Philotic Web

Right then. Creating one thread for this means that the rest of you who don't want to be bombarded with pregnancy-whining can enjoy your Milagre in peace.

Week 17

May or may not have felt Wee Brontosaurus moving around. Could be gas, could be muscle spasms from being tired. Resolve to sleep in more while I still can.

Very suddenly feeling awkward and off-kilter. I guess my centre of gravity is changing like the baby websites promise? Am annoyed at my changing sleep patterns - I like sleeping on my side, darnit, but Wee Brontosaurus likes me to sleep on my back, and while I sleep he rolls me onto my back, all ninja-like. Not so good for my neck. Can no longer really lay on my stomach. Darnit.

Experiments in changing around my psych meds failed. Five months is too long to go; will try again in third trimester. I suspect my brain chemistry has decided to gang up on me with the rest of my body on the awkwardness front. Tarnation.

All of family informed. Good response all-round, including a "we need to go dance around the kitchen" from soon-to-be great-grandparents. Others have already started looking around for baby presents, which makes me anxious for some reason. My mother has begun planning Wee Brontosaurus' baby quilt(s). Good to know he'll be joining the family in style!

I miss the closeness, comfort, and common sense of my mother and my best friend. It makes me very sad that I can only share this with them long-distance. Despite all the people here, I feel kind of alone. I worry a lot that Wee Brontosaurus will decide on his own schedule and I won't have my mom here when he's ready.

I'm so sorry you feel alone through this. Please post as often as you like and know that I WILL read and commiserate with EVERY SINGLE post! I know it's not a real consolation, but, hey, it's what I've got to offer!

Heck, while I'm at it, I'm really worried about finding a place to live, since a 1-bedroom place is almost twice as expensive as splitting a 2-bedroom one, but who wants to live with a noisy newborn?

And what are we going to do about the baptism? We're going to be here long enough that it's the only decent option, but we won't be able to have family here, and all the people we'd even consider asking to be godparents aren't here either.

And I'm supposed to have omega-3s? I'd probably not bother for myself, but Wee Brontosaurus is supposed to need them, and I hate fish. Even fish oil capsules are almost unbearably fishy. So that will be fun.

It's all really overwhelming. Having pweb is a godsend, at least. You guys are awesome.

Wee-B!


(Sorry, I think it sounds fun and I can't really say I understand to too much else in here but I'm reading and I'll do my best to be "here" in any way I can.)

I vote "babysaurus" if you're still looking for a gestational nickname.

Do you eat eggs? I know eggs laid by hens fed on flaxseed (generally most organic eggs are such) are a supposed good source of omega-3s. Still, I don't know how they fare compared to fish.

(I agree that fish oil capsules are gross. Years ago my therapist suggested I take them to help combat my depression. They were terrible).

They have fish-oil that is enteric coated which supposedly hides the fishiness of the oil. They're all I've taken, and I've never noticed a fishy after taste, but YMMV. Besides, fish oil might be doing more harm than good.

A better option to taking Omega 3 supplementation is just to reduce your Omega 6's. The positive effects related to taking Omega 3's has to do with the fact that it helps even out the ratio of Omega 6's to Omega 3's.

http://thehealthyskeptic.org is a good blog to read for more information.

I hate fish, too. My kids all turned out healthy and normal!

If you don't want to do something to help, though, Barilla Plus pasta has omega-3's. That's what I usually eat when I want to boost them.

I'm so sorry you feel alone through this. Please post as often as you like and know that I WILL read and commiserate with EVERY SINGLE post! I know it's not a real consolation, but, hey, it's what I've got to offer!

Me too!

I didn't eat/not eat anything special in pregnancy. I abstained from alcohol and avoided raw sushi, that's about it. Oh, and I took a prenatal vitamin.

Is this how you found out?!

Nope, I found out via Science!

About 90% certain I felt Wee Brontosaurus kicking up a storm this morning. Seems he was as annoyed as his momma by the fire drill waking us up!

I finally have a meeting set up with my supervisors, sadly a week and a half away. By then I will be at 20 weeks, and have had my second scan. It is getting harder to hide the fact that I'm getting big, although the corresponding bosom growth helps to camoflage it. Mostly I'm just avoiding people or situations where it might get noticed. I hope at least that I will get a comment or two to the effect of "Holy heck, I had no idea! Good job hiding it!" Then I will be proud of myself.

