Cravings

With all 3 of my girl pregnancies I have craved oranges. With this baby, the cravings started in December, but as I had no idea I was pregnant (otherwise known as avoiding reality) and I just assumed it was because of the mandarin oranges, which I normally eat plenty of in November and December. I think I tripled my intake this year.

With Taylor and Liam both I loved slushes and freezies. Oh, I could have had one everyday. And probably did most days, even on the coldest days of winter.

Aside from oranges, I do not recall any particular cravings with Saoirse.

However, with this baby I crave 2 things. Nibs and Nerds. The nibs I can live with, they are reasonably low fat, supposing you keep it in moderation. But the nerds. They are nothing but pure sugar. And really are quite disgusting if you think about it. Little balls of dyed sugar. Sorta gross.

But I could kill for a pack of nerds right about now.

Somebody slap me

I have spent so much time bitching over the last few days that it is no wonder Hoping left me a comment saying that she was sorry I wasn't enjoying my pregnancy right now.

Sometimes I'm a bit of a dolt. I am enjoying the pregnancy, but not the headaches and all!

Instead of focusing only on the negatives I could have pointed out that each time I feel her move I have such a thrill.

I love how sometimes when she realizes I have stopped talking she gives me a wee boot so that I say hello to her. At least, I like to assume that she knows I'm no longer talking and just wants to hear my voice!

I even love when she goes into a certain position and suddenly I have to go to the loo, even if I was only just there 10 minutes ago.

I love how when Liam pushes on my belly, she pushes back. He tortures her just like he used to do to Saoirse in utero.

I love the fact that in just 5 days, William is going to be able to experience all this with me (yep, even the downs- that man will suffer!) and that Saoirse will learn she is having a baby sister.

So there most definitely are positives, and seeing her in just over 3 months will be the greatest positive of all.

My doctor's office increases my blood pressure

I spent my entire day today ringing my doctors office only to get a busy signal everytime. I finally got through at 2.30, only to discover that they are totally booked up and can't get me in until next Monday. Jaysus, Mary and Joseph, says I, that's an awfully long wait when you have headaches so bad you can barely function on a civil level.

I think I may be forced to go visit my family doctor, even though he is a complete quack. Ah, maybe I'll just go to the medi-centre down the road. I'll wait for ages, but they are good.

But then I think what's the point? There's nothing they can do really. Other than make me pee in a cup. Which I suppose would let me know if I have protein in my urine 5 days earlier than my doctor's office. I did ask if there was any in my sample 2 weeks ago and I was told "trace amounts." Which I thought was no big deal, but according to my friend might turn into a big deal.

In good news, my bp was 130/80 on Sunday. I am assuming it is higher today as my headaches are worse, but who knows.

All I can say is August better get here soon.

Good God, I'm some sort of whinger

My headaches are getting worse. I was at work today and it was very busy so there was little time to put my feet up as my doctor suggests. I think she's forgotten I have a job, which we see each other almost everytime I am there. Saw her today actually, she must have had a D&C scheduled or something, because there was only one labour today and it wasn't hers. Suppose she could have been on call, of course.

Anyway, I digress. It was busy, the headaches were killing me and everytime I was in emergency they were to busy for me to interrupt and ask if they would take my blood pressure. And possibly allow me to bypass the waiting room and see a doctor who might send me home. Ah no, not for me. However, if I was an ER nurse you can bet that I would have been put right into a room. There are perks to being a bitch. (no offense to you Emmakirst, I am sure you are a lovely nurse, like most of ours are with the exception of those in ER!)

Again, I digress. I'm a bit bitchy myself you see. I was up on one of the units and I felt very faint (it may have had to do with the 2 Russian Orthodox priests chanting in a patients room, it brings back bad memories*) so I asked the nurse to take my blood pressure.

159/77! It has never been that high in my life! She suggested that I go down to ER, especially since I was having headaches but I only had an hour left to go so I didn't bother. When I went to pick up Taylor and Liam up from my mum's I slept for a bit and then slept again for an hour when I got home. I feel better, but for the dull thud in my head.

*Memory: About 6 or 7 years ago my ex husband and I went to a wedding at a Russian Orthodox church. It was a really hot hot hot day and as the bride's uncle was singing a song he had written for the couple which just happened to include the lyrics "Woman, obey your man" repeated over and over and just as he happened to be singing said lyrics for what felt like the thousandth time -and very well may have been, the song was about 15 minutes long- the maid of honour fainted. My ex not only laughed he snorted and those who bothered to turn away from the spectacle at the front of the church all turned to stare at him. That church service was the longest 21/2 hours of my life.

