Merry Christmas!!

From Snowy St. Louis!!

Lots of love, Paul, Stacy and baby W

A perfectly average little boy!

Two posts in one day-that's what you get when I get a day off work!  I just got back from my 28 week ultrasound. I've got two photos of him, but our scanner is packed away in storage (see below!) so you'll have to wait till I'm Stateside to see him. Because of my fibroid, I now will have monthly scans to measure the growth of Baby W. So in I went today and they meausred his head, tummy, length, and femur length.  All nearly smack on the average line for 28 weeks.  We even got an estimated weight: 2lbs 10oz. He was squirming about and opening and closing his little mouth-pretty cute.  They also measured the fibroid which showed almost no change in size since 20 weeks which is good. All in all, a good visit. I'm off to the doctors in a couple hours to get my swine flu vaccination.

Officially homeless!

Thanks to everyone for their support of the very crazy last week. We have now officially exchanged contracts with our vendors and buyers. We packed up and moved all of our stuff out of the flat (well I should say Paul and 3 very capable movers) yesterday and it's being put in storage. The earliest we could negotiate our move in date is Jan 18th. She said if her movers get a cancellation then she'll let us know, but I think this is very unlikely.  Our friends Chris and Cheryl are kindly hosting us this weekend and for a week when we get back form the States, then we'll move in with other friends Ben and Lizzy for a week and a bit who live slightly closer to our new house.  Here is a photo of our moving van just before the doors were practicall forced shut:

That's a lot of stuff!!  Looking forward to finding it all a place in our house in exactly 1 month's time!

oh the drama!

A little update on our housing situation...
We are in a chain of 3, all aiming for simultaneously completion and moving next Friday. This was agreed very early on. Paul has been working extremely hard to ensure this happens (multiple phone calls multiple times a day to lawyers, mortgage people, estate agents, etc). We just about had everything set yesterday when Paul got notified that our vendor has decided to fly to Ghana on Thursday next week and won't be able to complete until the New Year. She returns to London on Jan 2nd like us. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot we can do except vent our frustration.

We told our buyers about this today, and they're pissed off too of course.  In order to appease them, we've offered to still move out on Friday as long as we exchange contracts with our vendor beforehand (which will make them legally bound to sell us their house). This means we'll homeless from Friday night. We are going to the States on Sunday so technically we're homeless next Friday and Saturday and then for a week or so when we get back until we can complete. Paul has spoken to the movers and they can store our stuff for £900 extra, a cost we will be passing up to our vendors, as well as any other inconvenience charges we might face because of this.

We are really hoping our vendor isn't playing games and planning on going AWOL next week. We need her to sign the contract before she leaves so we can feel assured that we aren't making ourselves permanently homeless when we move out on Friday. Please pray this happens!  We'll keep you updated.

mid-wife appt #4

Mara came to see me, this time with a student, for my 26 week appointment. Everything seems to be progressing well. She took BP (120/80) and urine and both were fine. She measure the bump which came in at 26 cm (10.2 inches), which is right on track. The cm should roughly match up with number of weeks, so I'm perfect I guess. I don't have to do the glucose screening for diabetes since there is no history. And I've scheduled a swine flu vaccine for next week. We also listed to Baby W's heartrate and he sounded good and active. He's in the head down position and to my right, as usual avoiding the fibroid. We also talked about what to do once we move and for now I'm going to stay with my midwife and designated hospital. This means no more home visits and we have to drive ourselves to the hospital (or get an ambulance if necessary), which should all be fine. Hopefully it won't be rush hour when the time comes! I will also check out services near our new house once we move and make a final decision then. I got my government forms which entitle me to £190 ($310) just for being pregnant(!) and also forms for my employer so they can claim my maternity pay.

Generally, I've been feeling pretty good. No more cramping and the baby is getting a lot more active. He makes likes to make my tummy look all wonky, especially when I'm laying down. We've got another ultrasound next Friday, so I'll get to see his sweet little face and get some more snaps. We're also attempting to move house that day-though not confirmed so it could be a very busy day!

Dear everyone,

If you aren't on facebook, you may not be aware that my brother has been making requests on your behalf.  This is a message I received earlier this week:

Kyle Hamacher says:

Dear Stacy,

We all want an updated picture of the bump.

