38 Weeks

I’m now officially full term and baby could arrive at any time. I really wasn’t organised at all, but since the Easter long weekend I’ve gone crazy getting everything set up and washed and ready. Over the past two weeks I’ve done an extraordinary amount of online shopping because I obviously can’t go to the shops. I’ve had to buy every small thing online: bibs, dummies, nappy bags, nappy cream, maternity pads, nipple cream, clothes for the baby, sound machine for white noise, presents for Augie, bassinet sheets etc etc etc. The amount of money I’ve spent on postage is extreme. Let’s hope it gets here on time now because I know there are a lot of delays with the mail right now. It’s not looking good though.

I’m lucky that literally two days before isolation started I went to Baby Bunting and bought a bassinet, car seat and a baby monitor. I had a bassinet from Augie, but I didn’t like it and wanted one with wheels this time. I am re-using most things from Augie for this baby, but I’m a little sad I can’t go to the shops and browse for some special new things for this baby. Hopefully we can soon.

I’ve been seeing my Obstetrician weekly now and it’s all going smoothly. Baby is measuring perfectly well, which is a relief for a gestational diabetes baby. He did say today to be careful to stay vigilant in these final weeks/days with my sugars to lower the risk of baby needing the special care nursery after birth. He must have sensed I was ready to drop the ball a little. ☺️ I’ve noticed my sugars are getting harder and harder to keep down (I was told this would happen), which means I’m needing to really cut carbs to ensure I don’t go over the limit they have set me for my blood sugar readings. I don’t feel like eating vegetables at all and cannot be fucked cooking them either. But, it’s only a couple more weeks.

I have found out that they are strongly discouraging partners from leaving the hospital and then returning. So basically if AJ leaves to go home, they’d prefer he doesn’t come back. This is to limit the possibility of him bringing in carona virus germs and putting their staff and patients at risk. So we’ve decided that AJ will come for the birth (with my dad and step mum watching August) and then he’ll go home and stay home until he picks me and the baby up. It’s not an ideal situation but we think it’s more important that Augie has him around as he’ll definitely be a bit distressed if we both disappear for days. Plus Augie is a handful and will be a lot for my dad and step mum to manage to be honest. They live far away and really don’t see him enough to know anything about his routines or how to put him to bed or deal with his constant whining LOL. 😩

This means that I better actually pack my hospital bag properly because I won’t be able to ask anyone to bring me anything. Shit! I better pack enough chocolate.

I’m actually quite ready to have this baby. I’ve found the last few weeks of pregnancy very uncomfortable. It’s been hard to say the least to keep up with a toddler 24/7 with minimal breaks. Especially a toddler who still doesn’t want to sleep. I still sit up with him for hours every night and wonder how in the world I’ll cope with this while I have a newborn. I guess we will find our way as we don’t have any other choice.

AJ joked that he’ll feel the impact of the baby most of all because I quite literally couldn’t do anymore as I’m on the go about 20 hours out of every day so he’ll be the one doing the extra work. Hopefully! This is just because AJ’s work is very busy and he really hasn’t been able to do much to help, as much as I know he’d like to. My dad has been asking to come down and help, but obviously with carona virus and a baby on the way we are all taking isolation seriously.

I think AJ is feeling a bit down about the impending change in our lives with the arrival of this baby. I understand how he feels too. Having a baby is hard work and it feels like life will be put on pause for the next couple of years. Plus I know that I dive head first into being a mum and haven’t managed to be the chilled out or balanced mum I thought I’d be, so he probably feels like he’ll lose me again as well. And he’s right. Hopefully this time I’ll be more relaxed? I don’t want to lose myself either.

One thing I’m looking forward to is wearing jeans again after this baby is born (well hopefully anyway). I’ve had the worst maternity wardrobe as it just didn’t seem worthwhile spending money on, especially once isolation hit.

I don’t love harping one about weight as I’ve done a lot of work to remove this as a focus in my life, but I have occasionally been weighing myself this pregnancy just out of curiosity. I started this pregnancy higher in weight than I usually am. I actually haven’t weighed myself in years, but I could feel it. Then I gained a heap of weight at the start of pregnancy because I could only stomach bread and potatoes for months. After Christmas I started feeling better and was able to eat much healthier and then in February I got my gestational diabetes diagnosis and this really pushed me to eat super well.

• 6 weeks: 86.6 kilos (190.5 lbs)
• 26 weeks: 96 kilos (211.2 lbs)
• 38 weeks: 96.2 kilos (211.6 lbs)

Yep, that shows no gain in the last 12 weeks, but that’s not unusual with gestational diabetes when you are already overweight. So I’m sitting at about a 10 kilo gain (so far) this pregnancy, which is what my Obstetrician suggested would be healthy for me. I’m really pleased I was able to adhere to this as I didn’t want to gain a stack of weight and risk complications in pregnancy or birth. Especially at my age!

I looked back on my blog from my pregnancy with August and see that I gained 13.3 kilos (29.2 lbs) with him and finished pregnancy at 93.3 kilos (205.2 lbs). So it’s been pretty similar, which is funny because I feel sooo much bigger this time!