SarahAnnGreen's Posterous

Michael's First Month

Michael William Green

Michael William Green

Bump Photos

Not exactly looking my best at the end of a long day, but thought I should get Chris to take some bump photos from all angles before it's too late!

My Top Ten Pregnancy Products

Now that I'm nearing the end of my pregnancy, I thought it might be useful to write a post about the products that I found best during the past nine months.

1. Gap full panel always skinny jeans - these seem to come and go on Gap's website, but I managed to get two pairs (in blue and grey) and they have been comfortable throughout - although better when you have a proper bump. I also bought the demi panel jeans which are great earlier on, but a bit uncomfortable in the final few weeks when they're bent under a large bump (this was the case with demi panel jeans in general for me, not just the gap ones).

2. 'Expecting' by Anna McGrail & Daphne Metland - this was bought for me by my mother-in-law after my sister-in-law recommended it after borrowing it from a friend when she was expecting. I found it so packed full of useful & sensible information that I've since bought it for a friend who's expecting. It takes you through pregnancy a week at a time and has a good section on labour, a useful glossary and an extensive index.

3. Dreamgenii Pregnancy Pillow - I found that I had uncomfortable legs at night from quite early on and needed to sleep with a pillow between my knees. I then discovered the Dreamgenii pregnancy pillow so invested in that and have used it every night since, and it's provided good support for my bump in the latter stages. It should also double as a nursing pillow when baby arrives.

4. Sanctuary Mum to Be range - my mum bought me the hat box gift set from this range and all the products are lovely and midwife approved. I only wish they would sell the bubble bath in a large bottle! The body butter is really nice and feels luxurious to massage into your bump.

5. Waitrose organic Peru decaf coffee beans (ground also available) - the best decaf coffee I had outside of cafes! Not sure I could tell the difference between this and caffeinated!

6. Mamas & Papas Maternity Pyjamas - I bought two pairs (mix and match bottoms and camisoles), one under bump and one over bump and both are really comfy and look great. Also useful after the birth as the tops I bought are nursing ones.

7. Alcohol free German beers - The Germans seem to have got the knack of making decent alcohol free beer and I liked the Veltins and Erdinger best. I would't recommend the dealcoholised wines though, as they were pretty horrible!

8. Alpha Bar, Oxford - This is a rather Oxford specific one I'm afraid, and not really pregnancy related, but I discovered them during my pregnancy and they certainly made healthy eating more interesting for my work lunch breaks! Getting to create your own salad from a variety of tasty ingredients meant that healthy eating didn't get boring!

9. Caffeine-free Diet Coke - now I wouldn't normally drink this or even ordinary diet coke, as I much prefer regular coke, but when limiting your caffeine intake this seems to be the only caffeine free cola on the market as far as I can tell! I have therefore been drinking this for nine months instead of normal coke, and when I go back it's going to taste oh so good!

10. Twinings Decaf Teas - now I'm not a fan of decaf tea because to me it just doesn't taste quite right, but of the many brands I tried the Twinings ones were best. I found their decaf English Breakfast to be the best, though the decaf Everyday is ok too. If you like Early Grey, then their decaf version is very good.

Other sites I found useful for maternity clothes are:
Top Shop - good value fashion pieces.
Next - good value comfy basics.
Asos - good for pretty dresses, although the sizing runs a bit small so you may want a size larger than usual.
H&M - MAMA range hidden within individual womenswear sections.
Seraphine - for party dresses that don't cost the earth.

My favourite site of all though was more baby related than maternity... I developed what some might call an addiction to Baby Gap! But a top ten baby products post will have to wait until I've been able to use some! When I get time that is!

Mercedes Christmas Party 2011

Songs to give birth to?

Listening to my favourite playlists I realised that some of the songs might be rather (amusingly) appropriate when in labour/giving birth...

The Final Countdown - Europe
I Want to Break Free - Queen
Sweet Child of Mine - Guns & Roses
Newborn - Muse
Babies - Pulp
Birthday - The Beatles
Breakout - Foo Fighters
Breathe - The Prodigy
Cry Baby Cry - The Beatles
Everybody's Screaming - Lost Prophets
Get Me Outta Here - Jet
Give Me Novacaine - Green Day
Hey Baby - No Doubt

Any other suggestions? ;)

Sarah the Medical Mystery

So I've spent the week in hospital (what fun!) and now have another two weeks signed off work. Here's the story day by day, starting at the beginning...

Day 1 - Sunday
Felt extra tired and sleepy, despite feeling fine all day Saturday. It turns out I didn't fall asleep during the grand prix simply because it was Abu Dhabi!

