Antenatal Class - Week Four

We had our fourth & final antental class last night - this one was all about the first six weeks after birth including discharge from hospital, SIDS, post-natal depression, where to go for help and what to expect from life at home with the new baby. I found this class really helpful and am already feeling a lot more confident about those first couple of months at home with our baby. My main fear about this time is not how well I will cope or how well hubby will cope, but how well we as a couple will cope. Not that I have any real reason to be concerned, we have a very solid marriage that has gotten us through a number of difficult obstacles in the past. I guess it is because I value our marriage so strongly that I can't help but be a little worried and protective of it. I think this is my main reason for wanting to go into that first six weeks as prepared as we can possibly be.

I'm on my final week of work this week, I finish up on Friday! I can't wait to spend the time at home. Work hasn't been too bad since swapping to my new temporary role, but I am finding it difficult sitting in an office all day every day. I'm also starting to have trouble getting in and out of my car - being lower to the ground I am struggling to get up out of it and down into it. I'm also looking forward to spending some more time with hubby - the way our work hours are at the moment, we only get a couple of hours together of an evening to go through everything we need to talk about, cook dinner, clean up & shower ready for bed. With me not working we will have another 3 hours or so on top of this to enjoy spending the last couple of months alone together before our lives change forever!

Antenatal Class - Week Three

Also last night was our third antenatal class - the first of the two classes on parenting. This one focussed on characteristics of the newborn baby, what happens in the first few days after birth, a little on sleeping, nappy changing, wrapping etc and a section on establishing breastfeeding. We were also given a little booklet on breastfeeding as a reference. I'm not worrying about it too much at this stage as we have a seperate breastfeeding class to go to next month which will go into more detail. I am very passionate about trying everything to breastfeed our baby so I'm gathering as much information as I can before the birth to try to help prepare myself.

Hubby & I really enjoyed this class, it makes it seem so much more real talking about caring for the baby. On one hand, I know that I should be enjoying my pregnancy and not wishing the days away, but on the other, I am just so excited about the day that we get to finally meet our little miracle.

28 week OB appointment

I had my 28 week OB appointment yesterday afternoon. Test results from the glucose challenge test came back, no diabetes for me! One more hurdle down. Other than that the appointment was pretty standard, baby is doing beautifully, my blood pressure is perfect. Bub has actually moved since last visit and is now head down which is a great sign. It is strange to think of the baby laying upside down all day.

My OB has also suggested I pack my bags for the hospital already - that way I will have less chance of going into labour early!! I found this quite funny as my OB doesn't seem like the type to be superstitious. I haven't even written a list of what to pack yet so I will have to get started on that. My appointments have changed to fortnightly now too so next visit is in 2 weeks.

28 weeks

28 weeks & third trimester!!! Here I am this morning...

To celebrate hitting third trimester, I thought it would be nice to add a pic from the beginning of my pregnancy journey - just a slight difference to my figure!!

I put the 26 week one in there as well to see how much I have changed - definately a lot fuller in the belly now!

Today is also the day of my glucose challenge test. I have just come back from Part 1 - drinking a super sweet glucose drink. I was really worried about what the drink would taste like so much that I have been dreading this test. I was imagining a sickly, syrupy type drink that would make me want to throw up from the taste. But I'm happy to report that it was no where near as bad as what I thought it would be. It was basically like sweet lemonade. The lady at pathology was saying that some people actually like the drink. I definately wouldn't go that far, but it was bearable. Very cold and fizzy though which did make it hard to get down. Part 2 is the blood test that I have to be back within the hour for. Then I should get the results at my next OB appointment on Monday afternoon.

Antenatal Class - Week Two

We had our second antenatal class last night - this one was about coping mechanisms for labour both natural and medical, as well as unexpected outcomes and caesarian births. I enjoyed this class a bit more than the one from last week, possibly because it was a little less basic theory and a bit more interactive. This was the last class on labour and birth, next we move on to parenting for the final two weeks.

The main thing that I have gotten out of the labour classes so far has really surprised me. I expected to come out of these classes with a sense of reality about the fact that I will soon have to go through the labour process, and quite fearful of how I would be able to cope. But in fact at this stage, the classes have actually helped me to feel more empowered towards the labour process. I came into them thinking that I would need to use whatever drugs that could be given to me to help cope with labour, and I have come out with the frame of mind that I would like to try to labour naturally for as long as possible, and use only the gas for assistance in the later stages. Obviously I am still keeping a very open mind as I have never experienced labour before and therefore have no idea how I will cope. I am definately not closed off to the idea of even an epidural if it turns out that is what I need. But I am happy to say that I now feel a lot more confident about my ability to get through the labour process with as little medical intervention as possible.

Remnants of IVF

I've been struggling a little lately with a few things that I have put down to remnants of our IVF journey. Through the depression that I experienced during our IVF journey, I always believed that falling pregnant would fix everything and none of it would matter anymore. While I feel so incredibly grateful and blessed to be carrying this baby and it has made everything a million percent better, I am just starting to realise that it doesn't take away from what we went through with IVF and I may still have a few things to work through. On that note, I bought a book that I am reading, hoping that it will help:

It goes beyond the actual IVF treatment cycles into the ongoing effects throughout pregnancy and after birth. So far it has been a really good read and it seems to have a lot of my feelings spot on so I'm feeling very positive about it being able to help me get over this little hurdle.

Bub is really quite active these days. While I am getting used to the movements happening, I still love feeling them. Sometimes the baby moves around so much I can see movements all over my belly. It is such a strange and wonderful feeling, I could sit and watch it for hours.

Antenatal Class - Week One

Our first antenatal class went well last night, it was bascially explaining the stages of labour and the basic procedures for a stock standard natural birth, including the dreaded birthing video. I coped quite well with watching the video, I think that a positive to me still being a little way away from my due date is that I was able to watch still with some denial that I will be one of those women. But it was very interesting to see others reactions to the video, lots of cringing and fear going on in that room! I think hubby has more respect for the whole childbirth process now and what I need to go through to get this baby out. Looking forward to next week's class when we are discussing drugs for pain relief!