40 week scan.

Yes, still pregnant....! What a funny boy this little poppet is, threatening to come at any moment for almost 10 weeks and now taking his own sweet time. I was feeling fairly low on Saturday about everything, mostly because of the discomfort of the extra fluid. I must have adjusted to the new levels as Sunday felt a lot easier, and now I feel resigned to being pregnant for at least another week or so. Mostly I feel incredibly glad that he's stayed put.

Indeed he seems to be growing like a weed! I had my 40 week scan today and he's gone through a big growth spurt. 4 weeks ago he was guesstimated to be in the 29th percentile, and two weeks ago in the 52nd... today he was estimated to be around 8 pounds, 6oz - which puts him in the 79th percentile. Eek. These scans can be off by a pound either side, so I think he's a little smaller than they're guessing. It's that ever growing head and tummy!

Sadly my amniotic fluid levels continue to rise, so my sense that there was extra fluid wasn't wrong. I have an official diagnosis of polyhydramnios, which is actually fairly awful, though now it does feel tolerable.

Despite all this extra fluid and a seemingly big baby I'm still measuring 3 weeks behind - so I am wondering where this kiddo is hiding.

This morning Rafi was very sweet. It was a very early morning start - before 5am - and after asking for a big hug, asking where his sheep was, and asking where Daddy was (in the bunk bed.. poor daddy), Raf said, 'mummy, I'm excited'. I asked him why, and he said, 'baby Charlie coming soon'.

I hope this was intuition.

Life with a 3 year old.

* Yesterday up at 4:30am today 5:30am.

* Morning cuddles on the couch watching Kipper.

* Train obsession.

* "I don't wanna do that" - over and over again.

* "I love you guys" - and other variations.

* "Noooooooooooo" - a lot.

* "Big kiss, mummy".

* 10 attempts to change his clothes, dress him, get him in his car seat, and on, and on.

* "Rafi, do you need the potty?' Nooooooooooooooo... followed by an accident!

* Pee-pee dance and song, and the 'pee-pee trying' dance and song when he's made an effort to go.

* Funny commentaries... "Daddy took my i-Pad", and, tonight, when Rich put him in the bath when he was expecting to just go to the potty, "Daddy took my clothes" - with tears, too!

The ups and downs of life with a little fella is so funny and, of course, exhausting. Today we went to our dear friends' son's birthday party. Rafi was super excited about seeing Nico and Rose and as soon as we got there he ignored everyone and played with the trains. He was so tired from early mornings and limited napping that he was a bit of a tyrant when we were there. He screamed bloody murder when I took him to the potty and disturbed his train playing (though once he had gone and we had done the pee-pee dance and song he was super chuffed with himself) and while he was having a fine old time playing with 2 brothers close to his age, there were a lot of tears and breakdowns over sharing. And then the part that made me haul him over my shoulder and put him in the car to go home... Raf saying to a sweet little boy, in a very bossy boots, rude way - "Get out of my way", as he played trains. Oh, the horror! I thought he'd picked it up from school but I happened to catch a brief clip of a Thomas the Tank Engine episode and heard Gordon saying to one of the other trains, "get out of my way", in much the same way.

Oof.

Come on, baby.

This morning I woke up very early - around 3ish - and baby Toast was very quiet. I panicked for a good 10 minutes, trying to get him to move, and then I realized that my stomach was like a water balloon and that my amniotic fluid levels must have risen even more. I have a huge water pocket in the front of my stomach and it makes all but impossible to feel even the most rigorous kicks and moves. And the discomfort is crazy. All the fluid is crowding out my organs - at least that's how it feels - and I really thought that I couldn't actually feel more uncomfortable.

