I Got Mail

Today I found a fat envelope in my letterbox, which contained no cover letter, but was from Fertility Associates. It was basically a bunch of booklets/pamphlets about pregnancy:

• An FA booklet containing general information about early pregnancy and miscarriage, including what tests will be done and how I shouldn’t smoke or booze it up. This booklet also had a section at the back where someone had written my last menstrual period date (20/09/16), my day of insemination (02/10/16), and my expected delivery date (!!! 25/06/17), to share with my midwife, one of which they seem to think I wouldn’t have found yet (lol I had enough trouble finding one at FIVE weeks pregnant – imagine if I had waited until eight!). Interestingly, this booklet also answered one of the questions I had lined up for the doctor at my scan next Wednesday – my mother told me that vitamin B6 helped her morning sickness (basically cured it), and I wanted to check with the doctor before I tried it, just in case he knew something the seventies and the internet didn’t. But the booklet said that 50mg in the morning and evening may help the morning sickness, and the doctor doing the scan works for FA, so will likely have the same response. I think I might wait and ask him all the same though – just to be safe. It is only a few more days, and my nausea is still very low-level, albeit constant. This is the booklet:

General info about early pregnancy and miscarriage. She looks annoyingly serene

• A booklet from the Ministry for Primary Industries, containing Eating Advice (pro tip: eating is a good idea). It had a handy-looking pullout section. Funnily enough I had already found both the booklet and the pullout online, but hadn’t printed them out yet, as I only have access to a printer at work, and didn’t want to print a bunch of pregnancy stuff there yet (they might think I was pregnant, and THEN where would I be!?). So it is nice to have physical copies – I have put the pullout in my bag. I will have to discreetly check it at e.g. my departmental Christmas lunch in a few weeks.  This is THAT booklet:

Fooooooood

• An ad for Elevit, cleverly disguised as an ad for Elevit that includes pictures of foetuses. I feel no need to take Elevit – I eat well, and am taking folate and iodine, so yeah – not gonna spend millions of dollars (I may be exaggerating) on something I don’t need. This is it, though – it does have neat pictures (although the app I got has better ones – see later) – my foetus is at week five, almost week six (Week six starts tomorrow) on this timeline (it is tracking foetal development, not pregnancy stage):

Ads and foetuses

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Aside from the mail, nothing much else is happening (beyond my baby doing some impressive growth spurts). Oh – one thing I should mention: the first booklet said that if everything looks good at the 7- to 8-week scan (the one next week), then I have a 95% chance of delivering a live baby! I like them odds! But it does put a lot of pressure on this scan. Not sure if I mentioned, but it will be a transvaginal one, so no need to have a full bladder, which is nice – I will be nervous enough without that added stressor. I think I might go check out the new H&M store in Sylvia Park afterwards as a reward, if everything goes well (I have been meaning to, but it is so far away from the rest of my life) – it will be rush hour traffic and I don’t like rush hour on the motorway. 

Still trying to sort the New Plymouth midwife – my first choice is still on holiday. But I do have my second choice booked in, in case the first choice doesn’t have room for me. 

So the above-mentioned app. I downloaded Sprout, which does cost (about $5 I think it was), but I really like the pictures compared with the free apps (I also got the what to expect when you are expecting app, which is okay, but contains horrible videos where a woman talks patronisingly about this magical time and uses phrases like “your little sweet pea” and “bundle of joy”).  You can click on parts of the picture and get extra info. It isn’t anything TOO special, but for $5 I think it is well good. This is the picture for this week just finishing (it is actually more like a fake video – i.e. animation – the heart beats etc):

If you click on the pear it shows how big your baby is compared with something else. This week it is a pea.

Apparently next week my baby starts growing teeth!

I will likely do a post on Wednesday after the scan, if it is good news. I may not feel up to it yet if it is bad. But in that case, I will still try to do one soon – partly so I don’t have to keep repeating the news to everyone.