The last OB's appointment

Am finally back on here after my OB appointment.

I saw a different guy again today, but he is one of the senior OBs.

He is really relaxed and down to earth. He had a quick look at my file, asked a couple of questions, checked bp, did a quick ultrasound to make sure that Miss B is head down and then said the magic words..."Let's get you booked in for an induction!"

He sent me around to the booking midwife, but with the strict instructions that I must be booked when there will be a registrar(sp?)working. (This is because of the size of the baby they are worried about the possibility of shoulder dystocia). So that put Fri/Sat/Sun out of the question. So I said "How busy are you tomorrow?" And she said that tomorrow was all good if I was ready. Hell yes I'm ready.

So tomorrow morning (Thursday 24th) 7.30am it's induction time YAY, YAY.

So to all my family and friends, please be patient waiting for the announcement. Just remember Liam's labour was 18 hours and Jack's was 9. If it gets too late at night, we won't be texting people until the next morning.

See you all on the other side.

Baby B finally has a bedroom

And not a moment too late considering she's due today.

Seriously we are going to be so, so screwed if she is infact a he.

This is what her room looked like this morning:


From the doorway:


From next to the cot:


From the wardrobe:

The eviction notice has been served

Dear Miss B

Tenant has 3 days in which she can either gather her belongings and vacate the premises, or wait until the final day. After which she will be physically removed from the property.

She is being evicted due to a breech of contract and destruction of property.

Expansions only to the front of the property, within reasonable limits, were discussed. Not only have these limits been exceeded, but additions to the back of the property were also made.

Remodeling and gutting the property was never approved, nor was changing the initial layout and base structure.

Due to property damage, there are now leaks in both upper and lower levels of the property.

Also, late night parties have been discovered on the property and are not greatly appreciated!

Any further problems will result in immediate removal!

Sincerely the Landlady (Your mother)

*I can't take credit for this one - I found it on the web and thought it was cute.

39 week monster belly shot

After my wishful thinking that last week would be my last belly shot, here in all it's glory is my 39 week belly shot. If you are wondering why it looks like it's really shrunk there is 2 reasons.

1. Little miss is fully engaged now and

2. I'm wearing my new funky abdominal support band.

Fingers crossed for me that this really is my last belly shot.

Is this the longest pregnancy in the world or what?

This time I saw a different OB again.

For some reason my file had been misplaced (aparently they were still waiting for it to come up from records where they think it was after my physio appointment yesterday), so all they had was the record book that I carry. I had to go through and explain my history all over again.

I explained everything that happened with my physio yesterday and she seemed not worried at all. Infact she didn't really say anything.

My blood pressure was great, no protein in my urine, no swelling. Weirdest thing that happened was that my fundal height was only 45cm when last week it was 49cms. It hasn't been at 45cms for weeks. She double checked it again and said that it was definitely only 45cms. I was starting to think what the hell??? but it's a GOOD thing. What it means is that the baby has dropped right down and is now fully engaged. (Which is what I thought anyway because since Saturday my bum has felt like it wants to explode)

But no mention of induction even though last week I was told they wouldn't let me go over 40 weeks. So of course I wasn't going to let my chance of induction walk away. So I asked about it and was told:

"We don't induce due to hypertension. We don't induce due to pelvic instability. We don't induce do to abdominal separation. But since you have a combination of the three, you may be a candidate. Let me check."

As soon as she left the room I knew there was no chance because I knew the person she would have to consult would be the OB that I usually see (the guy that's the head of obstetrics). So of course she comes back and says that he said "no medical reason for the induction".

It took a major effort not to cry right there and then.

So I have another appointment booked for next wednesday when I'll be 40 weeks and 2 days. That's when they'll talk induction.

The only good news that I got out of today is that she thinks that there is no way that I'll still be pregnant next Wednesday.

So that's my sook for the day.

No actually - no I lie. My day did get worse.

I got my hair cut and it's horrid. It looks like an old lady cut and I'm really pissed off. All I wanted was for all my layers to be cut as they had grown way too long and I couldn't wear my hair out anymore. Now I've basically got a bloody fringe after taking ages to grow it out. Grrrr...really pisses me off that hairdressers think they know your hair better than you do.

