tell the baby's own daddy! Sweet that they are so excited and eager, but I felt a bit sad that it wasn't BOTH parents' experience, that's all.
So, I told the boys that it looks very much like another girl, but that we HAVE to wait until the next scan. I wondered if I should say, because their hopes are UP - they've been longing for another sister, and what if I'm wrong and it's a boy?! What damage will I have done by telling them?! But honestly, the nub was so obviously a girly one... I waited until the "expert" at ingender said girl, and then I told them. I don't think Arthur, Matthew or Nathan could have stood waiting even a day, let alone until the next scan! Arthur was ready to grab the pictures and study the angle of the nub himself, lol! He knows all about these things! ;) So I showed them the sleepsuit and they were so excited. :) I told them it COULD still be a boy, and we must wait and see at the next scan to be sure. I really don't think it's a boy though... :)
I am still feeling sick, but I think there's definite "lifting" of the heaviness of the nausea in the last few days. I'm nearly 14 weeks now, and sometimes I have had another 8-10 weeks of morning sickness yet (aaargghh!), but in all my pregnancies that have had nausea beyond 14 weeks, that mark is always a point of the intensity of the nausea becoming way more manageable, even if it goes on for a while. Nearly there!!! :) Lydia's was gone around 15 weeks.
It's REALLY late now so I am going back to bed. If I think of anything I have missed, I will update again! :)
Anyway, so I should be getting back to bed, but I realised I hadn't updated, and wanted to. The thunder is pretty loud so if it wakes someone I'll have to finish this tomorrow.
So, my scan actually ARRIVED!!! So surreal! :) I forgot to drink much beforehand, so when the scan started, the sonographer said that my bladder wasn't very full and the baby wasn't in the best position for measuring. After a few minutes of seeing my tiny one (no glimpses of the nub, even!), she sent me out for 15-20 minutes to drink some more and see if my bladder filled a bit more.
Before the scan, driving to the hospital, I became irrationally nervous because I realised I hadn't felt the baby move for 3 or 4 days. I have marked little footprints on my chart on days where I felt the baby move, and I haven't had more than 2 days without one since starting to feel movements weeks ago. So I started to get nervous, and wished that I had had time to use my Doppler that morning for peace of mind. I was praying about it as I drove, and thought that the upside was that if my baby was alive and well, and had a boy nub, I would be 100% rejoicing that he was alive and well, NOT focusing on the fact that it was another boy! ;) I definitely was longing for a girl nub sighting, you know? I feel bad admitting it, and you know I would absolutely adore having a seventh boy (I mean, HOW blessed?!?!), but with my sort of "hunch" about the baby being a girl (or wishful thinking?!), I have rather latched onto the idea of a sister for my only daughter, and another baby girl to delight in for us ALL, and the fact that all the boys are hoping it's a girl, and Neil has said how nice it would be if this baby is a girl, and HOW I would love to use the phrase, "My girls." *heart swell* :)
But the one thing I really didn't want was to feel disappointment over that sweet little angled nub, if that's what I saw in the end. REALLY didn't. It felt so wrong to have ANY disappointment over a gift - a true gift - from God himself! So I prayed. And I was breathless with excitement and anticipation by the time I went in for my scan!
When she started the scan, the sonographer said that she would have a quick look for herself for a moment, and then if all was well, she would switch my screen on so I could watch. I don't think I drew breath in those few seconds before she said, "Little heart ticking away there!" Aaannnd relax! :) Then I was back with the focus of spotting that nub! So, like I said, I saw no sign of a nub in the first few minutes. When I came back, the baby was still in the same awkward position, but the sonographer said my bladder was a little bit more full so the visibility was better, and she might have to send me out again if the baby didn't change position, but she got on with the scan all the same.
