Well, after many months of waiting to get large enough that people recognise I’m pregnant and not just a little chubby, the time has come. I woke up yesterday with quite a large pronounced belly, and took the opportunity to get Tim to take some belly shots. It’s taken it’s time in showing well, but I really don’t mind. I feel like I’m starting to waddle though. I’m not eagerly wanting bubby to come yet though like I’ve heard many other people remark. Give me a month and I may feel differently. We are now at 35 weeks, so it’s 5 weeks until D day.
I think I’ve just realised how soon that actually is. As we’ve been getting things from people, they’ve been piling up in the spare room/nursery, and just this week we’ve started sorting through everything and making sure that it’s all washed and cleaned. Hanging up load after load of baby clothes really tested the amount of pegs that we have. We’ve been really blessed with the amount of things we’ve been given. We have a good amount of baby clothes, and while most of them are blue, if Zelky proves to be a female, I have no problem dressing her in Thomas outfits. Who am I to say that she doesn’t like cars and planes?
We heard about a baby market in Cannington, which is just about five minutes down the road from where we’re renting so we went and had a look on the weekend. It was incredible. It was basically just people who had tables set up with all of their second hand baby stuff trying to get rid of it, and it was decent stuff. It was also ridiculously cheap. Very helpful. We bought 7 outfits for $3, and then I splurged $4 on an adorable pair of Peter Rabbit denim overalls. While we were there we ran into a couple from our birthing class who told us about a cot, so after sussing it out, we grabbed it for $100. My sister-in-laws were willing to lend me their cots, but I figured we’re going to use it for more than one child, so I really wanted my own. And it’s beautiful. I’m so excited about it. It’s five years old, made in Mandurah, and has been used for two kids. Despite that, it’s in really good condition. I love it.
Our birth classes have been running for three weeks now, and are loads of fun. We are getting along with everyone really well, and they are predominantly younger than I expected them to be. Still in their twenties, early thirties, but its a really relaxed funny environments. The blokes are getting really into it too, which lightens the mood of the whole thing considerably. It’s a very varied group of people, we have couples from Holland, Russia, England, America. We even have a gay couple which was a bit of a shock to me. It’s the one thing I’m looking forward to most weeks now.
Katherine, Tim’s sister, held a baby shower for us on Saturday. She did the whole thing marvellously. The invitations were purple, with a blue strip on them (Apparently it’s quite difficult to do unisex invitations) and the whole night was a lot of fun. We got together with just the family earlier on to have a BBQ which was the first time we’ve had a sit down dinner with all of us in a while. The games were a lot of fun, (imagine trying to convey ‘milk drunk’ with a only a blob of play dough) and it was really good to enjoy everyone’s company. Thanks to you guys who put time and effort into it, and who came along to support us.
We had our last ultrasound this week, just to check on the baby. They noticed at our 18 week scan that the cord was around Zelky’s neck. It’s not a rare thing. It’s just rare for them to pick up on it so early, and for it to stay there through the entire pregnancy. So it’s still wrapped, but only once. Blood flow is good, and it’s not tight, so nobody is worried. It happens in about 20% of pregnancies. Other than that, baby is growing well. They’re estimating the weight at about 2.4kg or 5.3 pounds. It’s head down, optimal position, so all’s go. Everything is fine, no complications, and I’m still a low risk pregnancy. We have a new midwife now who is absolutely lovely. She’s really supportive and very experienced. My mum will be flying into Perth in a month. She’ll be staying for 3 weeks, so we’re hoping bubs will show up somewhere in that time frame.
I had a blood test a week or so ago which showed I have really low iron levels, a big surprise for me. We eat SO MUCH red meat it’s not funny. But apparently our baby likes to steal my red meat supplies too. That explains why I’ve been so tired, but now that we know, we can focus on getting me up to speed again. The test also gave me the best bruise of my entire life, with the exception of that point blank paint ball I got hit with in grade 11. Never going paint balling again.
So that’s been the last week in a very large nutshell. Everything has been baby focused. We’ve been taking quite a bit of time to focus on where we want to be going as a family, and what is important to us, and who knows, we may see some changes come out of that. Life is getting busier, but we don’t expect it to slow down. Not soon anyway.