My 38th week of pregnancy started on Ebony’s very last day of nursery. She spent the morning singing songs, playing games and saying goodbye to nursery. I spent it wondering why the hell I hadn’t done more work and panicking about how I was going to get everything sorted now that the summer holidays were upon us. We spent the afternoon at the park with friends, taking in the glorious sunshine and watching all the nursery leavers go a little Lord of the Flies on the park.
It’s the summer holidays and our very last couple of weeks as a family of three, so I’m trying to strike a balance between doing fun things and not overdoing it. I don’t want Ebony to be bored but also I don’t want to be sobbing every night with pelvic pain so it’s all about balance. On the first day of the holidays, we went to visit one of Ebony’ friends. We had a lovely time and there was a new baby to make me feel excited about my upcoming period of sitting on the sofa cuddling a sleeping baby. But then we had to go shopping on the way home and we missed our bus and it all felt a little bit much.
The next day, I had a midwife appointment and Ebony came with me. She really loves the community midwife so is always excited to come and see her again. It was quite a short appointment this time, though the midwife did mention that the baby has had a growth spurt. It’s now on track to be the same size as Ebony which means the estimation jumped a whole pound within two weeks. I am quite saddened by this as the thought of another huge baby isn’t massively appealing. Yes, I know gravity will be on my side. Yes, I know they say birthing bigger babies is easy. Yes, it’s not a huge deal, but it was just slightly worrying to me when I found out on Friday.
Saturday we went to Lyme Park for a couple of hours. I really want to try and squeeze in some quality family time before the baby arrives and a trip to Lyme Park seemed easy enough. We were there for a couple of hours, we left our phones at home so we wouldn’t be distracted and we just had fun exploring the grounds with Ebony. She was quite excited to find a baby frog which needed relocating from a busy games field so she carefully picked him up and put him somewhere quieter. We didn’t get far from the house and I seemed to spend most of the visit walking to and from the toilets, but it was really nice and to go out as a family. Then Laurie took Ebony over to his parents whilst I did some work and took a nap. Napping is very important these days.
On Sunday, my friend took Ebony to the theatre and we were busy sorting things out at home. Laurie finally finished painting the kitchen (this job was started in September 2014) and I moved things around in Ebony’s bedroom. Well, I got halfway through, anyway. I’d pulled hundreds of books off her shelf and moved things around a bit, then I heard them return. I ran downstairs and, erm, fell most of the way down. I still have no idea how I managed it. But it hurt an absolute fuck load. I think I must have fallen funny to protect my bump so my ankle ended up taking most of the fall. I managed to sprain my ankle and also the bit where your toes meet your foot (this is not the medical name). I am terrible with pain so I cried loudly for a long time. The next morning, it was quite swollen and purple. I basically haven’t moved from the sofa since.
I got some crutches so I can move around without putting weight on my ankle. I don’t think any ankle should have to deal with this much weight, never mind a sprained one. I felt absolutely terrified that I might end up going into labour with a sprained ankle and just not be able to move around during labour. I couldn’t put any weight on it at all for the first day or two and was obsessing over what I could do in labour. After spending weeks hoping and praying this baby would arrive before my due date, I was forced to backtrack and start wishing for a healed ankle before the birth.
Since then, it’s improved a lot and I spoke to a kindly midwife on Twitter who reassured me that being in a pool and having the rush of endorphins during labour would be enough to distract me from the sprained ankle.
I’m still trying to avoid putting weight on it but can at least get myself to the toilet for a wee without much of a to do in the night. My mum and dad have been hugely helpful and have come over a couple of days to look after Ebony so I can limit how much I have to move around. Laurie worked from home yesterday which meant he was about to do things like cook dinner and pop to the shops so that was massively helpful. Ebony has been truly amazing and keeps bringing me my crutches and getting me things from around the house. I think by the weekend, hopefully my ankle will be back to normal.
In a way, I think falling down the stairs has actually been a good thing because I have really had to just sit down and take it easy. It’s frustrating because there are loads of things I could (and should) be doing, but it’s also quite nice to have an excuse to do nothing during these final days of pregnancy. I just hope my ankle doesn’t impact on the birth and that I’m walking around without difficulty by the time the baby arrives because I really feel that childbirth/having a newborn is enough to contend with.
If you missed my last pregnancy update, you can find it here.