26 Weeks

I'm currently lying in a bed in the LGH with a drip in my hand, getting an iron infusion and feeling somewhat sorry for myself. It's taken three attempts to get the cannula in my hand and by the time the second guy was poking around in my veins I'd given up being brave. I wasn't feeling entirely confident in him, given that I'm pretty sure I've got a good couple of years on him and how many cannula's could he have possibly done? Not to mention he told me it would be like a sharp scratch and I know damn well that is not what they feel like!! It's an initial sting, followed by this painful pressure on your arm as they tell you not to move, when every nerve is telling you to get away from this horrible thing. The lady who finally got it in did a good job, even if her idea of reassuring me was to tell me the needle they use during labour is much bigger than the one she was using today. I've already asked her to please do any cannula I need in the future. After going through this three times in an hour, it took a while for the tears to stop and my stomach to stop churning. 

So now I wait, while they pump in the half a litre of iron infused saline that's making my left hand very cold! At least one of the student doctors has made me a milo, and someone else filled up my hot water bottle for me. I'm glad I brought that with me, since the other lady in the room is hot and has the aircon cranked up! 

This all came about after I found a request for a general blood test last week when I went for my glucose tolerance test (more about that later). The midwife called me on Monday, to say that my iron levels were low. Talk about a light bulb moment! That would be why I've been feeling so tired and flat, why I've been getting my post pranial symptoms, even though I've been eating such small meals and why I've been pale and cold! I usually eat heaps of red meat and green veggies, so my iron levels are normally really good. The last few months though, I've really only been grazing, and steak and broccoli aren't really things I snack on (who does?) so between that and baby draining me of everything, it's really not surprising. Ellie did suggest to me that my baby is a vampire and that's why my haemoglobin is low, but given the amount of garlic I eat, I don't see how that's possible. Of course there are some people who would argue that vampires don't exist. 

So, back to the glucose tolerance test (GTT). They test everyone for gestational diabetes when you are pregnant. It's a series of three blood tests over two hours, with a horrible glucose drink in the middle that makes you want to vomit. On top of that, you have to fast for at least ten hours before, so for pregnant ladies who normally eat little and often to prevent nausea and heartburn, a GTT on top of a fast is just asking for trouble. I felt so awful by the end of it!! At least today I have a massage to look forward to when they are finished with me!! 

Ok, so no longer dealing with the iron infusion- it sometimes takes me a couple of days to finish off a post. I had some pretty impressive bruises for a couple of days after the infusion, particularly where the student doctor didn't know when to quit. 

No wonder I almost punched him...

Thrown in amongst my feeling rubbish, is Tim. He's been having a bit of trouble with pain in his right shoulder this month. Last week he's had a MRI and we thought confirmed a slap lesion. That would have required him to have surgery on his shoulder, after which he would have 6 weeks in an immobilisation sling before being allowed to start gentle Physio on it. He wouldn't be able to drive during that period either, so he would be basically be relying on me to go anywhere. The catch though, was that the orthopaedic surgeons and the radiologists couldn't agree on a diagnosis, so we have been left somewhat in the air. They have tried a quartizone injection, which has helped a bit, but he could still end up needing surgery anyway. If that's the case, the timing becomes even worse than had they operated straight away. It's very much a case of wait and see, for now.

I've been trying to get my feet up as much as I can, but they get so fat so quick! I took some photos throughout the day earlier in the week to try and show how quick they change. There is a big dent in my foot from just pressing on it, much like play dough. I think I'd been out of bed for about two hours by this stage.

I have measured my feet a few times throughout the day and found they swell about 2cm from morning  to afternoon! Not to mention the size and shape of my toes. And my ankles and legs and everything else!

Morning

Afternoon

The iron infusion I had last week will take about 2-4 weeks before I start to feel the benefits of it. That's how long before the iron is effecting the haemoglobin levels in my blood. So I'm still feeling really lethargic and flat. I took my resting heart rate before I got up yesterday and it was up around 90 beats a minute. No wonder I'm so tired if my body has to work that hard to provide oxygen when I'm asleep! I've had a few mornings where I've felt really awful after eating and had to go lie down, much like I did when my post pranial hypotension was at its worst.

The other thing that is making me feel really awful is heartburn. I actually haven't been using my pillow fort for the last week or two and it's been nice, but I think I'm going to have to reassemble it. I'm finding I'm really uncomfortable when I go to bed and waking up heaps through the night. I'm tired enough already without having trouble sleeping.

Tomorrow will be my last day at work. I feel in some ways like I'm piking out, finishing up so early, but at the same time, I know enough to listen to my body and right now it's screaming ENOUGH!! Had I not become anaemic, I might have been able to keep it up a bit, but at this stage I'm more than ready to finish up.

We had another appointment with Dr D last week. She is happy with my progress. We will continue to see her every 3-4 weeks and after our next appointment we will meet the anaesthetist to talk about what my options will be when it comes to actually getting baby out.  We also have our classes coming up in a few weeks, talking about parenting newborns, breast feeding and so forth.

There have been a couple of exciting things happen over the last few weeks. Exciting for me anyway. We were all raised in cloth nappies and it's something I've just always assumed I'd do too. I found out when my cousins were both having babies last year, cloth nappies have changed somewhat from when I last changed one. So there has been much discussion with various mums and mums-to-be over the past few months and I finally have got some. They are very cool! Now I just need a baby to try them on...

The other very exciting thing was my baby shower over the weekend. Again. it's a little early, but with one of my sisters about to head interstate for several months, I wanted to have it while she was still here. We ended up with a bit of a dragon theme going on, basically because I had some adorable dragon paper I wanted to use on the invitations. So I did the invitations and the guest list, my sisters and their helpers did the rest. I am somewhat terrified at the prospect of helping plan Ellie's bridal shower/hens party now, they both did such an amazing job! They managed to carry the dragons throughout the whole afternoon. My little brother Keygan even made balloon dragons!

And how impressive is this cake!

Tim joined us at the end of the afternoon to help open the gifts. We certainly have an amazing and generous group of friends! It was a lovely day and we were eating Becca's delicious home made mini pies for two days afterwards. Thanks again girls!

I think that covers most of the last couple of weeks. Baby has been very active and can now be seen from the outside when feeling particularly energetic.
This week I'm after pointers on dealing with heartburn. Are there any foods you've found that give you heart burn? Any that are 'safe'? I was talking to Tim about this yesterday, only to be told that 'pregnancy' was what was causing my heartburn. He's a funny one...

Right. Now, I'm going to go put my feet up!