OK, I am disastrously behind and I am setting aside my perfectionist ideal of going back through the calendar and detailing the events of the past few weeks. Instead I am just going to do a timeline and hit the highlights.
Friday, September 4, 2009 – We went for an ultrasound. I was 16 weeks and desperately hoping to see the gender of the babies. Unfortunately, the NHS policy is that they don’t examine for gender until 20 weeks. I don’t think it would have mattered because one of the babies had their back turned and one was lying on their side so we saw the profile. They are transverse which they have been since 9 weeks. (Transverse means one on top of the other lying horizontally across my midsection.) Both of their heads are on the same side, my right and their feet were on my left. I had been worried because I had only felt movement on my left side but that explains it. They aren’t head banging in there. They were measuring perfectly the same which is a good sign and the signs still point towards fraternal twins.
Saturday, September 5, 2009 – I came down with a viral infection and holed up in my room until Thursday. I think I only left the house once to go to the doctor (a general practitioner “GP”) because of the twins they wanted to be cautious. They just told me to take Paracetamol, which is just Tylenol, sleep and use Vicks and steam. We also told them that both Trey and I wanted to register with that practice. The way it works over here is you have to have a GP to be treated when you are sick or to be referred out for any other service. They sent us home with our urine sample tubes and set an appointment for when we came back from Wales.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 – I missed the play “As you Like It” at the Shakespeare’s Globe Theater because I was sick. You had to walk about two miles between tube stops and getting to the theater then you had to stand for the two hour play. I was not up to it. Trey went and hopefully I can convince him to put his thoughts here on it.
Thursday, September 10, 2009 – I had another doctor’s appointment with the specialist. This appointment really should have been scheduled for after the ultrasound in the first place. She just told me what the ultrasound tech told me and that everything did look normal. I did write down my questions though and get the opportunity to have them answered. If all goes well with the pregnancy they won’t require me to have an epidural although the do still recommend one because there is a risk of the second baby going into distress and having to perform an emergency ultrasound. If I opt for an epidural I will get to stay awake through the birth of the second baby, if not, they knock me out for the cesarean. My midwife – who I still am having a hard time understanding – will attend me throughout the birth as well as the consultant who will supposedly be in and out. We still haven’t figured how exactly we are going to get the babies home as we don’t have a car. We need to find someone we can borrow two infant car seats from because there is no use in buying them to use one time. We are literally talking about Trey walking the babies home in the stroller and me taking a cab if we are all healthy enough to do so… that sounds so surreal to me.
Friday and Saturday, September 11-12, 2009 – We took the train to Wales. For more specifics on the trip to Wales, I am just putting a link to our album on Facebook which mostly has historical references to what we were seeing so I will also include in that post my superficial thoughts on the city of Cardiff which is where we spent most of our time.
Sunday, September 13, 2009 – This day was mostly spent resting after all the walking we did in Wales. The walking is getting to be pretty hard on my body and while I have more endurance, I am experiencing a lot more pain from it. We did go to church that evening at Holy Trinity Brompton, the Anglican Church we’d visited earlier. We liked it and stayed after for more information. They gave us some email information about their cell groups which they call Pastorates. They don’t have traditional Sunday School. Instead, you meet with a small group every other week in someone’s home. We have since been assigned to one and have emailed the coordinator but haven’t heard back about the details yet.
Monday, September 14, 2009 – We went to register with our GP today. When we got to the counter they were not enthused about registering us foreigners. They kept expecting us not to have all our documentation even though I assured them that before we moved to the UK I had registered with a hospital for maternity and everything was there. Finally, begrudgingly, we were registered. (Part of this process included producing urine samples from both Trey and myself and this was instructed to be done at home before we came in so we had to carry our samples through Kensington on our walk to the doctor. I still can’t get over doing stuff like that.) We both saw a nurse who took our family histories and I appeared to either be dehydrated or having blood sugar issues so for the third time this month I had my blood drawn for a random blood sugar test. Also, for the second time, the blood pressure machine produced an error so they just asked me what my last blood pressure reading was and wrote that down… sounds good enough right? Fortunately, my blood pressure has been around 110/70 so I wasn’t worried about it.