Love,
Everyone

Well everyone, here you go:

I'm 25 weeks today. And my bump is certainly coming along. Baby W has been kicking up a storm lately. He's still got room to move around quite a lot and I think he's been taking advantage. Don't worry though, he's not keeping me up at night yet! 

Well I must keep this short as I've got 15 people coming over for Thanksgiving dinner in 30 minutes!

consultant appointment

I saw my consultant today about my fibroid. She was very helpful. She explained what a fibroid is--a dense mass of muscle tissue, which grows, in my case, in the outer layer of my uterus. A lot of women have them and they can often go unnoticed. The hormones released during pregnancy can speed growth. My fibroid is on the larger side. It's over 10cm (4 inches), which by comparison, when your uterus is normal size is only 8cm (just over 3 inches). My fibroid is 'well placed,' in that it's not blocking the birth canal, nor will it affect me having a c-section should I need one.

The implications of the fibroid mean that there's that much less space for the baby, which means towards the end of my pregnancy, I might have more aches and pains than other women. It could also put extra pressure on my intestines which can also cause cramping (see last week's incident!). It's also harder to monitor the growth of the baby just by feeling my stomach, which is normally how they monitor growth from here until the birth. The result of this means I get three more ultrasounds at 28, 32 and 36 weeks.  We also got to see my little guy today:).  He was upside down and facing my back today, with his little legs curled under him. Sorry no photo today as it wasn't a full scan, just a quick one to check the heart rate. I also have a follow up appointment with the consultant at 36 weeks to discuss the birth.

In terms of removal, it's very highly unlikely that they would ever do anything during the pregnancy to remove the fibroid. After the birth, the blood supply to the fibroid can be cut off naturally, meaning it could shrink. If I ever need to have it removed, it's possible that it could be done laproscopically depending on how deep within the uterus it is lying. We won't be looking into this any further until after the birth unless it becomes an issue.

All in all, it's about as good of news as I could have gotten given the circumstances, which is a relief.

becoming a grown-up!

First pregnancy. Then a house. Today...a car!  Paul's motorbike just wasn't going to cut for a family of 3, so we've forked out for a car. A BMW 320 diesel with sport pack. That's an estate car as they say here, a station wagon to you in the States. Not exactly my first choice, but the SUVs don't really work as well on the small roads over here (and aren't economical or environmentally friendly). And Paul was set on getting one, it's good for the stroller and for our eventual dog he keeps saying.  So here it is:

It's graphite with cream leather interior. It's a 2006 model. And you know what all this means...I'm going to have to learn to drive it. It's a manual (stick shift) which I never learned, plus they drive on the wrong side of the road. The driving tests are notoriously hard over here too, so I'm nervous. Let's just hope Paul's a good teacher. I have to send off for a provisional license through the mail, which means also sending my passport away too.  Hopefully it doesn't take too long, wouldn't want it getting held up before our Christmas flights!

a little scare...

Last night around 10:15 I started to get some cramping in my lower abdomen. It became quite severe fairly quickly and we decided to call my midwife. She advised us to go to the birthing center at the hospital, so we took a taxi over there. We waited about 25 minutes to get into a private room and a midwife came and checked me out. We listened to the baby's heartrate for a while and she took all my vitals and everything was normal. The doctor then came in and checked for any signs of miscarriage and I wasn't dialating nor were there any signs of leaking fluids or blood, thankfully.  The cramping came in waves and was very painful. They gave me some paracetomal and codeine which resulted in me throwing up several times 30 minutes later. They also wanted a urine sample, which despite drinking several liters of water took me until 1:30am to produce.  The hospital staff were all very nice and Paul was amazingly supportive. We got home a little after 2 and the cramps had lessened enough for me to sleep.

They don't really know what the cause was. It could be ligaments stretching, but I think the baby's movements yesterday were putting pressure on my intestines.  The pain has gone down significantly today, but not gone completely. I went out for one meeting and then came home and took it easy the rest of the day. I plan to most likely work from home tomorrow. I've also had two follow up calls from various midwives.

what a busy week!!

Thursday: we sell our flat (finally!).
Saturday: see 7 houses
Monday: make an offer on one
Tuesday: find out that one has a recent insurance claim for subsidence. Go visit second favorite from Saturday to see garage and backyard as we weren't able to find keys to get out there with estate agent.
Today: make an offer on the second house, negotiate, and they accept.

