30 Week Belly Update

My belly is big, I mean really big, as you can see. A lot of people ask me if I'm due this month. I sometimes feel like walking is a battle against gravity. I'm a little afraid to see what it's gonna look like towards the end. I measured the other day and the circumference was 1 metre. That's right! Below, I'm telling Claude not to get a shot from that angle since it may overemphasize my belly size. But compared to the other picture, I don't think that angle made much of a difference at the end.

Okay, going to Strasbourg to move and say our good-byes. Although things were never easy for me there, I think I'll miss that little charming town.

Bluberry's first shot

Yogun istek uzerine nazar boncugumuzu ekliyorum!!

On Friday, I went to have another ultrasound. Normally, I was not supposed to have 2 ultrasounds one after another. But apparently, women in Belgium have the right to do this fancy 3-D ultrasound once during their pregnancy. And since I haven't done it before, my doctor recommended me to do it as soon as possible.

So I went there. Everything about him was perfect. He put on 250 grams since last week, which is quite impressive. The most exciting thing is we were able to see his face on 3-D.

I was really surprised, I didn't expect to see big cheeks like that. But how cute is he!! When we saw this picture, claude looked at it and he said, "yeah, he looks like me", I thought he was joking but he was not. After he said that I looked more carefully at the picture, and the more I looked at it the more I saw the resemblance, crazy!  Claude's theory is that he's gonna be just like him, but only darker and hairier (that's where my armenian genes come in). I don't know what he'd look like but I wouldn't mind having a dark mini-claude :)

Scary Friday

This week was the hardest week of my pregnancy so far!For the first time in 7 months I felt truly scared and exhausted. Itching grew and grew more and red spots spread all over my body. My bed became a battle field and sleeping a nightmare. Needless to say, I hardly had any sleep. All parts of my body touching the bed would burn, turn red and itch.

I was not sure what was happening, there were a bunch of possible explanations:a simple food allergy, an allergic reaction to detergent, bed bugs, dust mites, and of course cholestasis, which was the scariest of all.

I created an attack plan, that included yogurt, garlic, aloe vera gel, multiple organic lotions, cold shower. I changed my diet, no more eggs and nuts. I washed all my bed linens and clothes at a high temperature with a super hypoallergenic organic detergent. I started wearing only 100% cotton stuff. Not sure which one has worked but my itching decreased a little during the day, with no change at night.

Then I had my doctor's appointment on Friday. When I mentioned about my itching and showed my body to the doctors, they got worried that it could be cholestasis. They sent me to have an urgent blood test and asked me to wait at the hospital for the results because in case I had cholestasis they wanted to hospitalize me for 2 days to monitor the baby (gasp!). In case you are curious about what this is here's a link but in general it can be dangerous for the baby
http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/cholestasispregnancy.html

There I was, by myself, very tired on a Friday night after about a wait of 3 hours, trying to calm my self down, hoping that the baby is fine, thinking I should call someone in case I'm going to be hospitalized and realizing I have no one in Brussels to call (claude was in Strasbourg this week), a very unpleasant feeling.

Anyway, my blood test came and it was negative. So I was deeply relieved. But then I was like, OK, what's going on with my body then. The doctor gave me an anti-allergy pill, which was not tested on pregnant women. So I'm hesitating. My next plan of action is to buy an anti-dust mite bed cover, because there's definitely something going on at night. I still have barely any sleep at night but at least I know that my blueberry is fine.

So on blueberry related news, that day, I also had my ultrasound. He was moving all over the place as usual. He's right on average in terms of his weight (already 1.5 kg), lenght, size of his head, etc. I love that he's average (I'm right there with you Kate). Just his belly circumference was on the 80th percentile, which made me really laugh. So we have an average baby with a big belly :) All his organs are functioning fine.

And another happy note: Remember the lovely midwives I met and who told me that unfortunately they were all booked for April. They called me back, the young one told me that they had a meeting and she fought for me (so sweet!!!) and  they accepted me :) So I was so relieved and happy. I have another appointment with them in 2 weeks. Now I know that I will have a very sweet midwife who will follow me throughout my pregnancy and after :) and may teach me about hypnobirth!

Woww, this was my longest entry so far. Thanks for reading until the end...

And also a special thanks to Bente for letting me know of cholestasis and reminding that I should be taking my itching seriously.

28 Weeks Update

This week has been the week of itchiness. I had an annoying skin rash all over my chest, my belly was constantly itching, and so were many other parts of my body!!!So annoying. And of course -15 degrees doesn't help.

I'm not sure what the rash is about, maybe it's my egg allergy that's kicking in, maybe the detergent that we're using. Don't know. But my skin is hypersensitive for sure.

Other than that, past Friday I had the loveliest meeting of all with a midwife, called very accurately, sage-femme, wise woman, in french.
Apparently, in Belgium, you don't need to be followed by a doctor. Sage-femmes are fully licenced to do any checks, including blood tests, and they follow you throughout your pregnancy and even after.

A colleague of mine gave me the name of this woman saying that she was wonderful. I went there without really knowing what to expect and it was great. She spent one hour listening to me, asking carefully about my situation, she was kind and patient, it was almost like a spiritual/therapeuthic experience. There was a candle in the room, you take off your shoes once you enter, a nice music on the background, I don't know, much much more pleasant than a 5-minute rushed doctor's appointment.

She took the time to explain me the hospitals here and convinced me that I should try hypnotic birth. And the good news is this is fully reimbursed by the government. But the bad news is since it's fully reimbursed, she is completely booked until May. She gave me a couple of other names, I already called a couple with no luck. Since it's too late I don't think I'll be able to find any sage-femme :(
But it's OK. At this point, I'll be lucky if I have a 5-minute rushed doctor's appointment I guess :)

And yeah, here's me, getting bigger, heavier, and itchier everyday :)