This is a photo of Ebony kissing my huge bump. It doesn't look huge on the photo because Ebony's giant head is crushing it.
28 weeks, finally the third trimester has arrived! I am feeling pretty good. By this point with Ebony, PGP reared its ugly head and I was spending most of my time crying in the bath. I’m not going to say I never cry in the bath now (where better to cry?), but it’s certainly more of a rarity in this pregnancy.
I had a midwife appointment on Friday. I still find it really strange how few midwife appointments you have during a second pregnancy compared to the first. I’d not seen the midwife since week 15 so I was looking forward to going again. Ebony wanted to come with me, so she went into nursery late on Friday. She is mesmerised by everything to do with the midwives, she talks about them all the time and really likes playing midwives.
My usual midwife wasn’t there this week but in her place was one of the other midwives who was there at Ebony’s birth. It is hard to have a conversation with someone whilst your mind is screaming THIS PERSON HAS SEEN YOUR BOOBIES, but also, it’s nice to chat about how lovely Ebony’s birth was. I am really looking forward to giving birth again and most people recoil in horror when I say that aloud, but not the midwives, they’re totally on board with the whole empowering birth thing. I just want to feel like a superhero again.
I had my whooping cough vaccination (note: this is pronounced hooping cough, just in case you didn’t know, I awkwardly found out this afternoon…) at the appointment. I declined the flu jab over winter but decided to get the whooping (remember, hooping) cough one just in case. The baby will be born a couple of weeks before Ebony starts in reception class and I imagine this is a lot like fresher’s week in terms of the abundance of germs.
And I had about eight gallons of blood taken which I hate. I really wanted to remain calm for Ebony’s sake, but I’m not sure I was very convincing. Afterwards, Ebony relished in telling me how MASSIVE the needle was and how much blood they took. Thanks, kid. We got to hear the baby’s heartbeat which Ebony was pretty excited about. The baby is lying in a transverse position still, so I spent the next few days obsessing over having a transverse baby at 40 weeks. After me talking about it incessantly for two days, Laurie eventually told me to get my shit together because I’m only 28 weeks (he probably didn’t say exactly this, he has no idea how many weeks I am or when this baby is due. The only time he tries to guess, he gets it wrong and we fall out) and the baby will obviously turn before 40 weeks, so now I’ve stopped worrying about it out loud.
I was hoping they might weigh me at the midwife appointment because I have no idea how much weight I’ve put on during this pregnancy, but alas they did not. I’m feeling huge now but it seems to be mostly bump, so I’m hoping I won’t break the scales when I do eventually get weighed.
When she finally got into nursery, Ebony had to stand up and tell everybody about what happened at the midwife. She told them all about me weeing in a pot, apparently, so that’s great. I can’t wait to find out what she tells everyone after the actual birth.
The blood test results came back yesterday and my iron count is a little lower than they would like. I feel like a terrible vegan for having disappointing test results, my bloods have always come back good before. I asked the receptionist for the actual levels and she was incredibly put out by this (Why would you need to know that? Will you even understand what it means? Or you a nurse or something?), but eventually a nurse phoned me back and said my hemoglobin level was 115 which isn’t bad for the third trimester, just a little lower than they’d ideally like. I stopped taking my prenatal vitamins when pregnancy sickness kicked in around 10 weeks so I’ve started taking them again. They contain iron as well as folate and B12 so that should sort things out. And I sent Laurie out to buy all the leafy greens he could find in the supermarket, of course. My thyroid test came back normal again too, so that’s good.
The pregnancy seems to be flying by and I can already tell I’m going to miss being pregnant when it’s over. I never thought I’d feel that way about pregnancy.