Wahoo!
The house is lovely and, unlike the first, we can move straight into it with very little work. (The first needed new flooring and every room needed wallpaper stripping and a couple coats of paint.) Upstairs there are 4 bedrooms plus an office. Downstairs is the living and dining rooms, kitchen/breakfast room and the garage which has been coverted to a utility room It also has the most amazing three tiered garden. It's in a lovely neighborhood close to some good schools and half a mile walk to 3 different train stations, which will help with commuting.

Of course it's still very early and everything has to go to the lawyers and the house has to be surveyed, etc. A lot can go wrong, but I'm choosing to stay positive. We haven't been told any timeframe, but I'm working under the assumption it will be in Januray. Pray that everything goes smoothly from here on out.

Now the important bit, the photos:

front of the house

backyard

kitchen

living room

dining room

master bedroom

bathroom (also has separate shower)

Guest bedroom

Unfortunately there are no pictures of the soon to be nursery.

Good news!

We've finally had an offer on our flat and we've accepted! It was £5k less than what we really wanted to accept, but it's likely that if we wait for another buyer, prices might go up by that much for places we're looking. And I have a nursery to plan! So now starts the house hunting process. We're looking for a house in south outer London. We've spent most of this evening looking at what's around, and there's not a lot. But all we need is one good one. The next two Saturdays are the only two Saturdays we have free pretty much for the rest of the year. Wish us luck!

Mid-wife appt #3

I had another mid-wife appointment this morning. Very short and sweet. It was a follow up to the ultrasound.  I met with Uwa today, which is Mara's main partner (i.e. if Mara is not on call when I go into labour, it is likely to be Uwa helping me.) She was very friendy. She took my urine and blood pressure (100/65) and both were fine. She has also referred me to see a consultant about my fibroid. The appointment is in 3 weeks and she said the likely result would probably be more ultrasounds to make sure the fibroid doesn't impede the growth of the baby. Doesn't sound too bad to me...more opportunities to see my little boy:).  The other likely side effect of the fibroid is more pain as the baby gets bigger and starts pushing on or kicking the fibroid.  Will let you all know how it goes.

did you guess right?!

We had our scan this afternoon.  Everything about our little BOY looked perfect! He was perfectly average, which is slightly strange to think is a good thing.  The technician went through all his tiny body parts and did measurements and it all looked good.  He even turned over for us.  We got a couple of snaps of our little one. They looked pretty much the same but I thought I'd post them anyway. I'll try to get another one of my growing bump later this weekend.  Seeing our little man was the perfect way to celebrate our 5 year anniversary!  We did follow with a very nice dinner at the Boxwood Cafe which is a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.  No sign of him tonight though, but the food was pretty good. 

Don't even think about asking about the name though. We've gotta keep something back to surprise you all with when he comes next March.

Approaching the halfway point

20 weeks! Can't believe I'm halfway there!!  To celebrate 20 weeks and also our upcoming ultrasound this week, I'm giving you a chance to cast your opinion on the baby's sex.  That's right, I've caved to Paul's wishes and we're going to find out the sex on Friday.  If you want some guidance, my dad is absolutely convinced that it's a girl because when we told them with the baby bib (see earlier post), I wrapped it with a pink ribbon. Paul, on the other hand, thinks it's a boy because it was so full of squirms and punches in our last ultrasound. 

Cast your vote in the poll on the right! 

But it is a really nice flat...honest!

Not sure if I've mentioned this on here, but we're trying to sell our flat at the moment. We want to upgrade to a house for obvious reasons.  It went on the market at the end of May, before I was even preggers.  We haven't had a single offer yet. We've had plenty of viewings, reduced the price by £10,000 in August and switched estate agents, which really increased our viewings.  But still nothing. There hasn't really been much feedback other than those who can't live without a bathtub, which we don't have.  There also are very few 3 bed flats on the market in our area, which makes us unique.  Our estate agents have convinced us to drop the price again by £10,000. *Sigh*  Meanwhile the buzz in the news is that the housing market is on the up and prices are starting to rise.  We've seen evidence of that in the area we want to buy. Really hope this does the job quickly.  If you want to see pics of our place, they're here: http://www.kfh.co.uk/residential/flats-for-sale/london-kennington-se11-orsett-street/2050717/


I really want to get into a house before the baby comes. I have a nursery to plan! 

