I am a bit late with this post

I am already 28+5

Where is the time going?

On the day I turned 28 weeks

I went to see the midwife

It was time for more bloods

An iron level check

And a full blood count

My iron was low at 12 weeks

So I am fairly certain that I will be anaemic now

I was with Tilda by this point

The problem I have is that I suffer

With piles and constipation

So iron tablets are not my friend

I try to eat an iron rich diet

And I also use a liquid iron supplement from VitaBiotics

The people who produce Pregnacare

I hope that will be enough

When I was poorly while pregnant with Esther and William

My Hb was so low that I had to have a blood transfusion

To help me recover from the surgery I had

Time for an extra serving of spinach with everything

And dark chocolate after every meal!

I love seeing my midwife

She is new to me

As we have moved house since Tilda was born

She is very matter of fact

But also incredibly caring and sensitive

Every time I see her she asks if I am seeing her enough

And always offers extra appointments

I feel like I can talk to her about anything

And I think that is really important

This week we talked about whooping cough

And whether or not to have the immunisation

She says that with a July / August baby

It is not a peak whooping cough time

The vaccine protects me and passes on some immunity to baby

So baby would still contract whooping cough in the first 8 weeks of life

But it would not be as serious as it could be without the vaccine

Generally I am for vaccines

But I do like to be armed with all the information

So I will be reading up over the next couple of weeks

And making my decision

We talked about birth

It is coming to the time

When I need to start thinking about birth

I have chosen to give birth on the labour ward

But was not aware until this week

That I can still have a water birth

Should I want one

I laboured in water with Tilda

Though she was born on dry land

I think I would like to try for a water birth this time

I would definitely like a room with a pool

If there is one there

We also talked about gas and air

And I reminisced about my one perfect contraction with Tilda

We talked through the timing of the gas and air

And she is happy to do that with me again

Right up until the birth

The midwife had a feel of my tummy

And said that Rainbow Baby is now laying across me

Traverse

Which is how I think I feel her so that is good

She also measured my fundal height

And said that I am measuring about 5 days ahead

Which is reassuring as it correlates with the measurements from the scan

I do like it when things all tie together

We listened to Rainbow Baby’s heartbeat

All sounded perfect and as it should

My blood pressure was higher than usual this time

But it is normal for blood pressure to rise as pregnancy progresses

And as my normal BP is so low

Though it is rising it is still relatively low

We discussed my care plan under the Consultant

And we agreed that they are monitoring me closely

Not because they think anything will go wrong physically

But because they want to support me emotionally and mentally

Pregnancy after loss is really hard

And I know that I am lucky to have a medical team

Who understand this and are supporting me the very best that they can

So that was me

And Rainbow Baby

At 28 weeks

Entering our third trimester

The final third

Not long to go at all now

Until hopefully I will hold a rainbow in my arms

And an angel in my heart

When I set a glass prism on a windowsill and allow the sun to flood through it, a spectrum of colors dances on the floor. What we call “white” is a rainbow of colored rays packed into a small space. The prism sets them free. Love is the white light of emotion.
Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of Love