From Bump to Baby: Chapter 3: ...and then I got reallllllly big!



33 Weeks

So, you're 34 weeks pregnant, feeling fat, bloated, unsexy and fed up. What do you do? You squeeze your  

On Holiday in Cornwall, 34 Weeks Pregnant

fat pregnant ass into your mum's citroen saxo and hotfoot it to Cornwall.... It was about as fun as it sounds! Lots of toilet stops (surely you're getting used to my bladder by now!) But the holiday itself was good fun. I really do appreciate how my mum still makes such an effort with us as a family, she is a great role model for me with Cameron! So, in Cornwall, I couldn't do too much as I was big and fat and as I may have mentioned, fed up! It didn't make it any better that we were staying at one of those time share little 'village' type places and every time I verntured to the evening entertainment I would  

Working the pregnancy style :P

have one of the managers 'jokingly' asking if I was in labour yet and telling me I couldn't have the baby there (erm, like I would want to do that!).

Understandably, with all my raging hormones, I was a bit of a nightmare at times. I had my fair share of arguments with said lovely mummy (sorry  

And again!

mum!) and I often found myself crying on the bed for no real reason. Whilst in Cornwall I did manage to have yet another little scare with the baby when I stopped being able to feel him moving for a couple of days, as well as feeling a strange dragging down sensation in my lower stomach (though Katie Lewis did make me feel a bit better about this, telling me it was normal!). I ended up at this tiny little hospital which was about three rooms big and then being transferred to an even smaller midwifery unit across the road! It was pretty scary to have not felt him for so long, made worse by the stress I had been under the night before (a family argument over the phone). So you can imagine my relief when the midwife in that tiny Cornish village felt around a bit and Cameron kicked straight away for her! He was already showing how stubborn he is even back then. He managed to scare me enough though and I took the midwife's advice to take things easier and stop stressing over the little things.

Once back home I tried to keep this up, avoiding arguments with my brothers and cousin as much as  

35 Weeks Pregnant, thank God for Maternity jeans!

possible and watching DVD after DVD of a night (and day, if we are being honest!). I had another minor scare at 36 weeks when I had an intense pain and numbness in the middle of the night. After having another rush to the hospital, crying hysterically sure that something was very wrong, I was once again assured that everything was fine. My baby was still moving around and I was hooked up to the monitor to hear his little heartbeat that  

36 Weeks Pregnant

sounded like a train! Whilst I was there, in the labour ward again, I heard a woman giving birth in the next room and OMG it was awful to hear! She was screaming and screaming and screaming and then suddenly there was a bang and the screaming stopped. In all honesty I asked if she had been hit! But then 

Like a Whale!

 the amazing sound of a newborn baby came and I was so excited to be back there having my baby in a few weeks! I was again sent away and told to stay calm and not become stressed.  

In town with Katie B :)



It was hard to not get stressed when so much was going on in my life! I not only still had my ex sending me emotionally draining texts and phoning me telling me how low he was feeling (and I wasn't?!) but I was also trying to sort out going back to uni just after the baby was due, arranging a  

Mocktail!

moving in day to my flat that WASN'T my due date, and having the home I had been in for 3 years be packed up around me as my mum went bankrupt and so she was  

Embracing my new body!

forced to move into a 2 bedroom flat with my little brother. As I wasn't due to move into my flat until the beginning of September and my mum's move in date was 13th August, I spent the last month of my pregnancy sleeping in my mum's bed! It was tough seeing my mum so stressed out with the move as well and being powerless to really help as, at 36 weeks pregnant I was pretty useless! I did get to have some fun at this point though as Katie came to visit me and we even managed to waddle me around town! I had some 'mocktails', it was all good!

