Drug addicts...no Moxa!

Your pleads are not helping at all, my mum has been really strong-minded and has stayed away from sweets and other schifezze as if they were toxic. A part from a wonderful chocolate-cake and a chestnut-sausage she had when she went out for dinner on my parents anniversary she has stayed at large. But I'm sure she's gaining weight anyway, for I'm becoming bigger every day.
Anyway, this time I was not going to blog about my chocolate-deprivation but about the fact that I'm seriously worried about my parents.

I think they've become drug-addicts!!!!

You may think I'm crazy, but hear now. Every day my parents sneak into the garage and stay there for 15 minutes-half an hour. Only once they've been there early in the morning (but it was freezing cold so they gave up), sometimes in the afternoon, but most of the time it's late in the evening. Soon after they enter I start to smell something, I'm not sure what it is, but I think it might be some herbs they are burning -or smoking or whatever! They go on for some time, and don't stop even if I try to contest by kicking and turning and waving my arms (my movements even seem to amuse them..! That's which state they're in). I don't know what to do to stop them. Don't they know that drugs are a serious business, and when you are pregnant one should absolutely stay away from drugs, smoke and alcohol...they are much worse for the health of all the XY's and XX's (and any other combination of chromosomes) than chocolate! Someone has to give a serious lesson to my parents to get them to stop....

Hi, I'm XYs mother, and I'm afraid that even if this is XY's blogspot where he normally gets to say what he wants, I have to stop his writing and intervene at once. Not because he is revealing some secrets -me and his dad have NOT become drug addicts -but to explain what this is all about, to clear all doubts that he may have raised in your minds.
So for the facts, it is true that we go into the garage every day (not sneaking though), it is true that we are burning some herbs (not smoking it) and it is true that we are happy when it results in XY moving a lot...and that's the whole point!!! As XY still remains breech (or lying on the side when it pleases him...but he is never head-down) and although we know that many babies turn spontanelously before birth, we wanted to attempt whatever is possible to get him to turn. When the teacher at the pre-natal course suggested that we tried traditional chinese medicine we thought, why not (my chinese friends -an their newborn XY will be happy to know)! So we went to an acupuncturist that tought us to practice moxibustion. Moxa is the herb known as mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). It is formed into a long stick that resembles a cigar when lit. The smouldering ends of the moxa-roll is held on either side of the acupuncture point ub67, located close to the nail point of each little toe. This is maintained for 15 minutes (switching foot when the toes become unbearably warm), once or twice a day. We were rather sceptical of this treatment, but the effect is incredible, XY starts to move soon after we start the treatment and continues for a long time afterwards. Still it hasn't resulted in him turning his head down, but we've only been doing this for some days...maybe it will work...or maybe there is something (short umbilical cord e.g.) that makes it difficult or impossible for him to turn. There is always the plan B -external cephalic version that we have booked just before christmas, or plan C -cesarean section, in case the moxa doesn't work...or if he doesn't just turn around by himself..!
You may be thinking, ok, that explains...but why the hell in the garage? Well, I invite you to burn a Moxa-roll for 15 minutes in a 35 square meter flat, once a day for several days. Even vacuum-packed food in the kitchen-closet will be smelling of moxa (as indeed is everything in the garage is by now!).
So rather than telling me to go on eating chocolate (and by the way..the last time I tasted Hersey's chocolate I SPIT IT OUT and threw the rest of the block...I only go for the good stuff you know) try to convince XY to turn....!

The food of the Gods

I’m going to be brief now, but I just thought of asking you to appeal to my mum not to stop eating chocolate! Remind her that chocolate is a girl’s best friend, and that it contains many healthy ingreadients that are important for an unborn baby! Last time my mum went to have a control, her doctor was about to faint (she’s a very sensitive lady) for the fact that my mum had put on too much weight the last month (3 kg). As my mum doesn’t have a scale at home, she had no idea, and was blissfully ignorant of the excessive weightgaining. She thought that it was only the belly that was growing, and not the fat-storages! The doctor interrogated my mum, asking if she had been indulging too much in chocolate, but my mum bluntly said “no way” and sustained that her consumption of the forbidden sweet had been very moderate lately. When my parents were out of the doctor’s office my dad (who had remained silent during the visit….with a smirky smile on his face) reminded my mum of

