My first time pregnancy story
I am pregnant for the first time and I live on a small remote island. This is my story.
Blog chapters
Pregnancy blog: front page
Chapter 1: I'm pregnant! The initial emotions
Chapter 2: Sharing our good news
Chapter 3: The unwelcomed symptoms of pregnancy
Chapter 4: Initial midwifery appointment
Chapter 5: Hello baby!
Chapter 6: A healthy growing baby
Chapter 7: The happy second trimester
Chapter 8: Gifts & preparations
Chapter 9: Our plans for home birth
Chapter 10: The start of the third trimester
Chapter 11: Birthing options - a decision finally made
Chapter 12: An unplanned trip to the hospital
Chapter 13: Newest third trimester sensations
Chapter 14: Last minute preparations & more gifts
Chapter 15: A scare! Has the baby moved today?
Chapter 16: We are ready for the home birth
> Chapter 17: The woes of late stage pregnancy
Chapter 18: The excruciating waiting stage!
Chapter 19: Scanning & sweeping
Chapter 20: Trapped in town (an indefinite hospital stay)
Chapter 21: Baby's birthday! My delivery & birth story
Chapter 22: A quick recovery
Chapter 23: Final thoughts. . .
Chapter 1: I'm pregnant! The initial emotions
Chapter 2: Sharing our good news
Chapter 3: The unwelcomed symptoms of pregnancy
Chapter 4: Initial midwifery appointment
Chapter 5: Hello baby!
Chapter 6: A healthy growing baby
Chapter 7: The happy second trimester
Chapter 8: Gifts & preparations
Chapter 9: Our plans for home birth
Chapter 10: The start of the third trimester
Chapter 11: Birthing options - a decision finally made
Chapter 12: An unplanned trip to the hospital
Chapter 13: Newest third trimester sensations
Chapter 14: Last minute preparations & more gifts
Chapter 15: A scare! Has the baby moved today?
Chapter 16: We are ready for the home birth
> Chapter 17: The woes of late stage pregnancy
Chapter 18: The excruciating waiting stage!
Chapter 19: Scanning & sweeping
Chapter 20: Trapped in town (an indefinite hospital stay)
Chapter 21: Baby's birthday! My delivery & birth story
Chapter 22: A quick recovery
Chapter 23: Final thoughts. . .
Chapter 17: The woes of late stage pregnancy
At the start of week 37 (around 13th September) I started feeling really scared and panicked about delivering the baby. I couldn't get all the horror stories out of my mind, no matter how irrational they might have been. I told my Nan about the fear I had and she reassured me that us women are made for childbirth and it was nothing to be scared about. She said I should trust nature and my body and it made me feel a lot better. The thoughts and feelings came and went over the next couple of days but I also reminded myself that every twinge of pain is bringing the baby closer to my arms and that got me feeling really excited. It is not a birth - it is a birthday! - and therefore, a celebration! My heart fills up with so much love when I think about the cwtches with the baby! Big big cwtches with the baby and my life seems so complete!
Sometimes I look back on the past events in my life and take inspiration from all the things I’ve achieved. I have ran a half marathon with only a day’s notice, did a zip-line jump off a 50m high Newport Transporter Bridge , completed a 10k uphill race and a fun midnight charity walk. (I linked with a couple of really old (read: highly unprofessional!) video clips we took of these events.) I turned up and I did it. I wasn’t the first at the finish line, but I’ve made it - I therefore think that I am strong and will do well at the birth too! This is not some traumatic event that I have no control over, this is a personal challenge - one I am happy and excited to accept! Also, my pregnancy has been really good and this baby is “rocking” it too, passing all checks and measurements to date with flying colours! It's a strong and healthy baby - that fills me with a lot of confidence that we can both do this! We will do this!
