RemyAndSam.com

Who would have thought that I would be sitting here finally, full term. I thought it would never come. The feelings are positive at this stage. I have almost completed packing the hospital bag and we are setting up the nursery this weekend. I am doing things that make me happy, things that some might think are strange but never the less, they make me happy.

Being a clean and organised freak when not pregnant, you can imagine what the ‘Nesting’ instinct has done to me. I have become a cleaning monster. My home must be at an acceptable ‘cleanliness’ state (just in case baby arrives this weekend), I need to be able to see my reflection when looking at my car, the whole family has had to have their hairs newly cut, upcoming wedding and birthday gifts have been bought and wrapped and to the extreme, I have some Christmas presents organised as well. What a freak! Who is this crazy women?

Being full term has also attracted annoying comments like:

“Have you had the baby yet?” - No, but I’ll tell you when I have

“Are you still pregnant?” - Obviously because I still look like a whale

“Any day now, oooh, any day now” - like I didn’t know that

“Have you got any news?” - No, otherwise I would have told you by now

“I thought you would have had the baby by now!” - I thought you’d have better manners by now!

I’m sure most pregnant women get these comments, but they are just more irritating when I am hormonally charged, tired and waddling.

Being full term also has meant that I can sigh with relief knowing that my baby is fully developed inside and has an excellent chance if survival if born today. But there is that tiny spot of doubt inside of me that still worries about the labour and how the baby will pull through. Do all pregnant women have these worries or is it just me?

Then there is my husband who tells me that he goes to work everyday wondering if he will get that important phone call from me telling him to come home NOW because I am in labour. He checks his phone all day for my missed calls and wonders if he’ll make it home on time if I was in labour. I am sure that I will not be so lucky as to have such a quick labour, so quick that he wouldn’t make it home within an hour of my phone call.

Ah, the fun of it all and soon, it will be all over and I’ll be challenged with other things like engorged breasts, sleepless days and nights, fatigue (well, I’m used to that one) and feeding issues.

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I’m on the home stretch now. Not long to go. It’s been a long journey and if anyone tells me how quickly time has passed, I’ll disagree and say that it’s felt forever, this pregnancy. The Braxton Hicks contractions that I have started to feel has not helped either.

Braxton Hicks Contractions

Today, I felt false contractions (Braxton Hicks) for almost 3 hours. They were painful but were not consistent and did not intensify. I had to stop and relax, take deep breaths as I could barely talk through them. I don’t remember having such strong Braxton Hicks contractions with my first pregnancy or at this length of time.

Without going into too much detail about the history of these false contractions, they were named after a British gynaecologist John Braxton Hicks who first noticed them in the 1870s. They were barely noticeable when I was pregnant with Jeremy but this around, they are very noticeable! My uterus felt rock hard during these contractions.

The only comfort I felt during these contractions was that I knew they would go away and that they wouldn’t get any stronger and longer, and if they did, then I guess I would have to call the hospital!

These contractions have briefly reminded me what I have to look forward to when the time comes. Labour and birth hasn’t been my first concern with this pregnancy. I’ve taken on the philosophy that I will just take it as it comes, and baby will arrive when he arrives. I have no birth plans nor do I let labour occupy my mind as I did with Jeremy’s pregnancy.

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We all go through different combinations of pregnancy symptoms, whether we like it or not during the final three months of pregnancy. For those who remain symptom free, please just thank your lucky stars and know that there are far and few of you out there. Here is a list of just some of the lovely symptoms that I have been experiencing in the last few weeks:

The ‘ I feel like a whale symptom’

The last 4 weeks have been an eye opener or should I say, a big reminder of the third trimester. I feel like a whale now, having gained 9 kgs. For those who have not read my earlier blogs, this is a huge milestone for me. Having struggled to gain any weight during the first six months due to nausea and vomiting, I’ve made a big leap forward and made up for all that weight lost plus more! At this stage, I need alot of reassurance from my husband to tell me that I look as gorgeous as those slender models out there, that my bum and thighs don’t wobble when I walk and that my double chin is cute and that my legs don’t look like tree trunks.