The baby was lying on its back sort of up the side of the sac, with its bottom up at the top, lol! Little arms kept doing slow content movements up over the head and in front of the face. So sweet! The sonographer didn't want the little bottom up high because it made measuring the length of the baby (to date the pregnancy) more difficult. She wiggled the scan probe against my tummy over and over, and you could see the little one being jiggled about, but absolutely calm and laid-back, didn't move at ALL, other than the odd stretch, lol! Very laid-back baby, one of my most laid-back, I think. And possibly stubborn... which *certainly* isn't in the gene pool... :P
My eyes were straining, straaaaiiiining, for any sign of a nub. The first flash-through glimpse I got was of an angled (45 degree, pretty indisputable!) "thing" near the right area. I'm delighted that I didn't get a sinking heart feeling, I just thought, well that's that, then! :) I was really eager to get more views to confirm it, so I watched eagerly. I didn't get another view for a while, as the sonographer was also looking at the huge haematoma which is a big crescent shaped area around the gestational sac. It doesn't seem any smaller at all, but she said not to be too anxious about it, because it's almost all black on the scan now, which is the same as the amniotic fluid, and means it's liquefied. She said that it will do that before it reabsorbs, so I'm hopeful that it will now clear up. I am bleeding quite a lot at the moment, every day. It is all dark brown and more liquid (sorry!), so that concurs with what she found, and I'm hopeful that it means the haematoma is going to be reducing soon, with the bleeding out and the possible reabsorption. Anyway, it's still very large for now, but apparently not bothering the baby! :)
THEN I saw a great profile shot. She said she would print it out for my picture (ONE PICTURE FOR £5!!!!!), and pointed out the little hand near the baby's tummy, and then sort of cross-sectioned through the baby a little bit to show me the other hand up and over the baby's head, and THAT'S when I saw the nub really clearly. Not the 45 degree thing I had seen before (she showed me the umbilical cord going down and then under the baby's legs round the bottom), but a flat white line with no angle - NO ANGLE, people!!!! I almost gasped, but managed not to because I would have looked odd, since I don't think she had any idea, lol! The only thing was that it was slightly awkward being sure of that non-angle, because of the baby's bottom being tilted up the side of the sac - I sort of had to twist my head to see it right - and also, I had Lydia's VERY clear nub etched in my mind's eye, and this one was more grainy as an image, and not as clear or very obvious as Lydia's was. So it made me second-guess now and then as I watched. But every time I saw it, there was no angle! Definitely a flat nub. Forked at the end, and I couldn't remember if that meant anything boyish, but there was no denying it was a girly nub, and I could hardly breathe for excitement and disbelief thinking that I was 13 weeks and 3 days, looking at a girly nub - almost a certainty that this baby was a girl!
But TWO girls in a row?!! After six boys in a row?!! Could it possibly even BE?!!!
So I still do, somehow, have this disbelief thing going on! ;) The sonographer was very kind and gave me THREE pictures! :) She put two behind the first one and said not to show them! There was a moment where the baby put a little hand in front of its (I can't bring myself to say "her" quite yet - have to wait for that gender scan!) face, and I said, "Awww, so sweet!" So she printed me one of that too. :) The images were more grainy and zoomed in than some of my previous scans at my old hospital, and it turned out that NONE of the three pictures gave a very good view of the nub, but here they are anyway. Little monkey stayed with bottom up in the air most of the time, despite me turning onto my left side for a minute, and then back, and then my right side for a minute, etc. And all the jiggling with the probe! ;) There was a slightly flatter position for a moment and the sonographer used that time to measure the length, which was 71.something millimetres, and thus a gestation of 13 weeks and 2 days. I said I was sure I was 13 weeks and 3 days, and she said that was pretty much what the scan showed, but that they will go with a due date based on the scan rather than my dates from now on. Which is January 5th - my great-grandmother's 119th birthday. :) If it IS a girl and she's born on her due date, it would be so sweet to name her Emma (my great-grandmother's name), but I don't think we would, as Neil's sister has two daughters called Ella and Emily, and I can just see my lips tripping over each other at family gatherings and calling for Emmallamily to hold Elimma's hand or something. :P
Anyway, I am sticking to my ovulation based due date of Jan 4th. The previous hospital used to only change the due date if it was outside of 2 days from your original date. I am okay with them *thinking* I'm due on the 5th though, because it gives me an extra day to go past my due date! :)
Here are the pics of my sweet treasure-baby!