Move over baby boy, a little man has emerged

Finally after 3.5 years I bit the bullet.
Jack's hair has not been this short since he was a baby

This is the song that never ends

And now Liam has croup as well

I just want to cry

I'm having a really crappy day.

I've still got the same bloody cough that I've had for almost 6 weeks now. I really don't think it's going to go until this baby is out.

Overnight Jack came down with croup again. The last time he had it was only 6 weeks ago as well. Ever since then he hasn't been able to shake the cough but hasn't been sick. We took him back to the doctors this morning and his ears are inflamed (but not quite infected yet). So he's on antibiotics for that as he gets ear infections very frequently. He's been put back on Redipred for the next 3 days and he's been put on an asthma preventative. We were hoping that it wouldn't come to that, but I was warned about 12 months ago that it was likely he would be asthmatic since he has croup so often. He has to be on the preventer for 6 weeks and then we'll see how we go.

So one visit to the doctors just cost me $72 in medication today.

Then I had my physio appointment today. I haven't seen her for a while as she's been away and I had to cancel my last 2 appointments.

As soon as I walked in she looked at me really funny and was watching my stomach while I was walking. She had a bit of a chat with me about how things were going and then got me to get up on the bed so she could show me some relaxation techniques. So while I was laying on my side, she was feeling my diaphragm and teaching me to breathe. She was asking me about my stomach and if it felt sore or anything. I told her that for about 3 weeks I've had this pain like I had a pulled muscle, but it wasn't too bad. So she got me to lie on my back and she was doing some serious stomach feeling then making me lift my head up and down (which I might add was bloody hard to do).

She asked me to come and sit back down and told me that I've got a severe abdominal muscle separation. She said that she was already pretty certain before she felt my stomach just by looking at me because of the shape of my stomach (she called it dome shaped). I guess that's why everyone still thinks I'm carrying really high - it's not the baby - it's my stomach not being compressed by the muscles. So now I've got a new belly band to wear. This one is like a huge elasticised tube that goes around my stomach and supports it. My original support belt that went around my waist is meant to be worn over the top of it.

So now I'm on full-on strict rest. I'm not allowed to do ANYTHING. I can't lift a single thing, I'm not allowed to do grocery shopping, I'm not allowed to put washing on the line, basically I have to sit on my rear all day.

Then we talked about birth. This is the part that made me really upset. She has put in my file that she recommends that I have a caesar. Her exact words to me were "Your ability to push out a large baby would be extremely compromised with the condition your stomach muscles are in". She was then nice enough to go through birth and labour positions with me incase I have decided to go ahead with a vaginal birth. She said she'd give me the best chance possible of achieving a vaginal birth but she wanted me to have a really good think about it and have a big talk to my OB about it tomorrow.

So all in all I'm pretty upset about it. I know a caesar isn't the end of the world, but it's not what I had planned at all. I had accepted to go with the flow and if an emergency caesar eventuated, then so be it. But this is different.

I'll let you all know what the OB says tomorrow.

Having fun at Joshua's party

Before we received the invitation, I'd never even heard of the Altona Miniature Railway so I wasn't sure what it would be like or if the boys would be scared of the train. As you can see from below, I need not have worried. The train rides were a huge hit.

Apart from the train rides, there was also pony rides to be had. Since both the boys are scared of animals I honestly thought that there was no way in hell that they'd even go near them. Wrong again...

Oh and the boys were also the coolest kids around (well they thought so) due to the fact they were sporting coloured hairspray and temporary tatts.

So all in all the boys had a fantastic day.

Joshua, we hope you enjoyed your birthday party as well :)

38 week OB appointment

For the first time I saw someone different today.

I can't believe I got this far just seeing the one person going public through the hospital.

Anyway, the guy today was lovely.

Nothing exciting to report.

He checked fundal height LMAO 49cms now.

He agreed that it looks like another 10lber.

Sooooo...with that in mind he has agreed that I'll be induced at 40 weeks rather than letting me go over. So a big YAY to that!!

So I've got another appointment next Wednesday, hopefully it's a Clayton's one and I'll have this baby first.

I'm getting game with my 38 week monster shot

38 weeks & 2 days

Well since I'm really hoping that this will be my last weekly pic, I thought I'd be game to show what my belly really looks like.

I apologise to anyone offended by my nakedness and granny undies.