Thursday, September 17, 2009 – Oxford! Our neighbor, Roger, who is like the epitome of what you could ask for in a Brit, is an Oxford graduate and graciously volunteered to escort us to and tour us through Oxford. I will do the same thing I did with Wales with an album with commentary, however, the bonus bits are that we walked… for 8 hours… excluding breaks. Roger has a magic alumni card that got us in most anywhere we wanted to go. His college was Magdalene which was one of the three colleges that vies for the title of the first Oxford college established in the late 1100s. It has the most grounds of any of the colleges and was absolutely stunning. There is this massive park that has deer and “cosmetic cows” as Roger calls them saying they are only there for looks and serve no real purpose and a trail that wraps around the outskirts of Oxford shire with a magnificent view of all of the towers of the colleges. It was stunning and not something you see if you are just walking around the town. We felt very fortunate and at the end of the day, very tired. We arrived home around 8:30 and Trey was sick as a dog. I sent him home and got to walk some more to the grocery store to pick up soup and Orange Juice. I picked up dinner for myself also but never got to eat it because when I arrived home Trey handed me the laptop and said he was sorry but he couldn’t stay awake and the school had finally emailed us our contract for which the needed a response for by tomorrow. The contract was wrong and I ended up working with the school until midnight to resolve the discrepancies that had us in a panic. They were very generous and accommodating as they have been throughout the whole process and, ultimately, everything was fine and there was no need for panic. I guess it was just pregnancy hormones combined with complete and utter exhaustion.
Friday, September 18, 2009 – If I had my druthers, I would not have gotten out of bed. I have been experiencing a lot of pain when I have been walking like we did in Wales and Oxford and it takes me about three days to fully recover. However, I had a follow up doctor’s appointment at 8:40 in the morning. They wanted to draw a fasting blood sugar reading because my readings had been high at the last appointment. My random blood sugar had come back normal and they had credited it to dehydration. I was graciously allowed to produce a urine sample at the doctor’s office this time and I still appeared to have high levels that were either indicating high blood sugar or dehydration. I went ahead and had my blood drawn as I hadn’t eaten since the previous day and they wanted a fasting blood sugar test. The results should come in sometime next week but I really think it is dehydration. I haven’t felt jitters or any of the normal high blood sugar symptoms but I am thirsty all the time. Other than that appointment, I holed up in the house and caught up on email with the school. We are still trying to work out issues with taxes and method of payment as well as finalizing that pesky contract.
Saturday, September 19, 2009 – Today I finally got my full day of rest. I just uploaded pictures which gave me the opportunity to go back over details from the Wales trip we loved and talked to friends and family on Skype. We went out for dinner with Kathy from our office to the Texas Embassy. Now: if you are only in London a few days, don’t bother and just wait for the Tex-Mex at home. However, if you are here long enough to get homesick and it becomes a worthwhile expenditure; the $27.00 fajitas are totally worth it. I could have cried because it felt like I am home. BIG TIP: I have been dying with the tiny glasses of iceless water they give you here. When you go to a restaurant and you don’t want to spend $5.00 for a refill of your coke, go ahead and order a large – empty - glass of ice along with a pitcher of tap water. If you ask for your tap water to be refilled they look at you like you are annoying, however, they don’t mind washing the extra pitcher. They usually also put lemon and ice in the pitcher which they do not put if you just order a glass of tap water. You will feel weird at first when you order it but with all the walking you are doing while you are here you will thank me after your meal. I have literally ordered water and gotten a tumbler. We then all went to the Haagen-Dazs café for a wonderfully expensive dessert. This is the second time I have been full since I have been in London. I absolutely do not know what to eat here and everything is so expensive we have been eating a lot of soup and bread.
OK, you are officially caught up and I am sorry I have been delinquent!
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