red raspberry leaf tea

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

Baby Baby Baby

I didn’t think my blog would turn into a mommy-blog so fast but, with being pregnant, the only things I can really think about are things concerning pregnancy and babies. Everything else seems to be so secondary now.

Baby’s Name

Well, a few days before our little boy should arrive we have still not agreed on a name for him. Well, we kinda have, but not really. My boyfriend knows I want my kids to have American names and not a typical German name. He’s still trying to get used to my favorite first name for our boy but still didn’t say “yes, that will be his name”. Our boy will have a second name too and I told my boyfriend he’s the one who’s allowed to chose that 🙂 It’s been the same name for months but now, all of a sudden though, he’s thinking of a different one… argh. I told him that, when I’m two weeks before my due date, I want to write our baby-boys name on my birth plan so that it will be spelled correctly, which I did. I wrote down our Baby-Boys full name, asked my boyfriend if he’s ok with it and he said YES, so… let’s see if that’s really his name.

Pregnancy Brain

Luckily, I didn’t really do a lot of silly things in my pregnancy, yet. I went to the hardware store a few weeks ago and saw this great deal on compost trash bags so I grabbed them. Why would I buy trash bags at a hardware store in the first place, but whatever. A few evenings ago I hear my boyfriend in the kitchen saying “WTF…” and I asked what’s going on? He just said he’s dealing with a never-ending trash bag and seeing I didn’t know what he meant he showed me what I bought.
Instead of 25 liter I bought 240 liter – 10 times the size we need. They really are never-ending! Anybody need 240 liter compost trash-bags?

For the first time in, I think forever, I’m wearing skirts and leggings in winter. I love skirts in the summer but as soon as the weather gets colder I will not wear them. I’m a jeans girl, a flares jeans girl. And leggings? You’ll never see me in leggings when I’m not pregnant. Now, being high pregnant, of course they’re probably the most comfortable thing to wear but I’m not a fan of my legs in leggings. Not at all. So I put on the skirt to make those leggings look a bit cuter.

I tend to spill my drinks on our couch. The photo shows my typical daily breakfast (orange, half banana, half apple, yogurt, spelt flakes, cereal, applesauce) with my red raspberry leaf tea which I spilled. Oh well.

Maternity Leave

My maternity leave has been great. I didn’t miss getting up and going to work once. I normally try to do something each day, also if it’s something little like cleaning the oven. I honestly thought I’d miss my routine days at work, that I’ll be bored so much every day but nope 😀 I did so much the last few weeks that now, one week before my due date I have to slow down a bit (well, I want to slow down a bit).

Fear

I’m a lucky girl. I’m lucky because my nine months of pregnancy have been great, all the examinations of our baby have been great and I don’t have any reasons to worry or be scared. I’m lucky to have an attitude of “what will be will be” and so, a few days before my due date, I’m not scared about giving birth.
I’m not fixated on my “ideal birth plan” because, how could I be? I have no experience at all so I’m just going to let things roll how they’re going to roll.
Sure, no PDA would be nice, but if I can’t handle the pain anymore, why not?
Sure, a natural birth would be nice, but if the baby’s in danger I’m happy for our revolutionary medicine and c-sections.
Sure, it would be nice if no body parts of mine get injured, but if something rips – it’ll heal. I’m really happy I don’t freak out right now and that my attitude has helped me to keep calm during my pregnancy.