When Eggs Go Bad...

I Need a Vacation

We moved house last weekend. We'd been packing for 3 weekends running, so we thought we were in pretty good shape. Moving day rolled around and we started at 6.00 AM. By 6.00 PM we had piled up several gajillions of our belongings in our former neighbours' carport because we had so totally misjudged how much crap we had to shift. The people moving into our old place were the social equivalents of slugs. I tried to keep them apprised of what was going on and they just sort of stood there open-mouthed and said, "Well (huff) OK I guess" So in the end we just got it off their property. Thank GOD for our old neighbours. They got a nice bottle of champagne off us for their trouble. Should've been a case, really.

Had my cervical scan (the official one) on Monday. Everything looks fine, and I am fairly sure I now know the gender (no, I'm not telling). My first official midwife appointment was last Thursday, and we hit it off immediately. Turns out, she lives a couple of doors down from my new house! She was really supportive about my past losses and is just generally 'good people'. I've been given the go ahead to take myself off of OB/GYN care but there's no pressure to do so. The up-side of that would be that I could give birth in a midwife-led unit closer to home (or even AT home) instead of at a big high-tech hospital. The down-side is, I wouldn't have the reassurance of having a doctor on call at all times. Thankfully, I don't have to decide right now.

The UFO is moving around a lot now. It started a couple of weeks ago (v. early: 14 weeks) and felt like flutterings. These days it's more like popcorn popping inside. I wish Mr B could feel it. Mind you, at this rate, it won't be long. This child is going to be a big'un I think. Great.

So that's it, really. No great dramas. No worries. Just the need for a good long vacation, which I am going to get starting next week.

Are you bored yet?

Spelling the Psyche

I addressed an envelope today to the Miscarriage Association, and placed it on one side of my desk for posting.

Later, I caught a glimpse of it and realised that my imperfect handwriting had turned the word 'Miscarriage' into something that looked like 'Miscarnage'.

Altogether a better word for it, don't you think?

The Uncooperative Cervix

It's not that it's Incompetent... No, it's holding firm and doing its job. It's just that it insists upon occasionally spitting out brown stuff and, last Tuesday (shortly after I posted about how everything was fine and there had been no more bleeding) a few nice black (yes, really) clots. Small ones, like coffee grounds, but enough to spook me. When the cramping started, I raced like hell to the Silver Cervix Clubhouse for a good wanding.

The long and short of it? UFO's fine, cervix is fine, uterus is fine (no clots). The Badeggs psyche is shot. It's currently on vacation in Bermuda.

The OB was great, and encouraged me to come in any time I get spotting, regardless of whether I'm cramping along with it. I had treatment to my cervix years ago, and this on top of the near constant rake 'n' vacs I had last year mean that there is a slight risk of cervical problems in this pregnancy, though she doesn't think I actually have anything to worry about. *Sigh*. This baby is SO grounded when it comes out, for giving its parents so many near heart attacks.

I have an appointment with a midwife next Thursday. Like, an honest-to-god normal-person appointment where the assumption is that everything is going to be normal. On Monday, it's back to the Silver Cervix Clubhouse for an official cervical scan (I assume everything will still be fine). That'll be after the weekend spent moving house! Then it's off on holiday on 25 July and back on 14 August just in time for my 20-week anomaly scan, where they see if the UFO has three arms or something (Don't laugh: I saw a photograph this week of a baby born with three arms, bless him. Just an extra arm sticking out of the side. Amazing).

So, basically, it's laid back and casual chez Badeggs, know what I mean? The Mothership is holding it together. With spit and duct tape, but together nonetheless.

Where Does the Time Go?

Sorry to have been AWOL; I honestly don't know where the time goes. That's good, in a way: the busier I am, the less time I have to worry about the insidious and evil ways fate might divest me of my pregnancy. According to the medical notes, I'm 14w1d. And even if you go by my apparently less believable knowledge of precisely when I ovulated, I'm definitely in the second trimester. And it all kind of happened while I wasn't looking.

Last week, I spent three days in The Netherlands for work. Long, heavy-duty senior management stuff (I still feel like a gatecrasher...I'm sitting there wondering when they're going to realise they've asked a 9-year-old to contribute to long-term strategy...). I took along my Doppler, so I could hear the baby's heartbeat every day, as I do while I'm at home. It still seems strong, though it was slower than usual today. Anyone know if that's normal?

I'm pleased to say there has been no more bleeding, not even after we threw caution to the wind (twice) this weekend. I have a definite bump and have had to turn to maternity trousers and elasticated waist skirts for comfort. We're in the middle of a heatwave, too, which in Britain (land of no AC) means you wear as little as you can possibly get away with. And that's good, seeing that none of my clothes fit anymore. I'm also pleased to report that the morning sickness has all but disappeared, to be replaced by haemorrhoids. Doubtless the heartburn will start soon, too. Not that I'm complaining.

In the next few weeks, we should be moving house, and then heading off on our annual jaunt to my hometown to watch the Cardinals' limp-armed pitching lineup lose a couple of games for us. Until then, I'm just slogging away, enjoying, momentarily anyway, the feeling of time rushing by. I know I should be enjoying every second of pregnancy and not wishing it away, but let's face it: that's for women for whom miscarriage is only ever followed by the words 'of justice'.

Let me know how YOU"RE doing!!