‘single live fetus’

SO! we’ve just had the 20 week scan. At the top of the letter it says:

‘there is a single LIVE fetus’, well thank god for that eh?

It then goes on to use the word ‘normal’ a lot. Head, spine, heart, stomach, kidneys, bladder, cord insertion and limbs – all ‘normal’. Movements and cardiac activity - ‘normal’. ‘Normal’ appearances. Normal, normal, normal baby harrow, so this is all good news.

The two things we were dying to know were ‘sex’ and we especially went to a Radiologist, called Linda, that specialised in 3D scanning so we could see our wee babies face. Alas, neither was to be.

After taking all the necessary measurements and saying ‘normal’ a lot the very lovely Linda turned the image 3D to show us the face. Two orange blobs appeared on the monitor. ‘um, you see the blob on the left?’ she said, ‘Well that’s the back of your babies head, unfortunately for you she has her face buried in your placenta right now’. Oh. We could see a round back of head and one little ear.

We moved onto the sex. ‘hmm, you see those two white lines?’ she said, ‘that’s the thigh bones, but they are so close together that I can’t make out the genitalia’. Oh again.

Our baby is currently lying horizontally across my stomach facing my spine with it’s legs pulled up close together and it’s face using the placenta as it’s pillow. Both hands are up beside her head like that famous painting called ‘The Scream’. In case you haven’t brushed up on your art lately I have copied the image for you below.

In fact, that’s probably not entirely an inaccurate image of what he or she may currently look like, minus the black sweater.

After a little probing Linda said she felt 90% sure that the baby is……a girl. She said although she can’t see either genitalia it was probably a girl because a scrotum and penis would show up more readily.

SO, it’s a GIRL!!!!

Maybe. But hold onto your cash for now those that bet boy, our midwife reckons we just won’t know until it’s out and that’s a surprise I’m happy to wait for, baby Harrow has her ;) secret safe for now.

xxxxx

so this is what’s good now.

Pete’s voice raised 6 octaves as he squealed,

‘AND we just bought a sieve!!!! what PERFECT timing!!!’ and my response was

‘AND that’s not even the BEST thing, we have 8 large matching jars!!!!’

I catch us looking at each other grinning broadly, eyebrows raised like, what do you think of them apples! There is not a hint of sarcasm here just incredulous looks of honest glee.

We are making plum sauce. Because that is what we do. And that is what makes us happy. Our plum tree has already dropped red round marbles in her thousands and Pete’s, through the Harrow household door motto is ‘Waste NOThing, USe everything!’ and so we are turning 70 of the little gems into 6 big jars of spicy plum sauce.

Some things in life must be acknowledged as being as good as they truly are.

1. buying a sieve because you think it might be handy one day and then the VERY next week using said sieve in a recipe that could not do without.

2. having 8 matching jars. with lids.

3. having a whole two cupboards just dedicated to empty jars and lids waiting for awesome filling.

4. being ok that at 29 and 31 making plum sauce rocks your world. 

5. knowing to draw the line at taking a photo of jarred plum sauce to put on the blog no matter how proud those plum jars make you feel.

Here comes the baby dream

I had a dream last night that I had the baby. It was a girl and she had big round blue eyes like Pete and wispy blonde hair and was so small she fit in my hand and not much down my forearm. Since we’re in the throws of planning a home birth (I have a strong aversion to hospitals) I had the baby in the kitchen at our flat. I got one contraction, hiccup’d and squatted down to catch her in my hand. As Lou said when I told her, let us hope the dream is prophetic. Not pathetic as I first thought she said. HA. later the baby turned into a kitten that was grey and white just like Millie cat and although I was a little concerned at all that fur I still loved her very much.

I have started reading pregnancy books and they are very helpful except for two things. The first was a drawn diagram of an episiotomy. I am now terrified of episiotomy’s. Basically if in labour you are not stretching enough they snip from your vagina to your anus. Here is a diagram I have found for you to all share in.

This was rather too much information for me. I should very much not like the snip thanks all the same. The second thing was a photo of the placenta. Again, here is a picture for you all to share in.

 

I nearly threw up.

While researching home birth I came across interesting suggestion which was to not clamp and detach the placenta at birth. You can leave it attached apparently until it falls off of it’s own accord, the benefits being all the extra blood and a massive boost of iron and other goodies that continues to transfer to your baby until the whole thing shrivels up and dies (the placenta not the baby). In the case study I read, ma and pa had to salt the thing every day,wrap it in a nappy and sleep it in the cot next to their new born babe. hmmm, I may not be able to be super mama after all.

We have the 20 week scan next week! boy or girl, get your votes in.