The last few weeks have been a bit of a roller coaster in many ways. Emotionally, and time wise. Just how life has played out.
It feels like nearly a quarter of the year has gone, and there is little to show for it. I fight that with the truth, which is that our lifestyle has changed fairly significantly, we are in a new house. We are both studying, and even though that doesn’t feel like progress, it means that the assessments we have done never have to be repeated. There are a few months less that we ever have to do.
I got sent off for a growth scan about two weeks ago because as the pregnancy has progressed, my measurements have been lagging behind what they should more and more significantly. I started to feel like something wasn’t right, so we called it quits and went to have another scan.
We had tried to avoid them in this pregnancy because with Nathan we had about 5. A dating scan early on, then the normal 18-20 week morphology scan. On that scan they noticed a shadowy region in his stomach and the cord was around his neck. Next scan showed the shadowy region was nothing, but then they got curious about the cord around his neck. So they had a couple more scans just to check on that cord (morons) and to check on weight and stuff. A little fact for you all, the cord is around babies neck in about 1/3 of births. Midwives just slip it over the head, it doesn’t cause any issues and you as a mother would barely ever know. Nothing scary about it.
All that to say we were needlessly worried and bothered for nothing. It wasn’t even around his neck when he was born.
So this time around we wanted to avoid the stress, inaccuracy and ultimately unproven safety of ultrasounds. We did the 18 week scan because knowing placental position is quite helpful.
The scan we had showed a significant discrepancy between the size of the babies head and stomach. This pretty much indicated that the baby was starving itself to get nutrients to the head, indicating IUGR, growth restriction. Blood tests and bp at that time were also not positive regarding my own health. So upon consultation with my GP and advice from an obstetrician, I had monitoring regularly with repeat scans to check on babies wellbeing. We bulked up my diet with protein and other natural remedies and prayed. A lot of praying. By a lot of people.
I said to my friend during that time that with the amount of people praying there was no way things could go badly!
And I swear over the first week of doing that I felt my belly grow.
We had another scan just over a week later which showed that there was no problem with the baby whatsoever. The first scan could not have been so extremely wrong, but the problem could not have just fixed itself in a week either. I am convinced that it was God proving again that this baby is a miracle, and covered by His blessing.
The story behind this baby even existing is a pretty awesome one.
But during that whole time, and even now to be honest, I haven’t felt the best. I’ve been getting tired and weak very quickly. I feel nauseous and dizzy and breathless most of the time. Mum took Nathan for two nights and a day last week so I could get some rest, and I really needed it. I’ve taken a break from church responsibilities too, we didn’t even go on Sunday (The first time in… a very long time). I’ve barely been getting out of the house so I’m missing people, but I don’t feel up to doing very much. I don’t remember feeling anything like this at the end of my pregnancy with Nathan. If I went into labour right now, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to jump up, go to Kings Park and then do a crazy morning tour of the city before coming home to have the baby, and not because I don’t live in Perth anymore.
Tim is wanting the baby to come before Easter. I still don’t feel prepared for its arrival, and so I don’t expect it will be very soon, but before Easter would be nice. I’m just hoping that when it makes its grand entrance that my health will start to pick up a bit, I will feel a bit better.