Thursday 4 March 2010

31 weeks - this week I have been mostly...

…having lots of appointments…
With mixed success. My hospital is a teaching hospital, so sometimes I get eager young students doing my scans. This time around I told her I needed to stop and have a rest on my side, she stopped for a minute, then just sneakily carried on, as if I wouldn’t notice! I objected though, and eventually the “real” dr finished the scan. Much better J Also she spoke to us in English - there’s nothing freakier than someone talking about your babies’ development in a language you don’t understand. Actually, for all I know, she was talking about the weather, but it’s the not knowing that’s weird.

The doc said this week that I will not go to 40 weeks - they will induce at 38, and if for some reason I have a C section it’ll be in week 38 or possibly 39. It’s mighty strange to have an absolute end date, seriously focuses the mind! So even with my maternity leave starting 4 weeks before my “due date”, I will only have 2 weeks. No update on the maternity leave situation…

…finding it easier to imagine them…
Lee is now transverse and face down, with his spine up against my ribs, and his head on my right. Bruce is head down, spine outwards on my left. It’s lovely to know where they are, and I definitely feel them move independently. The other day they both had hiccups at the same time!

…giving up on hypnobirthing…
I went to a breathing class last week, at which I nearly passed out twice. Too relaxed la! Anyway, the book that Katharine recommended + some visualizations = much more effective than hypno. I’m sure hypnobirthing is great for some people, but just didn’t seem to work for me. I tried to use it at stressful times, but it didn’t really seem to help.

…having our final ante-natal class…
Another corker! It was the nurse from the 1st class again, one of this week’s gems was “Don’t kill your baby!” (in relation to cutting the cord the wrong side of the clamp). She recommended that the boys go to the wet market and buy themselves some pig intestines to practice on. We also watched a heavily-edited video of someone giving birth too. Nobody fainted, which was good.

…getting stares….
I’m quite big now. The boys are 1.4kg each, and my friend just gave birth to her daughter who was 2.95kg. Even I can figure out the maths of that! So essentially I look full term already. People stare at me a lot, which I don’t like much. On the plus side, I may bitch and moan a lot about people being selfish here, but I always get a seat and a smile on the MTR these days.

…continuing the helper hunt….
The deal with Lorna fell through, on the very day that we were due to sign the contract. The agent, Joey called me that day (a Wednesday), here’s how the convo went:
Joey: “Lorna’s day off has changed, it’s not today, it’s Sunday this week. So are you interested in the 54 year old maid you met?”
Me: “um, well, no, we’re interested in Lorna. That’s ok, we can come and sign the contract on Sunday instead.”
Joey: “So you didn’t like the 54 year old maid? Because she is very interested in your job”
Me: “no, we would like Lorna to work with us” and so on…..
Essentially, Lorna’s current employer wants to take her with them to Singapore for the last week of her contract. This means that her contract (and therefore visa) will expire outside HK - we (and she) would have to pay a lot more, and wait around 2 months longer to process her as a “foreign worker”, because she will not be allowed back to HK without a visa. Anyway, I think there may be a way round…watch this space.

…meeting lots of people….
We went to meet someone the other day who Ross met at the parents-of-multiples thing he went to. They are called Simon and Caitlin, and they have 8 month-old twin boys, who are completely adorable and very smiley. If ours are like that, I will be super-chuffed! Lucky Caitlin gets 1 year off work, since she works for the Ozzie Consulate. They gave us some great tips about getting around in HK with twins, and the practicalities of getting taxis with 2 babies.

Also met someone who moved here from Cambridge a few months ago with 3 year old twin boys, and have been emailing someone who is expecting twins 2 days before me and is giving birth in the same hospital. She has already spent a night in the hosp under observation, and has been signed off work for a week because she’s so tired. Hmmm….it’s actually a bit nerve-wracking to have another twin pregnancy to compare my ever-accelerating growth with!

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