Leila Rose Petal

I think you could definitely say that we’re into the final stages of this pregnancy now. In six weeks Leila will be here and it (the pregnancy) will be over.

I’m really feeling it now too. My energy reserves are getting smaller and fluctuate quite a bit. I can be travelling really well one minute and wiped out the next. Sometimes sitting quietly for half an hour or so will be enough to recharge my batteries and at other times I need to go and sleep for a while. And I’m not very good at judging the difference so I find myself really tired and unable to get my shit together, or lying around trying to rest and feeling fidgety.

Leila seems to have shifted lower, although I don’t think she’s ‘in position’ yet, just heading there. Her weight now sits quite low in my abdomen and I’m very aware of it when I move around. I’m pretty sure I waddle most of the time now, even though I can still move quite briskly - for short periods.

She is also sits a long way forward, which gives me a very protruberant belly - as anyone who’s seen me recently can attest. This is very different from my experience with Finn. He tended to face sideways or backwards and the most I could reliably feel of him was his back, usually along the right hand side of my belly. I’m pretty sure Leila is facing forwards because I can always feel her limbs pressing against the inside of my abdomen and I’m so aware of her movements. I’m having some very uncomfortable moments when she pushes repeatedly on the same couple of spots and I half expect to see bruises coming up in those areas. I’m not sure whether she’s turned upside down yet. The midwife will probably answer that one next week.

I haven’t made as much progress on getting Leila’s room ready as I would have liked and trying to work out how to manage my energy levels has a bit to do with that. I’m not too worried about it though, since I think what I want to do (putting up curtains, organising clothes, etc.) will probably get down quite quickly once I knuckle down to it.

I also need to get my head around what to pack in my hospital bag. It’s really not a hard thing to do, but it’s one of those things that keeps sliding out of my brain. I can’t seem to grasp it and focus. That too will come in due time - at least it had better or the morning of the 13th of March is going to be very interesting…