My doctor in the village wanted me to check in with the hospital gynecologist in the city, because of the risk factor due to my previous C-section. In order to see the gynecologist, I had to see their GP first who would refer me if necessary. He said everything was fine and normal, come back in three weeks.
Well, to give my local doctor something more specific than that, we went and got an ultrasound. Within a second he told me that Nicky, like his brother, was breech (as he was in the previous ultrasound). The other 2 doctors had mistaken his butt for his head. And, like Leo, being in the breech position (or just the fact that he is his father's son) his head had grown more than the rest of his body. I am a little over 35 weeks - Nicky's head is more than 38 weeks, his spine and legs are at 37 weeks. He is already 7 lbs (Leo was a little over 5 at this stage and was born 7lb 3 oz).
They gave me the number of a doctor who can turn him, but suggested I see a gynecologist first, so we went back to the hospital. After explaining what had happened, I bypassed the GP referral and went straight to the real doctor. He advised against having him turned. He says he's already big, my womb is long and narrow, and there is a risk that the procedure could rupture my Cesarean wound. He says we can wait as long as possible, hoping he'll turn by himself, but the chances are this one will remain head up and have to be another c-section. I have to go back every week and see him, and we'll see how things go.
We're still hoping for a natural birth, but I can't help but feel disappointed. Still, when I think about it, the only thing that matters is that Nicky arrives as safely as possible, and seeing as we live 2 hours from a hospital, contemplating delivering a breech naturally is not a great idea.
Other than that piece of bad news, I am feeling great. Still not too uncomfortable and able to work fine, albeit a bit slower.
Leo gets increasingly excited at the prospect of meeting his new brother. He keeps saying things like "when Nicky comes, he sit by Leo, sleep by Leo, play with Leo, etc.". Not sure how to tell him that newborns are not as exciting as he might think, but he'll figure it all out! Can't wait to have the two of them together.
For more photos, click
here. There's one photo of Abe and I together - that was taken shortly before Leo arrived - notice how my belly is already almost that big.
It's a good friend's (Leo's Godmother, without the baptism!) birthday this week, so I made her a gift out of rabbit fur.
We built a cabinet for the east wall in the kitchen. It was a spot that the cabinets we bought didn't fill and I've had something temporary in there since we first moved into these rooms. Now, it is complete with its new cabinet, laden with cast iron, compost and pig buckets, vegetable drawers, etc. I also made a couple of holders for plastic bags - took about 10 minutes apiece and helps keep those pesky, but useful items out of the way.
I'll eventually put doors on the cabinets and maybe even tile the top, but no rush on either. The kitchen now feels done and ready for the arrival of the newcomers. Little by little.
This week we've been doing some work on the gardens, but most of our efforts have gone to the pig pen. We mucked out the toilet area (we would place hay on top of their poop, which keeps the smell away and makes for a better compost), and put it in a pile in a garden bed we won't be using for a while. While Abe and I did that, Leo carried rocks and filled in a hole they'd made under their water nipple (they quickly learned how to push the nipple so that water would pool up into a lovely mudbath, which had grown incredibly deep). We then put a shade up and made a new hoop house, so that each sow would have a nesting area.
We need to fence a new area for them to graze, although there is no rush, as we will keep them penned up until they are used to this as their new home. This is the first time they have lived with dirt and grass under their feet, so we don't think it will take them long to call this home.
On Thursday we rendered the lard, which took a LONG time, but produced 9 liters of lard, and some leaf lard (we're rendering that today, so not sure how much, although considerably less than regular lard). Plus there was a bunch of cracklings, over 7 pounds.
