Look! No hands

It is actually pretty handy to have an extra side table available when you are eating Ben and Jerry's ice cream (told you I have ice cream cravings!)...

Funny contrast

Now that my maternity leave started I am fully preparing for motherhood, but in a contrasting way I just realized importing pictures from the previous couple of days.

One hand I am not a very good mother-to-be, since I was in a big music place (The Melkweg) in Amsterdam on Saturday to support Sean's band during their performance. I exposed Jr to heavy beats and bass noises..... Oeps



But now 2 days later I am making up for it. I am doing Jr's laundry and turned our living room into a little laundry factory!

Belly pictures at 36 weeks

I didn't really have the feeling that my belly had grown much in the last 4 weeks since the 32 weeks pictures. And indeed measuring the circumference it turned out I only went up from 94 to 95 cm... That explains my stomach getting smaller, Jr is taking up space vertical instead of forward.

Notice the linea negra that now is showing up below and above my belly button.

One more month!!

Today is May 24th, which means we have exactly 1 more month to go before Junior's due date. How can time fly by so fast?

Now that my maternity leave started I will enjoy sleeping in, going to the hairdresser and more of these activities to spoil myself. In one month from now I probably won't have much time to do this anymore (at least not for a while). Also spoiling myself will give Jr a change to grow and put on some more weight so (s)he will be totally ready!

Maternity leave is starting!

In a couple of hours I will start my 16 week maternity leave! Sweet..... As you can tell I am spending my last day at work productive with updating my blog, cleaning my desk, eating cake with my colleagues and turning on my out of office reply....... He, you got to ease into it.

In Holland it is standard to have 16 weeks off. You have to stop working 4 weeks before the due date, but you can also decide to stop 6 weeks before. So when you stop at 4 weeks, you have 12 weeks after the baby is born, and when you stop at 6 weeks you have 10 weeks left.
I decided early on in the pregnancy that I would try to work as long as I could, because I like to have as much time as possible with Jr after the delivery. Even if I were to deliver 2 weeks late I still get 12 weeks after (so then my leave would be even 18 weeks).

I think I would have been ok to work longer. Physically I feel fine, it was more mentally hard the last 2 weeks. Like living up to a vacation, those last couple of weeks before are always difficult and you just don't feel like dealing with difficult clients, bosses etc anymore.
But none the less it is still very nice to be able to prepare and completely focus on the pregnancy from now on. I made a list of things I would like to do in the next couple of weeks, like washing the baby clothes, packing my hospital bag etc.....

Our first born (Clover) will also be very happy that I have extra time to spent with her!!

Happy 3 year anniversary

Sean and I celebrate our 3 year anniversary today.
Sean very sweetly got me a gift certificate for a massage (have I been complaining that much about a sore back/neck/legs???). Now I just wonder how it will work out because I can't lay down on my stomach on the massage table.......... I will let you know on Friday after I have been there.

Boy and girl names at 35 weeks

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant and have 35 days to go until the due date. That seems very close, but Junior is also very likely to greet the world late (as most 1st born babies are 10 days late), but I am starting to worry we don't have a girl name yet.
The boy name was decided on a couple of weeks already, but for some reason a girl name is more difficult for us. We were down to 2 names, Sean liked the one name the most, I liked the other name the most. This weekend however I came up with a 3th name (to add to the confusion). We both really like that name too, so maybe that solves the battle over the other 2 names.

At first I was convinced we will have a girl, lately I think boy, so maybe that is why we can't decide on a girl name..... because we won't need it????

You know you are very pregnant when....

1. People at work make a comment in the elevator "you must be getting close".
2. You realize you don't fit your rain pants anymore to bike over to aerobics class in the rain.
3. You have to climb into your car from the wrong side because somebody parked their car too close on top of yours.
4. You only own 1 pair of shoes that fit.
5. When you are out of breath at the top of the stairs in the Ikea talking to a (also pregnant) friend and then......
....... have to ask a guy in the parking lot to put your purchases in the back of your car.

And yes all the above really happened...........................

Cravings

A lot of people have been asking me if I have had any weird cravings so far? Like pickles with whipped cream etc... But no, the only thing that I really like and eat way more of than usual is ice cream popsicles. But that was a good craving to have in the last two weeks when the weather was great...

Good news

I had an appointment with the gyno yesterday. I actually had an appointment in 2 weeks, but I called to see if I could come in earlier. I just wanted to know what the deal was with my placenta. So luckely that was possible due to a cancellation from somebody else.

