At 28 week, the baby is doing lots of blinking because they’re now responding to light and dark. Not only that but they are going through a lot of physical developments. Bone marrow is now a construction site for blood cells, while their adrenal glands are actually producing androgen and estrogen. The latter means that mums (my) body is stimulated into milk production. Can everybody say mooooo!
This week I finally got to see the midwife again. If, like me, you have had previous pregnancies, then the midwife doesn’t need to see you as much. It’s more a case of seeing her for blood tests and only when necessary. I guess, after you have been through it the first time, you know what to expect and so they don’t really need to see you. That is unless you are high risk of course.
So anyway, my midwife appointment was fairly routine. There was a student midwife in and, to be really honest, they don’t half annoy me as they always seem very judgemental. Well, not when I’m around because I make my opinions and decisions known.
I explained how I plan on breastfeeding to start with (as I did with my previous pregnancies) and will then mix before settling on formula. This is when the student midwife decided she knew more about me than I did and went off on one about how I should only breastfeed. Let’s just say that I may have told her a few things that she needs to learn before speaking to someone who has been pregnant before and knows what she wants.
Putting pressure on mums to do what is expected only causes more stress for them. If a mum has made her decision then who are we to judge?
Anyway on from that. My relationship with the student midwife then went from bad to worse as she did my blood test. Not only did she mess up the first test by taking the tube out too quickly, she then went on to try in my other arm, leaving me bruised. I don’t seem to have any luck when it comes to blood tests!
On a positive note, I got to hear my little boys heartbeat and, whilst the midwife was checking it, my baby decided to have a little dance. My tummy was bouncing around like nothing I’ve seen before. It was so cute!
They found a trace of protein in my urine which can be nothing but also can get quite serious so this will need to be monitored next time I see her and she gave me advice about symptoms of water and kidney infections which did scare me a little and then had me on edge all weekend thinking that I was going to have a serious condition.
Overall, it has been a mixed week. The muscle in my back is playing up (I always seen to pull it when the cold weather sets in) which isn’t great, especially when pregnant but on the plus side, I heard bump and he sounds like he’s having fun in there.
That's a nasty bruise – I hate having my blood taken!
Oh your poor arm, the students are not allowed to take blood where I am
i still have a scar on my arm from my blood test when i was pregnant! didnt bruise like yours though!
some midwives are fantastic – i did find it a little funny though when I had a male midwife trying to tell me the 'proper' way to breastfeed!