19 weeks

My bump is finally starting to look a little more like a proper bump under my clothes. 

Everything seems to be going fairly well. Nothing much to report. Paul and I have signed up for a NCT (National Childbirth Trust) antenatal course at the end of January after a recommendation from a friend.  With the course we get a year's membership to NCT, which will get us various discounts to various things and invites to 'nearly new' parties and coffees with other moms. 

My final thought goes to my family back home who've just lost my dad's brother-Uncle Pete- to cancer  He put family above everything else, making a point to find out how all his neices and nephews were doing, and never missing a birthday card.  He will be sorely missed.

ah-choo

So this might sound a little random, but I think this pregnancy makes me sneeze. I sneeze at least 10 times a day, maybe more. It doesn't seem connected with anything in particular--and I don't have itchy eyes or seem to develop any colds. It doesn't come with particular smells or anything.  I haven't read anything in any pregnancy books about sneezing as a symptom. I swear I didn't sneeze this much before, but who knows?!

Midwife appt #2

Yesterday Mara came to visit again.  It was a fairly quick visit.  Everything seems to be going well. She took my blood pressure (97/63) and did a urine test (normal), then we listened to the baby's heart rate (158) and we even heard a little kick!  She then went through the antenatal classes available.  She recommended Paul and I to the labour and birth workshop in February and a breastfeeding workshop in January. These are both one-off classes.  There are some other optional ones I can do if I'm interested (obstetric physiotherapy, expectant parents class, a talk by an anathesiologist, and tour of the birthing centre). 

I'm not sure what I expected from this whole midwife experience, but it feels a lot more impersonal that I thought it would be. If I didn't read What to Expect or the other pregnancy websites, I wouldn't really have a clue as to what's going on with the baby. It's more like going through a checklist than really asking me what's going on and how I'm feeling.  It's a good thing I have such supportive friends and family:)! 

My bump is growing a bit and the baby is sitting definitely sitting on the left side--I feel very lopsided.

Our next appointment is at 20 weeks and it's another ultrasound--probably our last one, so it'll be the only chance to find out the sex. Must decide!

Some amazing photos!

One of my colleagues showed me a copy of the G2 supplement in The Guardian today and there were some  incredible photos I thought I would share. They were originally taken in 1965 by Lennart Nilsson, which makes them even more amazing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2009/sep/30/unborn-children-health-pictures

The article was pretty good too: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/oct/01/lennart-nilsson-unborn-children

My favourite photo was one of 18 weeks, but unfortunately it's not in this gallery.  It was an amazing shot and only 2 weeks older than my little babe.  I had a look at his website which had even more photos (sadly not the 18 week one--maybe I'll have to buy the book): http://www.lennartnilsson.com/home.html

Here's a sneak preview of the images:

more questions

Q: Are you going to find out if it's a girl or boy?
A: Undecided.  We won't be able to find out until our 20 week ultrasound, which is on Oct 30th.  I don't want to find out, but Paul does. We haven't made a final decision. I think it would be nice to a surprise to look forward to on the day. Although knowing the sex would help with some planning and buying, we'll always be in need of gender neutral clothes if we're lucky enough to have more than one child!

Q: Is my mom coming over for the birth?
A: She is waiting to hear what Paul and I decide. I'm pretty sure I'll want her here at the beginning, but I haven't worked out all the details. We still have 6 months to decide. Paul has 2 weeks paid paternity leave, so whether it might be better for her to come after than, I don't know.  I think it would be nice for her to be her for the birth.

Q: Because I have a mid-wife does that mean I'm having a home birth?
A: NO!  Midwives are common practice over here. They're used for general pre- and post-natal check ups and help you through the birth, rather than having an Ob-gyn.  I could choose to have the baby at home, but I won't.  I don't want to take the risk if something goes wrong. Plus, I don't want to get my house all messy!

