Midwife Appointment... 5 weeks to go!

I discussed the terrible consultant appointment with my Midwife who was really understanding, she can see my point of view and whilst she has to inform me of all the possible "risks" to choosing a home birth she is happy to support me in my decision. She also agreed that the consultants seemed a little blinkered but as I am healthy and open to the idea of transferring to hospital should the need arise I think it will be fine.

The next time I see the Midwife will be at my house when she comes to asses the space we have for the home birth and to give me my home birth kit... it is all getting a bit exciting now :o)

I am now starting to write and re-write my birth plan and have opted to write 2 separate plans, one for my home birth and one as an "in case of emergency" for if I have to transfer to hospital (only a 6 minute journey for us by car so even quicker by ambulance I'm sure)

I feel that by separating out the plans in this way I will be able to fully prepare myself for the possibilities of going into hospital without seeing it as a foregone conclusion which might cloud my otherwise positive outlook on the labour and delivery.

In the mean time, "Bean" is still pretty lively and enjoys a good kick of my ribs from time to time :o) I have also been experiencing lots of Braxton Hicks contractions so hopefully this all points to everything moving along nicely

Weight Loss & Bump Gain

I had a great night out for my birthday, although I did probably over do the dancing and was very achy the next day - opps!

I saw my midwife on the 23/09/10 and she confirmed thst I had lost a little over 4kg since my booking in appointment, and whilst she herself was not concerned about it she understoop my worries. She measured my bump which was slightly above average made me an appointment to have another scan just to check that the "Bean" was developing well and was neither too small or too large for my dates.

I saw the consultant at the hospital today (30/09/10) - I REALLY don't like them!!!! They appear to be ossessed with my having a child who is too big for me to birth at home and keep on at me about the risks of shoulder dystocia ( http://www.shoulderdystociainfo.com/anticipated.htm ) which I really began to feel they were using as a direct attack at me. I have no history of dystocia from my previous pregnancy dispite my daughter being 8lb 12oz (3.97kg) and I just felt that the consultants weren't listening to me.

I went down for my scan which showed the "Bean" to be just a little bit above average but still well within the normally accepted limits for a healthy pregnancy and with a current estimated weight of 5lb 3oz (2.35kg) - this news seemed to annoy the consultants who then had very little reason to refuse me my home birth, however they were not giving up and chose to bring up the Post Natal Depression I had suffered after the birth of my daughter, I just pointed out that not only did I get through that period of my life without medication but thatmmy life now was so far removed from my life 8 years ago that I felt that a comparison was not possible to make.

Needless to say Hubby and I left the hospital happy that "Bean" was well but p*ssed at the consultants for their poor attitudes.

Diets, Diabetes and Dresses...

6 weeks after starting the new Gall Stone Diet I can honestly say that it seems to be workng!

I have not had any more attacks which is AMAZING and everyone says I look really well.

I am slightly concerned about my continued weight loss but none of the medical professionals seem worried (in fact, dispite my mentioning it to my midwife and to the GP no-one has weighed me since I went into hospital when I was diagnosed back in July). I have used our Wii Fit at home which confirmed that I am currently at the lowest weight I have been for over a year!!!! And that's with a 31 week old baby bump - go figure :S

I had another brief trip to the Maternity Hospital this monday which was fine (If boring). I had had to refrain from eating from 9pm the previous evening and drink nothing but water.



Hubby & I Arrived at 9:15 for my 9:30 appointment and got seen pretty quick. They took a blood sample from my right arm and then gave me a glucose drink (VERY sweet, but tasted ok - orangy) then came the boring bit... sitting about in the waiting room for 2 hours whilst the drink got to work (I was glad to have Hubby with me for company) then after the 2 hours were up I was called back in and they took more blood from my other arm. This then all went for testing and on Wednesday I got the call saying it was all clear - *Grin*

I am soooo glad that the Diabetes test came back clear as I don't think I could have coped with a limited sugaar diet as well as limited fat.

This Wednesday was also my 31st Birthday and I was spoilt rotten by friends and family who showered me with good wishes and thoughtful gifts. I am having a proper celebration with friends on Saturday night when a group of us are going to a club in So'ton.

This will probably be my last outing before the Bean arrives and so I wanted to look special, but what does a VERY pregnant alternative woman wear to a rock club when none of her clothes fit???

I have trawled the internet for "Gothic Maternity Clothes" and found a big gap in the market (perhaps it's time to get my sewing machine back out and to start a little home business) the best the internet had to offer was soe huge t-shirts with "interesting" slogans on ("Baby Goth On Board" etc)

In the end (after a very dissapointing shopping trip with a fellow witchy-mama) I opted for a long stretchy dress from New Look which was from their "Inspire" collection (there was very little on offer in their maternity range)

So tonight I plan to have a bit of pampering followed by and early night in preparation for tomorrow...









