7 weeks to go! 0

So it looks like I will have another 7 weeks or so to go until lil Munchkin should arrive into this world, hopefully via a waterbirth at home. The nursery is nearly all ready to go with the walls now a calmer cream colour, furniture assembled and placed, curtains replaced and now we just have some smaller touch-up jobs to do, some more kids books to unpack from Nath’s childhood ‘library’, some gorgeous pics to hang up and a whole load of baby clothes and MCN’s (modern cloth nappies) to wash. Yeah, not much to do there I guess!

- The nursery – Before

- Work in progress

- Nearly done

At the moment I am planning to start my parental leave about 4 weeks before my due date although that could change considering recent events! On Wednesday night we went to hospital after I felt some pretty strong abdominal pains on my right hand side. I was rather nervous that it might be appendicitis so I thought it might be best to get it checked out. After spending a couple of hours at QE2, we got sent to the Mater Mothers hospital for further observation. They ended up keeping me in overnight just to monitor me and to have an ultrasound. I was freaking out thinking that I might need to have an operation (my first!), and that also possibly meaning that little girl might have to come out at the same time. I definitely did not feel ready to meet her just yet!! Anyway, it turned out to be a fibroid (which I had known about), and which is manageable with paracetamol. So now I am having ‘bed rest’ for a week or so, until it calms down. This means I go back to work for 2 weeks before taking 12 months off. I’m pretty excited about that!
Lessons learnt? Hospitals might seem scary but there are so many lovely people there (nurses/midwives/doctors/other patients!) that it doesn’t have to be a negative place. If I need to go to hospital for this birth (complications or pain relief etc), then I am definitely ok with that. At this stage I am hoping that this won’t be required, and that all will be well. I am keen to be flexible with whatever happens, and I think that’s very important in these types of situations. ‘All is happening as it should…’
So now it’s back to reading a plethora of books on birth and parenting, now that I have finally finished my struggle through the Twilight series. Maybe it’s time to start on the new Robin Hobb series to try and re-balance my mind again!