Unfortunately, yet somewhat expectedly, my heartburn has become worse in these last few weeks. So much so that I became really glad I had the Ranitidine prescription after all! The shooting pains in my upper thigh are mostly gone but I started to feel as if I’ve been kicked in my pelvis and have been walking around with a bruise! Walking, lifting my legs to get dressed, getting out of or turning around in bed has become a difficult task, as every single step and twist has become accommodated by a dull bruised sensation. It was more uncomfortable than painful but apart from a good old hot water bottle and a few side-stretches there was very little relief for the sensations. At week 39 this turned into more of a side-ache, with both sides of my lower abdomen feeling bruised. If these are indeed caused by the weight of the baby, my baby must be huge and still growing by the minute!
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The baby has a lot of hiccups and is kicking a lot too, I mostly feel pushes of little feet on my right side! I often shout “We’re having hiccups!” or “Oh, a little foot!” to James and we both think that these are extremely adorable. Sometimes the kicks happen so suddenly that it takes my breath away. Everytime that happens James proclaims to be on “Team Baby!” and is so happy that the little one is doing really well. Sometimes I can’t wait to “get my body back” so I can stretch my back but other times I feel that I would really come to miss my big and beautiful baby belly - yes, even with all the stretch marks it has left on my skin (largest and mostly visible stretches showing on the lower part of my belly because I forgot to moisturise it in this area, focusing only on the top part!)!
In the middle of pregnancy week 38 we had a storm, 60-70 mph winds and a lot of rain. The midwife called at 8pm on 18th of September to cancel routine appointment scheduled for the following day due to adverse weather, which didn’t surprise us at all - we were expecting for this appointment to be cancelled. She asked us to come in to town for a few days as they may not be able to come to us should we call. We decided that scrambling and leaving our lives behind for a few days on such a short notice without much of a real need was unnecessary, we had no signs or suspicions about the baby showing up just yet. We did, however, buy our own Maternity TENS machine from Boots at this point, realising that the midwives might take a little while to get to us and that TENS might provide a good pain relief in early stages of labour.
Up here in Orkney they have a policy of not telling the baby’s gender, so now at 38 weeks we still don’t know if we’re having a son or a daughter. Is it going to be Ronald or Abigail joining our little family? I am really happy not knowing because it is not really that important, what matters is that me and the baby are healthy and doing well. We don’t subscribe to the whole “pink for girls and toy soldiers for boys” mentality and it really doesn’t matter what gender the child is - James and I will be taking them fishing, camping, building chicken coops and then teaching them to bake cakes and knit in the evenings. The activities, toys and upbringing we have planned are not in any way swayed one way or the other by their gender! I think not knowing also adds to the mystery and wonder of birth.
Speaking of not knowing the gender, James and I agreed to ask the midwife not to tell us who the baby is when they arrive and allow us to find out for ourselves. We haven’t mentioned this to them yet or added it to the birthing plan, but it is an idea that we both really like - taking a brief moment to fall in love with the baby, whoever they are going to be is a thought we both love dearly.
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And speaking of the Orcadian midwife ways, I am so happy and pleased that everything has been geared towards natural birth - there was no talk of artificial labour induction or elective cesarean operations, they don’t even offer epidural. It was all very relaxed and focused on it being a very normal experience. They promote breastfeeding after the baby is born and advise to response feed, instead of sticking to a schedule, waking the baby up and such nonsense. We really agree with all the “nature knows best” ideas and really like the advice given.
As this is my first time pregnancy, I am not sure what signs of labour to look for. . . I Google this and the lists usually include things like “a back ache” or “period-like cramps” - now, to me these sound just like all the normal late-pregnancy aches and pains so I am slightly worried that I might miss the early signs. I need to give the midwives enough time to get to our little island, so this has been on my mind lately and I just hope that I will somehow know for sure when the time comes.
I’ve been avoiding bouncing on my big blue ball with the aim to encourage the baby to arrive early. I’ve been sitting on it and rolling with it as it’s so incredibly comfortable and provides a lot of unintentional workout for my legs whilst also reducing the back ache, but my intention has never been to encourage the baby to show up early. I always thought the baby would show up when the baby is nice and ready.
Well, that was how I felt at this time anyway. . .
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