![The Doctor Is [IN]](http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1263/1384310808_1c5e3cd3d5.jpg)
Got this from the hubs... thought it was funny! Unfortunately, we don't have such neighbours, nor similar amount of space, but one can continue to fantasise....
Thursday, 20 December 2007
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
the weekend...in hospital!
Amidst the christmas shopping and cheer, we ended up at QEQM hospital in Margate on sunday afternoon!
It all started on saturday night/sunday morning at about 2am. I was trying to get to bed when I started feeling what I thought were contractions! It's way too early for that to happen (not even 30 weeks yet!?) and thought it might be what they refer to as 'false contractions' or 'Braxton-Hicks' http://www.askbaby.com/braxton-hicks.htm. We started to time them though and it turned out they were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting about 20-30 seconds! This went on for about 45min-1 hour and I was starting to panic. It then went away with the help of Ellie (our hotwater bottle!) and I managed to get some sleep.
The next morning, at church, it started all over again. Thankfully we'd already decided to bring along my hospital notes anyway, and when we rang the midwife, she told us to go straight to QEQM where there are consultants on call. This made me panic even more as it indicated that they thought it was more serious than I had anticipated.
So we made the 30 min car journey to QEQM and got admitted straight to the labour ward where they put me on a drip for 24 hours with muscle relaxant, gave me 2 shots of steriods for bubba's lungs (in case he comes early) and some antibiotics (which I'm still taking now). They also strapped on the fetal heart monitor and another one to monitor my contractions and thankfully after about half an hour or so, everything calmed down.
The consultant did an internal exam and confirmed that my cervix was still very tightly closed (good news!) but with the ultrascan, also confirmed that my placenta praevia was now a stage 4 http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/complications/placentapraevia/ which means that we'll definitely have to have a caesarean section sometime weeks 38 or 39. Hopefully baby will decide to stay in there till then, and we don't experience any bleeding of any sort.
It's been nerve-wrecking to say the least. The GP has signed me off work from now till baby comes - I guess that's the best option! I'm now having to find things to do whilst I'm whiling my time at home. Quite excited about the possibilities of ordering food off the internet, and of course, in the run up to christmas, wrapping christmas pressies...! We'll probably be renting lots of box-sets of DVDs...and reading lots of books.
ok - gotta get ready to go shopping with Chris now - I'm not allowed to go out by myself now, so need chaparones!
Love
P and the blue pea
30+2 weeks
It all started on saturday night/sunday morning at about 2am. I was trying to get to bed when I started feeling what I thought were contractions! It's way too early for that to happen (not even 30 weeks yet!?) and thought it might be what they refer to as 'false contractions' or 'Braxton-Hicks' http://www.askbaby.com/braxton-hicks.htm. We started to time them though and it turned out they were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting about 20-30 seconds! This went on for about 45min-1 hour and I was starting to panic. It then went away with the help of Ellie (our hotwater bottle!) and I managed to get some sleep.
The next morning, at church, it started all over again. Thankfully we'd already decided to bring along my hospital notes anyway, and when we rang the midwife, she told us to go straight to QEQM where there are consultants on call. This made me panic even more as it indicated that they thought it was more serious than I had anticipated.
So we made the 30 min car journey to QEQM and got admitted straight to the labour ward where they put me on a drip for 24 hours with muscle relaxant, gave me 2 shots of steriods for bubba's lungs (in case he comes early) and some antibiotics (which I'm still taking now). They also strapped on the fetal heart monitor and another one to monitor my contractions and thankfully after about half an hour or so, everything calmed down.
The consultant did an internal exam and confirmed that my cervix was still very tightly closed (good news!) but with the ultrascan, also confirmed that my placenta praevia was now a stage 4 http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/complications/placentapraevia/ which means that we'll definitely have to have a caesarean section sometime weeks 38 or 39. Hopefully baby will decide to stay in there till then, and we don't experience any bleeding of any sort.
It's been nerve-wrecking to say the least. The GP has signed me off work from now till baby comes - I guess that's the best option! I'm now having to find things to do whilst I'm whiling my time at home. Quite excited about the possibilities of ordering food off the internet, and of course, in the run up to christmas, wrapping christmas pressies...! We'll probably be renting lots of box-sets of DVDs...and reading lots of books.
ok - gotta get ready to go shopping with Chris now - I'm not allowed to go out by myself now, so need chaparones!
Love
P and the blue pea
30+2 weeks
Thursday, 13 December 2007
G at 29 weeks...
Hiya..
this is the blue pea, in situ (ie, mummy!), at 29+3 weeks. I think he's huge... most people think it's huge... he's also wriggling alot. He likes ice-cream and brownies (hehe...so does mummy!) - literally goes mad and dances around about 10 minutes after ingestion.
bought a gym ball for me to do balances on - not sure if it's blown up enough!
ok - gotta go now. Gotta read the other PhD draft now!
Love
P and the blue pea xx
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Bureaucratic behaviours
I have insurance policies back in sg because I started paying into them since my late teenage years. Obviously, due to the fact that I live in the UK now, there are 'perks' that I cannot enjoy due to sheer geographical reasons. One of them is a free comprehensive physical check up done at the hospital every couple of years or so. I did my check up in Feb 07 and it was brilliant. As it claims that it's transferable, I thought I'd give it to my sister-in-law to use it.
Which I did, all the way in the summer (Aug/Sept). She informed me that she needed me to extend the validity of the voucher and to do that, I needed to ring them in sg to extend it (why?). But I did it, anyway. Which was when all the rubbish started.
I rang them last night, GMT 12.30am. Explained the situation to person at the call centre. Figured it wasn't a big problem - all they need to do is extend the validity of the voucher and let me know when the new deadline is so that sil can go make a new appointment. The reply came, that I had to wait for a letter to be issued to me before she can make the appointment. I asked why we couldn't just ring in a few days time - the answer that came back didn't make sense. I hung up, after confirming that it was going to be done for me.
I couldn't sleep after that (it was quite a heated conversation) and whilst tossing and turning, it came to me that if I had to wait for the letter to arrive, it must therefore mean that it's already on the computer system way before that, which means that sil can theoretically ring in in a few days time to book her new appointment.
So, I rang the company again to see if I could make sense of it. Again another heated conversation ensued. The woman on the other side confirmed that in fact the extension had already been made at about 3pm local time (2 hours before I rang the 2nd time). When I heard that, I was really happy, and then said that must mean that sil can now make her new appointment. A "you must wait for your new letter" conversation started. I asked whether I needed to sign anything or fill in anything, and she replied in the negative. So I asked, why then do I have to wait for the letter? It's not like sil has to bring the letter to the hospital, does she? (apparently not). The woman could not give me a good reason why we needed to wait for the letter.
She then suggested that I needed to have informed the company that I was nominating someone else. I said that it was not in the form in the first place - all the form said was that I should hand it over to the nominee for them to make the relevant appointments. I pointed out that it was her company's form, which she should be familiar with. She then proceeded to 'blame' me for not informing the company about the change of person. I said that it didn't matter in the first place when sil made the initial booking anyway, so why should it matter now? She couldn't reply.
I got really het off by that point and told her she was wasting my money and time since this was not a free-phone call but an international one. I then asked her to clarify that there was no need for us to wait for the letter since it's already been done on the computer - and she confirmed it (even to the point of saying that when the hospital calls to confirm it, they can see it on the computer as of now). I then told her that that was all I needed to know. And hung up.
Morons!!!!!!!
