I am thinking "what do you mean only 11 weeks" .. Saying that, this is turning out to be the best part of pregnancy and I am feeling the best I have in 6 months. Wooohoooooo .. we can go on like this forever ... hmmm, maybe not.
The accompanying picture is now 2 weeks old and I am quite a bit bigger then that now. Physically it’s amazing how much you can grow in just 2 weeks. So far there are no sign of stretch marks. The belly button hasn’t so much popped as almost stretched into oblivion and I am carrying all at the front and still have a waist .. heh. I think I am quite strange to look at. I, and no doubt the little fellow would appreciate if I became accustomed to the bump sooner rather then later. The way I look and how I perceive the way I look are out of sync and consequently I am continually squishing my tummy and the little fellow. It doesn’t take much to do and is usually accompanied by a searing pain and a kick of dissatisfaction :)
As Jo mentioned in the last post we started the antenatal classes this week. HHhhmmm.. Ok so I’ve allowed myself until this time (the last trimester) to remain oblivious to the finer points of birth. As you may have guessed by now, I have a pretty vivid imagination and can do myself more damage then good given the time :) There were about 20 couples in the course and another all girl couple which was reassuring :) I won’t go too much into the details of that comment, but let’s just say we’ve come across one nurse at the hospital that was previously posted at a hospital at redneckville in bigot.
The nights’ curriculum was the “first stages of labour”. The course instructor asked for a show of hands on how many of us were booked into the labour ward and how many for the birth centre. I was way surprised to see that only 2 couples chose the birth centre. I would have thought that more people would be inclined to choose the natural drug free birth plan, but am quite relieved to see that we have a group of 80% sane people. If the "birth centre" people looked the type (which they didn’t because they were hippies :) ) then after the nights course they would have modified their birth plan of choice to include hard drugs. The course instructor was quite a ‘wordsmith’ and subsequently had a pool of adjectives to source just the right word for the type of pain and or physical description. Needless to say as the course progressed my eyes got wider and wider until the point that they nearly enveloped the back of head. There was also the occasional gasp of horror emanating from my direction .. and you don’t want to know at what. Aside from the nausea and the feeling of impending doom I think the course went swimmingly and look forward to the next 6 weeks of them.
Talking of the upcoming weeks, things are moving very fast now and we have baby related things to attend and to organise nearly every week. All of a sudden I am feeling a bit rushed. Take work for example, I have only 8 weeks left and a few ongoing projects to see to fruition. On the other side of the coin my boss is great and very understanding. Having just given birth to a beautiful daughter of his own not 5 days ago has allowed me to work from home 1 day a week which is a godsend. It’s amazing how much travelling to and from work can take it out of you, especially when you’re lugging a laptop around.
We now have doctors’ appointments every fortnight as opposed to every month. I like it now that they’re more often as I look forward to hearing the heart beat. The little ones movements are quite pronounced now and you can see him move through the skin – bazaar, parasitic, but cool.
Bye for now, I will try to make a concerted effort to post more frequently over the next few weeks as there is lots going on.
BTW cleo the cat is fine. Her inquisitiveness got the better of her the other day and she took a dip in the fishtank. She was not impressed. Talking of fishtanks, does anybody want one? It's 1.3 meters in length by about 70cm high and 60cm wide and comes with a stand.