I knew I'd figure out how to take my own blood pressure

...after I called a nurse of course. It is good to have friends with proper jobs, you know.

I tried taking my blood pressure yesterday, but I believe I mentioned that the results I got would have meant I was dead.

I did it tonight, without the help of my lovely daughter, Taylor, who tried to cut off all blood flow below my elbow with how tightly she did up the cuff.

I got 142/88, which is slightly higher than what it was last week, and much higher than my normal. Shelley suggests that I head over to London Drugs tomorrow to have it taken again, where it will probably be more accurate. Is she saying she doubts my blood pressure reading abilities? I think she is. But they do have the funky little chair with the mechanical cuff so I guess I'll go do it. If it is anywhere close to what I have gotten then I am to call my doctor's office and tell them all about it and the headaches. Nurses sure can be bossy.

It's a good thing I didn't mention the pulsating in my nether regions that I have been having all afternoon and evening. I don't even want to get started on what that is.

Did I forget to mention the stress incontinence?

This may be the most humiliating post I ever write.

But I feel we have known each other long enough and I can tell you the truth. After all, most of you are mothers and therefore have once been pregnant (or are) and can deal with this sad reality of pregnancy.

I am peeing my pants.

Not totally peeing, it's not like I just stop and go where ever I may be. But you know, the odd dribble when I laugh really hard or cough. I fear that it may become a situation where I need to purchase Depends.

This really pisses me off. Let me tell you why. I do those Kegels like there is no tomorrow. In fact, it is the only part of my body that gets any regular exercise. So they should be strong and in fact, used to be very strong. I could tell you how strong, but then you might think I am a pervert. What has happened?

I just don't know. This is the first time this has happened during a pregnancy, and the third time in my life it has happened at all. It has all been within the last 2 years and a bit actually.

The first time it happened was a year before I had Saoirse. I was so sick all I could do was lay on the couch. My mother had to come over every night to make my kids dinner. I only got up to go to the bathroom and honestly, I don't know why I even bothered, because everytime I coughed (which was every 30 seconds) a little bit of pee would come out. It was so bad I had soaker pads stolen from the hospital under me, where ever I was. The second time was also when I was sick, after the arrival of Saoirse, It was nowhere near as bad as the first time, just the odd dribble when I had a particularly bad coughing fit.

And now it's now. I am pregnant, I am wetting myself. Is it not bad enough that I use the toilet every hour? Do I really need that final humiliation of feeling as though I am in the process of being toilet trained? Did I really need to write about it?

The headaches, the cramps and the forgetfulness

I am having extremely painful headaches. They are like contractions in that they come, last for a minute or so and go. 20 minutes later I have another one and so on and so on. I have never had this before.

I have plenty of headaches, very rarely are they enough to actually make me take some form of medication. This is because I despise swallowing pills. This is also the reason I am pregnant today, because I refused to go on birth control pills. Sometimes not liking to swallow pills is a good thing. Anyway, I don't like pills so unless is a headache is killing me I won't take anything.

The point of that spiel is to say that if it weren't for the fact that I am pregnant those headaches would have me running for the Tylenol with Codine. They are driving me crazy. The first one was last Wednesday, and it knocked me for six. If I hadn't have been holding onto the counter I am pretty sure I would have falled flat on my arse. It was like two drills on either side of my head, right behind my eyes, that made everything go black and left an odd ringing in my ears. It only lasted a minute or so and then that was it.

How strange I thought. Must take note of that. I was fine Thursday and then had a few on Friday. Saturday I was at work, and had about dozen of them. Sunday, the same thing, bothering me enough so that went to the ER and asked how long the waiting time was. Quite possibly I would have been there longer than the remainder of my shift, another 2 hours, so I chose not to wait.

They've been off and on all day today, nothing near as painful as they have been, but still enough to make me paranoid. With the high blood pressure at this month's appointment and now the headaches I am wondering if I might have pre-eclampsia. I don't really think it could be, but what's pregnancy without a little paranoia? I tried taking my blood pressure last night, but couldn't get the cuff around my arm tightly enough, and then couldn't even remember the proper way to take it. When do you listen for systolic and dystolic? Cannae remember for the life of me! I heard nothing, apparently I am dead.

