Monkey business

My monkey is a very active little boy. So active I'm sore a lot of the time. This past week, I would be walking and minding my own business when he gave a squirm inside and my left hip left stiff from the soreness *.* My pubic bone hurt like mad the past two days too, even though all I did was to sit there and work!

Well, like the doc said, it would be over very soon - we're 36 weeks already, yeah!

Friday, 16 Sep 2016 - 35w

Had a little shock early in the morning - found a tinge of red when I wiped! Went back in bed to seek Dr Google's advice. Many people saw blood at this point. If it's the mucous plug, labour may take place within hours or weeks - very helpful *.*

Anyway, nothing happened. Monkey continued to play kickboxing inside.

Thursday, 22 Sep 2016 - 35w5d

So I weighed in at 77.8kg - that's a 2+kg gain in two weeks when monkey gained only max 400g!! He's between 2.8kg and 3kg now. But when I asked, Dr Wong said that's accurate +/- 20%. That's quite a large variance! Still, more accurate than "the old days where they shook your belly with magic hands and gave you a number"!

Baby too close to surface - can hardly see his face

Anyway, I blamed my weight on the big breakfast. We shall see next week - yep, weekly from now, exciting!

So this visit, we did a vaginal swab to test for Strep B. Doc wasn't concerned about the bid of red coz I had some white blood cells in my urine so I might have had an infection. And he went through the birth details with me too, despite this being my third. I like that he's meticulous in explaining things, even though it sounded scary at some points. Last time I never asked and Dr Chan isn't the kind to offer information unless you ask - he's the 包在我身上 type... Good and bad... So, key points:

• No routine episiotomy. Since I had delivered naturally twice, he'll monitor and if I look like I might tear, he'll make a little snip to let it tear in that direction *.*
• If baby is threatened or I can't push out and need forceps, he'll make a bigger cut.
• The remaining epidural post delivery will see me through the most painful six hours of the tear and sewing.
• If I see enough blood, have water roll down my legs or have contractions, go straight in - don't wait! Coz the two talking monkeys took all of three hours to go from 3 cm to 10 cm. Yes, I want my epidural...
• I'll be strapped in to monitor baby heartbeat and contractions, and charted for progress. If I don't progress to full dilation within 10-12 hours, no need to wait, just cut. But I could be given oxytocin somewhere in between to see if I progress too - I'm quite sure I will with oxytocin.
• If baby or mama is threatened at any point in time, no discussion - just cut.
• But most likely, things will be fine :)

And he's guessing I might go earlier than last time. Shucks, work not handed over yet! Baby stuff not all settled yet! Ok, better be prepared...

Today, 36w1d

This morning, I was on my way to the supermarket when an old grandma walking towards me suddenly exclaimed - that's a boy! And went on to explain she could tell from my pointed belly... This was the nth time I got this... Indeed, my belly tends to go front than to the sides. But it also struck me that this was probably how it was before ultrasound, people guessing gender by the shape of the belly.

A significant development today is that for the first time in some two weeks, I did not have to strain to poop! Hope this means my constipation is somehow clearing up.

So there, I'm very excited that for the first time, I'll be waiting for labour to start instead of being induced.

Today, I shall let my nesting instinct take over - off to pack things now!