P and blue pea
Which I did, all the way in the summer (Aug/Sept). She informed me that she needed me to extend the validity of the voucher and to do that, I needed to ring them in sg to extend it (why?). But I did it, anyway. Which was when all the rubbish started.
I rang them last night, GMT 12.30am. Explained the situation to person at the call centre. Figured it wasn't a big problem - all they need to do is extend the validity of the voucher and let me know when the new deadline is so that sil can go make a new appointment. The reply came, that I had to wait for a letter to be issued to me before she can make the appointment. I asked why we couldn't just ring in a few days time - the answer that came back didn't make sense. I hung up, after confirming that it was going to be done for me.
I couldn't sleep after that (it was quite a heated conversation) and whilst tossing and turning, it came to me that if I had to wait for the letter to arrive, it must therefore mean that it's already on the computer system way before that, which means that sil can theoretically ring in in a few days time to book her new appointment.
So, I rang the company again to see if I could make sense of it. Again another heated conversation ensued. The woman on the other side confirmed that in fact the extension had already been made at about 3pm local time (2 hours before I rang the 2nd time). When I heard that, I was really happy, and then said that must mean that sil can now make her new appointment. A "you must wait for your new letter" conversation started. I asked whether I needed to sign anything or fill in anything, and she replied in the negative. So I asked, why then do I have to wait for the letter? It's not like sil has to bring the letter to the hospital, does she? (apparently not). The woman could not give me a good reason why we needed to wait for the letter.
She then suggested that I needed to have informed the company that I was nominating someone else. I said that it was not in the form in the first place - all the form said was that I should hand it over to the nominee for them to make the relevant appointments. I pointed out that it was her company's form, which she should be familiar with. She then proceeded to 'blame' me for not informing the company about the change of person. I said that it didn't matter in the first place when sil made the initial booking anyway, so why should it matter now? She couldn't reply.
I got really het off by that point and told her she was wasting my money and time since this was not a free-phone call but an international one. I then asked her to clarify that there was no need for us to wait for the letter since it's already been done on the computer - and she confirmed it (even to the point of saying that when the hospital calls to confirm it, they can see it on the computer as of now). I then told her that that was all I needed to know. And hung up.
Morons!!!!!!!
P and blue pea
Tuesday, 11 December 2007
End of term!!
This is week 12, and the end of term is nigh...! This friday, in fact. I can't believe it - we've survived yet another term. Funny how when I was at university as a student, I always thought my professors had a cushy life (they probably did - 15 years ago!), not having to teach so much and having long summer breaks. Now that I'm on the other side of the fence, I see that it's not so (nowadays anyways)... I've never had a full summer holiday - taking only a week or two at the max - and now that I'm going on maternity leave, I realise that actually, we are entitled to 30 days leave plus 13 days of bank holidays/public holidays! I really shouldn't be that silly and not take the hols entitled to myself. I've tried to take some time off the last couple of weeks but haven't been successful. Last couple of weeks, I've spent the time that I didn't have to do any teaching, reading PhD drafts and marking students' essays! Today, am doing another student's PhD draft! Am getting tired now.
We've put our christmas tree up and did up the lights last night - will try and stick a photo up here when we get round to it. Have started wrapping presents and writing christmas cards too. Can't believe it, it's 2 weeks to christmas!!
Going for the University Carol Service this evening, and meeting up with Jeanne and Matt before that for dinner. Looking forward to that!
ok - back to the grind now.
Love
P and the blue pea
29+2 weeks :)
We've put our christmas tree up and did up the lights last night - will try and stick a photo up here when we get round to it. Have started wrapping presents and writing christmas cards too. Can't believe it, it's 2 weeks to christmas!!
Going for the University Carol Service this evening, and meeting up with Jeanne and Matt before that for dinner. Looking forward to that!
ok - back to the grind now.
Love
P and the blue pea
29+2 weeks :)
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Update on the nursery!
We have bought our nursery cotbed and changing unit/chest of drawers! Very very exciting, and it's all installed in the nursery now. The bed looks like this http://www.boori.co.uk/index.asp?m=&cat=2&p=6 and the chest of drawers, http://www.boori.co.uk/index.asp?m=&cat=5&p=25
We first looked at it when we went window shopping (oh... 6 months back) and we thought that it was really really nice, but too expensive. Then, a nursery store near by (like 2 miles from our house!) decided to close down and slashed all their prices. Last weekend, we were there, hoping to get a bargain price car-seat (to no avail, since the only one that would fit our buggy was in pink and flowers and we figured it was really too much to impose onto our blue pea just yet!), and we saw that they had slashed the prices of the furniture! The price was so low that we thought it was similar to what we would have paid if we had bought a regular set of furniture!! so we were very pleased. :)
It's all coming together we think. We got some curtains and together with the black-out blinds, the window is sorted. Dad has offered to pay for a car seat which is great *thank you grandad*.
It's nearing the end of term now - I have 2 more lectures to give and 1 seminar to do and I'll be done for this year. I can't wait. I still have exam papers to set, a PhD draft to read, and a paper to complete by year end but I'm not worrying about them now. I've had a hectic couple of weeks with essays to mark and the other PhD draft to read, so I'm taking a mini-break today! hehe...
ok, have to go have my lunch now.
Love
P and the blue pea
28+3 weeks
We first looked at it when we went window shopping (oh... 6 months back) and we thought that it was really really nice, but too expensive. Then, a nursery store near by (like 2 miles from our house!) decided to close down and slashed all their prices. Last weekend, we were there, hoping to get a bargain price car-seat (to no avail, since the only one that would fit our buggy was in pink and flowers and we figured it was really too much to impose onto our blue pea just yet!), and we saw that they had slashed the prices of the furniture! The price was so low that we thought it was similar to what we would have paid if we had bought a regular set of furniture!! so we were very pleased. :)
It's all coming together we think. We got some curtains and together with the black-out blinds, the window is sorted. Dad has offered to pay for a car seat which is great *thank you grandad*.
It's nearing the end of term now - I have 2 more lectures to give and 1 seminar to do and I'll be done for this year. I can't wait. I still have exam papers to set, a PhD draft to read, and a paper to complete by year end but I'm not worrying about them now. I've had a hectic couple of weeks with essays to mark and the other PhD draft to read, so I'm taking a mini-break today! hehe...
ok, have to go have my lunch now.
Love
P and the blue pea
28+3 weeks
Monday, 19 November 2007
Pumpkin party
we had a pumpkin party for Halloween towards the end of October (27thOct), but haven't had time to update this till now!
Invited P, J and V; D and M; C and N; and our new friends J and M. Didn't quite think we'd pull it off - having so many people around and cooking for that many, but we did it... here's Vic in his pumpkin outfit...! :) Also, pictures of the pumpkin we carved, and a picture of D with erm.. his favourite pumpkins...:)!!
We grew these pumpkins ourselves, and as a result we're all pumpkin-ed out. The big one's still about and there's about a quarter sitting in the fridge!
P xx
Mat B1 Form
Got my form the day after the previous post but have not had the time to update my blog!! sorry...