And then there's the cramp in my calves. I have had these my whole life, ever since I was very little. I was away the other weekend and I was very much reminded of my childhood when I woke up screaming at about 5 in the morning. Nancy, my roomie, thought I was in labour. She hopped out of bed and I said no, no it's a cramp. She massaged my leg, which is just what my mum used to do when I was little. Twice she massaged it and it went away and as soon as I moved my leg it came back. The third time was the charm though. I ate about 6 bananas the next day to give myself a boost of calcium so that I didn't scream our wing down that night.

I now flex my toes everynight before I go to bed in the hopes of keeping the cramps at bay, it has worked so far. I flexed the wrong way this morning though, and got a cramp which I quickly flexed away.

And then there's the forgetfulness. Anyone who has read my other blog (yep, a shameful plug) knows that I am completely disorganized and can probably garner that I am slightly forgetful. I was supposed to book Saoirse's 18 month shots in March, but kept forgetting. It's hard when she's not right in front of you. I always think of it at inconvenient times like when I am in bed or at work. Anyway, I finally remembered this morning and made an appointment. I thought I wouldn't be able to get her in for ages, but I managed to get an appointment right on the 11th, her 18 month birthday. Happy birthday, babe, a shot in each leg for you. Welcome home too. They don't do mean things like that to her in Australia, she's fed enough chocolate to keep the Easter Bunny happy and let to run the house. It'll be a shock to her system when she gets home. No more sleeping in the bed, shots. What kind of mother does she have, she'll be wondering. Poor wee bugger.

12 days til they get home!

A Name Change

I've changed my blog name. I didn't like the other one at all, and don't have the imagination for a good one now, so this is what I've got.

Conratulations to emmakirst who had a very lovely little girl on Thursday.

I wish August would hurry up and get here.

5 month appointment

Number of weeks pregnant: 23 and 2 days
Weight gained this past month: 2 lbs (fantastic!)
Total weight gained in 2 months: 10 lbs
Blood pressure: 148/82
Blood pressure last month: 118/80
Uterus measuring: 30 weeks (ack!)
Baby's heartrate: 132
Behaviour of said baby: mischievous (kept swimming away from doctor)
Number of times I pee between 11pm and 7 am: 4
Number of hours a day I nap if not working: 2-5
Number of days until baby's father and sister arrive home: 19
Number of hours needed to collect EI: 600
Chance I will have needed hours: 85%
What I will do if I don't have needed hours: have a mental breakdown
Date of next appointment: May 10

I'm pregnant, I'm allowed to change my mind

I have changed my mind on a girl's name. I would like to call her Ruari, which is a name I like for either boy or girl. The only thing is that people might think she is named after Rory from the Gilmore Girls, which she would NOT be.

The only other thing is that William said no.

Bloody men. Honestly, what right do they have to have any say in the name at all? Is it not me that will have gone through 9 months of pregnancy plus untold hours of an unsuccessful labour only to have my stomach cut open? I think it is and therefore I think the name choice should be all mine.

He is however a lovely fella, and I suppose I should allow him some veto choice in the matter. He said to me last night "I thought you had already picked a name."
Well, I had, but as I say I'm allowed to change my mind. Or at least consider changing it.

He said no to it, because it is a boys name in his mind. Once upon a time so was Taylor, but she arrived in the days before we met so he really had no choice whatsoever in her name. Oddly enough, he once said to me that if he had had a boy he would have liked Liam as a name. Luckily, he ended up with my Liam as it appears that he may be the only son in William's life.

So I don't know what will happen, it may be that everyone thinks her name will be Sophie until she arrives and William just happens to maybe say "You can call her whatever you want!" I might get really lucky that way.

Sleep, sleep, I dream of sleep

All I want to do these days is sleep. I have been very lethargic this last week, and other than a 2 day turn cleaning Taylor's room, I have done virtually nothing in the house.

Today was the first day back to school after spring break. I had my alarm set for 6.40, but did not manage to drag myself out of bed until 7.05. This left Liam with 25 minutes to get up, washed, dressed and fed before his bus arrived. All I wanted to do was go back to bed. I stood outside Taylor's room, waiting for her to get herself out of bed. She's worse than I am, that one. Eventually she did. I reminded her to brush her hair and make sure she had breakfast and went back to sleep.

There was an incident with a spider inside her lamp that forced me to get out of bed. Once that was taken care of I climbed back into bed and slept until noon.

