antenatal course #1

Paul and I went to our first of three antenatal classes today. These are put on by the National Childbirth Trust which has local branches. Our class was made up of 6 couples all who live in our area, all due in mid March with their first child. One couple lives even lives one street over from us and kindly gave us a ride home. The facilitator was trained as a nurse and midwife and had moved to teaching antenatal courses after have two children. She has been teaching courses for 23 years now! She was very knowledgable and encouraging.


The course started with some getting to know everyone chats and then we split into groups of men and women and brainstormed things we wanted to get out of the course. She started with some general questions and moved more specifically onto late pregnancy. The bulk of the rest of the course was on the the different stages of the labor process. We went over signs of labor, when to call your midwife and when to go into the hospital. She went over what happens and why and what can help. This included practicing different positions, breathing and also, my favorite...massage techniques.

Paul and I feel a lot more informed already. We are seriously considering changing our birth hospital to one down here so we can stay at home as long as possible and not have to worry about driving all the way up to the hospital I have been going to, which could take an hour or more to drive to in heavy traffic.


I won't go into all the details of what we learned today, but I think the most surprising thing we learned was that you are encouraged to stay in an upright, forward leaning position as much as possible throughout labor and even during the birth. This can be standing, sitting, kneeling or squatting. It isn't all about laying back with your feet up in stirrups like they make it out to be on tv. Being upright and forward allows for greater assistance by gravity and also is a much better pelvic position for moving the baby out of the birth canal. They also want you to do what's most comfortable for you throughout the process. I think the course was also very helpful for the guys in preparing them and enabling them to know how best to help us get through it all.

8 weeks to go!!

I celebrated entering my eigth month with a 32 week scan. Everything looked good. I must have been eating well because he's gained over a pound and a half and is up to 4lb 3oz. He's still on the average trajectory in all his measurements, which is great.  He was head down and facing the fibroid (left) which is good. And the best part...he had the hiccups!  I've felt them a few times this week actually, they don't last that long. They also measured the fibroid which hasn't grown anymore which is good news. 

Because he was facing the fibroid it was hard to get a good shot of him, but this will have to do. You can see his profile right and his little hand is resting under his chin. How cute!?

And, as promised, here are the two snaps from the 28 week ultrasound.The little circles above his mouth aren't bubbles, it's the cord:)

The secret to maternity pants

And by pants I mean trousers for all you UK readers.

So from about month 5 or 6 I've been wearing full on maternity clothes, and found that I really hated most pants because they were really saggy once you start moving around. Maternity pants have basically two types of stretchy bands at the waist-ones that go under the bump and ones that go over. Neither fit very well. I've even tried different sizes. I always feel like I want a belt, but unfortunately there's nowhere to put one. But after Christmas I had an idea. I started using my stretchy band that I used in the in between stage when I just couldn't quite button up my regular pants. I put this on over the stretchy band on the maternity pants and it works like a charm. If you don't know what I'm talking about, have a look here: http://www.motherhood.com/Shop_MotherhoodMaternity/Tummy_Sleeve.asp. (Looking at that link I'm realizing I'm not the first person to think of this.  Guess I overlooked that feature when I first got this thing--oh well nevermind.) I'm so pleased not have to walk 10 steps and hike up my pants. I'm sure it wasn't an attractive look.

mid wife appt #5

This post is slightly overdue, but we since we aren't in our home yet we haven't had regular internet access and we were out a lot last week furniture browsing.  I had another mid wife appt last Monday.  This time in the office. I know now why they do home visits. Their offices were not very nice or welcoming.  I ended up having to wait 5 minutes in the freezing cold waiting for someone to arrive to open the office. I was the first appointment of the day at 10am! It was all normal stuff. Blood pressure (normal), urine test (normal), bump measurement was 32 cm (12.5 inchces), a 6 cm growth in 4 weeks. We also did some routine blood tests, which I think were for hemoglobin levels. I'll get the results next month (unless there's a problem).

My mom has been asking me how long I'm likely to be in the hospital after baby comes so I finally asked. Apparently you can be discharged as soon as 8 hours after giving birth if both mom and baby are ok. Seems quick, doesn't it!?  I've got my antenatal classes in two weeks, so I'll find out more then.

I've got another ultrasound on Friday so stay tuned for photos. Need to also post the photo fromt the last one, but I don't have access to a scanner, so you'll just have to wait a bit longer. Sorry!