My son, Leonardo

I know I have totally neglected this site and I really have no excuse. I'm just totally slack. SO happy to see that a couple of my favourite bloggers are pregnancy, so exciting!!!!

Just thought I would pop in and publish a couple of photos of my gorgeous son, Leonardo. He was born on 6th November, 2009. Was 9 days late. I was induced after 8 days, went into labour just after midnight. Once labour was nicely established, they realised that Leo was breech, and a bti distressed, so ended up with an emergency caesarean. But he was healthy and beautiful (yes, his legs were bent right up for awhile cos of being breech, but never mind, his hip ultrasound was normal). He was 7lb 2oz, which I was really relieved about, due to the fact that I had gestational diabetes and worried that he would be a tubby bubby.

Leo is now 9 weeks old, and he's just gorgeous. Although he's never been a big fan of sleeping during the day, he's always been quite good at night, and gets up to feed once or twice during the night and goes back to sleep. He smiles all the time, and is just starting to laugh as well.

Who knows if we will ever have any more babies, but right now it really doesn't matter to me, cos Leo is my whole world and I love him to pieces!

Got milk?

Yeah I do!!

Found some little droplets of "milk" (looks like water really) 2 weeks ago after my BF's 30th birthday dinner. I almost kinda freaked out, but with excitement at the same time. Since then, I've been able to express some milky drops if I try, but not actually leaking - thank goodness!! And seeing as I don't want to START leaking, I haven't been trying to express any!!


Kicking...

Bean has been kicking all the time now :) Most of the time she's still gentle enough, so I'm still loving being kicked alot!

I wonder if Bean has changed sides, because she used to kick me all the time on my left, and sometimes in the middle. But now she's started to kick me on the right hand side the last few days... I don't know if she's moved, or if she's now resorted to punching me!! lol

Although Bean's still mostly gentle, every now and again, the kick/punch is so hard that it makes me say "OW!" out loud, before I even think about it

A couple of nights ago, after I had gone to bed and was moisturising my tummy, Bean started going bananas, and I could actually see her movements from the outside!! I was so excited :) I've never really watched my tummy before, it's the middle of winter over here and far too cold to sit around with a bare belly!!

DH was on his way to bed, so I called him into the bedroom. I told him that Bean was putting on a show, but he didn't seem to understand what I meant... then he suddenly stared at my tummy and pointed, and said "Did that just bounce?" :) It was really cute. He spent ages then watching my tummy, and telling me to make her do it again... as if I have any control over her!! lol


OB appointment...

I had an appointment with Dr J yesterday. I still love seeing him, he's so lovely! My BP was good again. Bean's heart rate was good - still the best sound in the world!! Sounded like a galloping horse.

Dr J measured my fundal height. He explained to DH that when you measure from the top of the pubic bone, to the top of the uterus, the measurement in centimetres is usually about the same as your gestation. So, I was expecting a measurement of 24cm, as my fundal height was spot on last visit.... oh my gosh, it's 27cm now!!!

I hope that doesn't mean that the baby is getting too big, because I'd really really like an average sized baby!! (Not that I'm being fussy, promise). Dr J just said that my uterus is growing well, which hopefully means that the baby is also growing well.

Dr J also felt my tummy, but he couldn't tell me what position the baby was in. So maybe it's not so big after all!! (fingers crossed)


Symptoms...

I'm still not complaining. Symptom-wise this has been a pretty nice pregnancy I have to say. I'm getting some heart burn every now and again, but usually mild, and nothing a Quick-Eze can't handle. And my ankles have been swelling up, especially when I've been standing up for a long time. I've started to wear some supportive knee-high stockings to work instead of socks, to see if that makes a difference. They're still swelling a bit, but we shall see how it goes! (I'm open to any other ideas of what can help with ankle swellling)

New baby pictures!!

OK I know I haven't been on here in forever, and I apologise!! I have still been reading along, just haven't gotten as far as posting anything for awhile...

Once again I have to say "Yay" for a boring pregnancy! All is going along well, now just over 19 weeks and had my scan on Wednesday, at 19w0d. Here are the pics... This one is Bean's foot. Some people have trouble making it out... Both pictures are almost the same. The long white areas are the bones in the lower leg. The knee is fat left, you can't see the upper leg. The foot is on the right, with the toes kinda pushed up against the edge of the amniotic sac... kinda cute I think! Then if you make this out, Bean has his/her legs crossed, so you can see the other foot a little bit as well, crossed under.

And this one, (which I think is a little bit freaky looking!) is Bean's face, shown front on. A lot of people have said they think this is a really cute photo, I guess I am not a huge fan of the empty looking eye sockets! :)

The doctor who did the scan was fabulous. After I asked a question about the heart, I had to divulge that I am an NICU nurse, and he was so great about it! He said I should have told him earlier, and he would've explained things better from the start. (I hadn't really wanted him to explain everything too technically for my husband's sake) And he was so fabulous! He showed me all the blood flows through the heart, all the chambers, valves and vessels. He showed us what I assume is all the 'normal' stuff that he would point out, then added in extras so I could see the absence of the common malformations that I see in the nursery. It was fab!

He also showed me my cervix, and said that it is closed and long, which means that the chances of having a very premmie baby are remote. He smiled and said "Everything I'm telling you is music to your ears, right?"

