Sunday was spent trying to sort out Massimo’s room in preparation of having to share it with his little brother. We, or rather Justin, with Massimo, Jasper, Horace and I “assisting”, put up a couple of shelves and rearranged a few things. The room is beginning to look a little better but there is still a long way to go. We also popped out to Dish Dash to meet Patrick and Ana – the new owners and long-standing friends of ours – for a coffee. Unfortunately the minute I stepped out of the house I was assailed by Braxton Hicks contractions (pre-labour practice contractions often brought on by mild exercise) which made the short walk to Balham seem like a marathon. On our way back from coffee, having sufficiently recovered, the contractions started again, but this time the little boy decided to add to it by kicking me really hard somewhere very painful. J thought my yelp of pain an indication that I had gone into labour and I was too winded to respond for those few seconds of sheer panic! We have decided that this is nature’s way of telling me that I need to seriously slow down and above all cut back on certain activities like picking Massimo up, especially off the floor. The last thing we need or want is another premature labour especially not one that is self-induced!
So on Monday I was a very good girl and took things very easily. Massimo and I had a quiet day up till 3pm when Jackie came from Portage. We had a very good session with Massimo showing off his new skills, well new since she last saw him a few months back! Passing things from hand to hand, clapping, pushing up on his hands when lying on his tummy, pressing buttons on toys, holding heavy things with two hands and always, always reaching for anything! She brought a range of toys to play with and left us with a couple of new ones. We are going to concentrate on teaching Max “take this” when handing him something along with “Max’s turn” and “Mummy’s turn” to see if we can also get him to give things back!
Monday night we had a new night nurse as our usual Monday night nurse, Helen, was on holiday. So a different Helen came along. Massimo was so chuffed to have company at going to sleep time that he decided he could play and play and play! Eventually at 11.30 pm (and on my suggestion) Helen gave him a little something to send him off!
This morning we went off to St George’s for our 30 week scan. This isn’t a usual scan but an extra one they have done for us to check my levels of amniotic fluid and these are at normal levels. The baby seems to be of an average size and its current estimated weight is 1.578 kgs. Max was born at 32 weeks weighing 1.556 kgs, so this baby is 2 weeks younger and already just a little heavier than his older brother was. Of course there is no test or way to predict when the baby will be born but so far, so good.