Day 2 - Monday
Still feeling tired, but got up to go to work anyway. Besides, a busy day was ahead with my maternity cover starting ready for a good hand-over period! Sat at the bus stop I suddenly felt very woozy and dizzy; the next thing I knew, I was on my bum on the pavement, having fainted and slid off the seat! Someone asked me if I was ok and I sat back on the seat to recover, deciding to go home and phone my GP rather than attempt to get on the bus to work! Luckily Chris was able to turn around on his way to work and come home to drive me to the surgery, who were able to give me an appointment later that morning.
Waiting for my appointment made me dizzy again as the waiting room was boiling and packed, and we were sat there an hour. When finally called in to see the GP, she did various checks and tests but all she could really find wrong was a high temperature, so she referred me to the delivery suite at the hospital where they could do more tests and check on baby.
So off we headed to Oxford where I was prodded and monitored for an hour or so before being sent home because the obstetrician was happy that baby was ok and I wasn't about to go into labour. Probably just a bug.
The rest of that evening I felt ok, if rather more tired than usual.

Day 3 - Tuesday
Tuesday morning I was still tired and not quite with it, but after getting up and having a bath and breakfast, Chris was happy enough to see me resting on the sofa that he went to work. Not much later though I started to feel very cold and couldn't stop shivering until I'd covered myself with two think blankets. I called Chris who came home again, and phoned the GP who asked me to go back in. This time I had a much higher temperature and very low blood pressure, so was sent straight back to the hospital.
At the hospital they started testing everything, including constantly monitoring baby's heartbeat as it was hight due to my temperature of 40! Despite feeling shivery and cold I had to get my temperature down, which meant unbundling from the lovely warm things I'd put on and getting hooked up to fluids. From this point on everything was tested constantly and I lost count of the number of doctors I saw over the next few days, and the number of times blood was taken. I did manage to get some restless sleep that night (and they kindly found a giant beanbag for Chris to sleep on) but I think my obs were taken about every 15 mins.

Day 4 - Wednesday
Wednesday morning I was moved from the large delivery suite room they'd put me in (because it was close to the main desk) into the side room of the observation ward in the delivery suite. This meant I could still be monitored constantly without being around other pregnant or new mums. It also meant Chris could continue to kip in my room on a camp bed. More tests meant they were still trying to track down what was wrong - either a virus or an infection. I was on various antibiotics to head off the most likely culprits and managed to eat, only to get severe indigestion to add to everything else!

Day 5 - Thursday
This was the stressful day where the cardiologist decided (with the help of an echo) that the source if the problem was a leaky aortic valve in my heart that had become infected. If this were the case, then the antibiotics needed to treat it would harm baby, so they would have to deliver early (I'm 29 weeks at this point). I was given steroids as a precaution to help baby's lungs develop and sent for an ultrasound to check baby's size. Both Chris and I were obviously upset and trying to find out all the facts about babies born that early, including contacting people we knew who'd had or knew people who'd had prem babies.

Day 6 - Friday
It appeared that there was still some discussion over my diagnoses and I was also sent for another scan, this time an abdominal one to check my other internal organs all looked ok, which they did. In the afternoon another cardiologist arrived to repeat my echo. She could find nothing wrong and got another colleague to verify. Fortunately it looked like I didn't have an infected valve after all, and it wasn't even leaky! I was also feeling much better, so it looked like the various antibiotics were doing something.

Day 7 - Saturday
Still feeling much better, but rather more tired than Friday. It turns out my iron levels had dropped due to the sheer number of blood tests over the past week! Discovered that microbiology were very unhappy with cardiology over the whole infected valve issue - I may've created a mini war between them! Was moved from my side room that evening onto the main ward (a bay of 4 beds) as I was so improved and someone else needed the side room. My antibiotics were now just amoxicillin tablets rather than via an IV and I was told that if I was ok on the tablets I would be able to go home soon.

Day 8 - Sunday
A much better day than all previous. Felt more mobile than I had done all week and I was moved from observation up to a maternity ward on another level of the hospital where monitoring wasn't as intense and there was a bit more freedom. The cardiologist also came to visit to explain (with a diagram) why they initially got the diagnoses wrong. It turns out that the way your heart gets a bit squished during pregnancy meant that what they were hearing was the blood flow from the mitral valve flowing at a slightly different angle, making the aortic valve sound leaky when it was totally fine!

Day 9 - Monday
Woke up feeling the best I'd felt in a week and desperate to go home as my medication was now all tablets and I can take those and rest at home just as easily as in hospital. Had to wait a while to see the doctors, but eventually they came to see me and agreed that I could go home, but would have to come back to an outpatients clinic next week. Hurrah! I couldn't wait to get home as I was starting to get bored and more than a little tired of hospital food! As soon as the pharmacy had put my bag of drugs together we were off, some amazing flowers from Chris' work arriving just in time, as we made our way to the lift!

Relaxing on the sofa and catching up on tv is now the order of the day, and sleeping in my own bed is so much better. It's also fab to see Esme again, despite the fact that she was a bit sulky with me at first!

Hopefully this will be the last time I'm in hospital until baby is due at the end of January, but I do know at least that all the staff in the delivery suite are lovely and I know I'll be in safe hands. Thank you to them for looking after me this past week.

As for an official diagnoses... well, my doctors note for work says Febrile Infection, so I guess that's what they decided to go with.

The People's Bible

The People's Bible is a project to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible by touring the country so that people can hand-write a pair of verses (using a digital pen) to be included in the final edition.

Radcliffe Camera Bag