October 21st, 2009 | Posted by acidicice

I know, I know. I’ve been M.I.A for a while. Work has been hectic…and when it hasn’t I’ve been either too busy or too tired to do anything but sleep. I’m exhausted lately. It didn’t help that Rudi fell ill on Monday morning during the wee hours and decided it was okay to keep me awake. Then on Monday night he slept very restlessly, again keeping me awake. Next time I’m sending him to the couch. I swear.

 

On Saturday we went to a braai with some lovely friends. It was a lot of fun! Since I met most of them on Twitter, it was nice to get to know everyone better. The last time we all met up I was really hungry and Rudi kept on saying he wanted to braai…almost a month later they decided to take him up on his offer and we went to Annie’s house. Rudi went dressed up in his Blue Bulls (a local rugby team) gear…and even though he expected to get flack from everyone for not being a Western Province supporter, they most graciously let it slide. After a very close game, Rudi’s team ended up winning. He was very happy about it…and continued to celebrate by lubricating his throat most generously. Luckily Monkey, who was pouring the drinks for the most part, doesn’t have too much of a heavy hand…but after about 6 hours of constant lubrication…Rudi was innebriated (muchly). I decided to take him home before he hurt himself. Neither Rudi nor I ate, although the food was very good. Alice and Monkey’s pudding went down very well (of course I ate pudding!) and we packed a doggy bag for leftovers the next day. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the evening, we really enjoyed ourselves!

 

Rudi and I have been attending antenatal classes. We missed the first one, but the lady offering them recapped the first one for us last night. We go every Thursday. When we went for our first class we got a little goodie bag full of samples, including a pregnancy diary:

 

 

I figure I don’t really need the pregnancy diary since I blog pretty much everything, although there are spaces in there for discomforts, etc which I don’t necessarily mention here. I feel we have really learned a lot in just to two classes we’ve been to. Last night (class #1 which we missed) we discussed pregnancy, how men cope with pregnancy and changes we can expect. We watched videos and looked at diagrams of anatomy. In class #2 which we attended last Thursday we discussed the process of natural birth. It was really *very* informative. We watched two birth videos, which were a bit scary, but not enough to put me off it completely. The lovely thing about the lady giving the classes (besides the fact that she is very nice) is that she answers any questions you might have, allows you to stand up and walk around if you are uncomfortable and even to go pee at any time. She even explained to us the terms that the doctors and nurses will use during labour, so that you will know exactly what is happening even if they talk over you or you feel too shy/scared to ask them what is going on. This Thursday we will be discussing coping mechanisms for natural birth. We will be lying down, using birth balls and I think the men will be educated on how to deal with us during labour. Fun!

 

I saw my gynae on Monday. Babyice is doing really well. My gynae called him a “chubby baby”. He is already between 750 – 775 grams! That’s almost a kilo and I’m only halfway-ish! Other than that I asked the gynae to check his hands as they looked ‘strange’ to me on our DVD. Gynae had a look (even though Babyice insisted on keeping his one hand in a fist for most of the scan) and he has found no problems. He feels that the rest of my pregnancy will be uncomplicated, most likely only just uncomfortable. He doesn’t think I’ll be able to work till late January if that is what I want since I’m already having some problems with my back, he said “Did you see yourself get off that bed? Don’t understimate the discomforts of late pregnancy”. We also briefly discussed birth. I spoke to him about my fears based on my last experience. He feels we should have no problem going through natural labour, unless of course the baby is endangered or too big when the time comes. He also feels confident that my epidural will work next time. He said he leaves the decision up to me, he doesn’t want to take advantage of my indecision and just slice me open. He has actually encouraged me to try natural birth, but has said if I feel like it is a mental hurdle I cannot cross he will be happy to do a C section if that is what I want. It’s lovely to have such a supportive gynae!

 

Right. That’s really all I can manage today. Thank you for your patience!