Joined freecycle and watching for baby stuffs. No luck so far, although I'd asked for a couple things, but we've got time!

In other news, if I plan to still bike to Stamford Bridge, we better do that sooner than later before I am too awkward to manage it!

They have fish-oil that is enteric coated which supposedly hides the fishiness of the oil. They're all I've taken, and I've never noticed a fishy after taste, but YMMV. Besides, fish oil might be doing more harm than good.

A better option to taking Omega 3 supplementation is just to reduce your Omega 6's. The positive effects related to taking Omega 3's has to do with the fact that it helps even out the ratio of Omega 6's to Omega 3's.

http://thehealthyskeptic.org is a good blog to read for more information.

They are good articles, but neither of them address fetal development. I don't really bother worrying about it for me (and since I eat no fish or seafood whatsoever, simply reducing my O-6 intake is not realistic). Wee Brontosaurus is supposed to need it at some point in his development, and specifically fishy O-3s, not flax O-3s. It's different for him than me.

Blah.

A great post about vegan/vegetarian pregnancy from someone I kind-of know. It also links to some other sources.

I'm pretty sure I have some clinical studies on the beneficial effects of DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid) on prenatal and postnatal development, particularly cognitive development, from an article that was submitted to me a while back, if you're interested.

That's pretty cool. I probably don't have time to give them more than a quick skim, so don't waste your time. Thank you, though! I've seen enough references to studies to convince me it's probably a good thing to do (after I consult the midwife, anyway). Again, this is because on my own I get next to zero O-3s normally.

Jan, thank you! That is marvellous! I will be looking into that.

Today I spent time pondering diapers/nappies. Do we want the all-in-one kind that take longer to dry (and we have no guarantees of a clothes dryer in the future, so this is a concern), or the kind with removable liners which dry more quickly but seem like a bit of a pain?

In my experience (and my friends), all-in-ones seem good, but they take for.eve.r. to dry (even with a dryer) and if they stop being absorbent it can be frustrating.
I have a few pocket diapers and they're fairly easy, but mostly I have prefolds (the flat-but-thick type) and covers. They are really easy, especially for an older (2mo +) baby, because you just fold it in three and stick it in a cover - and it's one of the the cheapest options as well.

Pocket diapers are not at all hard to work with, EL.

They are good articles, but neither of them address fetal development. I don't really bother worrying about it for me (and since I eat no fish or seafood whatsoever, simply reducing my O-6 intake is not realistic). Wee Brontosaurus is supposed to need it at some point in his development, and specifically fishy O-3s, not flax O-3s. It's different for him than me.

Blah.

Related to fetal development or not, it's still important. The major take-away from the first article I posted is that fish oil has a tendency to oxidize and go rancid unless you buy a high-quality fish oil, which I'm sure is still undesirable for a fetus. Ideally, a fish oil (capsul or not) should come in a dark container and, if it is a liquid, be refrigerated after opening.

You could also try Cod Liver Oil, which I found to be less fishy overall. I've taken this, which also supplies you with A, D, and E vitamins, and I don't get fishy burps. They're more like lemon-y burps if I burp at all. Recently I've switched to this here which is fermented, which means that it isn't heated to over 110 deg f, which allows for the natural vitamins to remain intact. They also add butter oil so that you get K vitamins as well, which are required to properly absorb D vitamins.

Just a thought.

I wonder if it's possible to coat a capsule in chocolate or if the liquid state of the chocolate would dissolve the capsule before it has a chance to cool...

Rei, I tried that with the enteric-coated vitamins back in Toronto. Didn't work really all that well, certainly not worth the effort. Meh.

Caspian, we're probably going to end up with the pocket type, or another two-piece system. You're right, it's not THAT much extra effort, and will be totally worth it in terms of drying time.

Second scan this week. Wee Brontosaurus totally kicked me in the gut this morning. I'm looking forward to this being perceptible by other people, so it will seem a bit less like I have a small critter in my gut (which is totally what it is, but...). In consideration of this, and in recognition of the fact that I do a lot of complaining about this, I'm going to list some of the things I like about this process.

