28 Weeks

Here we are at 28 weeks! Other than being accused of having a three week old baby and already being 6.5 months pregnant again, the week has been good. It's been hot but thankfully my aunt and uncle and their pool live just down the road so I got to go cool off and refresh last night.

I had a midwife appointment yesterday and BFF came with me and got to hear the little Monkey's heartbeat. It was hovering right around 160 ... indicating, according to the Wive's Tale, that baby is a she. But, the heart rate is flip flopped between a boy rate and a girl rate at every single appointment. One time it's a boy, the next a girl. I think baby really does not want us to know!

I have now reached the point where I will start seeing my midwives every second week. Seriously, where did the time go? I have the next three appointments book ... and then I will be FULL TERM, and will start seeing them every single week until the baby's arrival! I know that having 12 weeks to go is actually still quite a while but when I see it broken down like that, it feels like it's just around the corner.

At my appointment yesterday I met the third midwife from my team so now I have met with each of them at least once and will start rotating through them at my coming appointments. I was sad to learn that the student midwife is finishing up her placement this week - I was really hoping she'd still be around to be at my birth. I really liked her!

I found out that I passed my glucose screening test. Whoo hoo. I am so glad. I mean, I obviously did not want to have gestational diabetes, but I am also glad that I do not have to do the three hour fasting test. Fasting = fail.

She told me that my iron looks a little bit low, but not much lower than what is often common at this stage of pregnancy. She said it's nothing to worry about really although I should focus on increasing my intake of iron rich foods and that I may notice a difference in my energy levels. She suggested eating more green vegetables and meat. Considering I am heading up north for my family reunion this weekend, where I will be co-existing with a group of carnivores for 4 days, I have a feeling I'll consume more than enough meat. And, our swiss chard and beet tops are ready in the garden so when I get home, I will start adding a daily dose of those to my diet and see if that does the trick.

We also discussed my plans for birth place a little bit more. I'm not sure if I've talked about this on the blog yet - but we are planning to prepare for a home birth. We have numerous reasons for this decision, but I will leave all of that for another post.

She also poked around my belly to see if she could determine baby's position. Although she said it's still a bit early to determine by touch, and there is a chance that the baby will still flip around, she said that she's pretty sure the Monkey is head down and it's quite possible he'll stay that way now. She said that she could feel something big and round near the top (baby's got back), and something more tennis ball like at the bottom. I wasn't surprised because I have been seeing something that seems to me that it could be a bum glide back and forth over the top of my belly over the past few days. So, take that Transverse Baby Lady, you were wrong.

I think that is about all I have in the way of pregnancy updates ... the height of my uterus (27 cm), weight gain, and inches gained around my belly (12) are right on track so things are looking good. I have been starting to feel quite achy in my hips and ankles (which is not that much different from how I feel not pregnant - I have always had achy joints, especially in the heat) but I am hoping to keep that under control by upping my fluid intake and propping my legs up when necessary... I won't tell you that I didn't take diclectin last night and wasn't sick this morning because I do not want to jinx myself.

I'm leaving tomorrow to head north for my family reunion so I will be back next week with lots of pictures, stories, and likely another garden update because things have been growing like crazy out there!

Have a great weekend, friends. I will leave you with another super funny maternity shirt that I wish I had ....

(source)

If you can't read it, it says "I may be huge, but at least I don't stay stupid things to pregnant women".