I suppose that I would prefer to be tired during pregnancy, rather than suffer from 9 months of morning sickness like my mum did. The drawback is that every once in awhile I actually have something I need to do, and sleeping can not always be a priority, no matter how much I might want it to be so.

Moving around

There are days that I wouldn't even know I was pregnant unless I actually look down at myself. I have not been sick at all, and she has not really been an active baby. Until now. I have discovered how to piss her off. I simply lie on my stomach and seconds later she is kicking away, saying "Hey fat girl, get all that weight off of me!" And so I do, well, after a moment or two of enjoying her kick. And then I flip over and she gives me a thank you kick and goes back to sleep. Or goes back to doing whatever it is she is doing in there.

Sometimes when I am sitting or lying still and rubbing my hands on my stomach it seems as though she is following my hands around. I love that feeling, its like she's letting me know she's out and about.

But it makes me sad that William is not yet here to enjoy it. He missed most of Saoirse moving around as he was gone from weeks 14-39. He will be home in just over a month though so he should have plenty of time with me forcing him to hold his hand on my stomach until she kicks him.

I wonder what Saoirse will think of my bigger tummy? We already suspect she will not like this baby at all, William is not allowed to hold anyone other than her. She probably won't care who or what I might be holding. Such a daddy's girl.

Can't wait to see them though. Only 4 weeks and 3 days to go.

Something else to be grateful for...

Sometime ago, my neighbour announced at a board meeting that "Hey, I'm going to be the youngest grandfather in this co-op!" Now, I'm not sure that I would be telling everyone with glee in my voice that my 17 year old daughter is pregnant and that at 35 and 36, my spouse and I would in fact be the youngest grandparents in the neighbourhood. For some strange reason, I would not want my daughter to repeat the past. I'd like to see her go to university, to travel, to own her own home and then have her children. But that's just me. Apparently, they were quite thrilled to see their daughter pregnant. And while I think it's great that they are supporting her, I was amazed that he was literally jumping for joy.

A couple of months later we are ready to kick him off the board due to the fact that he is, quite frankly, a useless tit. He didn't show up to the meeting, and was called. He came over, took great offense at us saying he has not done a thing while I am currently running two committees (due to the fact that we have another useless tit on our board.) He says "I'll leave the board for personal reasons. We have been dealing with three deaths in my family in the last few months." He proceeds to tell us that his daughter's baby, due at the end of May, has anencephaly and is expected to die shortly after birth. She was given the option of having labour induced at that point (around 5 months) or waiting until she was full term. She chose to wait.

I do not know this girl, in almost 6 years of living directly across the street from them, I have seen her a grand total of once. But, do I ever admire her decision. I could not carry a baby I knew was going to die for another 3 or 4 months. I would fall apart everytime someone asked me when the baby was due, what I was having, have you picked your names, whatever. That, at 17, she is strong enough to do so is quite amazing to me.

And it makes me grateful that my little girl is, thus far, healthy.

*Note: While I call him a useless tit, I really do like this fella, he is great with the neighbourhood kids, showing them how to do fancy soccer moves and whatnot. He was just to busy to be on our board. You know, not that the rest of us aren't. But still, a nice guy. Though I would hope he never comes across this blog!

Feeling Ashamed

I am feeling a bit ashamed of myself today for the feelings I initally had towards this pregnancy, and lately for wishing she had turned out to be a boy.

Today I read a very sad post over at Making a Life who just found out that she had had a miscarriage. I feel terrible for her. I loved reading her blog as she was so excited and I wished that I had some of that excitement. I was never unhappy to be having another child, but unhappy about the terrible timing, about the stress that it has caused.

Of course, the reality is that all I want, all most people want, is a healthy, happy baby, boy or girl. And so what if the timing is not perfect? Neither was the timing of Saoirse or Liam and, believe me, I couldn't be happier to have the pair of them as well as Taylor. All it means is an extra year of struggling financially, which to be perfectly honest, we were going to do anyway. It'll just be a bit more of a struggle is all. To be positive, it means another year home with Saoirse, as well as William. How many newborns and toddlers are lucky enough to have both their parents at home with them? And if I'm really, really lucky my EI will be as great as it was with Saoirse (more money than I earned working 6 shifts every 2 weeks!) It won't be, but one can hope.

It's very unfortunate that it takes another's loss to see that everything with yourself really is alright.

