33 Weeks Pregnant

Thank you for all the lovely messages about Dodger. It's been a difficult week but I know letting him go was the right thing to do. It's just taking a while to get used to having three big squishes and no little squidge in the house.

It's also been a really busy week on the pregnancy front as well! I actually joked at work this week that I was getting them used to the idea of me being on maternity leave by hardly being there this week since between appointments for Dodger and then Bo and I, it feels like I've barely been there!

Monday was my midwife appointment 2.0 and it turned out to be with my favourite midwife, L. Sadly (for me) she's off on maternity leave herself soon. That was an interesting conversation since Mr Click and I hadn't even realised she was pregnant. She's due about ten days before me!

In short, all is good with both me and Bo.

In long, there was a slight concern about my blood pressure, until she realised that my last reading (taken during my Glucose Tolerance Test) was actually low for me and compared to my regular results my blood pressure was actually spot on.

We got to listen in to Baby Bo's heartbeat. I'll never get tired of hearing that sound. He's obviously getting more cramped in there because it was the first time he's not kicked at the doppler at this point. He's head down with his bum up on the right hand side (his back is on my right too) and his feet off to the left; I usually feel little heels sticking out at the top left of my bump or to the left hand side.

He measured slightly below average on the tape measure, my bump came in at 30 weeks (instead of 32+3), but the midwife wasn't concerned as I'd got a growth scan already scheduled that week and she said it could just be the way the baby was lying.

Then we had a nice long look through the notes I made last week on my birth plan. L was pretty impressed and we discussed certain bits in more detail before she encouraged me to write them up in my actual maternity notes. We had a little chat about the stuff we had organised for the hospital bag as well, they just need packing but since the bag we need is in use over Christmas that'll get done next week.

Wednesday then saw my scan and consultant appointment.

This was a routine growth scan as the IVF placed me into the high risk category (along with the hyperemesis and a couple of other things). In some cases IVF/ICSI babies have been noted to measure small so it was good to have a sneak peek into how Bo was getting on.

Sadly no photos from this one but to be honest, there wasn't a great deal to see anyway.

Baby Bo was still chilling in his head down position (here's hoping he's comfy and stays like that until it's time for his escape). This actually made it tricky to get the measurements they were looking for at a couple of points.

My son's pertinent measurements are a head circumference of 312.2mm, an abdominal circumference of 282.9mm, a femur length of 63.8mm and an estimated weight of 2084g (which is about 4.6lbs). That puts him actually just above the average line on the growth curve, with legs which are just under the 90th percentile for his age. I knew he had long legs!

If he keeps going like this I think we'll be looking at a 6.5 to 7.5 pounder which suits me fine, but we've got another growth scan scheduled for January just to check up on everything.

My least favourite part of the scan was when they needed to check the position of the placenta. At my 20 week scan it was showing as being 'low lying' so while it wasn't completely blocking the exit route (placenta previa), there was a chance it would get in the way and cause problems with a natural delivery. In that case we'd be straight to c-section, do not pass Go, do not collect £200. Obviously, as D-Day gets closer, this was something that needed to be looked into.

Unfortunately Baby Bo was using it as a pillow and wasn't in any hurry to move. So he was just as stubborn as at my 20 week scan. After pressing the ultrasound scanner into my groin several times trying to use it to move the baby's head (which hurt and which Bo wasn't too pleased about judging by his squirming), she tipped the bed right back so my feet were in the air and eventually, after more poking and prodding, managed to get the placenta checked out.

It's moved up so it's no longer classed as low lying, so yay! It's off to my right hand side and wraps around the back, and is evidently pretty comfy now Baby Bo is head down.

The consultant appointment afterwards was fairly brief. I'd been hoping we'd get our actual date for induction but she was in a bit of a hurry and said we'd discuss the full birth plan at my next appointment in four weeks time. She did confirm that at some point between the 2nd and 9th of February I'd be getting induced, but we've not narrowed it down to a single date yet.

The wait until my next two appointments (on the 12th and 17th of January) seems like ages away, though I'm sure on the other side of Christmas they'll look a lot nearer.

This week we've also stocked up on nappies, got me measured for new maternity bras (still smaller than my pre-pregnancy ones, in fact I'm just a couple of pounds heavier now than I was when I got pregnant), and made plans for ordering our Ergobaby carrier in the next couple of weeks.

Oh and we went to my work's Christmas night out, where I dressed up with zero stress because I have exactly one dressy maternity top so there was no question about what I would wear. And I was home by 9.45pm (at one point I turned to Mr Click to tell him I was feeling tired, expecting him to say it was after 10; it was five to nine)!

So yeah, pregnancy is still kicking my butt in the tiredness department, but I do think I'm rocking the bump:

I feel like I'm even catching myself developing a bit of a pregnant waddle at times. Bo likes to stretch up into my ribcage, which is really uncomfortable and often the positions which relieve that give me backache so I'm switching between whichever seems the least uncomfortable at the time.

He's loving Christmas music, though I'm slightly disappointed in him that he seems to be a fan of Cliff Richard (seriously son, you can be into anything you like; sports, dancing, competitive ironing, whatever, but please not Cliff Richard)! He's definitely a musical baby; I Am Moana gets him kicking, as does me singing You Make It Feel Like Christmas (though the latter might just be an attempt to shut me up).

I'm really looking forward to seeing if his musical tastes are different when he's on the outside! We may have to go back to playing Christmas music in February to keep the baby happy.

On which note, Happy Christmas Everyone! Hope you have a lovely holiday.

P.S. Mark, I got your comment, just wanted to say thank you and let you know you're awesome. :)