Today I had an appointment at the Derby hospital. It didn’t start well as we were stuck in traffic and got there late. I just hope that Tubbs doesn’t decide to be born during rush hour. It won’t be fun being stuck in a car in pain for ages!

We had to wait quite a bit to be seen but finally the nurse called my name. She told me there would be 2 doctors present, a consultant and a trainee. The trainee welcomed me as usual and said what we were going to be doing (the usual measuring, blood pressure check, etc). Then the consultant asked me: ‘ you are a student aren’t you?’ I said ‘yes, a PhD student’. He looked impressed and saluted me (for some reason) and asked ‘PhD? Very good, what on?’ I answered the usual ‘Planetary science, meteorites, comets and that space related stuff’. And then it all went funny. The consultant asked me to explain the phases of the Moon and complained that he could not understand a Moon crescent. Oh dear, the Moon phases are a bit difficult to explain especially in a few minutes and without the aid of some images so after much insistence I gave up on explaining and he gave up on understanding. We finally got to the appointment per se and all was well. As soon as I sat back  down he comes back with the questions! ‘Is the UK very involved in the space program?’ I said yes and that quite a few instruments were designed and went on space missions blah, blah. By then they were both quite excited and asking questions. ‘I saw a scientist on TV talking about it from the Open University, what was his name? He had a beard’ I said that it was probably CP and that I worked on his department so I knew him a bit. ‘That was it! CP!’ they said excitedly, ‘You know him?? Oh he seems to be a bit eccentric! Is he?’ And as I was saying that he could sometimes be a character the nurse intervened and actually said: ‘Come on lets get you out of here before they ask any more questions!’

I’d never seen doctors this keen to keep me in instead of wanting to get rid of me asap! I just had to laugh. They looked like two excited children That made my day!

I had to book another appointment for four weeks from now in case I am overdue and I also booked a tour of the hospital so I can actually see what facilities they have. That will be on Sunday.

On an unrelated note, most people know of the saga to find cot sheets. We went to Dunelm after the appointment and they had nothing but fitted cot sheets! Loads of them! Sigh…

The doctor was the slowest doctor I’ve ever seen. At first I thought it was because he was foreign (sounded like a germanish accent) and wasn’t very comfortable with English, but even writing down the notes took ages. Very odd. I was supposed to see him about the latex allergy but the only thing he asked me was what made me think I was allergic and that was that. I’m not sure if it’s because of the allergy or the possibility of diabetes but I am being followed by both the midwife and a hospital doctor so I have another appointment with the hospital.

In the mean time I haven’t been sleeping very well. My back has been hurting all day and night and together with the heartburn and the night visits to the toilet I’m not left with much time for sleeping. I getting bigger and bigger and it’s starting to get a but frustrating not being able to do anything. I can’t get out of the sofa without Russ’s help, I can’t pick up things from the floor or reach lower cupboards, I get tired just going up the stairs to use the toilet, I’m in constant pain and starting to get bored. Especially when there is so much left to do with the house and I can’t do it. Honestly I’m starting to get a bit fed up with being pregnant and I can’t wait till Tubbs is born healthy and beautiful. Still 10 more weeks to go (if she’s not late) and my mood is getting worse each day (Poor Russ)

We are less than a week away from moving into our new house (whoo-hoo), so I registered with the doctor in Heanor. It’s less than 2 min walk from the house so really handy. I had to go and see the midwife so she could get to know me and check my notes and also to be able to order the Anti-D that I need to have this week

Russ was in a workshop near London so he couldn’t go with me. Instead Sophie drove me there.

The midwife is really nice and for a change I can actually hear what she says. She told me that Sophie better come in as well because it was going to take a while. You see Derby hospitals use different maternity notes so she had to transfer all the information from the old ones.

I was so impressed. The pack the hospital gives you is great! It has loads of information I didn’t know before, maps of the hospital, help of all kinds and the notes are so much more detailed. They even have a part where all the feedings from when the baby is born are recorded to make sure I’m doing it right!

Anyway she checked everything. She took my blood pressure which is a bit low as usual and took blood for all sorts of tests. She said the usual ‘what fantastic veins you have and the blood comes rushing out it makes it really easy’ I find it funny that the blood fizzes, hehe. We also heard the baby’s heart beat

Anyway, at the beginning of the appointment I told her I felt ok, just a bit big. She measured my fundus height (size of my uterus) and she said that I really am big! I just hide it well. Apparently I am right at the upper limit of what is normal. I should be 27cm and I am 29. Added to the fact that I have relatives with diabetes she said we better make some tests to make sure I’m not developing gestational diabetes. This would make the baby too big which may make labour complicated and if it’s too bad that baby might be producing too much insulin to compensate. It’s not a very serious thing, and it happens quite often in pregnancy. It’s easily manageable and it goes away after birth so I’m not too concerned. Besides I still have to do the test to see if I even have it.

