31 weeks and waddling about

32 weeks is around the corner and it seems like overnight things have just changed. Had my antenatal appointment on Friday and after waiting an HOUR(!), got seen by the midwife who told me that the baby had turned head down but was not yet engaged.

I had sort of sensed this because recently had started to feel kicks up top and this hard lump at the top of my tummy, which as you can see from the pic below, is her booty!

Whilst this is good news for baby and delivery, it has caused me an immense amount of pain and discomfort this past weekend. From sitting down, to lying down to even walking around (hence the waddling), there has been this heavy pressure I have been feeling which is very uncomfortable and has brought me to tears on a few occasions. Now considering how gracious God has been to me throughout this pregnancy it has definitely been a change from the norm and potentially a sign of more things to come!!!

Speaking of antenatal appointments we have decided to transfer our care to the midwife at my local GP surgery. This was for a number of reasons. Not only will I see the same person each time round, the location is a lot closer to home and I’m hoping I won’t have the hour long waits I have experienced recently. In addition it will be this midwife who will come to visit us when the baby is born.

The reason we haven't been going to a local midwife from day one was that we didn’t like our previous GP practice. There were some serious service issues and we weren’t comfortable starting our antenatal care there. At the time we also knew that we would be moving in a couple of months and could potentially transfer to a local midwife then.

As it turns out the midwives at our new GP don’t work with the hospital where we are having the baby and won’t have access to all my records/results etc. However when I spoke to her on the phone, she said she can still see me, but if I need any referrals I will have to go back to the hospital, which I am fine with. Given that the appointments tend to last 15mins or so and sometimes you have to wait up to an hour to see the midwife at the hospital, it doesn’t seem worth it to travel all that way.

Recently hubby and I have started watching One Born Every Minute. We’re watching Season 2 and so far have found it to be a fascinating programme. It has been a real eye opener to the different births and situations people face and I am seriously toying with the idea of a water birth as it seems a great natural form of pain relief. My desire is to avoid having a epidural and we will enquire more about our options at our antenatal class next week.

Other than that with less than 8 weeks to go (eek!) baby is measuring well and my stats are good.

Next thing on my to do list…hospital bag. If you’ve got any great tips on what is good or not good to take, please let me know in the comments. I’m hoping to have it all ready to go in the next couple of weeks.