Little hand over face!...
The third photo is the position that the baby finally got into (hardly much change, but enough!) to measure the length.
So, the nub in the first photo is hard to see, but I *think* it is that little button-y thing poking out between the buttocks. Not 100% sure though. If it is, it's a girl, pointing down and out like that. :)
The second photo has a pretty good view of the nub, but none of them are as good as Lydia's white stick of a nub - really really visible in those pictures at that link there! :) Anyway, the second photo above shows a little white line near the lowest part of the tummy with a little white "forked" pair of lines at the end of it, and that is definitely the nub. Since the lines are all pointing off towards the legs, I am really hopeful that it means GIRL! :) The third photo doesn't show the end of the nub, but you can see a white line (maybe slight fork further down it) parallel to the spine, pretty much. If it's a girl it should be parallel to the spine. Any angling up means boy, generally. I really did not see the slightest bit of angling on this baby's nub, and because of my experience last time, I am hesitantly very confident that I'm having another GIIIIIRRRRL!!! I can't believe it, but I know (again from experience!) that it will sink in! I can't wait for my next scan to confirm it. It is booked for August 21st, when I will be 20.5 weeks. Cannot WAIT! I want to yell, "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!! IT'S A GIIIIIRRRRLLLLL!!!!" again, and plan names and pinkness, and squeal a lot with 100% confidence, etc! But I am honestly so confident from what I saw. I posted the pics at ingender, of course (before even updating Facebook, haha!) and have had no boy guesses. I even had one of the experts respond, saying girl! :) Yay, yay, yaaaay!
I absolutely squealed in the car on the way home, lol! And I stopped off - I just HAD to - at the shopping centre near home, to buy myself a yummy sandwich and Belgian bun, try on some clothes (haven't had the chance to do that for YEARS!), and nip into Tesco, where I found myself *uncontrollably* buying sparkly nail polish and a newborn-sized sleepsuit that I passed and HAD to have, with "Little Sister" in silver lettering on the front! I know I am a crazy woman (this is one of the things you love most about me, right?! :P ), but who cares - it was only £5 and, as I said to Neil afterwards, I will gift it, return it, or stroke it longingly on a daily basis, if this baby does turn out to be a boy, ha! ;)
Neil was not with me for the scan, for the first time EVER at a regular scan, because we had nobody to watch the children, and even if we found someone to watch them, Lydia is absolutely inconsolable at this age with anyone outside of family. Some of our other toddlers have been like that, but where we used to live, they didn't have a policy about children in the scan rooms, so we always took our youngest (sometimes several youngest!) with us. This hospital, as well as being stingy with the photos (though the actual sonographer was very sweet and generous!), have an absolute rule of NO CHILDREN in the scan room, and "only one person to accompany the patient"!!! Tsk. So we are stuck. I really hate for Neil to miss these scans, because although he's not very connected to the babies when I'm pregnant, and thus doesn't mind missing them, that's the very reason I WANT him to be there, because it's a rare opportunity for him to actually CONNECT and maybe feel something towards the baby, or the pregnancy in general. :( There's only one scan left, and I am hoping (planning?!) to be able to find someone to watch the children, including Lydia, who I really hope will not be 100% miserable or difficult for whoever is watching them, so that Neil can be with me to see our little one, and find out for sure what we are having. It was weird getting home and him having to ask what I thought the baby was, and then saying, "Really?!!" when I said I thought it was a girl. I feel sad that we didn't get to see, talk about, and process together at the time. Also I was accosted by boys asking, "Did you see the nub?!!" and "Is it a girl?!! I feel SURE it's a girl!! Is it, is it?!!" as I was still closing the front door, let alone having had a moment to privately tell the baby's own daddy! Sweet that they are so excited and eager, but I felt a bit sad that it wasn't BOTH parents' experience, that's all.