Q: Does having a baby mean we're moving back to the States?
A: Not YET. We do really want to move back, but the way the economy the way it is right now, it just doesn't make sense for us to immgrate back.  We're actually looking to buy a house here at the moment.  We put our flat on the market back in May but no offers yet.  We're looking to move out to the suburbs in south London (Bromley/Beckenham). We will move back, but it'll probably be another 3 or so years.   This isn't great news for my family of course, and that fact is the hardest for me, but we've been lucky so far to see them around 4 times a year, which is more than some families in the States see each other. 

Q. How much time will I get off work?
A. This is one of the greatest things about living in the UK. I get 6 months paid maternity leave, plus I can take a further 6 months unpaid and still return to the same job. Now, those first 6 months aren't all at full pay. A few weeks are at full pay, then it drops to 90% of earnings, then drops to a statutory wage. I haven't quite worked out all the financial implications, but I'm likely to take the full year if possible.  I also get 27 days (paid) vacation next year which I can also take at any time next year.

15 weeks--can't i look pregnant yet?

So my sister has been begging for a belly photo, and I meant to take one each week, but of course I always think about it when I'm by myself or have just gotten back from a run or cycling and look really horrible, so this is my first one. It may look like a bit of a bump, but that's not the baby as its still sitting very low, but I suppose it must be pushing around all my insides up cause my clothes are getting tighter, but I just feel pudgey. It will be nice to soon look properly pregnant and then people will stop having to wonder if I'm just putting on a little weight or if I'm actually pregnant and will just ask;).

So here you go Kimmy:

How are you feeling?

So the first thing nearly everyone has asked me after finding out I'm pregnant is how I'm feeling. I think I've been pretty lucky so far. I have been nauseous but not actually sick. I found if I eat something every couple of hours it helped, though I never really felt hungry. As lunch approached I'd feel particularly not like eating but knew if I ate I'd feel better, which was always the case. I kept a store of pretzels or fruit and nuts to snack on in my desk. Consequently, I put on about 8lbs and already have had to go back to my 'fat' jeans. I guess I'm lucky I lost all that weight during marathon training and still have all my pre-weightloss wardrobe to tide me over until the maternity clothes phase.

The last two weeks have been getting gradually better and I feel less sick and haven't been snacking as much. I've also been able to work out with my trainer Fiona for her last three weeks in England (once a week) and she's set me up with a three gym workouts, plenty of pelvic floor exercises and I've also been promised a post pregnancy workout as well. I've also been running 3 times a week for 30-40 min and still cycling to and from work (45min per day). I've also been trying to walk to work once a week (takes about 55 min). And I'm down 2 lbs. I know it will come back quickly once this baby hits a growth spurt, but a small little victory for me, since I knew a lot of my weight gain was extra food, not extra baby. I'm probably only run for about a month more and then switch to low impact cardio.

I'm officially done with the first trimester tomorrow when I will be 14 weeks. I'm looking forward to actually looking pregnant hopefully soon, and not just feeling a little chubby.

First official photo and new due date!

That's right, we had our first scan today (US translation: ultrasound). It was very last minute...had a phone call at 10 asking if I could come in at 2:30! (The hospital never receieved my original referral from my GP, so my midwife sent through a referral on Thursday, so I guess I went on a cancellation list.) Luckily, Paul was able to meet me at the hospital. I first had a blood test (testing for risk factors for Down's syndrome and a couple of other rare genetic disorders). Then we waited for about an hour before we got in for the scan.

Seeing the baby was very fun, s/he moved around a lot and was even sucking their thumb a few times (so cute!). The technician measured all sorts of things and took pictures of both hands and feet, head, bladder!, spine, abodmen, head, and the cord (and we watched the blood flow too which she made red and blue with some fancy tool). We heard the heartbeat too: 156bpm. The baby is 6.26cm from crown to rump (2.5 inches). And judging from all these measurements and stuff I am 12weeks 4 days pregnant our EDD (estimated due date) is March 12th.

Blood work and scan measurements showed the risk for Down's and the other genetic disorders is considered to be low. Hurrah!

One slight concern which was spotted first was that I have what looks like a fibroid on my uterus (official medical name: fundal subserosal anterior fibroid mass). It's 9.2cm x 7.8cm x 10.2 cm (3.6in x 3.1in x 4in) and I can feel it in my abdomen (I previously had thought it was the womb). She said there is some blood flow in it, so it's unlikely to be a tumor and she spoke with the doctor on call and she said that they'll monitor it at my next scan. There's not much they can do about it now anyway since I'm already pregnant. She said it means I might have more discomfort in my pregnancy, but shouldn't affect much else. I was doing a bit of reading and apparently they're fairly common in women and the cause isn't known.

