So I’ve had an exciting week – lots of things going on and lots to share. Again this is quite a female, baby oriented blog so feel free to leave now – and maybe head to the recipe part of my website and make some amazing muffins haha.
So we’ve had our last few scans on a Monday – and weekly since 34 weeks. She’s still growing a little small but still healthy. At the week 36 scan our obstetrician got me to have some blood tests as well a a swab to test for strep B. Strep B is one fo the many bacteria that is present in women’s bodies, however about 1 in 4 women have it present in their vaginas. It doesn’t have any symptoms and isn’t harmful to mum – but if passed to your baby can be very harmful and make your baby very sick. What this means is – that as soon as I’m admitted to hospital during labour I need to be put on an antibiotic drip for (hopefully) at least 4 hours. This stops me passing it to the baby when she’s born. Hearing this – my immediate reaction was – OH NO – I can’t believe we’ve had such an unremarkable pregnancy to find out I have this bacteria that could harm our baby – but the doctor assured us that as long as I have the antibiotics she’ll be fine – as it’s very common. I originally was hoping not to be hooked up to anything during labour as I wanted to be free to walk around a lot – shower etc, but now I have to have the IV drip that little part has gone out the window. As long as she’s healthy I don’t mind.
So that was Monday- then on Wednesday morning I woke up, went to the bathroom to find my mucas plug had decided to come out. I had read the this happens – they mentioned it in our birthing class and it has been said a few times on my pregnancy app. How did I know it was that and not the normal, delightful discharge you get during pregnancy….there was ALOT, and it looked like a huge boogie. I had heard that when this happens the baby can basically come that day- or can still be a couple of weeks away. At this stage I was 37 + 6 days pregnant. I suddenly felt so excited – no fear, not scared or anything – just so excited that our baby was getting closer to making an appearance. The night before this happened I had been having loads of Braxton hicks contractions and she had been super wriggly in my belly – and those symptoms haven’t stopped since. I wonder if she actually pushed it out herself haha. She is like a little football player (well that’s what Chris says haha) , kicking my ribs – rolling over, punching my bladder (extra loo stops needed this week). That combined with Braxton Hicks has made for a very interesting outings. I’ve put a towel on my car seat just incase my water breaks at any stage – and now it’s just a waiting game. We are so excited to meet her and knowing she could be here any day makes my heart sing.
The other thing that made this week exciting (well kind of ) was that I started using the EpiNo. Most of you will have no idea what this is so let me explain and how I came to find out about it. So as soon as we got pregnant and had our first obstetrician appointment one of my first questions was – “what can I do to stop me from tearing or need an episiotomy (where they have to cut your vagina)?” The thought of labour didn’t bother me, even the whole delivery process – but the thought of having my vagina tear or be cut did. He mentioned I can use a thing called the
EpiNo from 37 weeks. Which acts as a tool to help pelvic floor before and after birth, but also used to stretch the vagina cavity in preparation for birth. I’ve popped a photo below – but it’s basically like a small balloon attached to a what looks like a blood pressure pump. Then over 3 weeks the aim is to pump the balloon up to 10cm diameter to mimic a babies head. I asked some questions, did some research and decided I was going to give it a go. There are always people out there that don’t agree with certain products or things but the stats on women who had used it were great – as well as the patients our OB had that I felt like why not. It’s a very interesting experience and not the most attractive of things but birth isn’t attractive by any means and I’m super keen to see if this works – so stay tuned for post baby stories to hear if it helped.
Now I’m going to put my feet up and try and relax – which is hard considering I think she’s decided she wants to play football for England or something for her Daddy as she wont’ stop moving today. Come on little one – you can come out now.
Love and Life
The Figure
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