Our miracle is here

My friends, you wouldn't believe what happened in the last couple of weeks. I will update as soon as I go back home but I wanted to let you know that on the 1st of January 2011 our little miracle came into the World by emergency c-section. There was major drama and I'll tell you all the details asap but all was well in the end by a pure act of God, I've no doubt. It's a boy like I always thought and I'm in love all over again.
Like Mike said, "Elvis has left the building" and although we still have to make an effort, we named him Oliver. He weighed 2.57 kg (a little over 5lb) but he's feeding well on formula, I hope my milk will come in and will try bf.
Hoping to go home on Wednesday at the latest, hopefully Tuesday night but they'd like to keep me in till Thursday. Visitors are not allowed due to swine flu alert and so it's really boring and difficult as I have Oliver in my room all the time but I'm still sore from surgery and I'm not too efficient yet. Thankfully the baby is an angel! I'll post pics soon!

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35 weeks and tiling

Oh girls, have you ever heard of an almost 8 month pregnant woman tiling a bathroom? Me neither... but lets start from the beginning.

Mike came home on wednesday morning from Mexico, it went very well but he was quite tired and jet-lagged. With the attic nearing completion, Mike had one job to do. Tiling the bathroom. It was a project, he never did such a thing before and it seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, the builders are out of the house as of this morning, the painter is in till wednesday to decorate and that's it. The plumber was called on friday to see would he be able to come today to fix the sanitary-ware if Mike could guarantee the bathroom was ready by 8 am this morning. The plumber could not be 100% sure but said unless there is an emergency call he will be in. So as of wednesday afternoon of last week Mike was on the project. And I was too. I have to say this is a much bigger job than we though and part of the problem is that Mike is a total perfectionist who needs to plan for ages before actually get going. After deciding where to start on thursday we had the first few tiles up. Note that while tiler generally tile around pipes projecting from the wall, Mike drilled holes into the tiles so that each tile would fit like a glove around the pipe. Do you have any idea of the amount of measuring, cutting and cursing that this take? By the time it was friday I started to help with the project. We had to have it all tiled by saturday evening to be able to grout. Despite working till 2am on saturday we had not finished. Up early on Sunday, and worked until we dropped. I gave up at around 1am saying "feck the bathroom, we have three in the house already, this one can certainly wait until January", Mike decided to stay and try and get the floor grouted. He finished at 4am this morning. We had not been given enough grout. We still don't know even if the plumber is coming today! What we know for sure is that a tiling job this perfect has never been seen on Hearth and we are aching and tired from head to toes... Pictures of the whole development will be posted as soon as we move back in and I have broadband again!

And I'm 35 weeks pregnant let's not forget the important bit. Picking up a pencil from the floor to mark a tile for a cut is no easy task let me tell you. I'm absolutely exhausted. The heavy job didn't seem to bother Elvis the least though, he kept moving and poking and rolling and stretching! Braxton Hicks were as always (I thought all this extra work could have induced early labour but obviously not!) no more and no less. The kicks are now right up the rib-cage and can be quite uncomfortable to be honest. I thought how to describe the feeling of the rolls and I think I found the perfect example...it's like those chairs that massage your back! Except it's in your belly! What do you think?

The scale tells me I've now piled up a total of 16kg. And I feel them all. I'm heavy and can't put my boots on without being out of breath. Not complaining, just stating!

As for other symptoms the sleeping is often interrupted by pee-breaks and generally a stuffed nose as soon as I put my head on the pillow! The lungs feel squashed and so does the stomach, Ithink I'm being a bit nauseous at times too. Still no stretch marks on the belly and have a look below...it's certainly stretching! Week 34 is missing from the series boohoo but you can see the progress.

Finally I want to apologise for my lack of commenting, you are all in my thoughts I'm hoping to get back to my usual self in about a week time!

OB visit 34w2d

Wow, I've been posting a lot these days!

Just need to update on my OB visit this morning, all well, Dr. L is extremely happy with the scan and all the parameters (he said the blood flow is excellent!! wohoo!!). Mom was with me at this visit too, she absolutely loves seeing the scans.

My next appointment is in two more weeks, but with the Christmas holidays the Dr. is going away for a few days and has me booked in for the 1st of January at 10! He said to enjoy this last Christmas with the two of us alone eehehe.

At the next visit I'll also get a vaginal swab done to check for Strep B infections, I'll be 36w6d by then. We are nearly at the finishing line...

Elvis this morning did a little show for the doctor also, dancing around through the belly! It's as if in the last three days or so he's run out of space completely and he's constantly stretching. I love it!

Mike is flying back today, his talk went well, and we've only been texting each other so I'm dying to hear how it all went. Looking forward to going back to our home routine!

34 weeks down, 6 to go!

My little honeydew is definitely growing! I have to say after the initial MASSIVE appearance of stretch marks on my boobs I have not suffered any others on the belly...it is still too soon to tell I suppose, but I thought I make a note of it for now. Still having plenty of Braxton Hicks, getting up much more often for peeing and I'm eating plenty. My weight is probably a bit higher than the last week but as it's not officially a full Kg I'll keep it at +15kg for now! Following the advice of the midwife who did the pre-natal I've started drinking raspberry leaf tea (I had used it in the past for menstrual cramps). She assured us it won't start labour, but after 34 weeks it should help toning the uterus, so there you go!

