hayflower steam bath

Things I did and didn’t do during my first pregnancy

Sometimes I ask a mom “did you do that during pregnancy?” and she can’t remember, so I thought I’d make a list of things I did and didn’t do during my first pregnancy so that I know for my next pregnancy (if I want to).

I made the pregnancy test the day after I missed my period, and before that I drank alcohol daily (because I was on vacation)
I drank one, sometimes two cups of coffee with lots of milk every day, non decaf
I had my first OB appointment at 6 weeks 1 day pregnant – baby’s heart was beating
I didn’t drink one sip of alcohol during my pregnancy
I didn’t eat cake or sauces or candy which contained alcohol
When going out to eat I did eat the Bavarian “Schweinsbraten in Dunkelbiersauce” though
I ate sushi but none with raw fish or meat
I did eat feta cheese (rarely)
I ate parmesan cheese
I didn’t eat salami
I only bought and ate cooked ham
I didn’t eat sweets the first three months of my pregnancy
I ate my regular amount of sweet things the rest of my pregnancy
I stopped jogging completely
I tried to go to the gym regularly until week 31 (when my OB said I’m not allowed anymore)
Baby’s daddy and I hardly got romantic in the bedroom
We stopped making love at week 35 – it just felt too weird (this time for me too)
I tried to eat less / watch my weight until the day the OB said my urine shows a lack of Ketone and my weight is too low. I started eating more carbs then because I was scared the baby would come early due to my eating habits.
I took a prenatal class
Starting my 34th week, I made perineum massage daily or every other day – 5 minutes
I drank pregnancy tea in my third trimester
Starting my 34th week, I drank red raspberry leave tea to losen my pelvis
Starting my 37th week, I went to get a prenatal acupuncture weekly to shorten labor
Starting my 37th week, I started with pregnancy yoga twice a week
Starting my 38th week, I made a weekly hayflower-steam-bath for 20 minutes
I did grow a huge gross and ugly mutant-mole on my right breast
When the weather got warm and sunny I sat on the balcony for hours to tan. I covered my belly though. I let my belly tan the first day for about ten minutes and it got so red – the sun and the very thin skin on my huge bump were just too much.
I didn’t take a bath anymore a few weeks before my due date
I took 150mg of Magnesium and stopped one or two weeks before my due date (didn’t know I should have stopped earlier)
I drove the car until the end
After my due date passed I made yoga daily and took baths again

My 41st week baby bump story

How far along: 40 weeks + days
How much do I weigh: 62,2 kg, which means I gained around 13,5 kg (30 pounds) this pregnancy.

Belly size: Big, hard and heavy 🙂 Circumference 104 cm, Top to Bottom 46 cm

Baby Bump Week 41 - 40w6d — Baby Bump Week 41 – 40w6d

Belly button in or out: Even
Sleep: Very good, most of the time. If I get up it’s only once. Lucky me! But sometimes after I got up I can’t go back to sleep for hours.
Food (non) cravings: Nothing special, not that hungry.
Symptoms: For being high pregnant and about to pop anytime I have very less symptoms, hardly any. A little heartburn, my knees sound terrible when I do yoga.
Labor Signs: Hardly any, some pelvis pressure, some cramps. Nothing worth mentioning I guess. On Tuesday my attending OB checked me and noticed some blood, which might be my mucus plug. It was very less though and probably doesn’t mean anything.

I’ve been taking a bath every day and making hayflower steam baths a few days. I still drink three cups of raspberry leave tea daily. I do yoga daily, sit on my exercise ball at the dining table, walk stairs, go for walks. I also took a few Caulophyllum thalictroides D 4 pills, what the midwives gave me. Those are homeopathic pills which might cause contractions. Who knows, but no contractions at 41 weeks. I’m not forcing my bubby on having sex with me (although I’m bossy like that and would like to give it a try) because my true believe is that you cannot force labor. If I don’t have contractions I just don’t have them, why should they come from taking a walk or a bath.
I do things that are comfortable but don’t take my strength.

