G'day from WA

Humpback flipper, originally uploaded by Racmol.

Well, we all survived our jaunt to Western Australia. At least two of us are bigger than when we left and one is a lot more wriggly but the important point is - no DVTs.

At 12.45 and 5am today, I was wondering if the baby had jetlag, when I remembered the helpful pie chart in The Pregnancy Bible called 'Waking and Sleeping Patterns of a Newborn'. It's in two different shades of orange (crying and feeding) and green (sleeping). There is a large orange wedge between midnight and 3 am and another one from 4 to 6 am. Then it says 'Your baby does not know or care about your normal sleeping patterns.'

But I digress. We had a good time in WA, even though Jules had to buy a polarfleece on day 2. We swam in the sea three times - twice because it was hot and once in the Southern Ocean at dusk in a moment of insanity just to say we'd done it.

We saw a lot of wildlife - this particular humpback came to visit the whalewatching boat we were on but we also saw them from the shore at Cape Naturaliste. Plus kangaroos and big lizards and random emus at the side of the road and a wide selection of parrots in the national parks.

Yawn - fading fast and it's only 9 pm. Watch this space for Friday Wombat Blogging.

Fetal anomalies, goo and mutterings

We went for the fetal anomaly scan today. Apparently the baby is very active and the following appear to be normal: heart, head, face, spine, neck and skin, chest, abdominal wall, gastro-intestinal tract, kidneys and bladder, extremities, skeleton. They're going to have another look in three weeks, just to make sure.

There were three doctors at the scan, one of whom seemed to be there specifically to look at the heart. They examined that for about ten minutes, muttering under their breath the whole time, then breezily declared it all looked normal. By that time, I was imagining open-heart surgery at six weeks...

It has a smaller than average head and abdomen and longer than average arms and legs. It is already sucking its thumb, and is lying the wrong way up, but it's a bit early to be worrying about that.

No pictures this time - will order some at the next one on 3 November.