* the excuse to buy and eat whole melons
* excellent bosses who took me off mop/vacuum duty and gave me a stool to sit on - right away!
* getting to see stuff on scan
* presents!
* needing to get our own house/flat, despite the extra expense we could never justify otherwise
* my mom coming out to visit
* finding entertaining ways to tell people about it
* impending new baby smell
* feeling a little bit less "late" at life

One question, though, for Caspian. Do you ever have trouble with your supervisor(s) and family life? Are they understanding/accommodating? How do you manage to work it out?

* needing to get our own house/flat, despite the extra expense we could never justify otherwise

No, we could TOTALLY justify it anyway. We could justify it by saying that it'll save energy in hiding the bodies when I finally rampage over people in this house out of the sheer frustration and desire to have my OWN place to live.

EL, my supervisors have always been very accommodating and understanding. I try to give lots of notice when I know something is coming (like Jan's due date for example), but I've never had any trouble. Your mileage my vary, however.

Tonight the wee little critter in my gut gave a big ol' kick just when I had my hand lying over my belly! Of course, he settled down when I called Rei over. Naturally.

Scan tomorrow! Yay pictures!

Yay pictures!
Babies are so exciting can't wait to see them.

pictures!

Ahem. *coughcough*

:)

Hahaha, it's been a busy day! Wee Brontosaurus is all extant and intact! He/she/it was very spiny and not at all helpful to the poor ultrasound techs. He wanted to be upside down on his head and with knees tucked over his body. It is truly astonishing to see the four chambers of the heart of something so small - in action!

They had some worries with me, so I had to go back for some more testing today. It was long, but the end result is I'm okay. Hooray!

I will upload a photo soon, it's just a pain in the butt when you don't have a scanner!

They had some worries with me...but the end result is I'm okay. Hooray!

Phew. I want a healthy momma as much as I want a healthy Tiny One.

They had some worries with me, so I had to go back for some more testing today. It was long, but the end result is I'm okay. Hooray!

Very happy to hear! Did the testing involve drinking something and getting your blood glucose checked repeatedly over a long period of time?

This last one was blood pressure. The glucose fun gets to happen at some point later.

This last one was blood pressure. The glucose fun gets to happen at some point later.

28-30 weeks.

Oh MAN I am going to be cranky for the GTT. I already know I'm susceptible to hypoglaecemia, though not nearly severe enough to be called diabetic. And diabetes runs in the family (Type 2). So there's certainly a chance I get the fun of gestational diabetes, and either way I am not going to enjoy the test AT ALL. 12 hours is a very long time to go without food for me, especially if I'm awake for some of those hours.

Meanwhile, because you all have been soooo patient, lol, here are the more recent pictures. Note how Wee Brontosaurus resembles a freaky alien-skull-creature:



And in this one, something to possibly make Ripley very nervous:



(Actually, his head is the blob at the bottom-centre, and his spine arches up and around the right side, where in the top left you can kinda see his thigh, and then a bright line that's a tibia.)

So cute!
Looks like a very cute baby. In my cousins first scan the baby looked like a chicken more than a baby.

Ali...I don't know if you know this but you have a baby growing inside you, from the looks of things.

In my cousins first scan the baby looked like a chicken more than a baby.

This made me laugh way too hard.

Yay, pictures! The spine is always my favorite part. Followed by the 4 chambers of the heart. It's amazing to see such complex details in such a tiny little human!

I am nervous and scared every time that I take the GTT. I am so scared of failing, but I've passed every time. My sister failed, although she was able to control it with diet and didn't have to do any medication. But, now she's worrying about her and her daughter's increased risk of diabetes. I hope you pass with flying colors!

Hey, pweb parents - they put some sort of narcotic/amnesiac in your hospital food to make you forget the months of discomfort, right?

Anyway, I'm halfway!! Just counting down the weeks until Wee Brontosaurus is likely to survive, even if it comes early.

Hey, pweb parents - they put some sort of narcotic/amnesiac in your hospital food to make you forget the months of discomfort, right?

Anyway, I'm halfway!! Just counting down the weeks until Wee Brontosaurus is likely to survive, even if it comes early.

Luckily, the drug is naturally produced the moment you look at your new born baby. Even Brian cries in joy the moment he sees them.

Yay for halfway!!!!!