Maternity clothes: Ready to say goodbye to too tight pants. Can’t wait to buy new summer clothes in a few months.
Stretch marks: None
Miss anything: Nothing
Looking forward to: Meeting our baby-boy!!
Best happenings this week: Seeing that our baby-boy is doing just fine. The CTG on Sunday in the hospital was good, had another OB appointment on Tuesday and Thursday (the first male OB to examine me btw) and all was looking good. He checked me and the baby

Cervix: one finger fits through and it’s very soft
Blood pressured: 120 / 80
Amniotic fluid: baby has enough (more than 7 for sure)
Placenta: looks very good
Baby’s head: around 9,7 cm and tight in my pelvis
CTG: all good, baby’s heart-rate is 130 – 150 and he’s quite active. No contractions

Ultrasound - Baby-Boy 40+ weeks — Ultrasound – Baby-Boy 40+ weeks

On Tuesday my attending OB said that the hospital is quite busy this week and that he therefore made an appointment for my induction on Thursday, March 26st.

That would be 40+5 from the calculated due-date and 40+3 from the ultrasound (and my) due-date. He explained why they prefer to induce latest one week after the due-date, which I understand, but I asked him if we could induce on Monday, March 30th, instead, seeing the calculated due-date (March 21st) was always wrong in my mind, due to my irregular cycle and seeing that, in my opinion, my period didn’t start on June 15th (like I told my OB) but the 17th or even more the 19th (which would come out with a calculated & ultrasound due-date of Monday, March 23rd to March 25th).

He understood, said that’s no problem (seeing he’s only my attending OB he doesn’t know the details about my “history”). He looked at the ultrasound image from my 11th week where they figured out the due-date and said ok, Monday is ok 🙂 And seeing everything is fine with our baby, I’d like to give our baby-boy the chance to find his way into life by himself one more week.

My CTG on Saturday in the hospital was good, one contraction in 45 minutes – ha! The midwife also made another prenatal acupuncture for free 😀 I have two more nights where I can go into labor before getting induced. I’m quite nervous now…

And again, a big thank you to my Baby-Boy for this awesome pregnancy 😀 This time it’s final 🙂

My dear Baby Boy, we'll meet you soon — My dear Baby Boy, we’ll meet you soon

Movement: So so much! I can feel him moving around like crazy. That’s such a weird thought – knowing to have a human baby in the belly who’s all “done”, it’s unbelievable. He’s turning his back from left to right to left to right since Thursday evening (over a week now). He’s never done that. You’d think he’s ready to leave the nest (or he’s just feeling way too comfortable now).
Gender: Baby-Boy Bruno
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy and very excited and nosy! I did have some thoughts about how the pain of inducing will kick in and how I will handle it. Will it go from 0 to 100, will it take hours or days, will it not kick in at all? It’s a fear of the uncertain, a totally new experience – how will the pain feel and will I be able to handle it?!
Sports: Walks, daily Yoga

My 38th week baby bump story

38 weeks

How far along: 37 weeks 6 days – Gosh, 14 days to go. Unbelievable!! As of now, I’m in the -14 days time frame where babies are born. As of now, our baby-boy pretty much can decide he wants to meet the world any day. As of now, I probably should be carrying a towel in my purse? Gosh, this is all getting so real!!
How much do I weigh: 60,7 kg (+ 11,9 kg / + 200g this week / 26 pounds in total)
Belly size: The belly is getting harder and heavier and I can feel how the baby is just everywhere. Not much room for him left, room for maybe two more weeks 😉

baby bump week 38 — Baby Bump Week 38 – 37w6d

I normally stand straight for my weekly baby bump picture but this time I thought the photo looks just the same like last week, so I just let my belly hang, just like after eating a big meal.

38-weeks-belly — Just letting my belly hang vs. standing up straight

Belly button in or out: It’s kind of even and a bit of an Outie
Sleep: Pretty good most of the times. I get up once and I can normally fall back to sleep again good, sometimes not though where I just lay there and get up eventually, sit on the couch with my laptop and wait until my eyes get tired again. Seeing I have two boppy pillows (one from my sister and one from my co-worker) I now put one on each side of my body, so if I turn from left to right or right to left I’m all comfortable immediately.
Food (non) cravings: mint-chocolate-chip ice-cream. I drove around the whole town and even went to the biggest grocery store here but zero, zilch, zip, nada, nothing! This oh so extravagant kind of ice-cream is not available anywhere! Gah! So I improvised. I bought the only mint candy I know – After Eight – and put it in my Ben & Jerry’s. Next time I’ll buy cheap vanilla ice-cream and After Eight. On Friday eve we watched the movie “Gone Girl” and in one scene Ben went to the freezer to get out ice-cream and what did he get out? A gallon of mint-chocolate-chip!
Symptoms: PMS similar cramps, my lower back is hurting sometimes. I also feel like my boobs have gotten bigger and sometimes I look at my feet and fingers and think they’ve gotten bigger as well. And my face. I don’t think I have a lot of water but sometimes I feel like a water balloon.
Labor Signs: Hm, just the few PMS similar cramps. When I do Yoga I really feel him in my pelvis but that’s not really a labor sign. Did a hayflower steam bath again on Saturday. 20 minutes.
Maternity clothes: I still sometimes wear normal long sleeves at times but maternity pants all the time.
Stretch marks: None
Miss anything: I don’t miss it now but this week I told my bubby that I’m happy to be able to eat yummy Italian ice-cream in the spring again. I bought Ben & Jerry’s cookie-dough ice-cream, it’s good but it’s no Italian ice-cream and also no mint-chocolate-chip. I really want mint-chocolate-chip ice-cream!!
Looking forward to: So close to my due-date it’s either my next OB appointment or the big event itself.
Best happenings this week: Our baby dropped!
I had my OB appointment on Monday and all was good:

How far along: 37+2
CTG: all fine
My Blood Pressure: 120 / 80
Cervix: dilated 1cm and soft
Strep-B: negative
Baby’s weight: around 2,7 kg (5 pounds 15 ounces)
Amniotic fluid: he still has enough, my OB measured 15 (everything over 8 is good)
Placenta: light calcification on the side
Baby’s head: Tight in my pelvis! I’m so happy, if my water breaks, the umbilical cord should not be a problem.

I’m happy his head is tight. When I walked into the OB’s office she looked at my belly and thought it doesn’t look like it has dropped so she was surprised when she checked me. She said she’ll see me in a week but she’s not sure if she’ll see me for my two-week appointment. Well, you never know 🙂 I’m happy my body is getting ready, now we’re just waiting for our baby-boy to get ready. The later the better!
So if our baby-boy is born before the 21st he’ll be a Pisces: loving, sensitive, intuitive, spiritual, idealistic, victimised and moody and if he’s born after he’ll be an Aries: determined, fiery, executive skills, born leader, impulsive, headstrong, opinionated, loyal, physical, driven, ambitious … interesting 😉
Another best thing this week: we got our first baby delivered – our dryer we ordered about a month ago! It’s great and all the dried towels, panties etc. are so soft!
Movement: He’s making Aqua-Gymnastic lots. And he’s sleeping when I’m sleeping. What a good breeding he has haha.
Gender: Baby-Boy Bruno, 100%, got that confirmed by three different doctors and we have so many penis pictures!
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy! Happy that my body is ready and that he’s all the way down in my pelvis. Happy and relaxed and pretty much ready mentally.
Sports: I did Yoga twice this week. Other than that the regular 30 – 60 Minute walks (as long as my bladder will stay empty) and taking the 50 (59 when I’m coming from the basement) stairs to our apartment sometimes a few times daily.

My 37th week baby bump story

37 weeks – Full Term!! No preemie anymore!

How far along: 37 weeks! 21 days! 3 weeks to go!! Can’t believe it! And today is Sunday, March 1st! It’s Baby’s birth month!! So amazing!
How much do I weigh: 60,5 kg (+ 11,7 kg / + 25.8 pounds), same as last week
Belly size: Circumference 102cm, Top to Bottom 45 cm

