CONTEMPLATING THE BIRTH

I have my next midwife appointment scheduled for the 11th April at which point it will be time to sit down and work out my birth plan. I have pretty much been in denial about how I am going to get this baby boy out of my growing belly and the bigger it gets the more I try to block it out. But I can't live in denial forever. I wish it could be as simple as the stork dropping the baby into the bassinet beside my bed while I slept but unfortunately that isn't quite how it works (sadly for us woman folk!) and I somehow need to push this baby out. To be honest at this point I am a whole lot more excited about giving birth than I am terrified, but I am sure as the time draws closer that will change! I have only 13 weeks and 3 days to go and the closer I get the more people ask me what my birth plans are. Will I have an epidural? Will I try a natural birth? At hospital or at home? Eek! I have started doing some research and:

#1. I will definately be having this baby at the main hospital in my city. I have nothing against homebirths but I'm not taking any chances. The smaller hospital closer to home which I know is a nicer environment does not have any obs or access to drugs and if something does start going wrong you have to be taken to the larger hospital via ambulance as they don't have the facilities to deal with it. I just don't want to risk it.

#2. Epidurals - I think I would like to try a natural birth but have the option of an epidural if I want it. I don't know if that decision is based on me wanting a natural birth or based on the fact that many of the woman I have spoken to about their birth experiences are against epidurals and managed to birth without one, putting the fear of god into me that epidurals are bad. My midwife is a bit old school and seems to be singing the same tune. The jury is still out on this one. Do I really want to endure all that pain when I don't have to?

#3. Waterbirth. I think this is what I want to try. The hospital we are going to is newly renovated and each birthing unit now has a birthing pool and I think I would like to attempt this. My midwife said the hospital isn't overly keen on waterbirths but will allow it if the midwife is happy to do this and mine is. I'm still thinking about this one though and really need to do some more research.

Those of you who have given birth before - did you have a birth plan? Did you stick to it or did it go out the window completely when the time came? Did you have an epidural? Those who haven't given birth before whether you are still TTC or currently pregnant - is this anything you have given much thought to?

Any advice/opinions more than welcome!

THE 'BEFORE' SHOTS

As promised, below are some before shots. Not very interesting by any means but at least now it'll show the difference with the after shots! As the weather forecast predicted, today was raining BUT the HG went out last night and wasn't in a good way this morning. In fact, he wasn't in a good way when he stumbled into the house at 3am and wanted to discuss his evening with me either! Why do men do this? They get drunk and then want to tell you about it even if you are sleeping (or in my instance, trying to sleep!) and you know they're drunk when they then proceed to repeat the same story over and over and over . . . he eventually retired to the lounge with a bowl. We all know what the bowl was for but luckily he didn't need to use it (although I believe the toilet came in handy for the same purpose!) Hehe. Needless to say, no work was done today but I have been promised a full productive day dedicated to the room tomorrow. Watch this space!

The room . . . still haven't quite decided what we plan to do to transform it into a little boys paradise just yet!

Showing the floor after the ceiling was demolished.

Note the hole in the wall towards the ceiling!

WE HAVE A START!

A big hello to all my lovely blog followers! Sorry I have been so slack on the blogging front lately. I sometimes go to write a post but first I tend to catch up on other blogs and sometimes by the time I have finished reading and commenting on the other IF blogs I read (of which there sadly hasn't been the best news lately) I feel like by coming on here and writing a post about my pregnancy, it is a bit like rubbing salt in the wound. So I don't post and then I realise how useless I have been at keeping everyone up to date. For those of you who are struggling at the moment, I feel for you, I really do. I haven't forgotten my 3 years of TTC by any means and I hope to see a big run of BFP's in the near future.

I am 25w4d now and the HG has FINALLY started tackling that nursery. I rejoiced to see the bad weather starting to set in this week and rejoiced even more when he came home last night after a night out fishing (the one night this week that the weather has been good enough) and said he had some bad news . . . the Snapper have left the coast. YIPPEE!! This means fishing season is coming to a close and I get my husband back! He is obsessed with fishing and this season has been out on the boat even more so than usual as he knows next year he won't be able to get out quite as frequently and I am fine with that. But, I need that nursery done! He's had a great run this summer with endless fish and crayfish but it's coming to a close as Autumn sets in and therefore the nursery has been getting some more attention, just not quite in the way I expected. So I came home the other night and the ceiling had been torn down. Dust and broken wood chips covered EVERYTHING. I was of the impression we were going to paint the walls and move the furniture in . . . hmm . . . so much for that idea! I just hope it gets finished now (unlike the outside of the house which has been half finished for the last three years and the bathroom which had the ceiling replaced but only got one swipe of paint and looks it). What is it with men doing DIY but never finishing what they started?! I will endeavor to take a photo this weekend to show you the state of the soon to be nursery so that I can do before and after shots. Hopefully more progress gets made this weekend as the rain and cold sets in (YES!!!).

As for me, I am still experiencing the joy of the second trimester and feeling great. Sleeping really well (apart from crazy dreams), still feeling comfortable so no backache or aches and pains except a bit of rib pain occasionally but I am getting bigger and baby is moving around and kicking a little harder every day (hard enough to wake me up at 3.30am two nights in a row!) but I am starting to get to the point where I am so excited I just want to meet him! Now I understand why pregnant woman get so impatient about having their babies. I used to sit there and think 'Just enjoy your pregnancy, they'll be here soon enough!' but now I get it.

Can't wait to meet you little man! 14 weeks to go!