...I'll let you know how my evening goes :o)

So... It's not Gastritus after all...

Well at least I know what's wrong with me now...

Another bad "Gastritus" attack on Wednesday night had me calling Hubby at work and asking him to take me to A&E again the pains were just so bad that I am not ashamed to say I wanted the relief that I got last time from hospital strength meds.

Once again the staff at A&E were brilliant and I was seen straight away, but I was in a pretty bad way, by the time we got there, so they put me straight on to a drip and gave me Paracetamol followed by Morphine (seriously trippy and just a little scary) to take away the pain and to calm me down.

I was diagnosed as being hypotensive which was a bit concerning so spent some time hooked up to an ECG monitor and then had to make the decision as to whether to go ahead with the x-ray which the doctor wanted to do. We eventually concented to an x-ray (the purpose of which was to check for perforations in my bowel) and were glad to be told that everything looked ok.

The consultant then said that he susspected Gall Stones and wanted to do an ultrasound of my Gall Bladder in the morning... so off to the ward I go to spend a night in hospital

I didn't get much sleep though as it was about 3am by the time I got to the ward (I did get my own room though which must have been to keep me away from the other sick peeps because of my pregnancy) the ward staff then had to book me in and do all of the usual checks like blood pressure and temperature and before I knew it the sun was up and the doctors had begun their morning rounds.

I spent the morning trying not to think about food (as I was nil by mouth) and using my mobile to research Gall Stones ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallstone )

I went down for my ultra sound at about 10am and the scan confirmed the existance of several Gall Stones which was worrying but I was just glad that I finally had got a correct diagnosis and could now look at preventative measures.

The consultant has said that I will have to have my Gall Bladder removed after the Bean is born but that until then I will have to be on a REALLY low fat diet... this includes:

Things To Avoid

• Butter, Margarine, olive oil, sunflower oils, lard, suet
• All fried foods
• Full cream or Jersey milk, evaporated and condensed milk, full-fat cream inc. soft cheese, cheddar, stilton, cream cheese and full fat yogurt
• Fatty meat, eg Lamb, beef, Processed meat eg sausages corned beef, beefburgers, meat pies, tinned meat, fried eggs, all fish tinned in oil, smoked mackerel
• Biscuits, especially digestives, cream or chocolate biscuits, hobnobs, cream cakes, marzipan, danishes, pastries, sponge cake
• Crisps, nuts, bombay mix, low fat crisps, chips
• Chocolate, toffee, fudge, coconut
• Fruit pies & crumbles, milk puddings, ice cream, gateaux
• Pastry foods eg quiche, oil-based salad dressings e.g vinaigrette, mayonnaise, cream or cheese sauces, gravy (made with the fat or juices from the meat), creamy dips, hummour, avocados, & creamy soups

Unfortunatly for me I have to check this list against the list of things the docs recommend you avoid eating during pregnancy. eg the dietitian recommended that I eat shell fish as an alternative to processed or fatty meats but of course these are off the menu when you are pregnant... I was please to see I can still eat Marshmallows though :o) thank the Gods for small mercies.

So from now on it is vegetables, steamed rice and skinless chicken for me... I'll keep you posted on my progress

Disappointing Discoveries

Too much knowledge can be a bad thing... I have spent a lot of time recently looking up pregnancy statistics on the internet and basically worrying myself with all the things I find:

I drink a lot of caffeine (and I mean a LOT) but it is part of my job (I work in drinks R&D) this will apparently deplete my chances of getting pregnant:

"One widely reported study found that taking in more than "moderate amounts" of caffeine can lower your likelihood of conceiving by as much as 27 per cent compared to women with low caffeine intakes (Hatch and Bracken 1993). Moderate amounts, in this case, were the equivalent of two cups of coffee a day or four cups of tea or five cans of cola, which works out at about 200 milligrams (mg). In this study, even modest consumption appeared to hinder conception, with women who drank only one to two cups daily lowering their chances of conceiving by 10 per cent."
- http://www.babycentre.co.uk/preconception/activelytrying/caffeineandfertility/

I then found out that...
"There was a study published in the British Medical Journal that found that very lean women and very obese women (BMI >38) had lower conception rates. However, body fat distribution was found to have a greater impact. Women with a high waist-hip ratio had greater trouble conceiving -- so being shaped like an apple is not as good for conception as being shaped like a pear."
- http://www.pregnancy.org/article/fertility-advice-overweight-and-obese-women

Thank goodness I am more pear than apple!

Add to this the fact that I just turned 30 and I'm trying to conceive with a man pushing 40 and my odds of a baby this year started looking bleak...

... Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, I got my period ;(