Countdown time

I've been on maternity leave for a full week now and it's been a pretty surreal time. It's starting to dawn on me that I'm now off work for a whole year and the reason is because a baby is going to arrive in our lives within a matter of weeks! It took a few days to wind down from work and I actually woke up at 3:30am on Monday! I've been trying to get the balance right between ticking things off my 'to do' list and getting some rest. Other than the usual back pain waking me in the night, I'm starting to sleep a bit better and for longer. But I'm getting tired a lot more quickly so bouts of cleaning don't last that long! I've been meeting with friends most days and some of them have kids so there has been lots of pregnancy and kid talk. I must admit that I'm concerned about my life becoming all about kids and being in the company of people who are happy for that to be the sole topic of conversation. Who knows, maybe I'll feel differently once we have our own child, but so far throughout the pregnancy I've become easily bored when people assume that it's what I want to talk about all the time! I had to have some more blood taken this week to check my iron levels and they have decided that I need an iron supplement. I'm not sure that I should be taking my magnesium supplement alongside it as apparently magnesium effects iron absorption. But I need the magnesium for my back and don't want to stop taking it. My iron levels are only borderline anyway so I'm not too concerned. So I've been doing some cleaning and getting on top of some other things (birthday cards and gifts, finances, shopping, plans for D's birthday party in December). I'm very conscious though that other things will follow behind that need to be done (ie, more cleaning, more shopping) and that there is only so much that I can do to get ready! I double checked my hospital bag last night and other than throwing in a few last minute items I think I'm ready to go. In reality I don't think this baby is going to come early. I think she's more likely to be a bit late in which case we still have a couple of weeks to go. D will be on half-term break from the middle of next week until the due date so we should have the opportunity to relax together. I have plans to see some of the girls from our NCT group tomorrow and the health visitor is coming to see me on Tuesday to explain what will happen with their visits after the birth. I also have another midwife appointment and plans to meet a couple of friends this week, so plenty to keep me occupied.

Two more days...

...of work that is. I'm so ready to finish! I'm handing over my work to the person covering my maternity leave this week and I'm getting in a panic as we are clearly not going to have time to cover everything. But why do I care? Next week I won't be giving it a second thought. Can't wait to be focusing all my attention on our little one instead. I really hope she stays put for a couple more weeks at least so that I can finish up the things that I want to do at home and rest a little bit. I saw the midwife for our 36 week check on Tuesday. All is well. Growth is good, heartbeat is good, my blood pressure is still low. My platelets have gone up so the low risk birth unit should still be an option for us. And we had our last scan today. Again, all is looking great. Her head is down and she's getting nice and low. We got a nice pic of her - she's definitely got D's nose! I'm not sleeping well - as is the norm these days. Recently I've been waking up with an achey back and having to do yoga stretches on the bed in the early hours to be able to get back to sleep! I certainly seem to be very well used to having broken sleep now and I feel OK for it most of the time. But I know it's nothing compared to what I'll be experiencing soon! My bump seems to be significantly bigger lately. If I catch sight of my reflection I barely recognise myself. My work colleagues threw a little surprise baby shower for me when I got back from the scan. Tea and cake and gifts, bunting and balloons. So sweet of them. They are great colleagues. They've been so supportive through all of the fertility treatment and so excited for us through the pregnancy :) One of the girls from the NCT group gave birth today. A gorgeous little boy. Another of the girls has been induced today so we're waiting for more news from her. Seeing things happening for them makes it all feel very close indeed now! So exciting. So terrifying. So amazing!