Week 37: Round-up
I've started week 37's post with a gestation of 35+6. Always like to be a little early, catching the worm and all that. Week 36 wasn't anything spectacular but generated a big post. So it'll be interesting to see how this post pans out before I publish it. Sitting here writing it a week before publish date hoping I don't balls up my past & future tense is the least of my worries.
Relentless countdownFour weeks to go. That's less than a month. And now we don't even have a new calendar month to get into unless we go into overdraft territory, but I'm not sure what the penalty charges are for that. All those little figures we've played around with to get extra time - months, weeks, "ah but we have part of July and part of August so it's really two months" - have all gone. No more rules, no more creative accounting, no more working on lunar months, we lost the lot as we started this week.
At the end of this week the Fat Lady is officially full-term, I didn't realise 37 weeks was classified as full term until the ante-natal class, then I start seeing it everywhere. Information can be like buses, you wait for ages and, well, you know the rest.
The big high:
Ante-natal classes start this week.
The big low:
Ante-natal classes started this week.
The Fat Lady started getting the Braxton Hicks at the end of the 36th / start of the 37th week. Just like the first movements way back when, the Fat Lady wasn't too sure about them at first but soon realised what was what. And there's another crash warning, "brace brace brace". And I've slowly realised that I won't be able to call the Fat Lady the "Fat Lady" for much longer. How many more warnings can I take?
And the midwife check-up: No crash warning with this one, told straight that there is a major problem. Well, it wasn't exactly put like that, but there's a problem. Any denial we had is now completely gone, and that's the problem. This is now a one-way ticket, no refund, no return. Baby? Oh, baby's fine, it's us that are me that is at odds with it all.
So what caused the "issue"? The baby's head is engaging. Sounds like something from Star Trek, but what it means is the baby's head is pointing down the way, past the brim of the pelvis and he's looking for an exit. The mark of 4/5ths means it's four fifths of the way there. First-timers are usually between week 36 & 38, so again the Fat Lady is spot on. The baby will not turn round now, it's in the right position and will happily wait there until the big day, but it doesn't mean it's going to be tomorrow or any time soon. The Fat Lady looked proud at this, as if she'd done something totally amazing. Which she has. What a perfect start to week 37!
Three social engagements over the weekend took its toll on both of us. Hardly a minute to ourselves over a long weekend, better get used to this.
Comments
I can fully appreciate how much you must be cacking yourself. And I know how this will increase in the coming weeks. It's all going to be cool Lee. And very very exciting :-)
Posted by: Dave Morrow | August 8, 2006 9:03 AM
I'm just excited at getting a "chalk-up" from the Fat Lady for the tail end of the penultimate paragraph there. It had been [correctly] predicted all week.
Little distractions...
I'm sure you must have had yours too, Dave?
Posted by: Lee ? | August 8, 2006 9:22 AM