• the chocolate fondue that they’d had only few days earlier,
• the rest of the 500g chocolate block used for the fondue that had disappeared from the kitchen a few days later,
• the gianduia that they had got at Bologna and had disappeared very soon after,
• the Nesquick that finds it’s way into the milk that my mum drinks every afternoon to strenghten my bones….

and so he went on for some time (being an engineer, my dad is a very precise person), making my mum blush of shame...! In the end she realized that in fact, she might have gone slightly over the limits of what could be considered a healthy chocolate-intake lately. And as my mum has difficulty following moderate lines of chocolate intake, she decided to cut it out completely, at least until christmas (or until she makes the Sara Bernhard’s biscuits..whichever comes first). Last week, e.g. at the pregnancy-course, she was the only mum eating an apple during the coffee-break, whereas the other mum’s nibbled chocolate and sweet biscuits….! The only problem is that me, XY Sergioson, has grown to like that sweet taste of chocolate so much, and now that my mum no longer eats it, I miss it….! A lot! So please tell my mum to restart eating chocolate, or I will stay breech until the birth…!

One, two, breech...

Last week my mum went to have an ultrasound -the last of three that are scheduled in a normal pregnancy in Italy. It is called the “growth” ultrasound, because it mainly serves to check whether the belly-dweller is growing well (and I am…I’m following the normal growth-curve). Actually my parents were also looking forward to have a look at me, and in order to make them happy I decided to do something very special. At 32 weeks 85% of all belly-dwellers are turning their heads down and they keep hands and feet crossed, but that’s not original enough for me. Unfortunately I’m too big to be able to have my whole-body-ultraound-picture taken, so you’ll have to take my words for what I did.

Well, imagine someone, e.g. Alexandre Despatie that is going to do a simple reverse pike from a 3m springboard. He would start the dive with a normal forward approach where he swings his arms forward and over his head as he jumps on the board to gain extra momentum. Once of the board he lifts his legs up into the air until they point straight up, perpendicular to the water. He bends the waist and reaches forward to touch his toes with the fingertips. If you are following the sequence in your mind you will realize that his buttocks are now in the lowest point. What should follow now is that the diver should keep his legs extended upward while straightening his torso and point his head straight down toward the water, then swinging his arms with the whole body so they remain over the head and end up pointing toward the water before entering the water in a vertical position. But I want you to stop the image before, while the diver is bent over his legs with the buttocks as the lowest point, in what is called the reverse pike position. This position lasts only a fraction of a second, and it may seem very easy to do, but actually it takes years of practice to perfect and only the very best can do it flawlessly. I think it’s elegantly simple and beautiful -and for that reason this is the position I chose to show to my parents!
I looked rather graceful if I may say so myself (I even stretched out the toes for absolute perfection), but rather than hearing the cheering from my parents and the doctor, the first comment was: Ah..he’s in a breech position! Which means that I got the butt down! Well, how can you imitate a crucial moment of a gold winning diving performace and still keep your head down?

But there was no way they could concentrate on my skills and elegance, and the doctor even started talking about the necessity of a ceserean birth if I didn’t turn before the end of the pregnancy. Silly! My mum, my dad, well, everyone seemed to be a bit worried. Maybe they missed the fact that 2/3^rd of all belly-dwellers that are in a breech position at 32 weeks turn before the estimated due date.

Anyway, the next morning my mum went to her monthly appointment with the gynecologist and the midwife, both of which were equally worried about my breech position. One of the things that is normally done at these appointments is to measure my heart-beat. The midwife started looking with the probe for my heartbeat, but she couldn’t find it. After a few minutes of letting the probe slide on the gelly on my mum’s stomach she gave up, and the gyncologist took over. She pushed and moved, and added half a bottle of gel on my mum’s belly but nothing worked…they just didn’t manage to find my heartbeat. With a suspicious look on her face, the doctor started squeezing the skin on my mums belly between her fingers, checking if the underlying fat-layer had become so thick and solid that my heartbeat didn’t pass through! I don’t know which conclusion she came to, but at least she kept searching. I started kicking my mums belly from the inside trying to let them understand that they were actually looking for the heartbeat in the wrong place…something which took them more than 5 minutes to realize by themselves! Finally they found it…but not on the side of my mum’s belly where it was expected to be (based on the ultrasound the day before) but on the lower part of the belly, as I had actually turned during the night and was lying on the side, i.e. with the head to one side! Since then I have turned many times (indicating that there is still a lot of space for me to move). My mum realizes this both because she has the sensation that there is a centrifuge in her stomach when I turn, and also because she can feel the kicks on the left side of the belly one moment, then on the lower part of the belly, then on the right side, and so on. I still haven’t fixed myself with head down (why should I when it’s so much fun to turn around and well, there is still a lot of time left…isn't there?). Who knows if I will turn to the head-first position before day X! In case I don’t turn, my mum has booked a “external cephalic version” at the hospital some days before christmas! This means that the doctor (with the help of ultrasound) will intervene from the outside, turning me to the right position in order to try to avoid a cesarean birth! In addition, my mum is going to start to do all kinds of turn-the-baby-exercises to try to convince me to turn. But let’s see who is more stubborn in the end, me or my mum!