The gyno was really nice. First he looked at all the information that the midwife told me to hand over to him. Then he checked my belly, Jr's position and heartbeat and he scheduled an ultrasound for me right away. The ultrasound was nice, we got to see Jr again and everything is still looking great. Jr is about 2200 grams (4 pounds and 13 oz) now, so right on schedule. The lady who made the ultrasound measured the distance of the placenta to the "exit" and got the information right away back to the gyno. So fast service.

The gyno told us the placenta is 35 mm away from the exit. Anything below 20 mm would have been a problem and thus a C. Section. Now I am out of the danger zone and I get to deliver naturally. I even got reassigned back to the midwife.

It was a little bit of a hassle and sometimes hard b/c of the minimal communication between the different parties involved, but everything is clear now and Sean and I are really relieved and happy now that we know what is going on.

The pictures below show the different situations of placenta localization. The picture on the left shows what was going on at 20 weeks (when the exit was still slightly covered), now we are closest to the picture on the right, but the placenta is even higher than in the picture.

Lazy post at 34 weeks

I don't have much writers inspiration today after a great sunny weekend. This is actually positive because I am just feeling great and have the feeling the weeks are flying by! So I am lazy and posting what is going on with Jr this week stolen from a website;

Your baby now weighs more than 4.7 pounds / 2.2 kilograms and is 18 inches / over 45 centimetres from top to toe. She's filling out and getting rounder -- she'll need her fat layers later to regulate her body temperature.

If you don't already talk to your baby, this is a good time to start -- at 35 weeks her hearing is fully developed. Don't feel ridiculous if you're already chatting in baby talk. Some evidence shows that newborns pay closer attention to high-pitched tones.

If you've been nervous about going into premature labour, you'll be happy to know that 99 per cent of babies born at week 35 can survive outside the womb -- and most have no major problems. Although your baby's central nervous system is still maturing, her lungs are nearly fully developed by now.

My poor feet

The last couple of days the weather has been beautiful here. About 75 F (26 C) and sunny! I really like it, but my poor feet don't. I never knew you could hold onto so much water. This water retention is killing me right now. At first I only seem to develop it at night and during the day it would be ok, drinking a lot of water and walking helped. With the warm weather this doesn't help anymore.....

So writing about "no symptoms" is out the window now...... bummer.

First class down, three to go....

Last night we had our first class to prepare for delivery. My aerobics class ended last Friday which is a bummer since I really enjoy the excersize, but there was still one more evening together with the partners. That was last night.
My teacher is a very cool and knowledgeble lady and she knew how to get the dads excited and not bored within 5 minutes. Sean was slightly overwelmed with all the information she gave, but I think the most important topics will stick. Like how to recognize real contractions, how to time them, when to go to the hospital, how to help me with my breathing if I were to panic and most importantly how to spoil me!

After the class I was all wound up and couldn't sleep. Especially in combination with the news from the midwife earlier that day it was all a little much.
So now I am at work, sleepy and illegaly adding this post to my blog.......

Slightly disappointed at 33 weeks

I just came back from my midwife appointment and it was a little disappointing. It turns out I do have to go back to the gynaecologist because of my low placenta.

At my 30 week ultrasound the lady was really convinced that my placenta wasn't going to give much trouble anymore since it moved up and didn't cover the exit anymore. But now the midwife told me that the placenta had to be at least 1 cm away from the opening to be able to say everything will be ok during delivery. The chance of a complication, like bleeding, is just to big when it is less than 1 cm. And that my chances for a C Section are still quite a bit increased, although she expects I am able to try for normal delivery. Had I wanted to deliver at home, which is common in Holland, I would not have been allowed. But since I planned on delivering in the hospital anyway, that wasn't a disappointment.

So now I got my next appointment planned with the gyno instead of the midwife. He is going to evaluate the situation, and he will perform another ultrasound to measure the exact distance of the placenta to the exit. After that we will see what he says. All I hope for at this point is that I will at least be able to try a natural birth instead of a planned C. Section.

I guess I am in general not that disappointed about going back to the gyno, although it feels way more social and cozy at the midwife. It is just the weird feeling of different opinions, being send back and forward from the midwife to the hospital etc. and thus not feeling like I am in control. And since I really prefer to be in control it is hard for me to still not know exactly what is going on and to feel insecure again in the next couple of weeks.....

I do however realize that in the end all that matters is good medical care and to end up with a healthy baby Jr and mommy!

I will keep you updated.