Josa’s pregnancy diary weeks 32-34

I discussed pain relief with Risi. I would so much like to try wallowing in the big pool – not to give birth, I am not a dolphin, but for pain relief and to experience the pleasure of immersion after months of chilly exposed belly in the bath. She recommended that I drink raspberry leaf tea, three times a day, for the last three weeks of pregnancy, to get myself ready. There are a variety of methods of induction – I just pray that the little fellow sees fit to come into the world naturally. I am not too fussed by prostin gel, or breaking the membranes. It is when it comes to oxytocin drips I get alarmed.

The best news is that he is now head down.

Although Risi tried to show me where his head was, by digging my hands deep into my lower abdomen, all I could feel was flab. He is very active, often making my belly ripple like some seismic display. He also bounces up and down on my bladder, and sometimes drags something tiny and sharp across the front – a finger? I simply can’t tell. There is also a kind of popping sensation behind the pubic bone. All very mysterious but comforting.

My nipples are dark brown, and when I squeeze them, drops of transparent straw-coloured liquid, with opaque creamy dots in it, appear. This is the colostrum – a magic potion for new babies, stuffed with what they need in the first few days of life, including immunities. This should be an exotic cocktail. I have put on about a stone and a half, which seems fine. Although I feel bigger every day, and some days so exhausted that I just lie there with my mouth open like a stranded fish.

See Anastasia's pregnancy diary for weeks 32-34