Cravings

No, not the food sort.

The sex sort. Um, that would be the gender sort, not the hop into bed and go at it like bunnies sort.

Today I saw the cutest, most adorable little boy in the entire world. And I wanted a boy sooooooooooo badly. The baby gave me a good kick as I was admiring this wee boy, probably thinking to herself "Wise up, woman, you're having a girl. Accept it or I will make your life a living hell." And she could, girls have that sort of power. I know, I have two already.

Did I say already that the thought of having two girls less than two years apart frightens the living bejesus out of me? If I didn't, I am telling you now and if I did, then I am simply repeating myself for effect.

I will tell you why it scares me:
1) My cousin Jane and her sister Suzanne are a few years apart. Suzanne was somewhat cruel to Jane growing up and even today Jane still bitches about how she is treated. As an adult.

2) When I was little I had a friend called Margaret. Margaret's sister Lisa was about 2 years older than her. Lisa used to beat Margaret up all the time. Margaret is a stripper today. I am sure frequent childhood torture contributed to her choice of career. Though I hear it pays fantastically.

3) When I was little I had a friend called Janine. Janine's sister Roseanne was about 3 years older than her. Roseanne used to beat Janine up. It was so bad, that when Janine and I were 14 and her parents were going to Montreal or England (it was a long time ago, my memory has faded a bit), Janine had to come stay with us for 3 weeks as they were worried Roseanne would physically injure her to such an extent that police involvement would be necessary.

Plus Roseanne was really, really, really mean to me.

4) When Taylor was in 4 year old playschool and Liam was in 3 year old, they were both in a class with 2 sisters, Carrie and Sarah. Carrie, the elder sister, was so emotionally and mentally lagging behind Sarah that it was almost frightening. It was actually. And I used to think that I was so glad Liam was a boy because one day those girls would be hell to deal with as Carrie would probably be very jealous of Sarah, who would (and will) obviously do everything so much better than her sister.

I don't know why that particular one is a worry to me. I was always glad that I could use the excuse "ah well, he's a boy" if my brother was better at something that I was (say, math) and in much the same way girlfriends talk about who was the first one to french kiss a boy, I have to imagine that sisteres do as well. Wouldn't know myself, never having had one. I always wondered how terrible the older sister would feel if her sister was kissed first. Strange, I know.

Maybe I will luck out and they will get on great. Sure, they can't get on as badly as Taylor and Liam. But that's a post for another day, in the other blog. (Just let me say that both my children were satan's spawn this afternoon and spawn #1 hit spawn #2 on the back with a shovel.)

Honestly, it can't get worse.

The Name Game

I think we have come up with a first name and I am deciding on middle names.

Sophie. What do you think?

I still am not totally sure about it. It's much too English I think. Well, it's actually Greek. It means "Wisdom", which I rather like. I really did want an Irish name, but there was just no agreeing. I am sure that in the end I would have gotten my way and the baby would be Mairead or Caoimhe or whatever else I may have wanted. After all those hours of labour with Saoirse, he did say "You can have her baptised if you want!" So I am sure he would say I could use my choice of name.

The thing is I have taken to calling her Sophie and I think I might like it. I will play around with it a bit more and make sure it flows. I do like saying 'Saoirse and Sophie'. Though I don't like that I will have a second daughter with the initals SS. People might start thinking that we are some sort of Nazi fans. Not, for your information.

The middle names I currently like are Niamh and Lilian. Lilian was my Nan's middle name, she passed away in December and I would like to honour her in some way.

Sophie Niamh Lilian. See what happens when you're on your third girl and you had a boys name picked out?

The least active baby ever

Apparently I am over my 8 pound weight gain and have decided to add to the growing total as in the last three days I have had 2 bags of licorice allsorts as well as a bag (not the small size either) of salt and vinegar chips. They were delicious and I won't regret it.

Not until the next doctor's appointment anyway.

I am concerned about the lack of movement on this wee girl's part. I poke and prod and nothing. When I bugged Saoirse she let me know it. This one seems not to move at all. At my ultrasound the tech did say that she was actually kicking the placenta and that's why I wasn't feeling it, but I still worry.

I try and look at the positive...Liam was pretty quiet in utero (except for the hiccups) also and was probably my most pleasant baby. Taylor and Saoirse were active and tend to be my troublemakers. At least I suspect Saoirse will be if her first 16 months have been any indication.