The move went ok and, although it took a bit of getting used to moving from a 5 bedroom house to a 2 bedroom flat with another flat below it, it was ok and  

In my mum's flat, 37 weeks pregnant

we were soon a bit more settled once again. By this point I was gigantic in size and felt that I couldn't sleep, walk or even sit comfortably! It was a nightmare. As I was 37 weeks by this point and totally fed up, I started to read online ways in which I could speed up the process a bit. I bought some raspberry leaf tea capsules and started taking them every day with mealtimes (as the instructions told me to). This actually doesn't speed up pregnancy but it is meant to make actual labour times shorter and make it easier to give birth and I think they did help a bit, worth a try!

I also started eating curry in earnest. When the Chicken Tikka Masala didn't seem to be doing the trick I moved on to Jalfrezi. It did absolutely 

38 weeks!

 nothing apart from giving me heartburn, making me feel ill and becoming quickly sick of eating curry! I also ate fresh pineapple a lot. Something the internet did not explain was that fresh pineapple, in large quantities can cause your tongue to bleed! Not nice! Soon I was also fed up of pineapple... I was also getting very impatient having thought I was going to have the baby early (a view shared by my midwife who had said the kidney infection meant I was likely to deliver before the 40 week mark!). I went for long walks, massaged my nipples (ohhhh yeh baby!) and even considered having sex with an ex to get myself going. I had also become unbearable to all those around me, including those friends on facebook as my status updates ranged from feeling down and depressed, to a list of my home made induction stories, to angry shouting statuses about my ex! I was getting bigger by the  

39 Weeks

minute and I found, at 39 weeks, something I had managed to avoid throughout the entire pregnancy- the dreaded stretch mark! And it soon found a friend.... I went crazy nesting at 39 weeks, cleaning everything in sight at my mum's flat and even trying to pack stuff up that didn't need packing! Everyone thought it meant the baby would be here within the next day...

But 40 weeks came round, my due date and I had not gone into labour. So I met with my midwife to have something called a 'membrane sweep'. It sounds awful and I am not going to lie, it ain't fun! She wasn't actually able to do the sweep even as my cervix was still way too high up inside me. I cannot describe my disappointment at this. I lasted just until the midwife was gone to break down in tears. I felt like such a failure that my body wasn't preparing  

40 Weeks and fed up!

itself for labour on it's own. I cried for a couple of hours I think, and would not be consoled by anyone. I went for more long walks, had even more curry and pineapple and still nothing. The next day I had raspberry leaf tea. I HATE normal tea and I hated this even more. I literally gagged the first time I tried drinking it. So the second time I added lots of sugar and drank it with my nose pinched in small sips... It was vile! And also probably did nothing for me either...Would not advise it!

 

My New Room!

That week I moved into my new flat and I loved it. Probably overdid it a bit unpacking and getting everything ready for when the baby arrived. It had been awful not being able to prepare a nursery or even unpack the baby's clothes so it was great just to be able to do that! I loved my flat as well. It was brand new, just been built and was so pretty and new. I stayed at my mum's flat still for the time  

All Prepared for baby!

being though as I didn't like the idea of being alone in the flat if I were to go into labour.

I had a doctors appointment about being induced and was told it would be the following week. I made them bring it forward a couple of days as my mum was due to meet about her bankrupcy the day they gave me to  

My flowers

begin with and no way was I going into labour without her by my side. I really didn't want to be induced as I hated the idea of staying overnight in hospital, but I was willing to do anything if it meant getting that baby out! My aunt, who kept coming down from Kent hoping to see the baby even bought me some flowers to say hope he comes soon for you! I kept trying to induce myself however, even more walks, even more curry and pineapple, the vile tea. I even used my breast pump as it was meant to help bring on contractions and as stupid as it was, I also went walking sideways along the pavement, one foot on the road as I had read to on the internet! I swear people make these  

a few days before he came!

things up just to have a laugh!

Having spent the past few weeks waking up every morning disappointed to  

Trying to still look good despite being fed up!

not be in labour and wishing that it would happen that day, I woke on September 11th hoping the complete opposite. I didn't want to have a baby born on such a sad day and have every birthday of his clouded with people's grief. So, it was just my luck what happened midday on 11th September....


                                                            to be continued...