So in summary, it was a very normal ultrasound, and we are super happy parents-to-be! All the measurements that he did were spot on 19w0d so I was really pleased with that as well.

Bean's stats:

Due date: Remains 28 October, 2009

Weight: 265grams or 9 ounces

Head circumference: 19cm

Sex: Still a mystery :)

We didn't plan on finding out the sex of the baby, unless Bean was a total exhibitionist and obviously wanted us to know! The doctor was very discreet and I don't remember him even going near that area particularly. Bean was very modest, and has his/her little legs crossed, which looks super cute on the ultrasound screen. I wasn't even really tempted to find out the sex in the end, I was totally distracted looking at everything else, and I really do want a suprise in the end anyway after all our hard work and waiting for this baby!!

Feelings

I think I felt the Bean yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I nearly freaked out actually! LOL So as not to get stressed about feeling movement, I was not expecting to feel anything for another couple of weeks. I've been told that with your first pregnancy, you don't feel anything until 18-20 weeks usually, but then I've heard other variances as well. So I figured, let's hope for something around 18-20 weeks, and certainly not start getting stressed out about not feeling anything yet.

Well.

Yesterday, I felt something. It was like when a moth is beating it's wings and flying against a pane of glass. Only much, much softer. A flutter. On the left hand side, down near my pelvic bone.

I stood really still afterwards, kinda half freaking out, half overcome with excitement/emotions. Tears welled up! I was at work, so I went and rang DH to let him know. He said he wants to be able to feel Bean moving too. I guess that's one place where the dad gets left out, cos he won't be able to feel the movement for a long time.

I know it might have been something far less cool, like gas. But I'm gonna make a note of it as the day that I felt Bean for the first time.



In other news...

I've lost my husband. He was working until 10am this morning. It's now almost midday. I thought he might've got caught up at work, so I rang. He left over an hour ago. His mobile phone has no service, and I can't get hold of him. He didn't mention that he was going anywhere after work. I have no idea where he is, and it's starting to really freak me out!!!!

I hope he gets home soon..........

A question

I have found, predictably, that once you tell people that you're pregnant, they ask you a standard 'set' of questions... how far along are you, when are you due, have you had much morning sickness? etc

I recently discovered that I feel kind of uncomfortable about one of the standard questions.

Is this your first?

I don't know why it bothers me so. Yes, it's the first time that I've carried a baby this time. Yes, it will be my first born child. But it's not even close to my first pregnancy.

And it's not as though I want to tell every random person on the street about my history. That's really not what they're asking. And I don't want my 'secret IF life' to be such public knowledge. But I still feel kinda funny answering that question. Maybe it's because it reminds me of all my failed attempts. Maybe I feel a little bit guilty 'pretending' that they never happened. I'm not ashamed of them, or of having an IVF baby, but I still don't think that I need to dredge up the sad past all the time.

Having a baby, and being pregnant, is a happy time. And I know that people asking the questions are happy, and innocently asking a yes/no question. I guess I just feel a litttle conflicted about smiling, and saying "Yes, it is."

Starting to show...

Had an appointment yesterday with the midwife at my obstetrician's rooms. I see her twice, and the rest of my appointments are actually with my obstetrician. On the up-side, the midwife always runs on time, unlike my obstetrician who is notoriously late, cos he gets busy delivering babies :)

All was very straight forward. My BP was normal (I was pleased it was back down again. It was a bit high at my first obstetrician appointment because I was stressed.) She felt my uterus, and measured my fundal height, which was 15cm. I think it's supposed to be 1cm for each week? So technically it should have been 14cm, but I'm sure it's not that accurate!

And I'm glad now that I know approximately where the top of my uterus is, cos I was feeling around all over the place in there, and I had no idea what I was feeling!!

Also, she put the doppler on to see if we could pick up Bean's heartbeat. She stressed the point that the doppler is a bit "hit and miss" at this stage. But she found it!! I was really happy, it's the best sound in the world! Only heard it for about 5 seconds, and then there was a swishy sound and we lost it. I think Bean was feeling active!! She moved it around, and we picked it up again for about 2 seconds, but lost it again. She said there was a lot of static, but that was just the placenta... I have no idea why that sounds static-y!!

****************************************************************

I guess I must be showing a bit more now! One of the girls at work touched my tummy today, and asked me if I was preggers... so must be noticeable now!! I was wearing a singlet top under my work shirt today that is one size smaller than I usually wear, and I have been pulling it down all day!!!! It is driving me crazy, and I am never wearing this singlet top again!!!

Presents!!

Just a short post, but I wanted to commemorate all of Bean's first gifts!!


Above, these are the first (and only so far!) things that DH and I have bought for Bean. First of all we bought one of the cot sheets. All on sale for 50% off!! So I went back and stocked up on all the other matching bits :) Plus, I really needed to get the bassinet sheet set, cos I don't know what type of bed/cot we're going to get yet!!

Bumble bees will match the curtain material that I have.


















This jumpsuit was given to Bean from DH's parents :) He says "It's funny because it's true."
















This is the first present that Bean got from friends. A bib and a 'crunchy' book... very textile!


Also, when I was 10 weeks, one of my BF's gave me a card, and a massage voucher... gotta book it in!! I'm thinking that I will probably go next week when I'm on my days off work. Can't wait!