Baby
Weight: 2146 grams
Length: 45 cm
Baby weighs about 2 kilos now. By this time most of the lanugo (body hair) is gone. Baby’s immune system is no longer relying on the antibodies from the placenta. This self-immunity is important to protect your little one at birth and for the rest if Baby’s life. The vernix (thick white layer of protection present on Baby’s skin) is disappearing; however, a little bit of it will still be left at birth. The digestive system is fully working by itself. Moreover, Baby is peeing up to a pint of urine a day into the amniotic fluid. Even though the placenta is capable of supporting Baby until birth, it will start to age this week.
Me
If you’ve been grimacing over your weight gain all these weeks, relax a bit. Your weight gain will slow down now, even though Baby is still busy packing on the pounds. Due to the way a pregnant woman’s body metabolizes sugar, you might find yourself feeling shaky before a meal. This is the result of low blood sugar and small snacks can help alleviate this feeling of lightheadedness. Most women will have trouble sleeping, not only because of the discomfort, but also because of all the thoughts about the baby.
*
So, a lot went down this week. On Friday, July 5th me and D attended my cousin’s 40th birthday party. It was fun to meet some of my relatives, we don’t really get together all that often. It was a great evening and since I’d been too tired and too preoccupied with unpacking the apartment, I decided to go with a store-bought baked good, rather than making one myself. We stopped by Bröd & Salt which is my favorite go-to for lactose free (and vegan) alternatives.
The next day we went down to Nynäshamn to attend a family gathering with D’s family. It was great and basically the first really sunny day since my vacation started. I even had to step out of the sun for a while since my skin is way more sensitive than it usually is. All of these pregnancy hormones, eh? D’s family is so nice and they all have a sense of humor, which I like.
On Tuesday (July 9th) I went down to the old apartment to let in the cleaning crew. It’s so worth paying to have that done, I mean this kind of cleaning is now joke. It’s super thorough! Windows, radiators, fridge and freezer, not to mention the toilet and the drains. Yeah, I wouldn’t want to do that at 8 months pregnant. Then I swung by work to double check on some stuff, before I got to have lunch with E! It was so nice and since she’s pregnant too (her due date is two weeks before mine) we had a lot to talk about. It was such a great afternoon and it ended at her place where I got to spend some time with her, her husband and daughter.
On Wednesday, I had my lab appointment for my glucose test. Since I’m not a big fan of blood tests (yes, they are different from getting a tattoo) I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. The first blood test was at 09:05 AM and then I got to drink the glucose, which they’d added some lemon-y flavor to. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be, but damn was it sweet. I chugged it down (since you have to do it within five minutes) and then I waited for an hour before it was time to have another blood test. After that one, it was another hour before the last one. I told the nurse that my left arm is the best one (I’ve had my fair share of blood tests taken), for the third one the other nurse (they switched) insisted that my vein on the right arm looked good too and that it might be good for my left to catch a break since they’d already taken twice from that vein. I just shrugged, she inserted the needle (the baby one – butterfly) but then said that barely no blood was let out. I wasn’t surprised. So in the end she had to use the left arm again, plus I had some pain in my right arm too. During hour two and three I felt quite faint and nauseous. Probably due to fasting and the sugar drop after that drink. It wasn’t pleasant. That same afternoon I got it confirmed that I didn’t have gestational diabetes! It was a relief to get it confirmed, even if I suspected even before this that my levels would be good.
On Thursday I got to have a bit of a spontaneous lunch get-together with S, a friend of mine who now lives in San Diego. We know each other from our time studying together and it was nice to meet up and hear about what she’s been doing for these last few years. We had lunch at Urban Deli and we both had the beetroot tartare – it was so good!
rhulth.wordpress.com 