25 WEEKS!

Woohoo! Today I hit the 25 week mark which means if the worst was to happen and bubs decided to come early (stay put little one!) then he would have a chance of surviving. This is a huge milestone for me, I have been waiting to get here since the 20 week scan. Pregnancy seems to have so many milestones - the BFP, the first scan, the 12 week scan, the 20 week scan and now hitting the 25 week mark. My friend had her daughter at 25 weeks and she is now a happy and healthy 5 year old with no lasting health concerns. It's amazing what modern medicine can achieve.

LET THE DECORATING BEGIN (& THE LATEST BUMP PIC)

We have finally cleared out the spare room so we can start turning it into a nursery. The cot is on layby along with the pram, I have the change table and set of drawers and then it's just a matter of decorating. Trying to decide what to do is so hard! We are thinking of doing a half and half paint when it comes to the walls - blue at the top and white at the bottom. We have all white furniture and as mentioned in my last entry, a charcoal sofa but getting the HG to actually START decorating the nursery is somewhat impossible while the weather is still nice and there is fishing to be done. Take today for example - after the earthquake in Japan (which was catastrophic and my heart goes out to all the Japanese people) the NZ civil defence put out a warning to avoid all waterways and not go swimming or boating while the alert was in place. So what does my husband do? Rings me at 8am after visiting the beach to say that he is going out diving. Hmm . . . is it a man thing? I mentioned the warning which was all over the news and he was like 'but everyone else is doing it, there's a million boats out, stop worrying'. Ok, so nothing happened but men and their hobbies! He then proceeded out fishing this evening and the weather is perfect again tomorrow. In the meantime the babies room isn't really doing much. I can't believe I'm saying this but please, please let the weather start to pack up! Once it's painted I can start to do my part!

In other news, I had my monthly midwife appointement last night and everything is fine and dandy with baby (nice strong heartbeat, a few almightly kicks and my bump is measuring well) BUT I will need to see a specialist at the antenatal clinic at the hospital due to my asthma and the potential of an attack while in labour. It's started to go downhill since the cooler evenings and mornings set in and the baby starts taking up more room and squishing things. I also found out that my meds could potentially delay labour when it comes to my due date so we need to make a plan as to how we are going to manage it. Hopefully it won't be a problem when the time comes because I am making a real effort to try and think positively about the birth and not go into it terrified. The HG made a comment about it the other day that I found less than supportive (something along the lines of how much it's going to hurt, how big a babies head is, how it'll have to come out such a small hole and will probably rip it to shreds and how he's so glad he isn't a woman!) and I promptly burst into tears (and he got told off by our midwife for saying less than supportive comments. Hehe) so I really hope my asthma isn't going to be a problem as being short of breath is very distressing. Does anyone else suffer from asthma who has given birth? Was it an issue?

And to finish off below is my latest bump pic at 23w5d. Needless to say getting my socks on is becoming somewhat an issue and the HG is going to have to start having a lesson in doing it for me. At least he'll be an expert by the time baby arrives and I can have him dressing him like an expert in no time!

IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY & I'LL CRY IF I WANT TO

You must be wondering what that blog title is all about? Well, basically it's been a rough week. First I had the awful tummy bug strike me down and spent two days without food and struggling to keep down fluids. Not my idea of fun! This was Tuesday and Wednesday and I actually managed to work through most of Tuesday (have become quite adept at spewing and then going on with my workload after dealing with the MS!) but it started to knock me down as the day went on and I pulled all the muscles in my bump from the vomiting which made walking sore. So, the HG was kind enough to come and collect me and I rewarded him by spewing in his work truck on the way home. We were on the motorway so I didn't have alot of options other than one of those paper McDonalds takeaway bags and of course there had to be a hole in it. The only good part (if you can call it that!) was that I hadn't eaten since 10am so it was only the red powerade that came up. Liquid isn't so bad and the truck came away unscathed, it was me that got a bit icky! Joy. Needless to say I took the Wednesday off work to recover.

Friday was my 29th birthday and I was still feeling drained when I woke up that morning  after being so sick and despite the HG making a fuss of me and wishing me happy birthday, I then went to work and when I spoke to him later burst into tears because I missed my mum. My birthday was always a special time for us as we always did something special together and she'd make a big deal of it, so every birthday I miss her more than any other day of the year. Next year will obviously be a very different experience with an 8 month old in the house and I can't wait for that. I can't wait to do for him on his birthday what my mum used to do for me on mine. The HG surprised me with a lovely chocolate mud cake birthday cake he'd purchased (and it was huge!) that night served with ice-cream to follow my requested macaroni cheese for dinner, so that perked me up in the evening. 

When people used to speak of pregnancy hormones I didn't really understand what they meant . . . until now! I quit my antenatal classes because I got pissed off with their total lack of communication (and when I say 'lack of' I mean 'zero' communication) and decided to go elsewhere (and told them so). I then went to buy a couch today on an interest free deal and when the interest free deal was taking so bloody long to organise with some stupid finance company I chucked it on my credit card in annoyance and got snarky with them for making it so bloody difficult when every other furniture store in town makes it easy. I was already pissed off because I have wanted that particular couch for ages (it's a fold out bed one) but they only had it in chocolate and it's going in the nursery and I didn't want chocolate (said in a whiny tone) so I had left my name and number and asked them to call me if any other colours came in store and no one did . . . but when I went in today they had ONE charcoal one left which was my ideal colour and they'd got it in a couple of weeks ago. Do they not want to make a sale? 

Anyway, I hope this week is brighter! 

PS: Sorry for the rambling blog entry, it's been awhile!

MISERABLE

I have a tummy bug. I know it's a tummy bug because it is combined with the awful chills, fever, faintness and all that other nasty stuff that comes with a tummy bug. I haven't been able to keep any food down all day and have been ill so violently it's pulled all my tummy muscles and makes it hard to walk. And yet at 4.41pm I am still at work. I just want to go to bed.