You guys were asking about pictures, well I don't have any really, I didn't know but at this gestational age is much more difficult to get a proper shot...we saw the belly, the cord, the head etc but no real profile view to talk about. I do have 3 pics which show the fluid (the deepest pocket), the cord flow and the edge of the placenta, but they are not very interesting I'm afraid. I'll post them though just for the blog records!

Other interesting measurements were:

BPD 83.5 mm

HC 306.8 mm

AC 285.8 mm

FL 67.1 mm

Estimated foetal weight 2.2 Kg (4lb 13oz)

Doppler:

PI 0.83

RI 0.56

S/D 2.26

HB 134bpm

Do you know much about the numbers? They are all within ranges as far as I can tell (the femur is above average, while everything else is slightly below average) but I decided not to do too much research as I know I will obsess (yet again!).

Next visit is tomorrow with the OB. As Mike is away I didn't take a 34w photo yesterday (boohoo) so I'll be posting the next set on Sunday at 35w.

Attic is also coming along, two more weeks and we should move back in!! I'll post the series of pics then.

Finally I've to admit I've given up yoga... first it was the snow and then the icy roads, today I'm just thinking I may as well save the petrol...I really didn't like the teacher, I have only mentioned it once I think how I thought it was a waste of time, as it hasn't got any better unfortunately. I'm doing my Kegel exercises and I want to start on perineal massages soon, that'll have to do!

Scan update

This is my first attempt to update the blog from my mobile! Fingers crossed!

I just wanted to let you know that the scan today was great, Elvis is right on track, plenty of fluid, the placenta is higher (not a concern any more!) and the little one scored 8/8 on his biophysical profile!!

Mom was with me as Mike flew out this morning for his conference. First leg of the journey was great (Dublin-Atlanta) and he's waiting to get the flight to Cancun at the moment.

Very happy overall and looking forward to my next visit on Tuesday, I'll post some more on Monday for my weekly update!

Still alive and 33 weeks!

We had really severe weather so college only reopened today! In the temporary apartment I have no broadband and updating from the phone is not great, hence the silence!

First of all, thank you for your kind comments on MIL, after a shaky couple of days she is doing brilliantly, she's in great form and the physiotherapist is so impressed with her progress (she's can transfer herself from the bed to the wheelchair unassisted) that they are talking of sending her to a rehab structure within a week! This people is once again a sign of what a fantastic woman she is. FIL is the one that seems to cope worse and hopefully he'll come to term with it soon.

On the other relatives I have no updates, it seems that in one case all is clear thankfully while in the other we still don't know.

And I just noticed that little Elvis is as big as a honeydew!! This is the second last fruit!! Amazing.

So some update on the pregnancy. I am definitely more tired. Similar to how I felt in the first trimester with the added weight though. And talking about weight...the scale said I'm up another kg so I've hit +15 eek!! Ah well, not too bothered really, I will work to lose the weight afterwards! I'm having cramps in my calves and don't sleep that well at all. I do get up at least twice a night for a pee and a sip of water, I have stuffed nose and occasional headaches....but I'll take anything that comes my way!

Another thing is that Mike pointed out at the weekend that I have a "line" developing below my bellybutton! It's the linea nigra!! It's barely visible and nothing like what some ladies get, but still I like it! According to this website which reports all the old wives' tales this would mean that Elvis is an Elvissina! Same as the heart rate and the fact that I'm craving for sweet things....mmhhh not long now until we know...

Movements are very regular, sometime really ticklish when Elvis rolls his foot to my side!

Mike is going to Mexico on friday boohooo between a bit of anxiety about his trip and the fact that he'll be missing the scan and the next OB visit I'm not doing too well on that front, but I'm sure it'll be ok.

Next on the agenda is the big scan on friday (placenta check and measurements etc).

...and mom is coming this evening!! So that I won't be alone when Mike is away! So that's very nice.

Finally the attic is progressing at the speed of light, they are starting plastering today! Woohoo! This means all the major jobs are finished and I absolutely love the place!

MIL, weather and other updates

Thank you to all of you for the kind thoughts on MIL. Surgery went well, they amputated the leg below the knee so once she gets a prosthesis she will be able to walk a bit more naturally. We have not seen her yesterday, we planned to go to the hospital (which is at the other side of the city from where we live) but the weather and traffic were so bad it was absolutely impossible. It took us two hours to get home from work (normally it's no more than 20 minutes). We will go today.

Weather is really cold and it keeps snowing. So Ireland doesn't do snow well at all, it happened in January too. Schools are closed, roads are at various levels of danger (depending whether they salted them so it's very slushy or not and so it's hard snow/ice), cars are not equipped with winter tyres so they are all over the place and drivers are either way too careful (they could walk instead at the speed they are going) or not enough. College issued a statement they are shutting down now and probably will be closed tomorrow too. Given that it's the last week of term with plenty of lectures and labs to finish I don't know how they can fix it. I had less than half the class this morning and thankfully I only had very light material which is not part of the exam. But tomorrow and firday I have three hours teaching plus continuous assessment with the final year students and we'll have to find a way of having those hours done. You see, next week is revision week and then exams starts immediately running till the 22nd of December, there was really no contingency plan in place. We'll see.

More bad news came last night from various relatives in Mike's family, I won't go into details but let's say that things are looking quite bad or at least two of them and feel very sorry for them.

I'm just waiting for Mike to arrive and we go home!