So, I told the boys that it looks very much like another girl, but that we HAVE to wait until the next scan. I wondered if I should say, because their hopes are UP - they've been longing for another sister, and what if I'm wrong and it's a boy?! What damage will I have done by telling them?! But honestly, the nub was so obviously a girly one... I waited until the "expert" at ingender said girl, and then I told them. I don't think Arthur, Matthew or Nathan could have stood waiting even a day, let alone until the next scan! Arthur was ready to grab the pictures and study the angle of the nub himself, lol! He knows all about these things! ;) So I showed them the sleepsuit and they were so excited. :) I told them it COULD still be a boy, and we must wait and see at the next scan to be sure. I really don't think it's a boy though... :)
I am still feeling sick, but I think there's definite "lifting" of the heaviness of the nausea in the last few days. I'm nearly 14 weeks now, and sometimes I have had another 8-10 weeks of morning sickness yet (aaargghh!), but in all my pregnancies that have had nausea beyond 14 weeks, that mark is always a point of the intensity of the nausea becoming way more manageable, even if it goes on for a while. Nearly there!!! :) Lydia's was gone around 15 weeks.
It's REALLY late now so I am going back to bed. If I think of anything I have missed, I will update again! :)
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
13 weeks, 2 days - scan tomorrow!
So much that I wanted to make note of, and I just keep not having time, or else I'm too tired in the evening to stay up and write.
I'm in my 2nd trimester!!! Yay!
I still feel sick, no change yet, although I did wonder today and maybe yesterday, if the gaps between the horrid nausea before mealtimes might be SLIGHTLY less grim... It's not terrible, like the early weeks were, but it can get pretty unpleasant when I need to eat a proper meal, or mid-morning if I didn't eat a filling enough breakfast. I feel sick most of the time. Tonight we had burgers with onion in them, so I'm nervously anticipating the next few days! Onion in any form (especially in large amounts) seems to make me feel horribly sick for the next three days, like last pregnancy. So I have mostly avoided it. Last time I accidentally ate it was in a Tesco ready meal - ridiculous amount of onions, it was fairly unpalatable really. Ate it anyway, and I wish I hadn't because I had three horrible days! I don't think there was much onion in the burgers so I'm hoping I'll get away with it!
My belly has suddenly popped, literally overnight. The night I was 12 weeks and 3 days pregnant, I had to get up for a wee in the night FOUR times. That was the maximum I'd had to deal with - the previous few nights were building up to it, 2-3 trips per night. The previous week was about once a night, occasionally not at all, so I could tell there was significant growth and restricted space going on in week 12! ;) Also I remembered from my previous pregnancies that it was somewhere around that time that my womb had popped out of my pelvis, along with increased discomfort and night weeing before it, and relief after. The night I was 12 weeks and 4 days pregnant, when I woke the next morning, I realised I had not had to get up once for a wee! :) Such a contrast to the previous few nights! So I wondered, but didn't really think about it again until later in the day when Neil pointed to my tummy and said it had REALLY grown today, and I looked down and there it was - a proper pregnant belly! :) It was early evening and we were trying to round kiddies up in the garden to get ready for bed, but Arthur took a photo for me:
It should show up bigger if you click on it. I think I prefer Photobucket to blogger's own photo uploady thing, for the way they display the photos on the blog, but oh well. This was quicker tonight. So there is my bump! :) Twelve weeks and 5 days. I'm so excited to be pregnant!! I meant to post it at the time, but here I am several days later and only just getting around to it. I also wanted to post a picture of my completed wall chart that I made for myself to get through the first 6 weeks of morning sickness, colouring in the days in rainbow colours as they went by. I can't believe I have completed it already! I haven't got around to taking a photo though. I have drawn a little footprint above the days where I have felt the baby move. :) Not every day, but most, since 9 weeks and 5 days. :) I haven't noticed much movement in the last couple of days, but hopefully everything is fine. I haven't had time to get my Doppler out since I last had cause to with bleeding.