The midwife's appointment went well, although having said that, I thought she was abit too chatty for my liking - I'd rather she listened to me than to chat about all the other innane things going on! I can't imagine if she would be present whilst I was giving birth, she'd be talking about other things rather than focusing on me and my needs!! Due to her chattiness, we couldn't do a urine test which was annoying because I was slightly worried about having gestational diabetes and all that. So I went down to the local hospital and did a urine test and all is ok - thing is, whilst I was there, I met three other women who had recently given birth and they all started off at the 'birthing unit' (midwife-led) only to be ambulanced and blue-lighted all the way to the consultant-led units about 30 minutes away (by car, but by ambulance probably 6-10 minutes). They all had perfectly healthy babies but due to some complication or other, they all had to be moved. I was freaking out when I heard that, and made me more resolute to go to a consultant-led unit!!
anyway, back to the Mat B1 form. I received my MatB1 form which I then submitted to the HR department a couple of weeks later together with my plans for maternity leave and all that. If all goes well, I hope to go off on maternity on January 25th, starting maternity pay from 4th of February 2008. Assuming I don't have to have a c-section, then baby will be due around the 23rd of February; and if I do have to have a c-section, then baby will be due abit earlier - more about that when the time comes!
Speaking of consultant-led units, D and I went to check out one of the two consultant-led units in our area and we're really happy with the one we think we're going to. Made an appointment there yesterday and had a tour around. Got shown all the rooms, even the operating theatres and everyone looked calm and relaxed - which is always useful! Felt very confident about everything after we saw the place and we're 100% sure we'll be going to this one when it's time for the baby to arrive.
we're now 26 weeks - so theoretically, 14 weeks more to go. How strange and how fast time does fly. We've paid a deposit for our buggy/travel system - we're getting the nipabout http://ladybugsbaby.easywebstore.co.uk/NEW-Nipabout-3-in-1_AHTOB.aspx and it looks fab. We're getting the one in red because the black just doesn't appeal, not for a baby-related thing I don't think. We've also bought the bedding (zanzibar range) http://www.linenstore.co.uk/kids-nursery-bedding-zanzibar-cot-bedding.html?gclid=CJ-6s9LG6Y8CFR4oEAodMGQaYg and we're quite excited now!! Haven't figured out which bed to buy, but we think we know which one. So much more to get: muslin cloths, blankets, etcetc but one at a time. I think if we something each weekend, we'll get things sorted....!! *fingers crossed*
ok - gotta go now.
Love
P and the blue pea...
26 weeks
The midwife's appointment went well, although having said that, I thought she was abit too chatty for my liking - I'd rather she listened to me than to chat about all the other innane things going on! I can't imagine if she would be present whilst I was giving birth, she'd be talking about other things rather than focusing on me and my needs!! Due to her chattiness, we couldn't do a urine test which was annoying because I was slightly worried about having gestational diabetes and all that. So I went down to the local hospital and did a urine test and all is ok - thing is, whilst I was there, I met three other women who had recently given birth and they all started off at the 'birthing unit' (midwife-led) only to be ambulanced and blue-lighted all the way to the consultant-led units about 30 minutes away (by car, but by ambulance probably 6-10 minutes). They all had perfectly healthy babies but due to some complication or other, they all had to be moved. I was freaking out when I heard that, and made me more resolute to go to a consultant-led unit!!
anyway, back to the Mat B1 form. I received my MatB1 form which I then submitted to the HR department a couple of weeks later together with my plans for maternity leave and all that. If all goes well, I hope to go off on maternity on January 25th, starting maternity pay from 4th of February 2008. Assuming I don't have to have a c-section, then baby will be due around the 23rd of February; and if I do have to have a c-section, then baby will be due abit earlier - more about that when the time comes!
Speaking of consultant-led units, D and I went to check out one of the two consultant-led units in our area and we're really happy with the one we think we're going to. Made an appointment there yesterday and had a tour around. Got shown all the rooms, even the operating theatres and everyone looked calm and relaxed - which is always useful! Felt very confident about everything after we saw the place and we're 100% sure we'll be going to this one when it's time for the baby to arrive.
we're now 26 weeks - so theoretically, 14 weeks more to go. How strange and how fast time does fly. We've paid a deposit for our buggy/travel system - we're getting the nipabout http://ladybugsbaby.easywebstore.co.uk/NEW-Nipabout-3-in-1_AHTOB.aspx and it looks fab. We're getting the one in red because the black just doesn't appeal, not for a baby-related thing I don't think. We've also bought the bedding (zanzibar range) http://www.linenstore.co.uk/kids-nursery-bedding-zanzibar-cot-bedding.html?gclid=CJ-6s9LG6Y8CFR4oEAodMGQaYg and we're quite excited now!! Haven't figured out which bed to buy, but we think we know which one. So much more to get: muslin cloths, blankets, etcetc but one at a time. I think if we something each weekend, we'll get things sorted....!! *fingers crossed*
ok - gotta go now.
Love
P and the blue pea...
26 weeks
Monday, 29 October 2007
Bad start to the week!
Today, I had a lecture to give at 9am. It's something I've done before, and thought, easy-peasy nothing to it. I ended up almost losing my temper at these lazy first year sods!!
I started to lose it when people started drifting in after lecture was due to start. Given that class was supposed to start at 9am, and I usually give them till 9.05am to settle down, it's incredibly annoying that even at 9.15, people were sitll floating in. I made it a point to stop the lecture everytime they were late, and waited till they sat down before I continued.
The rest of the lecture thought this was rather funny and some started to giggle. Everytime one more person/group walked in, there would be a collective 'gasp' (in retrospect, it was quite amusing), but mostly it was very very annoying. It's not difficult to have to turn up for 9am class, I don't think, especially when so many of them live on campus!
Anyway, after lecture was over, I was packing up the stuff when a mature student came up to me and basically thought she was comforting me by telling me that I shouldn't really take offense in how they were acting (ie, being late, strolling in etc), because apparently it had to do with my predecessors and how they behaved! She gave me examples of how one of them brought her baby to lecture to start it off and then 'bugger' off?!, and another example of how tow others couldn't start the computer! And so even though it was ok for me to have expectations of the students, because my colleagues don't, the students therefore don't know what to expect. She also suggested that it was because nowadays students pay for their tuition, and so feel that they have the right to come and go as they like!!
Again, in hindsight, the student was probably quite right in saying some of the things, but on the other hand, it's incredible how students seem to expect things the way they want it to be, but don't want to work for it.
I don't get this generation of people - makes me sound so old now, but I really don't get them.
On a more positive note, little blue pea is moving quite a bit now and that's very reassuring. I've not put on alot of weight since 6-8 weeks ago, but apparently this isn't such a problem as long as baby's measurements are all right for the period.
We have our next midwife's appointment tomorrow, so will try and update then. Hopefully I can get my MatB1 form and then get the maternity leave confirmed in writing.
ok - talk later...have work to do now...
love
P and the blue pea
23 weeks!
I started to lose it when people started drifting in after lecture was due to start. Given that class was supposed to start at 9am, and I usually give them till 9.05am to settle down, it's incredibly annoying that even at 9.15, people were sitll floating in. I made it a point to stop the lecture everytime they were late, and waited till they sat down before I continued.
The rest of the lecture thought this was rather funny and some started to giggle. Everytime one more person/group walked in, there would be a collective 'gasp' (in retrospect, it was quite amusing), but mostly it was very very annoying. It's not difficult to have to turn up for 9am class, I don't think, especially when so many of them live on campus!
Anyway, after lecture was over, I was packing up the stuff when a mature student came up to me and basically thought she was comforting me by telling me that I shouldn't really take offense in how they were acting (ie, being late, strolling in etc), because apparently it had to do with my predecessors and how they behaved! She gave me examples of how one of them brought her baby to lecture to start it off and then 'bugger' off?!, and another example of how tow others couldn't start the computer! And so even though it was ok for me to have expectations of the students, because my colleagues don't, the students therefore don't know what to expect. She also suggested that it was because nowadays students pay for their tuition, and so feel that they have the right to come and go as they like!!