In the waiting room we randomly ran into one of our downstairs neighbours who are due about a week after us! Another downstairs neighbour is also preggo and a bit further along. We all have the same midwife. How random (well probably not random about the midwife, but that we are all preggers)! There must be something in our water:).

We also scheduled my next scan (20 weeks) for Oct 30th, which also happens to be our anniversary!

PS I had to pay £2.00 to get a copy of the ultrasound!

Midwife appt #1

I had my first midwife appointment today. In England, all your primary care is done through your GP. I don't have an OB--all previous gynecological care has been through my GP (birth control, smears, etc). Now that I'm pregnant, I get referred to a team of midwives who work in my local area. There are 5 on the team, and I will have one main contact, Mara, who works in partnership with one other midwife (Uwa), but I will eventually get to meet the entire team should one of mine be on leave. They do most appointments at my home which is nice. I will be referred to the hospital when I need ultrasounds (standard ones are at 11-13 weeks and 18-20 weeks).

So I met with Mara today, she was very nice and reassuring. We ran through my medical history and filled out a heap of forms. She then took blood and urine samples and took my blood pressure (118/63). She answered all my questions and gave me a bunch of booklets and things on pregnancy. Apparently there is a pregnancy epidemic in my area and she wants to organise a movie night for all the expectant moms, which is sweet. They also run weekly antenatal aqua-aerobics, but unforutnately the class is during lunch and I don't work nearby. All in all, everything was fairly straightforward. I don't have a lot of high risk factors, which is good. I should be getting my appointment letter for an ultrasound soon--very exciting.

I also met with my trainer (Fiona) this morning. She worked with me throughout my marathon training and is very good (I did finish!). She loves working with pregnant moms, and it's a real shame that she's moving back to New Zealand in a few weeks. I hope to squeeze in another session or two before she goes. She's going to write up some workouts for me and she briefed me on the three main things not to do: jumping (due to impact), over the head exercises (raises your blood pressure), and exercises lying on your back (it puts pressure on the oxygen supply to the baby). She also says not to do ab exercises (but there are mixed views on this one). So far in my pregnancy I've been running about 3 times a week for 35-45 mins (4-5 miles). I'm much slower than during marathon training (no surprise), and I'll probably only keep the running up for about another month. I'm going start going back to the gym and do weight training and when I can't run anymore do low impact cardio (swimming, walking, elliptical, etc). Today was the first weight training I've done in about 2 months and I can already feel the lactic acid building up, but will just have to tough it out as I'm not allowed ibuprofen (but can take paracetemol if necessary).

We're pregnant!

...and very excited. I'm at 11 weeks, which means the little one is due March 17th--St Patrick's day! I know a lot of friends and family are curious about healthcare in the UK, so I thought I'd start this blog now, so I can share our experiences. Not that I know anything about having a baby in the US, but all you moms over there will, so you'll have to let me know the differences.

The timing for us has been very fortunate in that we already had a scheduled trip to the States to my parent's beach house in Hilton Head, so we were able to tell my parents in person, which was the best:). To tell them we had a baby bib printed which said Hilton Head beach baby, which we wrapped in silver with a pink bow (all I had) so my dad's convinced it'll be a girl. My brother came down a couple days after him so we prepared a dinner of sliders (baby hamburgers), baby potatoes, baby corn, cherry tomato salad, but he only caught on when my dad accidentally slipped and asked me if I wanted a virgin sea breeze. It was classic, he was shocked. Later that night we conferenced my sisters who weren't coming for another week to tell them over the phone. They were full of squeals and Kim even moved her flight up a couple of days because she was so excited. Here are some photos from our trip:

The weekend after we got back (which was last weekend) we headed down to Eastbourne to tell Paul's parents. For them, we bought a t-shirt for David, which said World's Greatest Grandpa. They were equally pleased to hear our news. And we called Paul's brother and sister-in-law (Sam and Sian) on Sunday and spoke to Sam, the news seemed to sink in as we talked to him and he got more and more excited. Here's a photo of them opening the gift: