34 weeks

  Actually, 34 weeks and 3 days.

39 days until due date.

I still have a feeling she’ll come early. Probably only by a few days, like Iris did, but I don’t think she’ll miss her due date. Probably a good thing because I don’t want to be induced. I really don’t want to be induced.

I haven’t been able to figure out her position just from movements for quite a while now. Sometimes the kicks are down low, and I swear she’s trying to use her feet to break out. Sometimes she kicks up high under my ribs. Sometimes her feet seem to poke out of my side. She rolls around a lot and it makes me feel a bit sea sick. Maybe she’s completely changing position several times a day. It certainly feels like it. I had a midwife appointment today, and from feeling my belly she thinks the little love is head down but lying diagonally. 

Every single time I lie down to sleep she gets hiccups.

I just can’t stop crunching on ice cubes. 

My hips are very very sore. I’m trying not to think about it, and I’m definitely not going to make a big deal of it. There seems to be no help for it available on the NHS here anyway (apart from that pointless physio appointment I had), and I’m scared they’ll try to convince me to have a hospital birth if they know how sore I am. I’m getting around though. We’re doing less and less, and have whole days at home now. But we’re getting out more than I dared hope we would be by now. Iris is a little ball of energy, but she’s been poorly and has wanted to stay home and watch Peppa Pig quite a bit. I hate to see her suffer, but her more peaceful state has been a lifesaver.

I feel enormous. I have been told several times that I don’t look so big. In fact somebody said yesterday that my bump with Iris was bigger. It doesn’t really matter what people say though, when you can’t see your toes you feel enormous. I’m apparently measuring at only about 31 weeks, but I don’t let these things worry me. Whenever I hear of sizes of unborn babies being predicted this early, they are always horrificly inaccurate. 

I can still put my own shoes on, just about. I can’t shave my legs.

I cannot sleep. 

I can’t get comfy. A pregnancy support pillow helps a little but I ache so much by the end of the day. If I do manage to get comfy I need a wee, or some Gaviscon. Or she gets hiccups. It’s very frustrating and I’m very tired. 

I woke up this morning feeling pretty unwell. I even had blurred vision. This is one of the signs of pre-eclampsia so I was a bit worried. My blood pressure is fine and my urine sample was clear though, thank goodness. I later developed a headache too, so I guess I’m just a bit run down. I have zero appetite so I’m probably not eating enough.  

Iris has her own unique way of communicating with her baby sister. Check out my Instagram video here!  

So. 6 more weeks. 2 weeks until my next appointment. Who knows who it’ll be with as I was informed today that my usual midwife has moved to Merthyr Tydfil!