Again, in hindsight, the student was probably quite right in saying some of the things, but on the other hand, it's incredible how students seem to expect things the way they want it to be, but don't want to work for it.
I don't get this generation of people - makes me sound so old now, but I really don't get them.
On a more positive note, little blue pea is moving quite a bit now and that's very reassuring. I've not put on alot of weight since 6-8 weeks ago, but apparently this isn't such a problem as long as baby's measurements are all right for the period.
We have our next midwife's appointment tomorrow, so will try and update then. Hopefully I can get my MatB1 form and then get the maternity leave confirmed in writing.
ok - talk later...have work to do now...
love
P and the blue pea
23 weeks!
Sunday, 14 October 2007
It's a .... it's a......
Boy!!! :) (See bottom right picture for confirmation...)
yup, we had our 20 week scan on wednesday (had no time till this evening to update the blog, and only because D is doing some OT on some drawings due at a planner's meeting tomorrow morning!)... and all is well. (well... I'll go into that a little later).
It's a boy...it's a boy!! funny - since week 12 (about 2 months ago), I started referring to the baby as 'he' and I guess we weren't too surprised when it turned out to be a boy. Afterall, the gender of a baby is determined by the father, and since D is the 2nd son of the 2nd son and his older brother has 2 sons, and their dad's had 2 sons too, the odds are stacked against us for a girl. Interestingly enough, M and D are also having a son (they are due practically on the same day as us) so there'll be a gang of 3 little boys ready to hang out together when they are a little bigger, with V being the little boss mafioso!! :)
Slightly not-so-good news is that at this scan, the sonographer found that my placenta is very low-lying and is covering my cervix..http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/complications/placentapraevia/
Apparently, there's nothing to worry about for now. Chances are the placenta will move and all will be ok - but if worst comes to worst, we'll have a c-section. Not worried much about the c-section - more worried about the possible complications like bleeding and all. But not going to panic at the moment!
ok - gotta go now. C and N are around with lots of brochures on buggies and toys!
Love
P and the boy pea...
Monday, 1 October 2007
nasty colleagues...
I blogged about having gossippy nasty colleagues about 2 months ago (people who were 'upset' with me because I didn't tell them that I was pregnant at 7 weeks and basically reacted as if I was offending them and upsetting them by being pregnant?).... well, I've just found out that one of the 3 of them is pregnant!!! yes!!!!!! I wonder how the others are reacting to it. They've not told me about it - oh no, they wouldn't have that.... I think there's a word to describe such characters... mostly animal names... one could go with the female version of a pet-animal... or one could go with a typical farm animal. ARGH!!! **Edited to add that I have since found out that she's not only pregnant, she's actually 4/5 weeks ahead of us... which means that when she asked those questions, she was in a 'much safer' position than we were. When I asked her (when I bumped into her recently, first time since that encounter) whether she knew that she was pregnant then, she knew immediately which date we were talking about and said "yes, I was 11 weeks but I didn't want to say anything till after the scan."...Duh... if she felt that way, then why couldn't she think that perhaps I might feel the same way...?!?!?
We are 19 weeks now. I've not put on any weight since about 4-5 weeks ago. I'm still hovering around the 60kg barrier...which is probably good since I put on too much in the first trimester, I think. See this link for more information http://www.babycentre.co.uk/tools/weightgain/
The 2nd trimester is indeed the best period so far. Everyone says I look like I'm glowing (maybe it's another word for 'fat'?)... and that I look really well. I do feel well most days. I do have a bit of a backache but that's normal apparently!
We have our 20 week scan next Wednesday and I can't wait... will it be a boy? a girl?? I just want it to be a healthy little one. :)
ok... signing off now. gotta go home.
Love
P and the pea
We are 19 weeks now. I've not put on any weight since about 4-5 weeks ago. I'm still hovering around the 60kg barrier...which is probably good since I put on too much in the first trimester, I think. See this link for more information http://www.babycentre.co.uk/tools/weightgain/
The 2nd trimester is indeed the best period so far. Everyone says I look like I'm glowing (maybe it's another word for 'fat'?)... and that I look really well. I do feel well most days. I do have a bit of a backache but that's normal apparently!
We have our 20 week scan next Wednesday and I can't wait... will it be a boy? a girl?? I just want it to be a healthy little one. :)
ok... signing off now. gotta go home.
Love
P and the pea
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
Nose to the Grind...
Hiya...got back from Germany on Friday after a really long but fruitful and successful trip to 2 companies and doing lots of interviews and questionnaires. We now wait for the questionnaires to be returned and my PhD student can start number crunching!
Back to work yesterday and as usual, bureaucracy gets the better of the situation. Thinking rather naively that by sorting situations out before they become crises, I find out that this is not the done thing around here, and that I ought not have sorted what's going to happen when I'm on maternity leave. So, I'm thinking now, that I should just sod everything, and leave them to deal with it.
The workload isn't too bad this term - except for about 3 weeks in the middle of the term, the rest of the time is pretty ok. Then again, as it stands, my diary's booked up all the way till November, so if I can survive till end November, I'd be really pleased!!
We are now 18+1 days pregnant and growing. I felt the baby move the last couple of weeks but I wasn't sure about it. I guess it's what people call 'fluttering', 'butterflies'...:) We can't wait for our appointment at our next scan at 20 weeks!! Hopefully we'll be able to find out what gender it is then!
We've also made an appointment with the nursery in town to check it out. We've put our names down at the work's nursery but found out there was a long waiting list and that even with the 9 months maternity leave we get these days, they couldn't quite guarantee that we'd get a space for Christmas 2008!! So we're looking into alternatives. P and J have put V into the one in town and they seem very pleased with that place... D was always impressed with the place so hopefully when we see them next week, we'd be suitably happy.
ok - that's it for now. I need to go do some updates on work stuff and then I'm off. I have a cold and am not feeling too good..!
Love
P and the pea
18+1
Back to work yesterday and as usual, bureaucracy gets the better of the situation. Thinking rather naively that by sorting situations out before they become crises, I find out that this is not the done thing around here, and that I ought not have sorted what's going to happen when I'm on maternity leave. So, I'm thinking now, that I should just sod everything, and leave them to deal with it.
The workload isn't too bad this term - except for about 3 weeks in the middle of the term, the rest of the time is pretty ok. Then again, as it stands, my diary's booked up all the way till November, so if I can survive till end November, I'd be really pleased!!
We are now 18+1 days pregnant and growing. I felt the baby move the last couple of weeks but I wasn't sure about it. I guess it's what people call 'fluttering', 'butterflies'...:) We can't wait for our appointment at our next scan at 20 weeks!! Hopefully we'll be able to find out what gender it is then!
We've also made an appointment with the nursery in town to check it out. We've put our names down at the work's nursery but found out there was a long waiting list and that even with the 9 months maternity leave we get these days, they couldn't quite guarantee that we'd get a space for Christmas 2008!! So we're looking into alternatives. P and J have put V into the one in town and they seem very pleased with that place... D was always impressed with the place so hopefully when we see them next week, we'd be suitably happy.
ok - that's it for now. I need to go do some updates on work stuff and then I'm off. I have a cold and am not feeling too good..!
Love
P and the pea
18+1
Saturday, 15 September 2007
Off to Germany...
Hiya
thought I'd update the blog just before I leave for Germany for a week of interviews and questionnaires. It'll be worth it, and I don't feel physically bad (although I do get quite tired) so, I'll make the most of this. Thankfully Susanne will be coming to pick me up and will be a much needed assistant, so that will be good. :)
We had a great time in the Algarve, although typically, it was just too short a time for me (anyway) to destress and wind down. I think next time we go on holiday (which will probably be after the baby's born and we go home to show it off!) we'll have to take off for two weeks. Figured that it takes me/us a few days to wind down and then another few days to enjoy ourselves before it's time to wind back up again in time for work!
