It’s been an interesting week, this past one. Firstly, it was my first week of maternity leave, Andrew and I did loads of painting in the baby’s room, and I visited someone who has made and used modern cloth nappies and she seems to think that the nappies I’ve made will work just fine. So I’m feeling pretty organised as far as being ready for this baby to come home.

The fine lines that I thought might be stretch marks most certainly are. They’re not massive stretch marks yet, just lots of fine lines, but the bottom of my belly feels like it’s trying to split in half and is quite sensitive to any touch. My ankles have been quite swollen as well, and the only relief I get is when I wear my hiking boots, except that it’s too hot to wear them all the time. It’s very hard to get out of bed in the mornings….physically difficult that is, it’s not that I want to stay in bed. My hip is still doing lots of clicking while I’m in bed and sometimes when I get up it hurts for a short time, but throughout the day it’s fine. Once I’m upright I’m fine and have a reasonable amount of energy, though I do find that my legs start to get tired if I do a lot of walking. Otherwise I’m very well. Andrew keeps asking the baby when it’s going to come out! It would be nice to have an answer to that question, but I guess the baby will come when it’s ready.

The midwife appointment today went well, my blood pressure is good and the baby’s heartbeat sounded fine.  The midwife (Felicity) said that the baby is a good size, to which I asked if she meant it was large or just an average size.  She said it’s average.  We are just playing the waiting game…..

Info from Birth.com.au:

You are now 39 weeks pregnant, which is the beginning of week 40.  With around one week to go, your baby will be born soon (if not already!). During the next week, most of the thick, greasy vernix cream on your baby’s skin goes away, but there may be remnants left in their armpits and groin areas. Their fingernails now look long and manicured and their skin is supple. Your baby’s breathing exercises naturally stop about 24 to 48 hours before labour commences. Unborn babies have around 75 to 100mls of amniotic fluid in their lungs (about 25 mls per kg of body weight). During labour, hormones are released to trigger your baby’s system to absorb some of this fluid into their blood stream. A small amount of fluid remains in their lungs at birth, which is fully absorbed within 24 hours. This is why newborns often sound a little gurgly when they breathe during the first hour or so after birth.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Pregnancy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.