Tuesday, August 28, 2012

She's almost here!

Well it has been another few months since the last pregnancy update, so figured it was time for another!  I am 38 weeks along today.  I feel like a worthless lump.  Making a baby is hard.  I don't remember it being so hard the first time.  Although with the first time, I wasn't trying to keep up with a three year old either. 

I'll start with an update on the baby.  I first felt her move during the first week of April (17 weeks) and felt her move from the outside on May 12th (at 22 weeks).  But the movements were few and far between.  As the weeks went on, I was concerned and told my doctor about it.  I know babies are all different, and some move more than others, but still. During the ultrasound (on June 25th, 29 weeks), he agreed that she didn't move a whole lot.  So he gave me two HUGE glasses of water to drink and a handful of Hershey's kisses.  Then they set me up on the fetal monitors to track her movements.  It took a while, but I guess eventually the chocolate made it to her system, because she started moving around quite a bit.  Doctor looked at the results that printed out and said she was fine. Phew!


July 21st - at 32 weeks pregnant and also our 5 and 10 year anniversary.

So fast forward a few weeks... At 32 weeks, I went in for another appointment and the doctor said her tummy was measuring small.  (On the plus side though, her head was measuring HUGE.)  So this was concerning for us.  He said he wanted me to come in weekly to keep an eye on tummy (or "abdomen," if you're a grown up. Happy, Nate?) growth. He said this could indicate that growth is not being distributed properly. The next week, he said that the tummy still looked small, but was in the normal range. (Also, head is still huge - like, 97th percentile huge.)   And now, after keeping an eye on it, he seems less concerned and said that the baby is little, but has a big head.  Nate said she is going to look like a lollipop when she comes out.  I was not amused.  At my appointment yesterday, he guessed her to be around 5.5 - 6 lbs. What a difference from Elizabeth!  I was worried about how big she was going to be!  Now with this one, we are concerned with her being too little.  Whatever though.  My babies are perfect no matter their size. :)

Last week, my amniotic fluid was a little low, at 7.25.  I guess normal is 8.0 and REALLY low, like, you need to be induced right now, is 5.0.  Also, just like her sister, this baby thinks she needs to accessorize with the umbilical cord around her neck.  Although it is just draped over her shoulders (like a stethoscope), where Elizabeth had her's all wrapped around her neck.  So the doctor started talking about the possibility of inducing at 39 weeks.  He wanted me to come in twice this week to check on the fluid levels.  So yesterday was my first of these appointments.  And the amniotic fluid was up to 9 something!  Such a relief.  And the cord is still just draped around her shoulders.  So based on yesterday's appointment, we are now leaning towards not inducing next week and just letting her come naturally.  We'll see what happens at my appointment on Thursday...

I'm in a fairly constant level of discomfort, to say the least.  When this baby isn't rolling around on my bladder, she is punching me in the cervix. My heart burn still sucks.  My lower back /  tail bone on the right side has hurt for a few months, but in the last 4-5 days, it has hurt really bad.  It feels like something is out of place.  Sometimes it has been hard (or harder) to walk (waddle?).  My pubic bone hurts and pops unpleasantly when I move around, especially at night.  Breathing is difficult.  I can't find a comfortable position to sit or lay in that helps me breath easier.  OH, and something that is extra helpful with the breathing?  I have broncitis.  I have been coughing constantly for almost 3 weeks now.  These last few days it does finally seem to be getting better.  I'm still coughing, but not as much and not with as much force.  Fun!

And the lack of movement issue that we were having earlier in the pregnancy?  Gone.  She moves all the time.  And kicks, punches, squirms, wiggles her toes up under my ribs.  It is usually awesome and sometimes painful.  But mostly awesome.

We are pretty excited to meet our baby girl!  Elizabeth is pretty excited too.  She keeps asking when baby sister is going to knock on my tummy and tell us she wants out.  Soon!  So very soon!