The ‘ I hope I have an easier labour and birth preoccupation’

With this being the second pregnancy, I should be a pro at this, but I’m not. As the time nears to ‘L’ day (or days), I feel apprehensive about the labour, the birth and the baby’s health. Having spent 8 hours at home with mild contractions then 20 hours in hospital in labour with Jeremy, I can’t think of things going worse during labour other than having spent the same amount of time in pain and it ending in a caesarean. But there is worse and that worse is a worse that I don’t want to even imagine.

The ‘Fluid retention and blow up look‘

I thought by having a winter pregnancy, I’d avoid any fluid retention. That was one of the main reasons why we tried to get pregnant earlier on in the year. However, it was obviously in vain. I suffered fluid retention during the last 3 months of my first pregnancy, with the last three months being over the summer. The pain, discomfort and misery that it caused cannot be forgotten. I thought I’d happily escaped the blow up look this time around until I noticed that my shoes were a little tight a couple of weeks ago. Then today, I got hubby to take photos of me with our little boy and I did a double take of the photos. I have a double chin and forget about the rings on my fingers, they can’t be taken off anymore.

‘Haemorrhoids - the grapes on my bum’

If you’ve never had haemorrhoids or children, you should stop reading now. It’s one of those ugly truths that most women with children will not tell those who have not had children before. I never experienced these ‘grapes on my bum’ until I gave birth to Jeremy. I think they are worse than stitches from an episiotomy. For some reason, once they have appeared to say ‘Hello’, they are just there, waiting to come back out to say ‘Hello’ again and again and again, even when all you really want them to do is to go away! I cannot seem to beat them away, whether I am mildly constipated or have diarrhoea (both of which I have suffered from followed by the haemorrhiods during this last trimester).

The ‘I need to get everything done before baby arrives’

It’s strange how everything is travelling fine and then all of a sudden, I just feel the urge to get everything, baby related or not, done before the baby arrives. The other day, out of the blue, I said to my husband ‘I have to clean the oven before the baby arrives, I need to clean the oven NOW!’, obviously, he didn’t want to argue with this psycho chick and said nothing, just gave me an odd look.

The ‘I need a nap *yawn* right this minute’

I didn’t see this symptom coming until I noticed that I was yawning while in the car, at the red lights, watching tv, talking on the phone, before a shower, after a shower, after all meals…just yawning all day long. Silently, I kept saying to myself, ‘It would be nice to have a nap now’ until I realised that, I was in the third trimester now and fatigue has returned with a vengeance.

I know I shouldn’t complain about these symptoms when there are many women who would be happy to have them just to be pregnant. They are some of the symptoms that I would love to forget and make me appreciate my non pregnant body more, the body that truly is mine and not possessed by raging hormones and a baby that will make it all worthwhile.

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For anyone who has tried my banana cake and wants to know how it is done, here is the recipe.

200 grams of butter softened

1 1/2 cups of white sugar

3 eggs

4 bananas peeled and mashed

3 cups of plain flour

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup of milk

2 tablespoons of lemon

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius using a fan forced oven.

2. Put the softened butter and sugar in a bowl and beat it well. Add eggs one at a time and beat.

3. Mash the bananas in a separate bowl.

4. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in another bowl.

5. Stir in HALF  the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt mixture into the butter, eggs and sugar mixture.

6. Add the milk and lemon juice then the rest of the remaining dry ingredients into the mixture.  Mix well.

7. Add the mashed bananas in.

8. Line a large square or round tin with baking paper and pour in the mixture until the tin is half full.

HINT: Any left over cake mixture can be poured into a muffin tray and baked for 15-20 minutes.

9. Smooth the top of the cake tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Use a skewer and insert it into the cake, if the skewer comes out clean and dry, it’s cooked.

10. Let the cake sit in the tin for 5-10 minutes and remove it from the tin.

This is a simple and classic banana cake recipe that I make when I have bananas that no one wants to eat because the skin has gone all brown!

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