Things we did in the Algarve - sunned ourselves by the pool and on the beach, went to Zoomarine (the dolphins are so cute and intelligent! I bought us a family of tortoises for the bathtub), went for a tour to the West of the Algarve (would have been better if the weather was better, and if we had more time at each stop - felt that we were just sitting on the bus most of the time!) and ate loads. Everyone back here thinks that I definitely am 'showing' more after one week!
Met up with P, J and V today; V's got bigger and they took a passport photo of him for the application of his passport - he looks too cute! :)
ok, must dash - going to do some last minute panicking for the packing of bags, and then off to bed. Will try and upload holiday photos when I get back.
Oh - and thank you dear Jay, for sorting out the blog for me... :) What will I do (in blogsphere)without you...!
Wish me luck in Germany!
Love
P and the pea
16+5 days
thought I'd update the blog just before I leave for Germany for a week of interviews and questionnaires. It'll be worth it, and I don't feel physically bad (although I do get quite tired) so, I'll make the most of this. Thankfully Susanne will be coming to pick me up and will be a much needed assistant, so that will be good. :)
We had a great time in the Algarve, although typically, it was just too short a time for me (anyway) to destress and wind down. I think next time we go on holiday (which will probably be after the baby's born and we go home to show it off!) we'll have to take off for two weeks. Figured that it takes me/us a few days to wind down and then another few days to enjoy ourselves before it's time to wind back up again in time for work!
Things we did in the Algarve - sunned ourselves by the pool and on the beach, went to Zoomarine (the dolphins are so cute and intelligent! I bought us a family of tortoises for the bathtub), went for a tour to the West of the Algarve (would have been better if the weather was better, and if we had more time at each stop - felt that we were just sitting on the bus most of the time!) and ate loads. Everyone back here thinks that I definitely am 'showing' more after one week!
Met up with P, J and V today; V's got bigger and they took a passport photo of him for the application of his passport - he looks too cute! :)
ok, must dash - going to do some last minute panicking for the packing of bags, and then off to bed. Will try and upload holiday photos when I get back.
Oh - and thank you dear Jay, for sorting out the blog for me... :) What will I do (in blogsphere)without you...!
Wish me luck in Germany!
Love
P and the pea
16+5 days
Wednesday, 5 September 2007
Our midwife's appointment - no. 2
Hello! It's the day before we leave for holiday, and we've not packed. I usually leave it to D to pack, but I've not assembled my stuff yet! I figure my pregnancy repertoire isn't very large, so it won't be too difficult to try and gather all the clothes that I can possibly fit into! :)
Anyways, just to report that we had a really good appointment with the midwife yesterday and the results of the Trisomy 21 (http://en.,wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome) and Trisomy 13+18 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_18, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_13) tests were really good. Our combined risk for Tr21 is 1:6633, and that for Tr13+18 is 1:12213, which basically interprets to 'not at increased risk', which is good enough for me!
More exciting, we managed to hear baby's heartbeat really clearly for the first time! The midwife put the monitor on my belly and said, "let's see if we can hear baby's heartbeat"...and then within a couple of seconds, there was a loud 'whoosh whoosh' sound really quickly... and the midwife smiled and said 'baby's heartbeat's very strong and very clear'!! :) We were so pleased - it just made it so much more real for us... I wish we could have taped it, but it's ok, we've got the fetal heartbeat monitor which hopefully will start being more accurate in a few more weeks.
ok - gotta start sorting things out and packing. Will check back in a week or so...
Love
P and the pea
Anyways, just to report that we had a really good appointment with the midwife yesterday and the results of the Trisomy 21 (http://en.,wikipedia.org/wiki/Down_syndrome) and Trisomy 13+18 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_18, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisomy_13) tests were really good. Our combined risk for Tr21 is 1:6633, and that for Tr13+18 is 1:12213, which basically interprets to 'not at increased risk', which is good enough for me!
More exciting, we managed to hear baby's heartbeat really clearly for the first time! The midwife put the monitor on my belly and said, "let's see if we can hear baby's heartbeat"...and then within a couple of seconds, there was a loud 'whoosh whoosh' sound really quickly... and the midwife smiled and said 'baby's heartbeat's very strong and very clear'!! :) We were so pleased - it just made it so much more real for us... I wish we could have taped it, but it's ok, we've got the fetal heartbeat monitor which hopefully will start being more accurate in a few more weeks.
ok - gotta start sorting things out and packing. Will check back in a week or so...
Love
P and the pea
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Great midwifery in the South-East
Good morning!! We're two days away from our holiday and I'm getting excited - happy to get away from all the stresses at work and happy to hopefully get some sunshine whilst we're out there! As you can see, baby's about 15+2 weeks old today and we have our 16 week midwife's appointment this evening. Yup, this evening... it's amazing the midwifery care at least in this part of the country is excellent (so far...fingers crossed!).
And yet if you read about other women's experiences across the country, it can get really bad. Some examples, some women who apparently live up in the North east are having to pay approximately £200 to have their complete blood tests done (the triple test etc) and we get it free and very much as a matter-of-factly! Other women get only a scan at 24 weeks (?!) and others start at week 16. Over here, if we panic, we can call the birth centre and they'll schedule us for an emergency scan. P had an emergency scan when she had a pain in her side at 8 weeks; M had one when she started to bleed (about 6/7 weeks) and I had one that was scheduled so quickly on request of the doctor that when I was pregnant, they thought I shouldn't cancel the scan but tell the sonographer to look for a baby instead (and they obliged!!)...
So, I think at least for baby-related business, we're really good here in the South-east!! :)
I hope I can get my flights sorted by this evening (to Germany for work) and then I'll be much more relaxed. I've finished all the other things I needed to sort out by the holiday, so I'm going to take it easy today. hehe... if other colleagues can go away for 5-8 weeks at a time, I don't see why I can't take off for 2 weeks.
anyways, will update when I've had my midwife's appt.
Love
Pam and the pea
And yet if you read about other women's experiences across the country, it can get really bad. Some examples, some women who apparently live up in the North east are having to pay approximately £200 to have their complete blood tests done (the triple test etc) and we get it free and very much as a matter-of-factly! Other women get only a scan at 24 weeks (?!) and others start at week 16. Over here, if we panic, we can call the birth centre and they'll schedule us for an emergency scan. P had an emergency scan when she had a pain in her side at 8 weeks; M had one when she started to bleed (about 6/7 weeks) and I had one that was scheduled so quickly on request of the doctor that when I was pregnant, they thought I shouldn't cancel the scan but tell the sonographer to look for a baby instead (and they obliged!!)...
So, I think at least for baby-related business, we're really good here in the South-east!! :)
I hope I can get my flights sorted by this evening (to Germany for work) and then I'll be much more relaxed. I've finished all the other things I needed to sort out by the holiday, so I'm going to take it easy today. hehe... if other colleagues can go away for 5-8 weeks at a time, I don't see why I can't take off for 2 weeks.
anyways, will update when I've had my midwife's appt.
Love
Pam and the pea
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
12 week scan!
