36 weeks…
36 weeks pregnant today- hard to believe that I am one week away from been considered full-term.
The bump, is still growing (and yoga pants are my friend!)
Doctor`s appointment yesterday went well and I no longer need to take the medicine that was stopping pre-term labour. I have had a lot of braxton hicks contractions again and yesterday I even questioned if I was in the early stages of labour since the pain was coming in waves but after a nap it went away so must have just been braxton hicks (otherwise I would have a baby by now!)
Doctor said the baby was a good size (about 2.5kg), in a good position (head down and facing backwards) and semi-engaged. I gained 800g in the 2 weeks since my last appointment and luckily there was no more mention of weight gain at my appointment. I have now gained 10kg since getting pregnant and some of you may remember that when I went back to Australia I lost quite a bit of weight and I am now back to the weight I was when I left Japan 18 months ago- hard to believe I weighed this much when I went back. It obviously was not all in my belly like it is now!! My blood pressure was slightly more elevated than normal but still well within normal range (128/75 or something like that) – my BP is usually quite low naturally but obviously pregnancy is making it a little elevated. No swelling of the ankles or hands though (and my wedding rings still fit!) which is nice. Belly button started popping out almost 6 weeks ago and is now fully out- I think it looks kind of gross!
I have 3 stretchmarks that have appeared in the last couple of weeks- hoping I don`t get anymore- not sure if I will get my wish with that one though.
Hospital bag is packed but feel free to throw out any ideas of what I should pack because I plan to go through it again sometime this week and make sure I haven`t forgotten anything. There is a list on top of it of things I need to throw in at the last minute as well. We also have everything we need for the baby bought and packed away in his room…
Walking is getting more difficult since the baby is pressing on my bladder CONSTANTLY and walking also tends to bring on the BH contractions and/or pain so I am pretty much house bound most of the time. I think I walk like a duck but Shun has informed me it is more like a penguin (Isn`t he sweet?!)- I am uncomfortable a lot of the time BUT on the plus side I never really had too many issues with baby squashing my lungs since he is pretty low most of the time. Also due to that I rarely get heartburn anymore and when I do get it, one mylanta clears it right up.
Since I am home a lot I downloaded the first couple of seasons of ER. Probably not the best thing to be watching so close to giving birth though because every second or third episode there is someone giving birth- but maybe it is helping me mentally prepare for the “HORRORS” of childbirth. Haha, I doubt it though. Would be quite happy for Goma-chan to make his way into the world anytime soon especially since it seems I will just continue to get braxton hicks contractions everyday until I give birth and they are getting more and more uncomfortable/painful…
No ultrasound video this week- as exciting as it is (for us anyway!), you can`t really see much anymore since the baby is quite big and facing away from the ultrasound meaning we get a lot of good shots of the back of his head and his spine. It looks like a lovely spine though! Doctor told me if I go to 40 weeks then baby is likely to be about 3.5kg which is not even 8 pounds but he keeps telling me “big baby” – I didn`t think 8 pounds was that big? I was 7 pound 6 and Shun was about the same so I guess Goma-chan is taking after us both (which I don`t mind- dont want him taking after my brother or dad who were 10 pounds 10 and 13 pound respectively)
Next appointment is in 8 days since they were fully booked next Saturday and Monday is a public holiday- apparently everytime I go from now on they will do an internal (FUN!) and strap me to a monitor for 20-30 minutes to monitor baby`s heart rate and see if there are any contractions. My FIL or MIL will drive me from now on (to and from the appointments) as well (he drove us yesterday too because it was raining- which was nice!) so it will be nice not to have to catch the train.
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Congratulations on making it to the 36 week mark… being off the meds AND having a perfectly gorgeous bump! I’m extremely jealous! I did not get that lovely shape at all.. My belly was all… ugly… I got stretch marks, but honestly… don’t worry about them! They fade in time (also with the help of some cocoa butter!)