Baby Bump Week 37 - 36w6d — Baby Bump Week 37 – 36w6d

Belly button in or out: Hard question. Even and a bit out on the top, so, an Outie I’d say.
Sleep: Good, I’m so happy! I get up once and that’s it. It takes a while for me turning from one side to the other but that’s not worth mentioning.
Food (non) cravings: Nothing special, I try to eat less sweets those last weeks. I don’t buy any sweets when going shopping, my sweet snack in the evening is a fruit yogurt. I spent a day in the city this week and walked passed Starbucks and I mean really, as a high pregnant woman you can’t just walk passed a Starbucks knowing they have so good yummy sweet stuff, so I went in and got a blueberry muffin. Yummy! The last time I visited Starbucks was in Paris 1,5 years ago, so come on!
Symptoms: Not that many actually. I get bruised when I lay on one side too long, it feels like my skin/meat just falls asleep. Breathing is still a bit difficult. My butt starts hurting when I sit too long. It’s amazing, if I figure out my current BMI I’m still normal weight. Yet normal things like sitting or laying on one side start to hurt after a while, I’m out of breath faster than normal. When I do yoga my knee-bones make scary sounds. My lower back starts hurting again, mainly after I get up from the couch.
I don’t feel so good after I eat at night. I already eat less but I feel like a ton afterwards, it’s very uncomfortable. When I eat too late I get a heartburn at night which I’ve done twice this week. I should know better by now 🙁 Maybe I should just skip the evening dinner?
When I come home from the cold outside I get very red cheeks and ears and I just feel very hot for a long time. That’s new.
Can’t believe I’m carrying +12 kg around with me every day. Wow.
Labor Signs: None. I started a hayflower steam bath the first day of my 38th week. It’s not as relaxing as it sounds like, I took 1 liter of boiling water and added three tablespoons of hayflowers. Seeing the pot was too small to put into the toilet and sit on it, I put it on the floor and kneed over it and just let the steam go “into me” (TMI, I know). This method should loosen your pelvic muscles.
I also still do a perineum massage daily or every other day for five minutes and drink two to three cups of red raspberry leave tea daily.
Maternity clothes: Yes please! Panties a size bigger without a rubber band are the best thing ever!
Stretch marks: None
Miss anything: Getting up from the couch with ease
Looking forward to: My next OB appointment tomorrow. As I assume our Baby-Boy will be born in March I made a list of cool, easy to remember March birth dates (although I hope he arrives in the week from the 21st to 28th of March):

03.03.2015 (I already have plans with a friend there though)
05.03.2015 (I have an appointment for a foot care there though)
15.03.2015
19.03.2015 – Two months after my birthday
21.03.2015 – Baby’s Due Date
25.03.2015
27.03.2015 – 5 months before my bubby’s birthday
30.03.2015

Let’s see if he decides to come on one of those.
Best happenings this week: On Monday I had my first prenatal acupuncture at the hospital where I’m planning on delivering our baby-boy.

Prenatal Acupuncture - 36 weeks — Prenatal Acupuncture – 36 weeks

You normally have four sessions. One each week until you hit 40 weeks. It’s the first acupuncture I’ve ever had.
Reasons I decide(d) to spend 20 EURO each session for something which isn’t scientific proven:

I believe in it (they say it may shorten labor)
I tend to do the things they say make giving birth easier
It gives me a chance to “meet” the hospital, driving there, knowing where to park, knowing where the delivery room is located
It gives me a chance to meet some of the midwifes

The first time I got three needles in each lower leg. One right by my ankle, two on the outside of my legs right under the knee. It takes 20 minutes. While I was there I’m pretty sure at least one woman was in labour. I heard her breathe the “aaaaaaaahhhh” with every contraction she had. Oh, and I also found a 10 EURO bill on the street! I never found so much money, I was all excited 😀 (although I was undecided at first if 10 EURO are worth bending all the way to the floor but yes, they were)
On Tuesday I had an appointment with an anesthetist who explained me everything about the epidural (PDA). I filled out a bunch of questions, so that’s one thing I don’t have to do when I’m in labour (I hope) and decide I want an epidural. I’m not planning on one but you never know. After the appointment I walked through the city a bit and treated myself to a blueberry muffin at Starbucks. Nom. I also bought some little stuff for our Baby-Boy’s room, like a heart-shaped picture frame and a little elephant magnetic-frame.
Other than that I had a pretty relaxing week, met with a friend and her daughter, met with my sister and her daughter, had a lovely dinner with my bubby, my parents and my sister and her family on Saturday eve with yummy Schnitzel and Dampfnudel 🙂
Movement: Still a lot and he still has the hiccups regularly. He pushes himself against my butt-hole a lot (or maybe those are his arms) and it feels like, well, I’ll keep the details to myself.
Gender: Baby-Boy Bruno
Happy or moody most of the time: Happy, relaxed, very excited. I have my off-days every now and again where I feel left alone and unable to cope and that people still expect everything from me, forgetting that, so close to birth, I might have other things on my mind, also if I don’t show. That’s always the problem of someone “strong”, people don’t think that there might be phases where you just can’t take things so easily, they will not ask you “how are you doing” or “what are your concerns” because they think that everything is always fine with you.
Sports: I started yoga for pregnant women. Wow, doing yoga with 10+ kg more on my ribs ain’t easy, just the regular things! Never thought so. The Sun Salutation – uff! It’s getting better/easier the more I do it though. I plan on doing yoga two times a week.

You nicely see the scar where I had my belly piercing over my belly button. And my crooked Linea nigra.