33 weeks

Your baby now weighs about 2 kilograms and measures approximately 44 centimetres from head to toe. Your baby should already be getting ready for delivery by turning upside-down -- his head should be pointing down.

Our little one very rarely sits in the correct position. She is usually sideways or breech. I use her hiccups as a way to figure out where her head is. I was expecting her to stay put from about 30 weeks, but she is past 33 weeks and still rearranging herself. At the scan I went to last week she started off in breech and then, as if she heard what we were saying about her, she flipped without me noticing or the radiographer (who did not lift her wand off my tummy!) the radiographer was surprized, to say the least!

She is pretty cute, no?
I did enjoy our non-medical scan in April, but I do have to say that the quality of the images are just so much better at the proper medical scans! They just have the equipment that really captures everything!
If we are lucky enough to have a second baby I'd probably just try and score a late medical scan instead of going to a place that only does scans for fun.


We get the keys for our house on Monday! This has not hit me yet, I don't think I have fully grasped that we are MOVING next week. We don't really have much packing to do, as most of our stuff is already packed! (It's been that way since we moved from our flat to mums place in early 09). And we haven't opened our wedding presents yet, so they are still all packed and waiting to be moved. So I guess without packing I don't have that preparing to move thing going on!

I had my first round of Braxton Hicks yesterday and boy did THAT have me a bit concerned! I had read that there was no pattern to Braxtons Hicks so when I started feeling my bump tense up every five minutes I was thinking that it must be preterm labour! (After an hour they stopped, so then I was like, oh wait! must be Braxton Hicks! I called the midwife who agreed it was Braxton Hicks).
I waited an hour because I reeeally did not want to rush to hospital to be told that it was Braxton Hicks. I was sitting in bed thinking *I have a masters degree! I will be able to figure out if this is labour* Mum was so cranky at me! She made me promise that I will go to the hospital if I ever get concerned again.
It all had me really bothered because in my mind me move FIRST, set up the nursery and then baby comes on the date the doctor tells us next week. I had in no way planned for her to arrive before we moved! My bag isn't even packed!

For a 'smart' person I am a big idiot sometimes!

So my goal for this week is to finish packing my hospital bag!

32 weeks

Your baby now weighs approximately 3.75 pounds/ 1.7 kilograms and is about 17 inches / 42 centimetres long from head to toe. Although his lungs won't be fully developed until just before birth, your little one is inhaling amniotic fluid to exercise his lungs and practise breathing.

(Giving credit where credit is due, all these bub images and the first bits of text are from babycenter.com.au - I also just downloaded the free pregnancy app from this site and it's pretty good!)

I am pretty much playing the waiting game for the next couple of weeks.
Settlement on our house doesn't happen until June, so I've really tried to pause all my spending/nursery plans until I can freely go in and out of the space.
The only 'big thing' left is the cot. This one (by Stokke) was the one we've been leaning towards, but it's been months since I've looked at Cots.

I remember I liked this one because I could reach every part of the mattress from anywhere, it's certainly not the prettiest cot, but from memory it looked like it would be the easiest one for me to be able to reach bubs in.
Speaking of bubs, we have another scan tomorrow! A position scan (is what I think they call it). They want to check out where the plecenta is (it was low lying last time).

Another thing I would like for the nursery (I think its more for me than bubs) is a big comfy chair. I found a really nice one last week, but it will take 10-12 weeks to order!
I really think I need it now! I have been a lot more uncomfortable in the last week. She moves around so much and sometimes finds herself up very high and I just cannot get my breath when she's up there! I find lying down on just the right angle helps, but it's hard to stay on that angle with only pillows! Oh well, better late than never!
On bubs kicks, this week I've noticed that this week she doesn't kick me much after I've eaten, instead she goes bananas when I get hungry, I like to think that she's already starting to help me out! I know last week there were a couple of days were I just forgot to eat (with all this house stuff, it's not as hard as you'd think)! And now I use her kicks as a reminder to go to the fridge.
I thought I would show you what medications I'm still on.

The one not in the photo is Enbrel (my once weekly injection - that I gave up from weeks 4-12, but I just had to start it again, or else we would have had a tin-man stuck in the woods like situation on our hands).

What you can see:

Iron - a midwife (who I refer to as that-midwife-who-couldn't -find- the-heart-beat-of-a-baby-who-was-kicking-her-with-a-doppler-or-an-ultrasound... because she couldn't, well it took her 10 minutes) suggested I take this, about 15 seconds after I said I was a vegetarian, DESPITE my iron levels being within normal limits.
Cranberry - prevents UTI

Calcium and vitamin D - I take this for my osteoporosis, the med team uped my vitamin D for the pregnancy.
Pro-biotic - I've found this helps my digestion.
Pregnancy Vitamin - speaks for itself.

Nexium - for reflux/medications given to me when I was 2-5 years old ruined my stomach lining.

Anti-biotics - I'm on a low dose daily preventitive dose, because the enbrel increased my infection rate, its just easier!

Steroids - Ah this one is my enemy, the one I thought I left behind me in highschool. I suddenly and irrationally stopped this when mum told me what the side-effects were when I was 15 (the side effect being the moon face) and I lost 7 kilos in one summer. (I had a bad habit of suddenly stopping my meds when I was a teen, I did the same thing with methotrexate, but in my defense I had just heard it was a chemotherapy drug! and it just didn't seem 'right' to me! I wanted children one day)

ANYWAY back to steroids. I'm on them because my arthritis has flared during pregnancy. Which, by the way, is completely backwards! Arthritis is suppose to IMPROVE during pregnancy. I have not heard of a single person saying it got worse. But that is me! I'm quietly hoping it will mean that I avoid the post-pregnancy nasty flare that everyone has been warning me of.

Anyway originally they had me taking three days of 25 mg for the flare. But I was flaring every 2 weeks, so they changed the plan to 3 days of 15mg, 3 of 10mg, 3 of 5mg, 3 of 4mg, 3 of 3mg...

It truly makes me feel generally unwell, but hey at least I can move!

I hate it, by the way. I really really hate needing medication. I feel guilty everyday.