I wouldn’t worry too much about Goma Chan’s size either… It seems Riki was a VERY large baby, I was tiny… and Sakurako was in between. She was 3.4kg at birth. I remember the nurse shouting “BIG GAIJIN BABY” when she started to crown >_>
Internal ultrasounds are yucky.. and so freakin awkward… that was probably the freakiest thing for me… what made it worse was that the room where they did them wasn’t really THAT private. I mean if some delivery guy was to bring in some packages for the front desk girls.. and walk behind the curtain… HELLO! Was really weird to have Riki there too… haha! The other creepy thing.. was sitting in the chair… feet in stirrups… pantsless… then the doctor presses a button for the chair to rise, and spin around…. there’s a little lace curtain so you don’t see the doctor, and you can hide your face (but why bother because he’s already tinkering around with your vajajay..) and then you notice all the dirty spots on the curtain.. try not to let it touch you because it’s all germy looking…. FEELS LIKE A PEEP SHOW.
Some of the things I would recommend you take..
*your own shampoo for when you can have showers.. but until then some face wipes a plastic bowl (like the one you use in the shower) for washing your hair in the bathroom sink. sounds ridiculous, i know.. but after a day of not being able to shower.. my hair felt and looked gross… I had to ask Riki to take it for me. I had a bathroom in my private room so I just washed my hair in the sink, leaned over the bowl etc…
* baby nail clippers… if not… MITTENS! babies fingernails are sharp.. and the nurses won’t cut them for you… not sure why exactly, but it drove me nuts. after a day sakurako had a cut up face from touching it with her hands
* LOTS of spare undies… for obvious reasons…
ok there’s way more that i could list… but this has become an epic comment… <3 I’ll message you on FB!
xxx
Exciting Lulu! I’m wondering if you’ll have goma-chan before I have my baby. I’ll be 38 weeks on Tuesday but although the baby is head down now, no engagement yet. I do get BH pretty often but they aren’t usually painful, just uncomfortable. My feet and hands have been swollen for awhile now, but my BP is still really low, like 90/60, which is about the same as it is when I’m not pregnant, so I’m not really worried at all, even though my doctor was bein a bit alarmist about the swelling. My feet got really swollen with my son too, so I think I just retain water like a mofo during pregnancy. I wouldn’t mind having the baby at this point, but I’m not trying to get too psyched up about it because of how things went last time. If I start thinking any day now and the baby doesn’t come until mid-Dec. I’ll go nuts!
We do weekly NSTs also, is that what you’re doing with the monitor? You have to press a little button whenever the baby moves. Apparently the baby’s heartbeat should speed up just a bit when he moves. It is sort of cool in a way. I haven’t had any internals yet. Last time with DS the doctor didn’t do any internals at all until I was in labor, which I was thankful for. I do not like those at all. Dunno what will happen this time, but so far no one has gone near my bits.
Oooh how exciting!
The NST was my favourite. I kept falling asleep during it. I mean when else do I get an uninterrupted 10 minutes to lie down ALONE?
Hospital stuff… if you’re likely to get lots of smelly rellies visitors a pen and book to write down who gave how much money so you can race out and by half the values worth of laundry detergent to return to them?
Enjoy your last few weeks of coupledom!
That’s great news, not long to go now!
Mom wanted me to mention tennis balls for the labor. She stuck 3 tennis balls in a sock and used them to rub my back during labor. It did feel good at times (and sometimes not) but it might be worth having just in case.
Tummy is looking nice. As for stretchmarks I escaped getting them during pregnancy but was looking at my tummy yesterday (and it is so nice to be able to see the whole things again without looking at some weird angle) and there are some on my belly that are post pregnancy. You just never know.
That is so exciting that you’re near the end! And great that you don’t have to take any medication anymore.
It’s so interesting reading about the things that are different having a baby in Japan vs. Australia. I only had 3 ultrasounds during the pregnancy, one at 8 weeks (which they called a dating scan), one at 12 weeks and one at 20. I wish I could have had more though, I loved seeing the baby.
And I didn’t have any kind of internal exam until I arrived at the hospital when I was in labour. I think if you see a private obstetrician here you have more checks and things, but I was booked in with the midwives who were super low intervention.
Re: hospital bag… I reckon it’s worth throwing in a lipstick and some earrings or a necklace that make you feel pretty, because you’ll take lots of photos in the first few days after Goma-chan arrives and it’s nice to have something to wear that makes you feel good. And I loved those singlet tops with the clip down straps – v. good for when you’re getting the hang of feeding.
