So I am so close now I can taste it, and I’m not kidding. I have a case of acid reflux that’s not hideous, but bothersome. I eat fruit flavoured Tums like skittles after everything I eat.
I am 38 weeks this week!!! That’s like nearly done folks. If I go into labour now, they won’t stop it and the baby will be delivered.
Since I can’t afford to go to The Birthing Centre like I planned, and have subsequently made arrangements to deliver at Third World hospital, I had had a good bit of trepidation about the whole labour and delivery thing.
I think the thing that frightened me more than anything else was having to do it alone. I just wanted someone there to hold my hand, to be there for me and advocate when I couldn’t speak for myself. I really am afraid of the scary public ward nurses at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. I don’t want my punkie shaved, I don’t want an enema, I want to be able to walk around, I want a ball. I want some of this stuff even if I can’t give birth in water.
My beautiful cousin Oyadele remembered she had a friend in Barbados who is a doula, and put us in contact with each other. Yesterday she came by for a visit, and we talked, and she’s reassured me a great deal.
I had pretty much decided to labour at home as long as I could, and she’s going to support me at home until it’s time to go to the hospital. I didn’t want to have to go to the hospital too soon and get stuck in a bed, plus I want to be near a shower so I could wet my skin as much as possible.
So we made a plan, and I WILL have support at the hospital. YAY!!!
I am so ready to get on with it. It’s amazing to me that I am 18 days away from my due date. Where did 2006 go? It seems to me like this pregnancy went so quickly. Like one minute I was in London, and now here I am, nearly done. I jokingly tell people I’ve been pregnant all year!! It’s AUGUST!! I’ve HAD IT!!
I haven’t gotten everything I wanted to get for the baby, but you know I’m as ready as I can be in my current financial situation. I have been so blessed by friends both online and in real life. I know this baby is a blessing from Oludumare (Almighty God)!
If it wasn’t Mamaspeak, who sent the most beautiful box of stuff, or my baby shower where my friends and my mother’s friends just came out of the woodwork and helped me celebrate my little chap, it was other people, strangers who were reaching out to me and offering to help me. And the help is still coming, so I’m just not worrying about that stuff anymore. God provides, oui!!!
So even though this has been a difficult ride in terms of money and stuff, help came from all corners. I thank God every night for the goodwill of the Universe, oui?
I am ready! I am ready! What I don’t have I will do without until I can do better. But I am so ready to have this baby. I’m to that point, like the Sarcastic Journalist wrote over at Baby-Gaga.com, where everyone is enquiring as to the state of my vagina. Yet, I’m not busssing too much TMI on people.
: sigh : I’m just so ready to move on to the next stage. This is exhausting. Between the Braxton Hicks, the acid reflux and the toting around the bowling ball/pot roast, I’ve had it. I’m tired as hell too, cause I ain’t sleeping a whole night. My friend Faizah calls me Ms. Pee Pee#8230 cause I’m always ducking off to the bathroom. This means I’m up four five times a night to pee, and well after peeing like that for nearly six months you know, it gets exhausting. I wake up tired in the morning.
I also cannot go into town anymore, because everytime I go the exertion causes me to lose my breath and the streets start to spin. So I am stuck in the house and at the mercy of the four walls.
I did get a little dip in the sea last week, when my naughty cousin Uncle Ben and his wife invited me, my grandmother and mother over for lunch. That was nice, but you know, if I could live in cool water right now I would.
I am grateful though that my ankles have not swollen up, the nausea has mostly gone away, and I’m eating better the last couple of weeks. I also don’t have any back pain. I still haven’t put on an enormous amount of weight, which I am glad for, and the baby is growing still and his heartbeat is strong.
I’m in the last days of my old life#8230
Add comment