Well, here we are… 22 weeks pregnant… time is really rushing by!
We had our re-scan on Thursday after the first 20 week scan failed to pick up the baby’s stomach. I’m pleased to say, this time, everything was absolutely fine and baby had a nice full tummy which enabled the sonographer to measure everything she needed to. I also asked her to double check that it is a girl… she had a little look then said: “I’m pretty sure those are girlie bits…” well, they looked that way to me!
Afterwards, Tony and I went out for a bit of lunch and in the nightime we had a rare meal out at the local Indian while Tony’s mum babysat. We were back by 10 but came home and watched a programme on TV called One Born Every Minute, which is a fly on the wall documentary about a maternity hospital in Southampton. Obviously I ended up in tears at the story of one lady who had a c-section and her baby was whisked away to ICU straight away as his bowels had developed outside his body… poor little mite.
That same morning I had also had a midwife appointment at the local GPs. She listened to the heartbeat (and said: “I would’ve known that was a girl, from the heartbeat” – to be fair she said that last time, when she didn’t know, and was right!) She also did that farcical tape measure thing and pronounced that it was 23 cm which is “right”. Personally I just cannot believe measuring a persons belly tells you much about the size of the baby inside, so I take all that with many pinches of salt!
In terms of how I’m feeling – not too bad, tired mainly. I do have the odd achey feelings down there, and was thinking yesterday that my boobs are feeling a bit tender again. Baby is kicking loads, which is lovely, at all times of the day and night. You can actually see my bump moving when she’s going for it!
We were also excited to find out this week that some of our close friends are also expecting a baby – Lilly’s godfather and his wife. They are due at the beginning of August, so there will only be a month or two between our children, which will be really lovely. We were the first of all our friends to have a baby, and still don’t have any friends living close by who do (except my NCT friends). So this will be really nice, and we’re really chuffed for them.
It does feel like time is marching on… it’s nearly March… then we’ve only got April and then we’re into May, which will be finishing work and almost time for our little girl to arrive!
I have just been looking back at my blog from when I was roughly at this stage with Lilly. We had just been working out our childcare / return to work options. This time we have made our decisions a little earlier. We know just how tight money was last time when on leave, and this will probably only be worse because of the expense of two children, and Lilly staying one day in nursery.
So, we’ve decided that I’ll be having another six months off, returning in January, full time. However, I’ll use leave to make the return to full time a little bit more gradually, probably spread over about three months. Lilly and the new baby will work their way from two to three to four days a week in nursery. However, if Tony stays doing the shifts he is doing now, these will only be short days, maybe even half days for the baby for a bit. Tony’s mum will have them both one day a week, as she does with Lilly now. She is talking about retiring perhaps next year (although I’ll believe it when I see it!) and maybe if she does she might take them for an extra day or half day. Luckily, Lilly will get 15 hours free nursery from Jan 1 2011, which is one day after her third birthday! And that will certainly ease the burden financially, although obviously what we’re paying out on childcare will go up quite a bit.
Luckily, we’re very happy with the nursery Lilly goes to, and as far as they go, it’s a reasonable price. So, number two is already all booked up and although that feels a little weird at such an early stage, it’s good to have a plan (even if we end up adapting it slightly, like last time).
