Apologies, this post is a couple of days late as I wanted to wait till after my growth scan, but on Wednesday, I officially turned 34 weeks pregnant. THREE WEEKS TILL I'M FULL TERM! I believe Chip should now be the size of a cantaloupe, but given that she's a bit of a midget, maybe an unripe one.
I had my 34 week check up with the GP on Wednesday and all was fine - my blood pressure was the same as before, the heartbeat sounded good and strong and I didn't have any protein in my urine (nice). I still find the whole urine sample thing rather horrible - each time I go to the doctor's she asks me if I've got one with me, but she's never given me a pot in advance, so I always have to mumble my apology for not being prepared, grab a pot from her and scuttle off to the (rather disgusting) toilet. Should I bring it in an old jam jar or something?! Do people usually have urine-sample pots at home?!
I KNOW that GPs naturally do not find dealing with urine in any way awkward but I still find it super embarrassing having the carry the bloody thing back through the corridor and hand it to her, so I always wrap it in a tissue, as though to protect its modesty. This time I even apologised to her for the colour... 'Sorry, it's first thing in the morning, I'm a bit dehydrated...' Cringe.
God knows what I'm going to be like when faced with the poonami phenomenon my friends have told me about.
Anyway, all was fine! And then she measured my bump, and it was measuring a whopping 29cm! Still 5cm behind what it should be, but still, a good amount of growth for the past few weeks. I felt like I'd got an A* in some very important test.
Yesterday was my growth scan however, which was what we were really hoping for good news from. We saw a different sonographer again (this is a bit of a shame, I do wish we could see the same person every time) but the news was really good! Chip has grown quite a lot in the past two weeks, her head is the perfect size, she's still lightweight but her estimated weight this week was 4lb 10, which is a massive increase from last Friday when she was apparently 3lb 15. Oli's a bit cynical about the whole scan measurement thing now, because some of it does seem rather unbelievable (can she REALLY have put on that much weight in only six days?!), but I'm focusing on the positive and the fact that she's still doing well in there. It's such a relief!
Best of all, she was moving loads and even punched the Doppler thing with her fist at one point, which the sonographer said was a good sign of brain development. She also told us that you can have a massive chubby baby with very little fetal movement and they would consider them to be more at risk than a skinny baby who's showing lots of signs of life. Chip gets hiccups ALL THE TIME now too, which is also good (if annoying for me), and on the scan she was practising her breathing so much that the sonographer had a hard time measuring all the various blood flows accurately. But the main thing is, all looks fine at the moment - she's a small baby but she's growing. And I'm now starting to come back to the idea that I'll be allowed to go to full-term and have a natural birth! We have another scan at 36 weeks, which I am now looking forward to, rather than dreading.
It's interesting because for the past two weeks I've definitely been taking it a LOT easier and hanging about at home a lot, trying not to get stressed about stuff, and generally just eating loads. And watching loads of crap TV. And clearly it's paid off... I can see why in medieval times women went into 'confinement' while pregnant. Perhaps this is something we should bring back?!
Other than that, symptoms wise, I've had quite an easy week. My back has been hurting less as I've been trying to stay at home more and not do ridiculous all-day days out. The only thing that persists really are my swollen feet and hands - I showed the doctor my weirdly bright red and white palms on Wednesday and she said this is quite normal. It's called palmar erythema apparently and should go away after Chip's born. My hands do really hurt in the mornings though and I can no longer wear any of my rings, as my fingers are so fat, which I miss!
I've also developed some teeny tiny little red bumps on my tummy and under my armpits - kind of like skin tags but titchy and bright red. Apparently these are called cherry angiomas and are benign, but they're quite painful when they catch on my bra. I sort of want to cut them off but suspect that may not be the best idea...
And a nice note to end today's update on - this week I washed my teddy bear from when I was a child. I LOVED him so much - he was very much my favourite toy. He even came to uni with me. I've had him ever since I can remember but have no idea who gave him to me (note to self: ask Mum). I put him in the machine slightly nervous that he'd fall apart (given that he's at least 30 years old now) but he came out beautifully, and I can't wait for him to sit next to Chip in the cot. I love the fact he has a big head and a tiny tummy, just like her at the moment. Makes me all sniffy and teary it does!