6 Months Pregnant
Reaching 24 weeks pregnant was a huge mile stone!! Add to that seeing the consultant recently and having good news was the best feeling in the world.
My previous blog, we’re having a baby, will bring you fully up to date with what’s been going on and why there’s a few issues.
In a nut shell I have had a thrombosis, which is managed with daily blood thinning injections. I also have an incompetent cervix, which is managed by me doing very little and spending a lot of time lying down.
I saw the consultant last month and he was really concerned, I’d lost 1cm of my already short cervix reducing it to just 1.7cm. The major worry is miscarriage or preterm birth. He said he wanted to see me again in 3 weeks and to go home and lie down, a lot. I did exactly as I was told! It’s the most awful worry to carry and I was happy to be doing the right thing.
Good News
I went back to see the consultant with no idea how things would be. You can’t feel your cervix, listening to my body hasn’t helped because I feel good and it’s not telling me anything. There are no signs obvious to me to know if things are ok or not. So when he did the internal scan I was delighted to hear “2cm!” which meant not only had everything stabilised, but my cervix has also gained 3mm.
I’m learning a lot about cervix! They’re like a muscle and they can change in length, contract and open or stay fully shut. The baby can also be different distances away from the cervix. More good news was that I’m not having contractions, my cervix is firmly shut and she’s a good distance away. I’ve never felt so relived!
The consultant said, “I don’t want to do the cervical cerclage“, a procedure where a stitch is sewn around the cervix. I was happy about that as I’ve heard and read about both success and failure with this procedure. He continued “now we need to leave your cervix alone, carry on doing very little, be quiet, calm, remove all stress and come back when you’re 32wks”.
Baby Scan
I had my 20wk baby scan in the UK but the Consultant wanted to do one here and check she’s doing ok. The scan was beyond impressive. I was in there for over 30minutes and came away with graphs, charts, pictures and every part of her measured and checked. She’s got no issues! In fact, she’s thriving in there and lets me know it too. The kicks rarely stops!
She moved a lot during the scan but you can see her peeping through her arms here. Her hands are above her head and you can see her nostrils and mouth clearly.
9 Months
In the UK you’re pregnant for 40wks, which is 10 months if you count 4wks per month. In France they calculate it as 41wks.
From Wikipedia….
“Childbirth on average occurs at a gestational age of 280 days (40 weeks), which is therefore often used as a standard estimation for individual pregnancies. However, alternative durations as well as more individualized methods have also been suggested. There is in any case considerable variation among individual pregnancies.”
According to this I’m not 6months until week 26, so a week and half to go!
What I’ve actually been doing
Surprisingly, I’ve not been bored or going stir crazy, in fact it’s been amazing because I still haven’t got round to doing all the things I hoped I would. I’ve been busy reading, enjoying friends visiting, lying around, nesting (!) and working. I’ve got lot of work done on my laptop that I so often put off because work that involves me being outside usually takes priority.
I miss the physical exercise a lot, doing a daily workout was as much for my head as my body but for a few short months I’m happy to leave it alone. I’ve been doing very, very short, slow walks, usually to a place where I then lie down! Isly is never far from my side and I’m loving growing our baby and embracing the magic of being pregnant.
So many people have sent messages, supporting us and sharing their own experiences. I can’t tell you how much that’s helped. Thank you.
Jerry is currently away on business so that’s been a bit hard for both of us, but we talk about 3 times a day and he’ll be back home soon 🙂
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