22-week visit

I am 22 weeks and 5 days pregnant today.

Another routine check at Auckland Obstetrics, this time with Dr Geoff Bye. I have met Geoff before, when he was specialising in gynaecology and not obstetrics (yes there is a difference. One's a woman specialist, the other's a pregnant woman specialist). He successfully removed pre-cancerous cells before they became an issue, so I'm quite grateful for these smears.

The normal procedure is for me to do a DIY urine check (just a tab with sensors for glucose and protein, like these Ph tab thingies on the Ph-neutral Dove soap ads) and weight before seeing the obstetrician. But last night, I had a nice long uninterrupted sleep, and had to gently walk (no running or upsetting the bladder at all costs!) to the toilet and therefore didn't have much to provide in the way of samples. So I made sure to have a glass of water and force myself to have a hot chocolate in the hope that it'd be enough.

During the visit itself, nothing outstanding really happened. My blood pressure is good, and Tadpole's heart is still beating. Ahh, the wonders of technology. I took my i-mate with me, and here's the result.

This time, most of the questions that we had would be addressed at 30-35 weeks of pregnancy, so no point in having them answered then trying to remember the answer 2 months later.

Reception gave us an independent midwife's card, Beverley Thys, to contact and book for post-natal care. She also said that only 5% women have their baby on the due date, and most first-time mothers have them later than the due date. Why don't they then just change gestation duration from 40 to 41 weeks escapes me. And she recommended that I take it easy during the last month. And I'm not sure why Bas smirked when she told me to get plenty of rest.

Then I remembered (all right then, Bas reminded me) that I still needed to test my urine. So I merrily headed to the toilets, confident that I drank enough hot chocolate.
And just before buckling up my pants, realised that I forgot something - to use the test tab.

I'm 51kg.