We've had our 12 week scan last wednesday! (15th Aug 2007) and all is well! Yay!! Baby was 7cm big and the scans were extremely clear. The sonographer also did the Nuchal Fold test and baby scored 1.2mm which is great (anything bigger than 3.5mm I think is significant). We've also finally told most of the other friends who don't live around us through email and the scans... and everyone's congratulated us. :)
Slight bad news from those in York - turns out that the reason why we'd not heard from them for so long is coz they're going through a separation (which appears to be permanent) and will be getting divorced. And we thought they were probably one of the most stable couples around. That was a bit of a shocker. Don't know why yet - S says it's fundamental differences (but they'd been going out for about 10 years prior to marriage!) and L says it's not a third party. Last night Dan really looked upset after hanging up the phone, and wondered if it could have been a third party - told him it was not possible, since they were still living in the same house.
Anyways...all is good and we'll have our next scan in October. Next thing to look forward to is our 1 week holiday in the Algarve (sept 6-13), and then we come back to our midwife's appointment on the 18th, and then I might have to head off to Germany for a few days.
Work's been manic and so's been clearing. I'm definitely very intolerant of stupidity; I have no patience... :(
ok - will sign off now. P, J and V are back tomorrow and I need to go to the shops to get some basics for them, clear up their house and then go for lunch with D.
Love
P and the pea
Slight bad news from those in York - turns out that the reason why we'd not heard from them for so long is coz they're going through a separation (which appears to be permanent) and will be getting divorced. And we thought they were probably one of the most stable couples around. That was a bit of a shocker. Don't know why yet - S says it's fundamental differences (but they'd been going out for about 10 years prior to marriage!) and L says it's not a third party. Last night Dan really looked upset after hanging up the phone, and wondered if it could have been a third party - told him it was not possible, since they were still living in the same house.
Anyways...all is good and we'll have our next scan in October. Next thing to look forward to is our 1 week holiday in the Algarve (sept 6-13), and then we come back to our midwife's appointment on the 18th, and then I might have to head off to Germany for a few days.
Work's been manic and so's been clearing. I'm definitely very intolerant of stupidity; I have no patience... :(
ok - will sign off now. P, J and V are back tomorrow and I need to go to the shops to get some basics for them, clear up their house and then go for lunch with D.
Love
P and the pea
Wednesday, 8 August 2007
11 weeks and counting
It's August 8th today, and we're 11+2 weeks into the pregnancy. It seems like time's flown past (well, when morning sickness abounds it feels like it's dragging...but!). We have our 12 week scan exactly next Wednesday where hopefully we'll see lil baby floating away in its sac, with everything intact and heart beating strongly...!! *fingers tightly crossed*
It was D's birthday on saturday and we went to bluewater to get him an armband thing for his ipod. Also got him a doppler so that he can hear the baby's heartbeat! We've tried it a few times and we think we've heard a heartbeat!! supposed to work best from the 2nd half of the 2nd trimester... but we think we heard something!! hehe :)
still feeling quite tired, and sleeping at night is difficult sometimes due to the weight on the belly. have been trying to work in the morning and then taking breaks in the afternoon... hopefully this morning sickness will go away soon. Am so big now and have put on 4 kgs already - everyone's saying we're expecting twins!!!
Might have to go to Munich again mid/late september for the project - it should be ok in the 2nd trimester...
ok, will try and upload a photo of the scan next week!! wish us luck!
love
P and the pea
It was D's birthday on saturday and we went to bluewater to get him an armband thing for his ipod. Also got him a doppler so that he can hear the baby's heartbeat! We've tried it a few times and we think we've heard a heartbeat!! supposed to work best from the 2nd half of the 2nd trimester... but we think we heard something!! hehe :)
still feeling quite tired, and sleeping at night is difficult sometimes due to the weight on the belly. have been trying to work in the morning and then taking breaks in the afternoon... hopefully this morning sickness will go away soon. Am so big now and have put on 4 kgs already - everyone's saying we're expecting twins!!!
Might have to go to Munich again mid/late september for the project - it should be ok in the 2nd trimester...
ok, will try and upload a photo of the scan next week!! wish us luck!
love
P and the pea
Friday, 27 July 2007
Getting stranded in Munich
I've not updated the blog for 2 weeks now - so sorry...but have been really busy. Was stuck in Munich last Friday because our flight got cancelled. Stuart and I went out to Bavaria for a day's meeting which went really well. I even got to meet the boys for about 20 minutes during the break time which was great. On our way to the airport, Stu got a text message saying that our flight home was cancelled due to bad weather in London (and after that, we found out that it was also due to bad weather in Germany). To cut the long story short, we ended up being given hotel rooms for the night, free dinner at the hotel, and of course breakfast the next day, and got bussed back to the airport to catch out flight at 11.30am. Whilst we were waiting for our flight at the gate, they actually made an announcement saying that they were over booked and if there were any volunteers offering to get bumped off, there'll be compensation!! I looked at Stu and said, we'll use every pregnant excuse we can come up with - we are going home!!! We did, and ended up landing about 12.30pm. It was a long trek home (D came to pick me up...:)) but we finally got home at about 4pm. Got invited over to P and J's house for home made pizza which was very gratefully received...:)
So, we are now 9+4 (according to me) and 9+6 according to the scan. I'm still feeling nauseous with morning sickness but I've not really had to throw up yet, which I suppose is a consolation. I've taken to wearing maternity clothes, definitely the trousers and they are very comfortable. Yay! Have also managed to find some black maternity trousers that fit... yay for that too. I can now look slightly more professional when I have to!
We met our midwife last week and it was a great meeting. Karen's really helpful and nice...although I'm still not sure about the use of midwives in the birthing process since back home and practically everywhere I know have OB/GYNs on duty and consulting every time they meet!
We also got our Nuchal Scan booked for the 15th of August... that will mark our 12th week date... I can't wait to see baby.
ok - gotta go now. will update soon. A and O are over this weekend - can't wait!
P and the pea
So, we are now 9+4 (according to me) and 9+6 according to the scan. I'm still feeling nauseous with morning sickness but I've not really had to throw up yet, which I suppose is a consolation. I've taken to wearing maternity clothes, definitely the trousers and they are very comfortable. Yay! Have also managed to find some black maternity trousers that fit... yay for that too. I can now look slightly more professional when I have to!
We met our midwife last week and it was a great meeting. Karen's really helpful and nice...although I'm still not sure about the use of midwives in the birthing process since back home and practically everywhere I know have OB/GYNs on duty and consulting every time they meet!
We also got our Nuchal Scan booked for the 15th of August... that will mark our 12th week date... I can't wait to see baby.
ok - gotta go now. will update soon. A and O are over this weekend - can't wait!
P and the pea
Friday, 13 July 2007
Morning sickness and sticki-outie belly
A week's passed since my last update. The morning sickness (which seems to last the whole day and night) is getting worse. I've not had to be physically sick yet, but there's been alot of dry heaving and discomfort. My belly's sticking out quite abit - and I've ended up having to purchase my first maternity clothes (a dress, a pair of combat trousers and a black t-shirt)!
I bumped into an ex-colleague at a department store last week and of course, he wasn't suppose to know that I was preggers...just yet. He stopped, and then asked 'is there any good news???'... I looked down in horror and there it was, my little belly, sticking out rather defiantly! He thought it was hilarious that I was freaking out - but he also said that it was quite obviously obvious. I mentioned that no one at work had asked me about it, and he thought that they were all 'walking around with their eyes closed'. hm.
The next day, another colleague (male again) made a comment and figured almost immediately. I guess that's it then guys, we've been out-ed!