This evening I had another "surge" of bleeding, but it wasn't too heavy, and I was VASTLY reassured to see that it was brown, not even slightly red. So I'm hoping the old blood is coming away and there won't be much left to see at the scan tomorrow.
My scan is TOMORROW!!!! I thought it would never come round! I can't wait to see my little treasure again, but also I am about going out of my MIND with anticipation over the nub, which I will surely see tomorrow! :) Nice and accurate now I'm this far along, so there shouldn't be any doubt. I am not sure if I will get a picture with the nub showing (it seems like this hospital is really stingy with scan pics compared with my previous one!). I think I will only get one picture, and if it doesn't show the nub you will have to take my word for it on what I should get a very good view of during the actual scan! ;)
I have second guessed myself SO many times in the last week or two. I have such a girl vibe. But then I eat some meat and it tastes GOOD, so maybe it's a boy then? And then the girl "vibe" is probably more of a wishful thinking vibe, lol! So that can't be trusted. I don't have a strong boy vibe, but I think maybe it could easily be a boy all the same. I am left with really truly having no idea what to expect in the nub department tomorrow. I think I lean more towards girl in my heart, but it seems very unlikely in reality, so I am trying to remember to expect the "usual" (ha!) boy nub! ;) Whichever it is, I will be so happy to know, and to move on to thinking ahead and bonding and planning names, etc! I know it's not the proper confirmation scan, and will try to wait for that before going all out, lol! I wouldn't "announce" based on a 13 week scan, but it's so much fun to have a good idea, all from my own observations, without an expert telling me what I'm having! I can't wait! I hope my little one is doing well in there. I've just realised we haven't got a nickname for this baby. That's the first time ever. I haven't even missed having one, it's just nice to refer to the baby as "the baby", honestly! We wondered if we would even have any more. And it's lovely to say "my little one" and vary what I call him or her.
I'm sure there's something else I'm meant to update about... the midwife follow-up appointment? I finished my booking appointment (I might have said this last entry, I can't remember when I last updated!), and am being referred to the home birth team - yay! Hopefully they will give me an appointment for 16 weeks, and then it's the 20/21 week scan (which I have to get the date for at the 16 week appointment, apparently), and then 28 weeks, 34 weeks, and 36, etc. Not many appointments when you are not having your first baby, but I am fine with it.
Well, it's late and I must go! I will update about the scan when I can, hopefully tomorrow.
I'm in my 2nd trimester!!! Yay!
I still feel sick, no change yet, although I did wonder today and maybe yesterday, if the gaps between the horrid nausea before mealtimes might be SLIGHTLY less grim... It's not terrible, like the early weeks were, but it can get pretty unpleasant when I need to eat a proper meal, or mid-morning if I didn't eat a filling enough breakfast. I feel sick most of the time. Tonight we had burgers with onion in them, so I'm nervously anticipating the next few days! Onion in any form (especially in large amounts) seems to make me feel horribly sick for the next three days, like last pregnancy. So I have mostly avoided it. Last time I accidentally ate it was in a Tesco ready meal - ridiculous amount of onions, it was fairly unpalatable really. Ate it anyway, and I wish I hadn't because I had three horrible days! I don't think there was much onion in the burgers so I'm hoping I'll get away with it!