You look fantastic!! It’s so soon already. That is hard to believe you weighed them same as before WITH baby. So after you have him, you’ll already be lighter haha. I started getting stretchmarks around that time too… like whiskers coming out from my bellybutton lol, but they already are pretty unnoticeable from the distance of me and the mirror! The ones on my thighs are still a little purple though. Don’t worry about it~~
No hospital bag suggestions from me.. hospital had almost everything I needed, and I used bearly anything from what I’d packed. It really depends on YOUR clinic and what they do and what they provide. I agree with suzy, I’m glad I took the effort to braid my hair, and put on a bit of foundation after labour… the pictures look nice and I’m not scared to show them XD
Can’t wait to hear your birth story!!! I have a feeling you’ll have a fairly easy/good one. Just a hunch though
You must be so relieved now that you have made it to full term – congratulations!! It must be so exciting to know that in a short few weeks or so you will finally be holding goma chan in your arms!!
I am very impressed that you have managed to gain only 10kgs so far!! I think you are going to be back to your pre-pregnancy weight in no time. I am hoping for a similiar result – not really for me as such but just so I don’t get yelled at by my doctor, lol!
I am still very jealous that you are only starting to get stretch marks now. I still don’t have any on my tummy or legs but the original ones I got look so gross and ugly!! I am rubbing oil into them everyday so hopefully they will fade…
YAY for yoga pants
I bought myself a couple of LL pants from Shimamura last weekened and have been wearing them every day. They are just so comfy and warm!
Yay, you and Goma-chan made it! Glad to hear he’ll be properly baked when he chooses to come out
Time for your herbal teas now?
excellent news about no more meds…lets hope he stays in a bit longer..I think all Japanese assume gaijin babies will be big..some stupid stereotype. The hospital where I had Alex had loads of newborn photos. The average size was 2.5-2.9 kg..small to our standards (a little unhealthy I thought) but who knows..as long as baby is born healthy and strong, doesn`t really matter. oh, just to put a bit of perspective on things, when my Samoan friend was born, she was 9kg!!!!!
Congrats for making it to 36 weeks! You must be relieved! You are looking wonderful too! I am jealous of pregnant women with big bumps! Mine was very little the first time around looks like it will be the same this time round too. I just tend to put on weight all over which isn’t a good look.
As other said don’t take much notice of what the doctor says about goma chan’s weight. They are really just guessing and are often way off. 3.5kg sounds perfectly normal for Australian standards. Liam was on the smaller side which seemed to surprise my doctor as he probably had the all gaijin babies are big assumption going on.
Poor you having to have an internal and monitoring every time from now. It’s amazing how different hospitals over Japan are. I did the monitoring thing when Liam was overdue and was bored silly. Definitely take a book!
Congrats on making the 36 week mark, you look great! Unfortunately I haven’t had children yet so I can’t suggest anything for your hospital bag but it looks like the ladies above have some good ideas
Goma-chan will be here before you know it 
Congratulations on making it to 36 weeks, and you have a beautiful bump! I’m actually quite envious that your belly button popped. I was waiting and waiting for mine to, but it never did. (I think I may have an unnaturally deep belly button) As far as the hospital bag goes, I recommend taking 2 or 3 bottles of water and a straw. I drank lots of water when I was in labor, and it was too hard to hold the bottle myself, so DH held it while I drank from a straw. I know it’s hard, but try and enjoy these last few weeks!
Oh I remember all this!!! My son turns 1 tommorrow and I tell you that you will quickly forget all that has happened over the past couple of months, and just as a couple because there is a new member of your family to focus on. One year seems so long ago now (but I do clearly remember my 4 hr 35min labor)
Labor is defintely different throughout the country here, I’ve had 3 and all of them had no problems. Face it head on and positively and you’ll be right (in pain and sore but that is childbirth!!!)
two of my kids were over 3.6kg and neither of them were the biggest babies in the nursery at the time (they were fully japanese). The docs just making small talk!!
For you bag-take something to do. I WAS SO BORED!!!!!!!!!!! (okay second and third time round!!) First time there is a lot of learning to do but just incase take a book. and deoderant, even after a wash basin bath you’ll feel smelly from all that sweating during labor. Perfume isn’t good as the baby recognises you from your body smell.
Look forward to hearing your news when Goma chan arrives. May you have a safe delivery.