#ThrowbackThursday: Nearly Had a Baby

Since my Munchkin has just celebrated her sixth birthday, I was hoping to share a post about her birth. Unfortunately, I never wrote one. The nearest I have is this post where I started going into labour, then everything stopped for a few days; it was written two days before I gave birth. I did write a long, and not particularly positive birth story for my pregnancy yoga group but I think I’ll keep that one to myself for now.

I’ve left the link to Bras for Mums in the post, since the website still exists. However, the lady who did my bra fitting no longer runs that service in Sussex. I later discovered that she’s a close friend of my cousin who lives in Wales!

When Munchkin was born, she was 5lb 4oz so we ended up buying lots of Tiny Baby clothes from Tesco, whose children’s clothes seemed to be on the smaller side.

I thought it was all systems go on Wednesday night, but no, I haven’t gone into labour yet.  I’m actually quite glad because I would only have been 36 weeks pregnant on Wednesday, which is slightly early.  Symptoms of pre-labour are: “baby dropping”… check, “bloody show”… check, “change in discharge”… check, “pressure around lower back,”… check, “intensification of Braxton Hicks contractions”… check, “diarrhoea” … managed not to have that one.  I even got as far as having mild contractions but everything seems to have eased off now.  I spoke to a midwife who said that the symptoms would either progress into labour or stop and it seems to be the latter.  I’m 37 weeks pregnant today, so at least if the baby comes now, she’ll be “fully cooked”!

Baby-wise, things seem to be going OK.  The diabetes team are really pleased with me because my blood sugar levels have been consistently within tolerance levels.  They’ve allowed me to delay induction until my due date (instead of a week before) because my levels are so good and I’m so anti induction.  I think the consultant was feeling generous because it was Christmas.  She even gave me a Group B Strep test on the NHS.  They’re normally £30 privately because NICE don’t generally recommend them, despite the fact some groups are lobbying to make the test compulsory for all women in late pregnancy.  Even though I have gestational diabetes (with the risk of an oversize baby), baby is measuring on the small side.  She was the size of a 34 week baby at 36 weeks.  This is considered a normal size, so we have nothing to worry about.

Our baby has so many clothes, we don’t know what to do with them!  Both my step-sister and sister-in-law have given us sacks full of clothes.  Some probably won’t get worn because they’re too summery for a winter baby (even though half came from my sister-in-law who had her baby in February!).  We were also given some baby clothes as presents from work and various relatives.  Managed to spend a fortune in the Next Sale on half price clothes (bigger sizes only) and baby bedding.  Well, they were bargains, it had to be done!  Despite our child having a bigger wardrobe than us, we may still have to buy clothes if she comes out tiny and is swamped in New Born baby grows.

I usually end up harping on about bras in my posts, so why make an exception?  I had the Bra Lady come round to measure me for nursing bras.  Apparently all those I got from the High Street were the wrong size… no surprises there.  Good quality nursing and maternity bras are made with more adjustment on the band so you can get more wear out of them.  Bras should never be fitted to “grow into” (take note, Marks and Spencer!) because they won’t give proper support.  In my case, I never grew into them anyway.  I’ve probably paid slightly more than I would have on the High Street, but the bras fit, they’re good quality and the service was excellent.  The Bra Lady will come back for fittings as many times as I need her to and everything is available on a sale or return basis, so I can try anything from the website without paying in advance.  If any mums to be or new mums are interested, the website is www.bras4mums.co.uk.

Well, it’s my lunch time now, then I’m taking myself for a walk to see if pre labour would like to start itself again.  Maybe I’ll have had the baby next time I blog… who knows?