I'm still quite nervous about it - since we're not quite out of the woods yet till at least the first trimester.... which is in roughly 4 weeks time. We have our first midwife's appt on Tuesday morning and it will probably take an hour to go through all the questions - feeling really excited about it, coz it makes it all so much more real, and then maybe I can go ask her all the silly questions I've got stored up! hehe.
Had a bit of a negative backlash from some nasty colleagues a couple of days ago where they had guessed that I was pregnant, didn't come and confirm it with me or anything, decided to tell some other people. When I finally told this particular person that I was pregnant, she looked at me coolly and said "I know"... blimey. and to think I thought that she of all persons would be most sympathetic or enthusiastic since she gave birth 1.5 years ago and I had to take over all her responsibilities!! Shan't devote more space onto this worthless creature - but it did make me so mad.
ok - gotta go now. Cleaners are on their way and I need to tidy up!! (huh?!)
P and the pea
I bumped into an ex-colleague at a department store last week and of course, he wasn't suppose to know that I was preggers...just yet. He stopped, and then asked 'is there any good news???'... I looked down in horror and there it was, my little belly, sticking out rather defiantly! He thought it was hilarious that I was freaking out - but he also said that it was quite obviously obvious. I mentioned that no one at work had asked me about it, and he thought that they were all 'walking around with their eyes closed'. hm.
The next day, another colleague (male again) made a comment and figured almost immediately. I guess that's it then guys, we've been out-ed!
I'm still quite nervous about it - since we're not quite out of the woods yet till at least the first trimester.... which is in roughly 4 weeks time. We have our first midwife's appt on Tuesday morning and it will probably take an hour to go through all the questions - feeling really excited about it, coz it makes it all so much more real, and then maybe I can go ask her all the silly questions I've got stored up! hehe.
Had a bit of a negative backlash from some nasty colleagues a couple of days ago where they had guessed that I was pregnant, didn't come and confirm it with me or anything, decided to tell some other people. When I finally told this particular person that I was pregnant, she looked at me coolly and said "I know"... blimey. and to think I thought that she of all persons would be most sympathetic or enthusiastic since she gave birth 1.5 years ago and I had to take over all her responsibilities!! Shan't devote more space onto this worthless creature - but it did make me so mad.
ok - gotta go now. Cleaners are on their way and I need to tidy up!! (huh?!)
P and the pea
Friday, 6 July 2007
Symptoms!
opps! Forgot about the symptoms! .... there weren't that many symptoms to be honest. I didn't feel pregnant in the 2ww, but strangely enough, two days before my period was due (a saturday, the saturday before Father's day), I woke up and thought, why don't I just pee on a stick (POAS)... ?
thinking back, perhaps the only symptom I had was heavy boobbies - and slight pulling down there. But having been there many times with imaginery or otherwise symptoms, I didn't want to read too much into them.
Now, at about 6+4, I have started with slight nausea, and immense hunger at times. The boobs are still heavy and bigger (have bought some bigger bras) and my belly seems to stick out, especially by the time we get to the evening meal! A couple of days ago, I was at work wearing my regular clothes, and I had to unbutton the trouser buttons!! I even walked out of work with that flapping and hadn't realised until I sat in my car!! (How embarrassing - and I even waved at one of my colleagues...hmm.). Oh well... hehe
P and the pea
thinking back, perhaps the only symptom I had was heavy boobbies - and slight pulling down there. But having been there many times with imaginery or otherwise symptoms, I didn't want to read too much into them.
Now, at about 6+4, I have started with slight nausea, and immense hunger at times. The boobs are still heavy and bigger (have bought some bigger bras) and my belly seems to stick out, especially by the time we get to the evening meal! A couple of days ago, I was at work wearing my regular clothes, and I had to unbutton the trouser buttons!! I even walked out of work with that flapping and hadn't realised until I sat in my car!! (How embarrassing - and I even waved at one of my colleagues...hmm.). Oh well... hehe
P and the pea
things we did different....
good morning! thought I'd update the blog with my symptoms and things we did differently this month....
This month, things we did differently included
This month, things we did differently included
- seeing a fertility expert who prescribed three months of Clomid (a drug that helps regulate ovulation)
- having reflexology (I started reflexology the week I ovulated, and carried on for the next two weeks)
- started BD-ing around day 8 and carried on for a week or so. Continued to keep the pillow under my bum for about 30 minutes after the deed!!
- continued with folic acid; DH started with the WellMan vitamins about 3 months back
- used ClearBlue's Ovulation Predictor Monitor for the last 3 months. Even though it predicted similar LH surges, because it was a 'computer' reading, it seemed more 'reassuring'!!
That's about it I think.... In the post this morning, we received the official letter from the scan unit confirming that it was 6 mm (I swear she said it was 5!!), and that it was dated at 6weeks 3 days (I thought it was 6 weeks 1 day)... so that's all very accurate and good. I can't wait for my first midwife appointment in about 2 weeks time. That will be great, to be able to talk to someone about the whole process. I went round to the doctor's surgery last night to pick up my pregnancy pack. It's really nice to see the receptionist's face light up when you ask for it. :):) Maybe it was a reflection of my smiley-face...hehe.
ok...till the next post....
P and the Pea
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
6 week scan!
I've just got home from the hospital... and there's a heartbeat!! I can't believe it - it exists, in my belly (for want of a more scientific word!!)...
The instructions were for me to drink 1-2 pints of liquid 2 hours before the appointment. I didn't really do that as I needed to wee about 1.5 hours before! oh well - I just drank more water. We got to the hospital, signed in and waited. Thankfully, because we smiled alot and were friendly, the lady at reception pushed me up the waiting list and so we got to do our ultrascan about 5-10 minutes after the appointment time (given that there were at least 6-10 other people waiting their turn, we were very lucky). I guess it helped that I said I was bursting to wee, and she completely sympathised.
So, anyway, we went into the room, and explained the situation. She immediately found a heartbeat and we took a picture!! :) (when I get round to scanning it, I'll load it up here). I guess that for me was the confirmation that I needed - I was well and truly up the duff!! :)
She confirmed that it was 6 weeks along and 5 mm small (how cute). It's only a smudgy-grey thing now within a sac, but it's there.
I know it's still a long way to go and many things can go wrong, but fingers crossed and with prayers, all will be ok.
Rang dad on the way home and he was completely lost for words - I guess given that we'd not told him that we were trying and given that my mum's passed away 15 years ago, we don't talk about personal things like that ever.
If all goes well, baby will be born around my mum's birthday, which will be excellent news.
ok, will log off now.
P and the pea
The instructions were for me to drink 1-2 pints of liquid 2 hours before the appointment. I didn't really do that as I needed to wee about 1.5 hours before! oh well - I just drank more water. We got to the hospital, signed in and waited. Thankfully, because we smiled alot and were friendly, the lady at reception pushed me up the waiting list and so we got to do our ultrascan about 5-10 minutes after the appointment time (given that there were at least 6-10 other people waiting their turn, we were very lucky). I guess it helped that I said I was bursting to wee, and she completely sympathised.
So, anyway, we went into the room, and explained the situation. She immediately found a heartbeat and we took a picture!! :) (when I get round to scanning it, I'll load it up here). I guess that for me was the confirmation that I needed - I was well and truly up the duff!! :)
She confirmed that it was 6 weeks along and 5 mm small (how cute). It's only a smudgy-grey thing now within a sac, but it's there.
I know it's still a long way to go and many things can go wrong, but fingers crossed and with prayers, all will be ok.
Rang dad on the way home and he was completely lost for words - I guess given that we'd not told him that we were trying and given that my mum's passed away 15 years ago, we don't talk about personal things like that ever.
