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Jan 19, 2012

Week 39 – still hanging in here

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Photo © English Mamma

How far along?: 39 weeks and 1 day

Total weight gain/loss: Probably around 10 kilos – maybe a little more. What I don’t understand is how this is possible. I will be the first to admit that I have not exactly been eating well in the past few weeks (far too much chocolate and too many sweet things) but I don’t seem to be putting that much weight on. I guess it could be that since I’ve stopped working out, all that lovely heavy muscle I have built up is turning back into fat…

Stretch marks?: Yep, still there and still horribly purplish.

Sleep: Well, that would be nice, but not really happening. During the day I am tired and even just taking Little O to preschool is a struggle, but the moment I switch the light off at night, my brain goes into overdrive, the heartburn/acid reflux kicks in and I am wide awake. None of this is helped by Little O waking two or three times a night and crying out in his sleep. Oh well, just preparing me for the sleeplessness to come, I guess.

Best moment this week: Sitting down with Little O and the three new books that we’ve bought him about the arrival of a baby. Since then he’s picked up the books again and again (mostly to point out the pages with “Cars!” on them), but I am still glad I bought them and that we’ve had some time to read through them and for me to ask him if he minds that we’ll soon have a little baby living with us. Not sure how much he really understands, but I guess it’s just good to talk to him about it as much as we can.

Worst moment this week: The nights without proper sleep…

Movement: Some days it all seems a bit quieter in there and I wonder “Is this it? Could today be the day?” (as I seem to remember Little O stopped moving so much in the days immediately before he was born), and other days, like yesterday, the kicking and squirming is very apparent.

Belly button in or out?: Still out, still horrid…

What I miss: Being able to get around without losing my breath and feeling exhausted. (Ha! Well, I guess that exhaustion of a different kind is heading my way, so I’d better just bite the bullet.)

What I am looking forward to: Tomorrow evening when three mamma friends come over here with takeaway for our regular girls’ night out (or in, in this case).

Milestones: Well, I think I was having some contractions yesterday evening, so I guess we’re heading into the final, final stages now. They stopped overnight though, so I think they might have been just caused by me doing too much walking and too much carrying of Little O yesterday afternoon. But still, a sign that we’re getting very close now.

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Jan 17, 2012

Learned this week

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This week, I learned that…

  • peanut butter gives me terrible, terrible heartburn…
  • …and the following day, that pretty much any food these days gives me terrible heartburn
  • trying to exhaust yourself so that I can sleep well at night just doesn’t work this late in pregnancy (you would have thought I’d have learnt that the first time around, but no…)
  • being breathless all the time is no fun (hmmm, yet another thing I should have remembered from last time?)
  • I can finally get my hospital bag packed!
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Jan 3, 2011

2010 review

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To celebrate the new year, I thought I’d take a quick look back at 2010, month by month.

January: I got itchy feet. Just knowing that I only had a couple of months left in which I could travel but not really enough time to do so, made me want to get the hell out of Sweden and go abroad. I also discovered the joy of the Mother-to-be treatment at Centralbadet (bliss!) and the perils of eating spicy Thai curry when five months pregnant.

February: We ordered our pram. I started to walk like John Wayne. My midwife became convinced that my job was going to cause me stress – little did she know that the stressful moments are what make my job. And I discovered just how hard it was to understand the in and outs of the parental benefit system here in Sweden.

March: I found out that yoga, Baby O and I did not a good combination make. I tried everything to combat the dreaded stretch marks. I lost sight of my feet. The T Family went skiing, and I slunk around the resort feeling sorry for myself at not being able to join in. I listed ten things that people do not tell you before you become pregnant. I discarded Rennies in favour of Gaviscon in an attempt to stop the heartburn and acid reflux.

April: I read as many books as I could find to prepare myself for every eventuality. Baby O allegedly reached the size of a watermelon. I started packing my hospital bag (little knowing that it would not be used). I stopped working. My inner control freak came to the fore. I had a pregnancy photo session at home.

May: I celebrated the purchase of a new camera lens by setting up a photo blog. I decided that the imminent arrival of Baby O would not give me enough to do, so I signed up for the Day Zero Project. I tried different tactics to encourage Baby O into the world, including city walking and hill walking. And then, on 11 May, Baby O was born!

June: I struggled with breastfeeding. I heard about the Wonder Weeks. We travelled to England and I found blogging increasingly difficult to fit into the day.

July: I struggled further with breastfeeding and started Baby O on formula once a day. I fell in love with the Baby Björn carrier. And my blogging became even less frequent.

August: Baby O was subjected to his three-month injections. We encountered another Wonder Week. And I tried to win new friends at my Swedish mothers’ group.

September: I was such a bad blogger that I did not even log one post during the month of September…

October: We booked our flights to Thailand.

November: Baby O mastered “commando rolling”. And I promised to try harder to blog…

December: Hmmm, well, that was one promise out of the window, as in December I again failed to blog. However, I do have a batch of excuses to hand: O started “commando creeping”, then got sick, then started teething, then got sick again, then made me sick, then we went to England and he made my mum and grandmother sick, then a first tooth popped through and then we came home!