The things to do on a lazy Saturday

Step One: Steal Mummy's camera two days prior and hide it from her until the time is right for picture taking unsupervised.









Step Two: Wait until Daddy goes out and Mummy is resting to take some great random pics.






Step Three: Make a mental note to learn how to turn off the flash. That way next time we steal the camera Mummy won't bust us by seeing the flash from her room.










Step Four: Unzip our sleeping bags into blankets. That way they make an excellent roof and walls for cubby houses. Then rearrange all the dining room furniture for said cubby house.








Step Five: Be very, very proud of our achievement. Proud enough to ask Daddy to take pics of us.




Step Six: Get someone to teach Daddy how to take photos without stuffing them up.





Step Seven: Make homemade meatballs with Daddy.







Step Eight: After a full on day, fall asleep in the standing position.

At what point does quirkiness become a phobia?

A phobia is an intense, unrealistic fear, which can interfere with the ability
to socialize, work, or go about everyday life, that is brought on by an object,
event or situation.

Ok so now we all know what it is, is this what my hair issues are? I guess most of my family and friends know that I have issues with hair - especially wet hair, much to everyones amusement. Especially Brian's - who refers to it as my "hair fetish".

I was actually starting to think that things were on the improve until this mornings little "incident".

Now I know it's a fact of life that everyone has to deal with hair getting snagged in the shower drain - but I just can't. It's for this reason that keeping the bathrooms clean is "Brian's job". It was only recently that he'd cleaned it so really there was hardly any visible hair. But unbeknownst to me, hair and icebergs have one thing is common - what's visible to the eye is only the tip.

So here I was, happily having a shower, minding my own business when purely by accident I stepped backwards and dragged my foot across the drain. To my horror I snagged some hair and while quickly jumping back not only did the hair that I could see come flying out at me, but attached to it was a whole mass of knotted hair that had been hiding inside the drain.

Before I could gather any semblance of control I let loose an involuntary squeal which was enough to make Brian start freaking out wondering what the hell was going on. He kept asking me what was wrong, but I couldn't even answer him - I was too busy jumping up and down like a maniac trying to wash the hair back towards the drain. It was at this point the gagging and retching started. By this stage Brian had pretty much figured what was going on and had started pissing himself laughing. I couldn't even tell him exactly what had happened because every time I tried to I would start gagging and retching again - which in turn would make him laugh even harder.

So for those of you reading this, you're probably laughing yourselves now. Here's something to make you laugh even more - even trying to type this started some coughing and gagging.

Hmmm, so now that everyone knows how much of a freak I am - do you think this is a phobia and how the hell can I get over it.

Just stealing more cute twin pics

I've been raiding myspace again and here are the pics I've "stolen"

The proud new family

37 week OB appointment

After all the complaining I do about this OB he was great today even though he wouldn't give me and induction date (where is a pouting smiley when you need one?).

His reasons being that being induced raises the likelihood of intervention and the chances of an emergency caesar are just so much higher. In his words - since both myself and the baby are doing so well, he can't see the point.

I do understand his reasoning, but my stomach is crazily huge and it's so difficult to do anything now.

Enough whinging, anyway as for the rest of my visit:

• He looked at my ultrasound results and said that if I do go full term he would expect that the baby will be around a 10lber.
• He offered me a caesar, to which I explained I want to avoid. He was fine with that.
• He has agreed to clamp my tubes at the same time should I end up having a caesar.
• Due to how big and hard my stomach is he couldn't even tell if the baby is still head down, so I was lucky enough to have a quick squiz at her on the portable ultrasound.
• I got my internal (well 2 actually since he had a trainee Dr with him and he asked if I minded if he had a feel as well). I'm 1cm dilated, cervix is 3cms long and soft, and I'm 2/5 engaged.
• He doesn't think I'll go over my due date and thinks that the baby will be born within the next 2 weeks.

So in a nutshell that's it. Surprisingly I'm not anywhere near as disappointed at not getting the induction that I thought I'd be.

So tonight I figure I might as well try as many natural induction methods as I can if my cervix is already favourable. I've been doing some research on all the different methods and I try them all (well all except castor oil) if need be.

The moster belly again

37 weeks & 1 day

I'll be back sometime tomorrow night with an update from my OB's appointment.