Latest Larva News

This past week has been quite eventful. After the somewhat failed anatomy/anomaly scan last week, we headed into the new week via the weekend - and on Saturday we headed out to both Peterborough and Cambridge for the NCT Nearly New Sales. We were looking for prams and baby clothes, a pram we didn't find but we did find a good haul of clothes for 23 pounds. I did try to find the most gender neutral clothes that I wouldn't mind wearing myself. Here's a selection...

On the weekend I filled out the Nappy Lady's questionnaire about reusable nappies, so she'd be able to give her opinion on what kind of nappies would suit us well. We got our advice and she recommends Little Lamb Microfibre nappies as the base and Motherease Airflow as the wrap. I got very excited and wanted to go and buy everything immediately, until some sense prevailed. I did look up where to find pencil roving for knitting woolly wraps for the diapers tho - we'll probably start with just muslins, Nappi Nippas and woollies. I'm so excited about it!

I set up some eBay searches for the Chicco Next2Me crib last week, and have been following up on what pops up in the vicinity of both ours and inlaws. Wednesday, before our appointment at the hospital for a second attempt for the ultrasound scans, the Bears workmate asked if we need baby kit as they'd have a crib and a baby mattress(?) for sale. Turns out, they had the exact Chicco crib we've been interested in, and a Cocoonababy mattress-pillow - thingamajig. Hearing this I was so excited I started to tremble. Today, we got the stuff and proceeded in setting it up next to our bed to try out how they fit and work...

And returning to the anatomy/anomaly scan, the ultrasound technician Maxine managed to finally get everything needed from the Larva and everything is all right. We did have to go have a hot coffee in the middle as it wasn't co-operating with showing it's heart properly. We did get some more pictures though...

Thank you NHS for what you've done for us already, so far!

I've posted this on it's own as a Facebook status update previously. I think it needs a bit more signal boost in these dire times when healthcare in England seems to be forced into a corner and the respect shown by the politicians to it is dwindling. I've edited some names out, but otherwise I'm publishing it as is. I'll post another update on what's going on with The Larva later today or tomorrow.

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Today I would like to wholeheartedly thank the medical profession and the NHS. Having just done my morning jab of dalteparin sodium (Fragmin), a moment of reflection on how my quality of life is so much better today than it was before Christmas, when we knew I was pregnant, but hadn't gotten my prescription yet - back when I was living for a few weeks in a constant and ever looming dark cloud of FEAR OF DEATH. Let me explain...

It's now been five years - might even be to the day - when I was given the news of having inherited Factor V Leiden (FVL) from both my parents, making me a homozygous sufferer of high risks.

I found out that while the occurrence of a blood clot is about 1:1000 in normal population, people who'd inherited FVL from one of their parents had the chance of 4 to 8 in a population of 1000. I've won the lottery of having the chances of getting a clot up to 8:100. That is, normal population has the chance of 0.1%, mine is 8%, and that is before you factor (ha!) in being overweight, over 35, and pregnant or using hormonal contraception. If you want a more acute comparison, I'm basically carrying two six shooter revolvers all the time, with one bullet, ready to play Russian roulette of getting a thrombosis.

So, to return to my bedside musings next to my sharps box, slowly filling with used needles, and the small sting and collection of bruises on my stomach... Thank you, nurses and doctors who treated my sister, when she had a blood clot, and tested her. Thank you, nurses and doctors who tested my mother when she was diagnosed with cancer of the bile duct five years ago. Thank you, Outi Silvola-Kallio, the occupational health doctor at Mehiläinen, who saw me and listened to my woes when mother was sick, and agreed to test me as well for FVL. Thank you, Marja Sankelo, haematology expert at TAYS, who wrote me instructions on what FVL means. Thank you doctors who've prescribed me Clexane injections for both my California trips since my diagnosis. Thank you, medical professionals at my doctor's office for taking my foreign paper work seriously and forwarding the information to hospital and the consultant doctor who prescribed me the injections I'm taking daily now, until September. Thank you, friends in medical profession who might have heard me complain about FVL, and ...

Thank you NHS for the maternity exemption certificate. There isn't a day that I'm not grateful for what I've been given. Every day I'm grateful for the British taxpayers, who fund this marvellous system and especially the maternity exemption certificates. Physically it's only a piece of plastic, but the idea of giving pregnant women and mothers of children under 12 months FREE prescription medication and FREE dental care is something Finland should take as an exchange for introducing the world to the baby box of material goods. In Finland, my monthly medication would cost around 210€.

Halfway done!

Time for another update from me. We've passed the halfway point and I can definitely feel the Larva moving about now. We had the halfway point anomaly scan today and it was quite active during the scan. It was quite interesting to see things moving on the screen at the same time as I felt the movement. Here's some pictures from today...

We need to go back next week though as the technician didn't manage to get all the information as the baby was in an awkward position. We do have the right amount of fingers and toes, kidneys, bladders and the lot were seen though :-D

In other news, I've finally gotten some maternity wear from ASDA's George range - two long-sleeved and two short-sleeved shirts, two pairs of leggings and maternity jeans. Having clothes that fit and don't pinch anywhere is truly a great thing.

I think we've picked which bedside cot to get - for our purposes Chicco's Next2Me looks like a good match for our use cases. We've also had a look at the car seat reviews of the Finnish AA and it looks like Graco Snugfix 0+ Baby Car Seat might be the best choice on that. As much as I'd like a Stokke pram, the car seat might do the decision for us, as it would be nice to have a pram that works with the car seat, and Graco and Stokke don't play together :-(

Injections are still ongoing. Just this past weekend for the first time injecting hurt so much I cried. Well, it wasn't the injecting, it was pushing the needle in and pulling it out that hurt. I also managed to get my first quite big and painful bruise from an injection... Usually they don't hurt or appear this big, and most of the time I don't even get a bruise.

I've also knitted. A friend designed a baby overalls knitting pattern, so I ordered some yarn and started to knit. I have yarn left enough to knit an even bigger one than the newborn size, too, but I've not managed to finish those off yet. I've got some other yarns for knitting a cardigan too. Here's my first attempt at knitting baby clothes!