week 30/33/34 check up

Birthing babies sure is an exact science! Went for my check up on Wednesday and had my 3rd ultrasound. According to my original calculations I'm at week 34, according to the baby's head size, I'm at 33, and best of all according to her femur we're at 30. I recall quite clearly that the same thing transpired with Ji. He had teeny weeny little leggies that threw things off. But he came two weeks early, and look at those legs now! So, in the end, who knows. I figger that I should lie in bed and eat bon bons as of about 4 weeks from now (Ji was born at 38 weeks) and stay in that prone and fat position until up to, oh, about 10 weeks from now. Send me Almond Roca and Eat Mores and I'll plow through them while I wait.

Otherwise, everything was looking just fine from the scan. There were many very clear pictures of the important but not so photogenic parts. Thorax? Check. Head? Check. Ventricle? You bet. Kidneys, liver, heart, spine, neck, stomach, and labia (!) check. Very happily, the baby is already head-down, the placenta is a good spot, and the cord is nowhere near the baby's neck. So, all good so far. My blood pressure - now that I understand the measurements, I'm keen to follow where it's at - was 110/80. The hospital very kindly put the images from all three of my ultrasounds on CD ROM for me and Dr. Jantra wrote me my fit-to-fly letter.

As for how I say I'm doing: so far, so good. I've been a little more snoozy this week, but I think it's mainly because classes were finished and we were just giving and marking exams, so school was pretty dull. I am 100% ready to finish work and go back to Canada, kick back, visit with friends and fam, and await the delivery. I will really miss the kids I've been teaching, but an extended non-working break sounds lurvely. I've been doing lots of walking to keep myself moving. Walked to and from school most days since Phet stopped work, and then have been zipping around at school, and today even taught the swimming lesson. The old stomach is getting extendy-er and extendy-er but unfortunately I can't take any pictures cause the camera's still in the shop. Suffice to say that I've been doing alot of navel gazing. Like, at the inside of my navel...which is no longer inside. Spooky.

Treated myself to a massage the other night after the ultrasound. I had a wretched crick in my neck from sleeping funny and thought I'd go get it worked on my a professional. Went to a new spot near the used bookstore I go to. Very clean, nicely decorated, pleasant. Only trouble was that the masseuse nearly splintered my shoulder muscles. It's always a hard call for me to make, whether a massage is too tough. During the massage I'll think, well, it's painful but then this pain will take away the other pain I've been feeling. But sometimes that is just not the case! The new pain takes over from the old pain and surpasses it! I'd say 85% of the massage was utterly perfect, but the other 15% required me to do deep breathing so that I wouldn't crack. I decided that it was good practice for the upcoming birth and let the masseuse go her wicked way. Of course the pain in no way compares to the pain of birth, but for people like me who lead a mostly pain-free lifestyle, it's good to occasionally be reminded to how painful pain is so that when the next pain event occurs it's not quite such a shock.

Had a lovely talk with Ji the other night. He's out in Balzac with his great-grampa, courtesy of his Kindergarden Airline Accompaniment Agency run by Awesome Auntie Emma and his Grampa. The little bugger tells me that all three got bumped to Business Class on the trip out to Calgray -- he's gotten there before me! So unfair. Cheater. Ji told me that he'd been out to "pick" eggs every day, but that he hadn't eaten any yet because you should only have 7 eggs a week because they have alot of cholesterol in them which can clog up your veins. Good to know. He was also chock-full of scatological information. Told me - in great detail - about the mysterious small circular poops in the scary old mink sheds where he wouldn't want to go at night, and about the chicken poop, and also gave me a two-paragraph description of some quite remarkable goat diarrhea that he'd seen. Good to have him working on his scientific education while he's on holiday. Mind you, it was very hard for me to talk to him...he'd just woken up and had his adorable creaky sleepy voice, and sounded so sweet, and I just miss him like crazy. I think six weeks is toooooo long for me to be without my boy. Oh well, got to suck it up. Just 7 more days! Yipee!

[Number Two-21-July-2006]