I can’t believe I’ve got to this stage of the pregnancy – I now have a full-term baby inside me, wow!

In Week 37, I kind of got a sudden burst of energy to do as many things I could still do before the baby arrived, like ‘popping’ to Ikea, doing a painting makeover and having a last Mummy and Son massive day out – all of which I wrote about here.

I almost forgot I was pregnant. I did sleep a lot in the evenings after these activities. And getting up from the floor was still difficult – I have to go on all fours to get up, which I forgot when I was crouching down to take photos of Tyler on our train day out. Luckily people in London don’t bat an eyelid!

By the time Week 38 came around, the energy had gone and all I could do was sleep. It was all-consuming. And knowing baby could come at any time, I didn’t want to go anywhere far, although I bet she will be 2 days late like Tyler was! I also had ridiculous indigestion, not nice.

I had a 38 week antenatal appointment on Monday, and in Slough it is with your GP instead of the midwife for some reason. I wish it was with my midwife because this doctor was useless. My appointment was stupidly early at 8.50am, so I rushed walking there with Tyler and was a little late. So obviously when she took my blood pressure, my heart rate was high. She asked if my midwife had talked to me about being induced if I go over. I said no because we’ll come to that at my 40 wk appointment if I’m still pregnant then.

I just had no rapport with this woman, I don’t know if it’s the language barrier, but there was no humour, chat or explaining things very well, she couldn’t find the right words half the time. She measured my bump but didn’t seem to know what she was doing. She was like ‘I can’t feel her movement’ or something and had a stressed face on. She measured baby at 35cm but was worried as this was what she was at the 36 week appointment. But I know baby has moved down, so this doctor was not measuring correctly, I just know it. Also she could not tell me if the baby was engaged or not.

She said she needed a urine sample from me, so I had to do that and wait for her to call me back in after she saw the next patient. I didn’t need to go to the loo, so I really had to squeeze that out! And then when she saw me, she said “You’re not drinking enough water” because of the colour of my pee. Argh! So annoying.

She did my blood pressure again and my heart rate had gone back to normal, and then listened to baby’s heartbeat which was 141. Then she said it’s better to be extra cautious and she wanted to talk to the midwives at triage about my baby’s size, and suggest a growth scan. I felt this was totally unnecessary but let her do what she thought she should do. My opinion was that she was not sure of her own judgement.

Tyler and I had to wait back in the waiting room while she made her calls, and by now we had been here for 50 minutes. When she finally came out, she said it took ages to get through to triage as the line was busy (well it was Monday morning!), and then they said they had no appointments free to do an ultrasound scan. To me, if they thought it was critical, they would have told me to go in. The doctor suggested I just turn up at triage. I said alright, but I’m not going to waste my time. My baby is moving, has a healthy heartbeat, and I think this extra scan is totally unnecessary, as I feel she had measured my bump wrong.

Obviously I kept note of baby’s movements all week, there was only one quiet day with subtle movement, but other than that she has been kicking and hiccupping like usual.

Earlier in my pregnancy I thought that by the time I got to week 38, I’d be eating hot curries and pineapples, doing all the things to try and bring on labour. But now that I’m here, I’m okay with her staying put for another week or so, I’m not ready. I want to sleep and sleep, I’m not ready for the broken sleep yet!

I had bought raspberry leaf tea to drink everyday since week 33, as I’m sure this helped me have a quick labour with Tyler, but I have been quite lax about drinking it.

I’ve starting listening to my hypnobirthing tracks again when I go to bed, and have made a CD for the hospital. My hospital bags have been packed too, which you can see here.

According to Babycentre, at 37 weeks baby was the size of a bunch of Swiss chard (random), and at 38 weeks the size of a leek.

I’m now 39 weeks and it’s under a week till my due date. So there may or may not be a next pregnancy update. Watch this space!

Sabrina x