So, this pregnancy has literally been flying by! It’s hard to believe it’s only 4 weeks until my due date now, so thought I should write a bit about how this pregnancy has been.
The first couple of months of this pregnancy I felt quite terrible. I felt really, really tired and unwell and so lifeless. Luckily I didn’t have any morning sickness but I did lose my appetite for several weeks and really struggled to eat very much. Luckily this stage passed quite quickly and I just felt tired, mostly by the time the evenings came round. My midwifery care started with Angela at the surgery. This was a different midwife to the one we saw with both previous pregnancies. Angela was actually a labour ward midwife and due to a ‘shake up’ in the system everyone was doing a bit of everything.
We had a dating scan at 12 weeks, all was well with baby measuring correct for my dates and so my due date was kept the same. We had the usual appointments in between scans, with the next one being at 20 weeks. Again, all went well and no abnormalities were detected. This was now our half way point, and I was very much considering a home birth which we discussed with the midwife at our previous appointment. She then referred us to a consultant, due to previous complications with my first labour, and we had a chat with him after our 20 week scan. Basically, he covered the pros and cons of a home birth, but it was left to us to make our own ‘informed decision’. Seeing as my labour with Aaron was nice and easy and relatively quick I felt very determined to have this baby at home and so we were referred to the Jubilee Midwife team and assigned Mandy as our new home birth midwife.
Mandy visited us at home on Valentines day for the first time, and we both really liked her. She was very down to earth and very positive that we had made the right decision and I think this helped Simon to feel more at ease about it. We will now see Mandy every two weeks from the comfort of our own home and we will get to meet our second midwife who is called Amanda.
Luckily the only problems I have been experiencing are lower back ache on occassion, heartburn and some low cramps more recently. Mandy reassured me that this is all quite normal especially third time around, when the muscles aren’t as strong as they once were they feel the strain much more. Sleeping has become a bit of a mission as I find I get very uncomfortable. Mandy has advised me about eating dates (not that I have managed to eat any yet) and how they can help your labour more effectively and nearer to your due date along with raspberry leaf tea. I will also be getting in some Arnica to help with recovery after baby makes an appearance.
Everyone always asks me if I have felt any different with this pregnancy compared to the other two, and the only things I can say which have been different are; my skin was terrible at the beginning and my hair was shedding a bit (it has stopped now) and my bump is very much all out front and very round this time, whereas with the boys’ I think I was more spread. I don’t think I have put on as much weight this time compared to the previous pregnancies. I first felt this baby move just before 16 weeks, so that is earlier than before and is very normal. The aches and pains have been earlier and more noticeable this time but that is just normal.
Only 4 weeks to go (hopefully) and we will have another addition to our family!