Now the test is the bit that is leaving me and Russ slightly worried. It’s called a Glucose Tolerance Test. Basically I can’t eat for 12 hours (only allowed to drink water). I go to the hospital, they test my blood and then I’m given a glucose drink. Then they test my blood again several times over 2 hours to see how I react to the glucose.

The bad bit about it is the not eating. Anyone who knows me know how my temper gets even worse if I’m hungry. Spending more than 14 hours without eating is not going to be nice. Russ told me he doesn’t want to go with me and that he would rather eat a bowl of spiders than to be with me if I haven’t had breakfast!

Anyway it’s going to happen on the 24th November so I advise you not to talk to me until lunch time

P.S.- And just because I like to make it difficult I am allergic to Latex gloves which might be a major pain. Everything in hospitals is latex!! So I am going to see a consultant at the hospital over this as well to see how serious it is. It might mean that I have to be followed by a consultant as well besides the midwife. My dentist had already complained about the fact that I am allergic to latex AND penicillin. He said ‘what an interesting combination’ with a not very happy face. But it could be that it’s just a small reaction and nothing to worry about.

In MK no one seemed to give a damn about any of these things. The new midwife wasn’t very impressed that they didn’t make more tests.

So far it seems like Derby is the place to be! I’m being well taken care of

So I had to go in, do another test, and hope that the bugs are not there and were just some kind of contamination (I don’t have any other symptoms). Sigh… If they are we need to hope that I don’t react to that other antibiotic.

Just making things a bit more complicated. If this is as complicated as it gets I’ll be happy

The scan was great! Everything is all right with her, everything normal.

The detail was amazing! We saw the heart with the 4 chambers pumping, the stomach, the bladder, the cute little feet and hands. We even saw the mouth open and close and had a close up of the nose. It looks like she has Russ’s nose which is a shame, mine is a lot prettier . And the sonographer showed us what he called her ‘girl bits’ so we could be sure it is a girl.

This time she was really well behaved and cooperated. Well, most of the time. They still had to rock me and send me for a walk.

Big happy smile in my face

Well we have been on holiday and very busy with setting up the business and looking for houses. All still in the process of being done.

The holidays in Portugal were great although I did confirm that flying doesn’t agree with me both mentally and physically. My legs looked like tree trunks!

In the 10 day I was away my bump got a lot bigger (no doubt it also has to do with the fact that we get fed till we drop of culinary goodness)

I realise a couple of things:

- I can’t sleep without my maternity pillow! Terrible nights I had with lots of back pain.

- I only have 4 tops left that actually cover my bump

- I now have to tie my trainers sideways cos I can’t reach them by leaning forward.

- It is also very difficult to lean or reach things that are close to the floor.

- I will have to ask Russ to cut my toe nails at some point which will be interesting (I can’t stand anyone touching them)

- My feet and ankles are not skinny any more

- And…

I felt the baby move!!! What an amazing feeling! I can feel it more when I’m lying on by back and it protests when it gets to tight in  there.

I can’t wait ’till Russ is able to feel it too

In the mean time people gave us clothes for the baby to had to what we already bought and Tubbs now has more clothes than me

It was also nice to talk to my mum. I asked her if her bump was big as I have noticed mine is quite big comparing to some other pregnant women. She told me she was thinner than me when she was pregnant and had a huge bump. Even the doctor was wondering if there were twins. Of course I was 8.5 pounds when I was born which might have something to do with it as well.

Tomorrow starts my 20th week (half way through, Woo-hoo!) and I have an appointment with the doctor and an anomaly scan on Thursday. I can’t help but feeling nervous because they are going to check for anomalies but I also can’t way to see Tubbs again

So I bought some comfy pregnancy jeans and some tops. Even Russ said today looking at my tummy that I can’t hide it anymore

Sleeping has become a lot more difficult though. I keep waking up to go to the toilet and then I can’t go back to sleep. It’s also becoming more tricky to find comfortable positions to sleep.Last night I had to sleep with a pillow between my legs but even like that is gets difficult. So now we are hunting for pregnancy pillows. There are so many! Russ wakes up because of me moving around and the pillows are so big he is saying he might have to sleep in the sofa

In the mean time we got the blood test results back from the hospital and it seems like the baby is in very low risk of having Down’s syndrome. That was good to know .We have a midwife appointment on Tuesday and she’ll be taking some more blood out for further tests like spina bifida. It’s always a bit nerve recking thinking of everything that might go wrong but positive thinking!