So perhaps I should be grateful for how quiet this one is. It could be a good sign.

Doctor's appointment #2

EIGHT POUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have gained 8 lbs. in one month. Let me try and put that in perspective. I gained 18 lbs in 9 months with Liam (biggest baby at 9lbs 9oz), 14 with Saoirse (8lbs 15 oz) and 13 with Taylor (7lbs 15oz). So what is the problem here? Am I just getting hugely fat (and believe me I can hardly afford an extra pound or two, let alone 8) or is this going to be a hugely gigantic baby? I am 19 weeks pregnant and measure 24.

This is terrible, just awful. If I keep at that rate for the next 4 and a bit months, I will have gained 40 lbs. How long do you think it will take me to lose that, when I am still trying to lose the weight gained after Liam's birth? Yes, I said after. The pregnancy wasn't a problem, the 10 months of breastfeeding killed me. Lose weight, my arse. Make that lose weight, my fat arse.

Everything else is fine. Blood pressure good (suprising, for the whale that I am becoming), ultrasound results fine (a 3 vessel cord- yea!) and we will talk about delivery methods when we have a better idea of baby's size.

I received an email from my aunt and uncle in England who said the following:
Emma!
Hi!
No point hiding the truth. It's all round the planet (except for Ray's bit)... Pauline's having a fourth grandchild. Congratulations to you both/all.
Thom says... "Emma, bless her, has filled Ma's grandchild quotient of 4, taking away from me any pressure to fill the void."

Ray would be my grandfather, who does not yet know about this imminent arrival due to a)his general grouchiness in regards to unwed parents, or
b)his hatred of all things Irish (baby's da in case you didn't know), or
c)he is still mourning the recent loss of his very lovely wife, or
d)he is just a curmedgeonly old man
It could be any one of the above or a mixture of all four.

Pauline would be my mother, the slightly unhappy future nan of four.

Thom would be my brother. When I had my first, my mum decreed that we were each allowed two children, giving her a nice number at four. Still affordable enough to enjoy shopping for them. Neither one of us listens very well.

At least some of my family members were pleasant about it!

Telling Me Ma

I've done it. I've told my mother I'm pregnant. It was a terrible, horrible moment- one I hope never in this lifetime to repeat. She said do I not know what happens during sex, especially when protection is not used? I said of course I do. I may be foolish, but I am not a fool. She thinks we should have waited until William was allowed into the country permanantly and is allowed to work. Wouldn't that be ideal? It would, there is no denying it, but life does not always work the way we plan it. I heard about it everytime I talked to her over the next few days. My friend Shelley popped into my mum's office to ask her how she was doing. Was she over the shock of the announcement I guess. Does she feel an ulcer coming on perhaps? Shelley said to me that my mum said she hasn't even congragulated me yet. Which she hadn't. But did when I was talking to her later that night. I think this was day 4. She said "I do congratulate you, Emma, I just think you should have waited." She also told me that she had said to Shelley that I don't know how to keep my legs closed! Shelley apparently was to polite to repeat this, but my mother, proud Brummie that she is, had no such hesitation.

So she knows. It was a weight off my shoulders to finally tell her. And while she may not be thrilled right now, one day she will say the same thing about this wee girl that she does about Saoirse - "I'd never send her back."

Though she does say that this one had better have a decent name. "Two bloody Irish names are enough!"

17 weeks and 5 days

So I am not as far along as my doctor had, but I'm a further on than I had thought. The baby is due August 6, appeas to be healthy and is a girl.

We had a boy's name sorted. The disagreement over a girl's name will be ongoing. The poor thing mightn't have a name when she arrives.

I was supposed to have my ultrasound on Monday, but I had spoken to one of the techs at work and asked if she would do it. She said yes and even gave me a picture for free. Oddly enough, the hospital charges for them, but the clinics do not. Strange that. I was feeling a little worried that other than that one kick I had not felt a thing, and really since it's only 17 weeks old that's not that unusual. Turns out though the the placenta is post posterior so that's what the baby's kicking. Extra cushioning. It's sitting right on my bladder, which explains why I ought to be sitting on the toilet while I have a cup of tea. I have never peed so much in my life as I have with this wee miss. So all is well. I still have to tell William, who expects a girl (after all he is the only boy in a family of five.) It is Saturday in Australia and he has taken Saoirse to the zoo. I am going to ask him to ask her if she would like a baby sister. Bet she says no.