Anyway, I continued to panic, because while I could feel some movement, it was so light and infrequent that it wasn't at all comforting. I got up at 4:15am intending to do some organizing, and because Raf is a very light sleeper around this time I went to get Rich (who was sleeping in the bunk bed!) to lie with Raf. Thus ensured a comedy of errors... Sammy had snuck upstairs - and this isn't good because he thinks that carpet is made for peeing on - so I put him on top of the stairs and the poor pup lost his footing and tumbled down the stairs. I was terrified, screamed - sort of - and then that woke up Raf. So we were all up at the crack of dawn, though Rich was a real trooper and managed to get back to sleep :) As soon as the hour was more decent I called my midwife to check in about the fetal movement and she had me come into the hospital for a non-stress-test.

Everything was good, of course, and I don't think I was really too worried, but I am incredibly fed up with the discomfort. I'm very close to my due date and I would love to go into spontaneous labour, but after a long, long couple of months trying to keep the toast cooking, I'm now a bit desperate for him to be done! This morning was the first time that I felt that real fed-upness.

He has to come soon... !

In good news, Raf peed on the potty a few times! He wore a nappy this morning to football but then we changed him into his big-boy pants and he stayed dry. He even peed in the woods when we were walking the dogs. He decided to get naked after we arrived home (we were caught in the rain) and actually asked to go to the potty. We were super proud of him!

39 weeks.

Big Day

Tomorrow Rafi is going to school with big boy underwear on. I forgot to send him in undies today but it seems as though the school potty training is going much better than our attempts as he came home today and, after his bath (when he was naked) he asked to go for a pee pee on the potty.

I'm expecting lots of wet clothes tomorrow but it's going to be a big day in the Oliver-Campbell household.

39 weeks

We'll be 39 weeks tomorrow. I think everyone is surprised that baby Toast is still cooking. 9 weeks of pre-labour and still not a baby to show for it. I'm actually very glad as research does show that there's even a significant difference in terms of brain and nervous-system development between a 37 and 40 weeker. Mind you I don't know that I'd be super happy to be 42 plus weeks.

Yesterday I went along for my 39 week scan and, again, baby boy looked great. It was another biophysical and not a growth scan. He passed with flying colours. My amniotic fluid levels, though, continue to rise and are thisclose to being abnormal. I'm not super worried about it - except that it's exceptionally uncomfortable to have almost twice the normal average amount of fluid. I have no idea where I'm putting it because I'm measuring a few weeks behind when the midwife measures my fundal height, and we know that baby boy is very average in size. I can, nonetheless, feel all that fluid and it's like walking around after you've eaten 5 Christmas dinners in one go, followed by an entire stockings worth of chocolate and sweeties. The other concern is that there will be a tidal wave when my waters break. Let us hope that I'm in the hospital by that point... 

37 week scan!

39 week scan!

He really does look a lot like Rafi, in utero, at least.

Rafi's 36 week scan

Final Days...

These are Raf's final days as an only child! It is hard to believe that soon we'll be a family of 4. Tomorrow I'll be 38 weeks and 5 days, which is the gestational age of Rafi when he arrived (though I had to be induced because of a kidney problem). I keep thinking that this kiddo will not be appearing for quite a while, even though today I am having so many contractions it's difficult to believe that we'll make it to the weekend.

Today may be the final time that I spend all day alone with Rafi. It was a lovely day, though a preschooler who wouldn't nap and a mama with some pretty distracting discomfort made for a LONG afternoon! He wasn't feeling especially independent, either, so it was a very interactive day, with lots of 'whys' and 'what happened'? and other continual questions!! I did feel a bit batty by the time Rich returned home.

We've had a busy but nice time with the Rafman. He's super interactive these days, which is both lovely (mostly lovely) yet exhausting. I'm wondering if it'll be easier with a newborn or whether I should soak up these days as a heavily pregnant, contracting mama! I have a feeling it's easier now.

Here are a few pics of the last few days.

Sleeping angel :)

Friday night chips and veggie burger.... and he found a bit of left over french bread! Very healthy!

Saturday lunch out... more chips.

Sunday morning banana-bread making. 

Cheesing it up for the camera.

Jumping in puddles.

Morning at the library.. grinning for some pictures to send to Daddy.