BBC is predicting heavy snow for tomorrow. Met office says the same.
Would that be the coolest birthdy present ever? A free day off of work?
Letter to My Baby – Gestational Week 20
Dear Baby
Well, here we are, 1/2 way through. Only 20 weeks to go!
At this point you are about 320 grams and 16cm long. From what I understand, you are about 1/2 the length that you will be once you are born.
Today was our ‘big scan’. We saw your profile and your arms and legs. There is one great scan pic, which I will put up tomorrow, that shows you with your hand on your forehead, like you are totally verklempt! All of your bits and pieces are exactly where they need to be. Your heart has four chambers, your brain has all its lobes. Now if you would only kick hard enough for your daddy to feel!
And right on schedule, mummy’s insulin needs increased. They say insulin resistance starts at 20 weeks as your placenta gets stronger and what do you know? Last Friday I woke up to crazy numbers that never went away so I called and spoke to the Diabetic Education centre (who have been treating mummy very well all through her pregnancy with you) and they suggested an insulin increase. And that it was because you were having a growth spurt!
This week is mummy’s 40th birthday. Try to go easy on your old mum, huh? She’ll be a bit older than a lot of your friend’s mums. Hopefully that won’t bother you too much!
Daddy thinks I should write these down on paper, as well as store them here, because he is worried the technology will have changed too much for you to read this when you’re old enough to understand it. I figure if we get to that point, I’ll just print these pages out!
So you keep on growing in there, okay? And remember…
I love you.
Mummy
No Snow in Belfast
Yet.
And they lied about the 3c today. It was actually -3c. So bitterly cold, but no snow.
I am highly disappointed.
According to BBC Weather Page…
Tomorrow’s high will be 3c.
And tomorrow’s low will be…3c.
So I am thinking it will be 3c tomorrow.
I’ve had a fairly productive morning. Simon and I did some DIY on the flat and then I folded a mountain of laundry. I also moved all the cute undies and bras to the top of the closet to make room for the OH SO ATTRACTIVE maternity ones I purchased yesterday from Mother Care. Let’s hear it for Granny Panties!
In other news, I am definitely a nerd.
Right On Schedule
So, insulin resistance starts around 20 weeks. Yup. Friday morning woke up, my BG was up. Had breakfast. Still up. Lunch. Up. After lunch WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY up. Called diabetic nurses. Insulin has been increased.
Nurse I spoke to said that it probably meant the baby was having a growth spurt. Fine with me! 🙂
2.5 days until the big scan! Can’t wait to see the baby again. Hopefully we’ll get some good pictures. Waving and such. Maybe sucking its thumb.
Well, The Scale Might Not Be Moving
although I haven’t been on it for a few days, but the trousers that were sliding down last week are now almost too tight. Time to move some of the interior buttons, me thinks!
Lots and lots of movement, which is great. Just not at 3am!
Just under a week until the ‘big scan’. And, no. We are not going to find out gender. We’ve decided to be surprised.
Not much else going on. Board paper week, so I’m a bit busy at work. Looking forward to the weekend.
And next Thursday week I hit the big 4 0. I thought that number would bother me. But it really doesn’t. Maybe because of the baby? I certainly don’t feel, or apparently look, 40.
You can decided that for yourself next week, when I’ll post 20 week belly pics! Almost 1/2 way there! YAYAYAY!
Letter to My Baby – Gestational Week 19
Dear Baby
I’ve been wanting to write to you for awhile, so we can look back together when you’re older and you’ll know how it felt to have you inside of me. But I was afraid to until I got that glorious number last week, that 1:1002 of low risk for genetic disorders.
If the odds hadn’t been that good your daddy and I would have had to make the hardest decision we’ve ever had to make. Do we risk an amnio and possible miscarriage or do we just see what happens? I, and your daddy, are so relieved that we never have to make that decision.
The 19 weeks gestational is an estimate as well. You see, I use Tuesday as your weekly age day as when I had my second scan, the one where you had a good strong heartbeat for sure, you were exactly 7 weeks. Since then the dates have moved around a bit, but only by a few days here and there. So I decided, rather than recalculating all the time, to call Tuesdays as your day. And so every Tuesday your daddy and I look in the pregnancy week by week book to see how big you are and what bits of you have developed.
This week, week 19, you are starting to develop muscle, which I knew because you are poking me a lot! And you’re getting some fat deposits, to make you look more like a baby and less like a skeleton!! You weigh about 260 grams and are about 15 cm long.
As I mentioned, in the past week you’ve been poking the heck out of me! I love it! Well, I must admit I didn’t so much love it at 3am the other day, but I think that was because my bladder was full and you didn’t have any room!!!
I, of course, think about you every day. And talk to you, even though you can’t quite hear me yet. I think about how many people, besides me and your daddy, already love you. 6 grandparents, 16 aunts and uncles, and 13 cousins! Including one cousin who will be born either right after or right before you! How lucky are you?
I am counting the weeks and days until June, my little one. And then I get to meet you.
Love
Mummy
Not A Good Weekend
My Aunt died Saturday night. She had MS and caught pneumonia and she never recovered from it. She died in her daughter’s arms.
I am really wrecked. Not just because I am sad to lose her but because I can’t be with my family. Her funeral is tomorrow in Boston and there is just no way, in time or money, I can afford to go.
This is the mother of the cousin who came to visit this past summer. We are very close. And I can’t even imagine how much she’s hurting right now. And I want to be there. And I can’t be.
So the weekend sucked. I’m exhausted. And taking the day off work.
The One Thing I Have Not Mentioned On Here
in terms of the pregnancy, is my age.
You see, in case you didn’t know, I’ll be 40 in, oh, about 12 days. And as a 40 year old women having a baby? A lot of genetic risk factors increase. Down Syndrome, for example, because I am 40, is an automatic risk of 1:100. So for 100 babies born 1 will have Downs.
Now, some say, and I think they are right, that the numbers are a bit skewed. That it really isn’t that more Downs babies are born to Moms who are 40, but that less babies in general are born to moms who are 40, so it looks like a higher risk factor. So for every 5 babies who are born (for example) to women who are 20, 2 babies are born to women who are 40. And for the 40 group, 1 of those babies will be Downs, but also 1 of those 20 year old babies will be Downs, but one of 2 is 50%. 1 of 5 is 20%. (NOTE: those numbers are completely made up!!)
But, whether it is truly the age of the mother, or the fact that less of us have babies at my age, it was a worry. A big worry. A ‘OMG What do we do if the baby has Downs Syndrome’ panicky worry.
So I had a test. Its called a Triple Test. I had it 5th January. I got the results yesterday.
Remember that automatic 1:100? Well, my results were 1:1002. My baby is fine.
I cried at the news. And then had to go back into a meeting. 🙂
Oh, it also tests for Spina Bifida. Apparently my odds for that are even lower than for Downs Syndrome.
Now if it would just be June already!
On Antenatal Classes and Physio
So Tuesday night Simon and I attended a one time only Early Pregnancy Class. I think, at 18 weeks, its a bit late for it, but it was nice to learn a bit more about the hospital and such. I also learned that non-high risk women almost never see a midwife or OB until they deliver. They go to their GP. Interesting.
We can schedule our 6 weeks antenatal class after my 20 week scan, which is next Tuesday week. I can.not.wait!! For the scan, I mean.
And today I had a physio appointment for my left knee. Its been getting much worse since I’ve started to gain weight for the baby. So she pushed and prodded and did some stretches and then gave me exercises to do at home. I go back in two weeks. She doesn’t think I need a walking stick. I’m kind of disappointed!