32 Weeks Pregnant

It's been another busy week in the Click household.

Our Dinky Dodger rat hasn't been feeling too good.

At the start of the week he just wasn't himself. I suspected the start of respiratory failure and we made the decision to keep him comfortable and let him slip away peacefully if it came to it.

Well, Tuesday night he developed a distinct wobble and head tilt so we knew we were dealing with another ear infection. We had a big event planned at work on Wednesday so I'm sure I made everyone's day when I called in to say I was going to be late for a rat related emergency. Especially as I had the money we needed for part of the event safely locked away and I was the only one with access to it!

We took both Pocket and Dodger to the vet as it's cold in Scotland right now and the best ratty hot water bottle is another rat. Pocket is so bumbly and easy going that he makes for a great cuddle and travel companion.

Dodger got an antibiotic injection with a follow up scheduled for Friday afternoon, when I conveniently had past of the day booked off.

Friday was supposed to be another midwife appointment at home which seemed like a nice way to mark reaching 32 weeks. I was looking forward to hearing Baby Bo's heartbeat again and finding out which way up he's currently settled in. On Thursday he felt almost breech, now who knows? It feels like there's an octopus in there!

We got the living room organised and tidy for putting up the Christmas tree so getting things ready for the midwife wasn't that big a deal but we got up early so we could get the vacuum round and wipe down the shelves in the boys cage. I also had a cup of tea to prepare for the inevitable urine sample I'd be asked to produce.  Producing pee isn't really an issue for me, it's just producing it in the quantity needed for the midwife to test and send away! I spend about half my time taking trips to the loo for the tiniest dribble, only to make a return visit some ten minutes later for another one. I'm blaming Baby Bo for this!

Thirty minutes before we were expecting the midwife my phone rang, to let me know the ferries were disrupted, she was tuning late and had an urgent visit to do mine. Could we reschedule for the afternoon?

Mr Click and I had things to do down town so we agreed, I did some hasty wrapping and we headed off to post gifts, grab some lunch and do half a dozen small jobs before rushing home for the appointment.

Thirty minutes before we were expecting the midwife my phone rang, to let me know she was still tied up and wouldn't get to us as scheduled. Could she come a little later?

We explained that we had a poorly Dodger to take to the vet at 4pm. She said she'd try and get to us before 3pm which I wasn't overly keen on because I wanted to discuss birth plan stuff and didn't want to feel rushed.

Luckily she didn't get to us in time so we took Dodger to the vet. Side note: he's been fluctuating, sometimes seeming like he's doing better, sometimes seeming a lot worse. I don't know if he's really feeling the effects of these antibiotic injections but we've reached a point now where we're not sure he's going to make it through the weekend. I'd love to be proved wrong but I've got a sad feeling be won't be sharing Christmas with us.

Back home I called the midwife to let her know we were in. She was the only one on that day and was still tied up with visits out to people so wasn't in the hospital. She promised to call when she was and I was optimistic that we'd get a visit that evening.

5.30pm my phone rang to officially cancel my appointment. Initially she wanted to reschedule for the following day but that was Mr Click's birthday and we had plans which I just didn't want to have to reschedule after an already disrupted day.

Turned out that this appointment never actually needed to be a home visit since I've already had one of those. And for a brief moment I did almost get another blood test scheduled until we realised it was the one I already had redone on the 23rd of November! I do like our midwives but sometimes the system seems a little disorganised.

I felt really bad for my midwife though, she was so apologetic. I'm sad I won't get to see her on Monday. There are a couple I like more than the others and she's one of them. Knowing my luck on Monday I'll be seeing the one who is permanently obsessed with how dry my lips are; my lips are ALWAYS dry! I live in Scotland where it is cold, I work in an office with crazy dry heating, and I can't help but pick at them which does nothing to improve the situation. In the grand scheme of pregnancy issues I've experienced, it's really a non-issue.

I did take a photo of the Bump though. I keep getting told I'm small and neat, which I kind of love because I think my bump is adorable, but I also feel huge when I see pictures like this:

I'll let you know how my appointments go next week. I've also got my scan coming up and a meeting with the consultant who'll hopefully tell me more about being induced!

In the meantime, keep thinking good thoughts for our Dinky Dodge.