So, 2010 was a momentous year – the year that we went from being a couple to a little family. It is certainly a year that we will never forget, with ups and downs and ups again and full of happiness.

Happy 2011!

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Mar 28, 2010

Gavi-tastic

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Photo by English Mamma

Did I say before that I loved Rennies? Well, it seems that I am quite fickle. Rennies are no longer flavour of the month in this household. Oh no, not now I’ve had my head turned by Gaviscon.

Lovely, lovely Gaviscon.

Apparently, it does more than just calm your stomach down during heartburn; according to the replacement midwife I saw this week, Gaviscon is some kind of miracle worker and forms a “plug” to stop acid reflux. (I’m not sure if something got lost in the translation there, but let’s just leave it at “they work!”)

They do have some slightly disturbing aspects though: the way they swell up in your mouth as you chew, so that if you were to part your lips slightly you’d resemble a rabid dog (the answer to this obviously being, don’t open your lips while chewing them…), and the very odd graphic on the box. But did I mention: they work!

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Mar 20, 2010

Ten things they don’t tell you about pregnancy

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Photo by Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha (from Flickr)

Disclaimer: If you have not been pregnant or are looking forward to getting pregnant, you might want to stop here and read no further…

…just to let you know…!

 So, here they are, the things that no one tells you before you get pregnant (or at least not to any extent). Not really any kind of conspiracy, more that it’s just not a typical dinner party topic…
  1. Morning sickness: The name is a total misnomer – it can strike at any time and frequently does; it can last throughout the whole day; and it can last longer than the first trimester.
  2. Sore breasts: Despite the appreciation that your partner might show for your busty new look (a leap from a 36B to a 40D and still growing, in my case), you just cannot bear for them to be touched. Even fabric touching them is too much in the first few months.
  3. Ten months: Because of the way pregnancy is calculated (ie from the first day of your last period), you are actually pregnant for ten months, not nine. This means if you realise very early on that you are pregnant, then the time seems to stre-e-e-e-tch out (especially in the first few months when you haven’t told people).
  4. Excessive saliva: You drool onto your pillow each night and often wake up in a puddle of wetness around your face, since you have to sleep with your mouth open because…
  5. Blocked nose: Your nose is blocked for most of the ten months, and when it is not blocked, it is running profusely.
  6. Big bottom: Yes, your bottom increases in size. Could this be to balance your growing belly? But if so, why does it happen before there is any sign that your stomach is getting larger?
  7. Bleeding gums: Brushing your teeth becomes a skill test – can you manage to brush for two minutes without any blood at all. No, is the answer, as I found out. And the dentist just shrugs his shoulders and tells you that it will disappear once the baby arrives.
  8. Heartburn: Once it arrives, it seems that heartburn just will not go away. In fact, the digestion seems to slow down so much (presumably as the baby grows and pushes your stomach up somewhere deep into your lungs) that heartburn can strike five to six hours after you finish eating.
  9. Discharge: A really nice one, this one. Some can get away with using only one or two pantyliners a day, while others have to use full-on sanitary pads.
  10. However… none of this matters the first time that you feel the little one kick inside your stomach. And no matter how hard they kick as the weeks go on, it still is just the most incredible feeling to be growing this little person inside you. What an amazing thing nature is.
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Mar 14, 2010

The best laid plans…

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My idea was to write a post this weekend about the things they don’t tell you about being pregnant. Then, I came face to face with yet another thing they don’t tell you about. The irony.

I woke up Saturday morning exhausted. Really and truly exhausted. After forcing down breakfast, I slunk back into bed and slept for another hour or so, before Husband insisted that we get up and go for a walk.

I managed about 20 minutes of walking before we had to come home and I took refuge on the sofa and promptly fell asleep again. My doze was unceremoniously cut short by acid reflux, the worst I have had so far, despite having last eaten three and a half hours before. And this has continued since… lovely.

So, the post is delayed but, on the bright side, I’ll be able to add third trimester exhaustion and expand the point on heartburn to include acid reflux to the list.

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Feb 25, 2010

“What’s in your bag?”

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Photo by English Mamma

After seeing the post on WADs (Wives and Daughters), I could not resist joining in and showing the contents of my bag. Luckily, it is not too much these days after I switched my mammoth handbag for a much smaller version. I love big bags but you just end up filling them with all sorts of useless odds and ends.

So, what is in my bag? My trusty To Do list, small digital camera, chewing gum, diary, Nokia phone, purse (bursting to the seams with club and bonus cards – points mean prizes!), Rennies for the heartburn attacks, keys (with more key ring attachments than keys…), a book on childbirth in Sweden, a couple of pens and the entrance tag for work.

And, even though I’ve only switched over to this smaller bag a week ago, I’m already starting the collection of odd items – you might just be able to see it in the picture – a piece of used tape. I have no idea how or when I acquired that, or just I thought it would be a good idea to place it in my handbag… Am I allowed to blame pregnancy brain?

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Feb 9, 2010

Quick heartburn remedy

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Photo by elana's pantry

Who would have thunk it? Almonds are great for combatting heartburn.

Thanks to my mother-in-law for the tip!

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