100 days to go

Today its exactly 100 days to Feb 8th, which is my due date as per ME :) My midwife put it down as 10th Feb on my last visit and I'm certain she's got it wrong. I've checked online calculators all of which indicate that I am right. So I'm sticking with 8th Feb!!

I've got a list of probable names for bubs. Nothing which makes me go - "Yes, THAT's it!" yet. I think I'll make up my mind once I've seen her. You know, its as though her "personality" would tell me what she should be called :)

Got some great news yesterday - Shanta is pg as well, due in early June.

Had my first midwife visit at the GP today. BP is normal - 100/60, the same as last time. Weight is 60kgs, just a kg and a half since the last measurement. Totally I've gained 4 kgs. It may seem a little less but as the midwife said and from reports I've read, the weight gained is not indicative of the health of the baby. A normal gain is around 10-15 kgs during the course of the 9 months, most of which is in the last trimester. I still have a couple of weeks to go before I enter that phase.

I met this silly lady at the surgery today who kept insisting on telling me and everyone around how tiny she thought I was at 26 weeks. She seemed to think she was much larger at 25 weeks and was worried that she would have a difficult labour with a large baby. Well lady, I wonder how u missed noticing that u are larger than me all over and not just around the belly! Anyway not that she had me worried but just embarrassed.

My fundal height, which is the length measured from the top of the pubic bone to the top of the uterus, is 27cms. The fundal height normally matches the foetus' gestational age, within 1 - 3 cms. I am at 25wks and 5 days today so that seems normal, if a bit large. Measuring the fundal height is an indicator of proper fetal growth and amniotic fluid development. My midwife told me she would be focussing on this measurement more than the weight gain to check on my progress.

We heard the foetal heart beat again today. And felt around for foetal movements. The dip stick test for the urine was normal so no culture test is recommended. She has asked me to continue drinking lots of water. Iron supplements she does not recommend insisting that my Hb of 12.1 is a very good count. I discussed about the jittery baby condition in India due to lack of Calcium and she left it up to me to decide. Said she hasnt come across or even heard of this condition here.

Overall I came away satisfied with the visit. The midwife seem genuinely interested in handling the pregnancy as a normal physical condition and not as an illness requiring treatment and supplements all the time. All the same, she was sympathetic to my concerns of ethnic and cultural differences which necessitates some intervention. I guess we need to check with an Indian gynaec after all just to put our worries to rest. Meanwhile I will continue to ensure a balanced diet.

I wanted to sneak in a bit about our weekend away but this post seems to be getting too long already. More on that in the next post then.