Red Rose Baby - 24 Weeks Update

Well, this was meant to be a 22 week update but the weeks have been racing by and suddenly I'm 24 weeks and it's definitely time for an update. It's been a fairly quiet four weeks since my last update but I have had some appointments to tell you about.

I saw the consultant a couple of days after my anomaly scan. I was rather anxious about this appointment following seeing my Community Midwife who told me that, under no circumstances would I be allowed a water birth for this delivery and I would more than likely have to be cannulated on my arrival at the hospital. This was absolutely the last thing that I wanted but I went to see my consultant with an open mind and to see what their opinion was on my prospective delivery choices. In the end it wasn't actually a consultant that I saw but the Obstetric Registrar. We talked through my history and previous deliveries and she was happy with the proposed care plan that my Community Midwife has set out for me. Assuming that I don't develop any additional risk factors (fingers crossed) she sees no reason why I can't deliver in the pool or why I would have to be cannulated on arrival. Result! I left the appointment with my mind set at peace a little more and am very pleased that my notes say I can use the pool if it is available.

My next Community Midwife appointment was last week and all was well. She finally listened to the baby's heartbeat. For some reason our area midwives don't listen in until 20 weeks now, rather than the usual 16 weeks in other areas. It was lovely to finally hear it beating away and it was so reassuring that she found it straight away. My sample revealed protein again. It seems like every time the CMW tests it i there but she sent a sample away and they found nothing,again. It seems to be something I am prone to in this pregnancy, having never had it before with either of my earlier pregnancies. I was measuring at twenty six weeks, rather than the twenty four weeks to the day that I was. This wasn't really a surprise following the scan placing baby at around 95% for both abdominal and head circumference and also supports my belief that my due date might be a little later than I'm actually due - based on my own dates.

Baby is now a foot long and weighs around 1 1/3 lbs, (probably more like 1.5lbs for my big babies). I'm feeling a good amount of movement but haven't been able to get a handle on any kind of pattern yet. Bud is so interested in the baby and keeps asking to feel the baby move, of course it always stops as soon as he comes over typically!

We're really struggling to come up with names for this baby. We've never been set on names before our children arrive so I'm not too worried but we don't have a very long shortlist this time. Chances are baby will end up with a name that we won't have discussed a lot, which is quite similar to both Bud and LM. I do love researching names and I've been using a fab app to help me. The Baby Name Generator - Intelligent Name Finder learns the names that you like and then makes suggestions based on these. It's quite addictive once you get started, even if Ian vetoes most of the suggestions out of hand!

I wiSh I could say the Second Trimester bloom was in place here but I've been feeling fairly rotten still. The nausea is still around and I'm still having the pattern of a couple of days clear only to be floored by it returning with a vengeance the next day. I think the only thing that will stop this sicknes is delivery. Added to the misery of nausea is indigestion and I'm having to be careful with what I eat otherwise I get the most horrible acid. My old faithful from Bud's pregnancy - chewable Gaviscon - isn't working reliably and it seems like nothing works. Fun times.A friend told me that they reason this pregnancy is so horrible is because my body knows I don't want any more children after this one and the memory will permanently put me off. I suspect she is right!

February sees me become the human pincushion with a Glucose Tolerance Test, Anti-D injection and blood tests all on the same day. That will be a fun morning! I'll talk more about that in my next update.

I still don't feel like my bump is massive, to say that I'm measuring big for dates but I suspect that it may be my memory of previous pregnancies playing tricks on me. I managed to bypass a 24 weeks shot but there will be one in my next update.