My belly has suddenly popped, literally overnight. The night I was 12 weeks and 3 days pregnant, I had to get up for a wee in the night FOUR times. That was the maximum I'd had to deal with - the previous few nights were building up to it, 2-3 trips per night. The previous week was about once a night, occasionally not at all, so I could tell there was significant growth and restricted space going on in week 12! ;) Also I remembered from my previous pregnancies that it was somewhere around that time that my womb had popped out of my pelvis, along with increased discomfort and night weeing before it, and relief after. The night I was 12 weeks and 4 days pregnant, when I woke the next morning, I realised I had not had to get up once for a wee! :) Such a contrast to the previous few nights! So I wondered, but didn't really think about it again until later in the day when Neil pointed to my tummy and said it had REALLY grown today, and I looked down and there it was - a proper pregnant belly! :) It was early evening and we were trying to round kiddies up in the garden to get ready for bed, but Arthur took a photo for me:
It should show up bigger if you click on it. I think I prefer Photobucket to blogger's own photo uploady thing, for the way they display the photos on the blog, but oh well. This was quicker tonight. So there is my bump! :) Twelve weeks and 5 days. I'm so excited to be pregnant!! I meant to post it at the time, but here I am several days later and only just getting around to it. I also wanted to post a picture of my completed wall chart that I made for myself to get through the first 6 weeks of morning sickness, colouring in the days in rainbow colours as they went by. I can't believe I have completed it already! I haven't got around to taking a photo though. I have drawn a little footprint above the days where I have felt the baby move. :) Not every day, but most, since 9 weeks and 5 days. :) I haven't noticed much movement in the last couple of days, but hopefully everything is fine. I haven't had time to get my Doppler out since I last had cause to with bleeding.
This evening I had another "surge" of bleeding, but it wasn't too heavy, and I was VASTLY reassured to see that it was brown, not even slightly red. So I'm hoping the old blood is coming away and there won't be much left to see at the scan tomorrow.
My scan is TOMORROW!!!! I thought it would never come round! I can't wait to see my little treasure again, but also I am about going out of my MIND with anticipation over the nub, which I will surely see tomorrow! :) Nice and accurate now I'm this far along, so there shouldn't be any doubt. I am not sure if I will get a picture with the nub showing (it seems like this hospital is really stingy with scan pics compared with my previous one!). I think I will only get one picture, and if it doesn't show the nub you will have to take my word for it on what I should get a very good view of during the actual scan! ;)
I have second guessed myself SO many times in the last week or two. I have such a girl vibe. But then I eat some meat and it tastes GOOD, so maybe it's a boy then? And then the girl "vibe" is probably more of a wishful thinking vibe, lol! So that can't be trusted. I don't have a strong boy vibe, but I think maybe it could easily be a boy all the same. I am left with really truly having no idea what to expect in the nub department tomorrow. I think I lean more towards girl in my heart, but it seems very unlikely in reality, so I am trying to remember to expect the "usual" (ha!) boy nub! ;) Whichever it is, I will be so happy to know, and to move on to thinking ahead and bonding and planning names, etc! I know it's not the proper confirmation scan, and will try to wait for that before going all out, lol! I wouldn't "announce" based on a 13 week scan, but it's so much fun to have a good idea, all from my own observations, without an expert telling me what I'm having! I can't wait! I hope my little one is doing well in there. I've just realised we haven't got a nickname for this baby. That's the first time ever. I haven't even missed having one, it's just nice to refer to the baby as "the baby", honestly! We wondered if we would even have any more. And it's lovely to say "my little one" and vary what I call him or her.
I'm sure there's something else I'm meant to update about... the midwife follow-up appointment? I finished my booking appointment (I might have said this last entry, I can't remember when I last updated!), and am being referred to the home birth team - yay! Hopefully they will give me an appointment for 16 weeks, and then it's the 20/21 week scan (which I have to get the date for at the 16 week appointment, apparently), and then 28 weeks, 34 weeks, and 36, etc. Not many appointments when you are not having your first baby, but I am fine with it.
Well, it's late and I must go! I will update about the scan when I can, hopefully tomorrow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