La pancia

I had promised you a new picture of my mum, and here it is. I’m 31 weeks old now, and although you cannot really see me, then you can see that I’m growing (compare this picture to the one in the blog from a few weeks back) -I’m the one pressing out my mum’s green t-shirt –and her belly! Maybe I should have put here also a picture of my dad’s belly to show you how in shape he is at the moment (running, swimming and doing abdominals has given him his youthful look back). The experts say that this is one of the paternal effects of expecting a baby-boy!! The dads start to keep in shape so that they can beat their sons in football..at least the first few years! But with my fantastic kick (read last blog) there is no doubt that no matter how much he trains I will be the one to beat the old one in football!

The pregnancy seems to be going quite well, at least my mum is very well, and next week when she has her medical controls and the last scheduled ultrasound, she will know if even me is as well. It’s only about 2 months now until the predicted date for my arrival –and if I’m anything like my dad I might even decide to arrive a month earlier than predicted, so there is not much time left. As you could see in the last blog then my parents have started to prepare for my arrival a little bit. They have not prepared a room for me -for if I was to have a room for myself then my parents would either have to sleep in the kitchen or in the garage, but they have bought the first few things that I need. In addition to the travel-trio they've also bought me a bed (and my mum has finished the 6^th sweater!!). They still need to buy a few more things, but these can be bought with calm in the next two months. Then they’ve started to try to imagine how it will be when I arrive, and what I’ll be like!

It’s difficult to predict my looks and character before I arrive (although there's a lot of speculations) -but people start to remind my parents to enjoy the last few months of calm before the thunderstorm (me!!) arrives…! and to enjoy the good night sleep before the onset of the period of sleepless nights. Obviously the second comment comes only from those who haven’t been pregnant, for although I’m not there to wake my parents up with crying and hunger in the night, there’s a lot of things that keep (particularly my mum) awake at night. I believe it’s one of the best kept secrets of pregnancy that the mum’s-to-be don’t get a good night sleep for months…for various reasons. I'll list here a few of the reasons for why my mum has not slept through a whole night since maybe june/july:

• The necessity to go to the bathroom at least once during the night -even if my mum tries not to drink anything for the last few hours before going to sleep it doesn't help...
  
• Leg cramps -now WHAT is that!! Why do pregnant women get cramps in the legs during night…and why not cramps somewhere else? My mum has found out that she mainly gets these cramps when she hasn’t been swimming or walking a lot during the day, but they don’t really make any sense! Sometimes the cramps are so painful that my mum shouts out, waking up my dad -and probably even the next-door neighbours!
  
• Difficulty to turn in bed. Now this is something that is gradually increasing during the pregnancy with the growing belly...my mum wakes up every time she needs to turn in bed
• Blocked nose! The formation of mucous increases during the pregnancy resulting in nose that is often blocked
• My movements...!
  
• Strange dreams! My mum has always had very vivid ad realistic dreams, but this has increased a lot during the pregnancy

This is not a conclusive list, there are other things as well, but it's enough that one of these things wakes up my mum and then she can stay awake even for hours, thinking about all kinds of things related to my arrival -we could call it a mid-night-meditation about XY Sergioson, or about work, or the future or whatever! But in the end she doesn't really mind...she takes it as a normal part of the pregnancy, and maybe as a training before I'll start waking her up with crying and hunger...! For once I'm around she will probably look back with nostalgia to these months of easy insomnia...!