If all goes well, baby will be born around my mum's birthday, which will be excellent news.
ok, will log off now.
P and the pea
Back from the USA...
Hi! It's been about two weeks since I last blogged - the last week and abit, we were in USA on a conference and got back late Friday evening. Saturday PM, we drove 300 miles up to see my in-laws for a family do and drove back down Sunday PM (another 300 miles). On our way up the M6, we got caught up in what was initially thought to be an 'accident' and we got diverted around Sandbach. Turns out that the police were in the midst of arresting two of the 8 people they've arrested in connection with the Glasgow airport bombing!! My gawd.
Anyway, we're back safe and sound now, and blogging. This afternoon, I have my first scan. It's 6+1 weeks so still very early days yet, but because we had scheduled this scan in before we even knew we were pregnant (I'd gone to see Dr Malony who requested for a scan to locate my other ovary - it was hiding the last time I did a scan in sg). So, when we found out we were pregnant, Dr Greaves said that we should still keep the scan date and explain to the scanners that we should be looking for a baby and its heartbeat now. *fingers tightly crossed*...
Will update in a bit. Bye!!
Anyway, we're back safe and sound now, and blogging. This afternoon, I have my first scan. It's 6+1 weeks so still very early days yet, but because we had scheduled this scan in before we even knew we were pregnant (I'd gone to see Dr Malony who requested for a scan to locate my other ovary - it was hiding the last time I did a scan in sg). So, when we found out we were pregnant, Dr Greaves said that we should still keep the scan date and explain to the scanners that we should be looking for a baby and its heartbeat now. *fingers tightly crossed*...
Will update in a bit. Bye!!
P and the peas in the pod...
Tuesday, 19 June 2007
Time to start blogging
The time has come to start blogging... When I first registered this blog, I was all caught up in the blog frenzy and had even guest-blogged on a good friend's site. I thought, sure...since I write for a living (sort of), blogging would be a breeze. not.
So, I KIV-ed the blogging project, promising myself mentally, that if we (hub and I) achieved what we'd set out to get to about the same time as the blogging project, I'd start to blog (does that make sense to you?)... well, 10 months since we embarked on this 'project', we're happy to say that we're possibly on our way to success... we'll find out oh...in about...9 months time?!! :)
Yes, I promised myself that if we were so fortunate as to fall pregnant, I'd start to blog about our adventures... and so here I am...4+1 and blogging.
It's a funny thing, blogging. In real life, when I write, I need to back up my statements with evidence and informed information. In blog-life, I can rant and rave as much as I like. This is perhaps actually, even better than real life...!
Anyways, on Saturday 16th June, I POAS-ed. Lo and behold, there was a 2nd line. I shrieked and called out to the hub. He was downstairs and immediately said "NO!!! did you...?!" - I'm not sure how he figured that I'd POAS-ed..it's not like he was standing at the door...was he?? He rushed upstairs and confirmed with a big silly grin on his face (which matched mine) that indeed, there was 2nd line. Wow... a 2nd line. How many sticks had I POAS-ed and how many times had they not produced a 2nd line..."happy early father's day, darling!"
Because Saturday was officially still 'early' - AF wasn't due till the Monday, we were moderately cautious. I kept going back to look at the stick and the 2nd line - even though the manufacturers tell us that we should disregard any lines or sticks that are more than 10 minutes old or so (I still have them). I took pictures of them with my phone (now, who would have thought you'd ever say that - take pictures with your phone??)... hubs took pictures with his phone. We took out the camera and took pictures with the camera.
Sunday rolled round, I POAS-ed again...and guess what? The 2nd line appeared again!! (on a new and different stick, silly!). I couldn't believe it... we put it together with the first stick. Yup, there are two sticks with a total of 4 lines now. That evening, I POAS-ed on an OPK and even though the OPK measures the LH surge, it can be used sometimes as a confirmatory test (see http://www.peeonastick.com/opkhpt.html) and it produced two lines again! Bear with me...we now have 3 sticks with 6 lines. :) But....this was all still early days - it's not Monday yet!
Monday came and this time, I used a Clearblue test thinking that this was going to be the definitive test. If this says I'm pregnant, I'll finally believe it....and it did. :) I was over the moon. We were over the moon. The big + sign appeared even before I could flush the loo!
We agreed we wouldn't tell people yet since it's still really early days and so many things can happen (oh...please God...keep it safe). But I thought I'd blog about it anyway... And, I had to tell my administrator because I had a meeting with her on Monday morning and we were discussing schedules for early next year (yes, we're well prepared!) and I had to inform her that I really couldn't swap my schedules and the reasons why. She was chuffed for us...
ok, that's it for today. We're off to America for a conference and thankfully we had the foresight to have the hubs come along on this trip.
till the next time I blog...
P and the peas
So, I KIV-ed the blogging project, promising myself mentally, that if we (hub and I) achieved what we'd set out to get to about the same time as the blogging project, I'd start to blog (does that make sense to you?)... well, 10 months since we embarked on this 'project', we're happy to say that we're possibly on our way to success... we'll find out oh...in about...9 months time?!! :)
Yes, I promised myself that if we were so fortunate as to fall pregnant, I'd start to blog about our adventures... and so here I am...4+1 and blogging.
It's a funny thing, blogging. In real life, when I write, I need to back up my statements with evidence and informed information. In blog-life, I can rant and rave as much as I like. This is perhaps actually, even better than real life...!
Anyways, on Saturday 16th June, I POAS-ed. Lo and behold, there was a 2nd line. I shrieked and called out to the hub. He was downstairs and immediately said "NO!!! did you...?!" - I'm not sure how he figured that I'd POAS-ed..it's not like he was standing at the door...was he?? He rushed upstairs and confirmed with a big silly grin on his face (which matched mine) that indeed, there was 2nd line. Wow... a 2nd line. How many sticks had I POAS-ed and how many times had they not produced a 2nd line..."happy early father's day, darling!"
Because Saturday was officially still 'early' - AF wasn't due till the Monday, we were moderately cautious. I kept going back to look at the stick and the 2nd line - even though the manufacturers tell us that we should disregard any lines or sticks that are more than 10 minutes old or so (I still have them). I took pictures of them with my phone (now, who would have thought you'd ever say that - take pictures with your phone??)... hubs took pictures with his phone. We took out the camera and took pictures with the camera.
Sunday rolled round, I POAS-ed again...and guess what? The 2nd line appeared again!! (on a new and different stick, silly!). I couldn't believe it... we put it together with the first stick. Yup, there are two sticks with a total of 4 lines now. That evening, I POAS-ed on an OPK and even though the OPK measures the LH surge, it can be used sometimes as a confirmatory test (see http://www.peeonastick.com/opkhpt.html) and it produced two lines again! Bear with me...we now have 3 sticks with 6 lines. :) But....this was all still early days - it's not Monday yet!
Monday came and this time, I used a Clearblue test thinking that this was going to be the definitive test. If this says I'm pregnant, I'll finally believe it....and it did. :) I was over the moon. We were over the moon. The big + sign appeared even before I could flush the loo!
We agreed we wouldn't tell people yet since it's still really early days and so many things can happen (oh...please God...keep it safe). But I thought I'd blog about it anyway... And, I had to tell my administrator because I had a meeting with her on Monday morning and we were discussing schedules for early next year (yes, we're well prepared!) and I had to inform her that I really couldn't swap my schedules and the reasons why. She was chuffed for us...
ok, that's it for today. We're off to America for a conference and thankfully we had the foresight to have the hubs come along on this trip.
till the next time I blog...
P and the peas
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