36 week appointment

We went yesterday and seems like the 24 hour rest is helping. I really haven’t progressed much since last week which is a good thing. I am a little over 1 dilated and still 80% effaced. She said my cervix is “really really soft” which still means labor can start anytime. Baby was still really low. My doctor is out of the office next week so Karlis and I feel fairly certain we will probably go into labor then, just our luck. We mentioned this to her and she said we better not cause it would still be too early. So Karlis for some strange reason said he could tie me upside down to the ceiling fan and that would help. Anyone know the weight limit for a ceiling fan? Something tells me I wouldn’t qualify these days. Speaking of Karlis he has been on a roll lately with saying things wrong. He asked me this week if I wanted some turkey bacon “crusty” instead of “crispy”. I told him I would pass on crusty bacon. We also have a quilt we use often that for some reason has developed some large rips in it (I have absolutely no idea why). My mom told him she might be able to get it sewn together at the home ec department at her school. Karlis asked me last night why my mom hadn’t taken the quilt to the “home wreck” department. Which I thought was a little ironic since this is exactly what this group is working against. He also visited a school lately and I asked what they had for lunch since that is the business I am in. He said it was a corndog and a cup full of jelly. I was like you have to be kidding. That makes no sense. He said yep it was jelly because HE saw it. After further discussion I figured out he meant jell-o. Going to get really interesting with a little one around. There is no telling what words she will learn from her daddy. Ok, so back to the baby topic. One interesting thing from the appointment was I finally got up the nerve to ask her just how big I was measuring. I am measuring at 41 weeks, yep my poor body looks like I am officially a week past due and we really have 4 more weeks to go. Karlis managed to tell me on two different occasions yesterday “you are huge”. Thanks sweetie, love you too! The hugeness really isn’t a problem until it is time to lie down flat and sleep. Gravity is not on my side these days. I keep picturing a big pool of warm water. I feel like this is where I would be the most comfortable. Unfortunately we have no pool in our back yard. So I will continue to drag my body in and out of the bed. This process comes with many not so desirable sound effects of breathing heavy, moaning, maybe a few cuss words (it’s the middle of the night, give me a break). Therefore Karlis has recently told me he feels like he is sleeping with a “dude”. Thanks honey, love you too!
So that’s where we are. We go back on Tuesday for another check by some strange doctor I don’t know. Can’t wait!

Dates, Facts, Figures

So we got a lot of information yesterday. First off our little cheeseburger has become a Big Mac. At 35 weeks yesterday the average baby weighs around 5.25 pounds. Our little one weighed 6.5 pounds. She is around 80% for her weight compared to other babies. For those that have seen me I am sure you are not surprised by this. I asked if I was measuring big and she just said a very defiant “yes”, which once again I think we all knew. She did say my amniotic fluid level was 19 which at this point can be anywhere from 11-27 so maybe some of my size is due to fluid. Or just a big baby. I have thinned or effaced 80% and I am dilated to 1 cm. She said IF we make it until June she will induce me on June 10 due to the baby’s size. They will do an ultrasound on June 9 just to make sure she is still a big baby and see if she is too big to have her naturally. My doctor said at around 9 ½ pounds she starts considering a c-section instead but it all depends on how my pelvis looks at the time also. Maybe my body will be ready to deliver a baby that big or maybe not, who knows. I asked about her lungs and she said they treat that up until 34 weeks so I have passed that mark. She said currently she would have a 3% chance of her lungs being underdeveloped which isn’t bad. One interesting thing is the baby is still really really low which attributes to a lot of the pain I have when sitting straight up. When the tech did the ultrasound to get a measurement of her head it was almost impossible. She just kept saying I don’t think I can get this. Then she put the little wand thing on top of my pubic bone and was able to get part of her head. To get the rest she actually put the wand in my groin…..Seriously how low can a baby be that you have to almost measure my thighs? (should maybe my knees really be preparing for birth? could explain the joint pain) I had no idea she could just be a few inches from the world. Looks like she is ready to come even if we aren’t. The last thing my doctor said to us was that she was on call this weekend so if she comes she would be delivering her. So I think we are all in agreement that she could be on her way any minute.

We did get a few pictures of her little face. The tech lady made a comment that she had such full lips, so looks like she might already have something of her daddy’s. In a couple of them she looks like she is pouting, already a little drama going on. So I am still at home resting the days away trying to keep her in a little longer. We will keep everyone posted if anything changes.

Further Development

I got up around midnight on Sunday night to go the bathroom and I guess I lost my mucous plug. It was kind of weird and a little gross at the same time. It was a lot of mucous and a little blood in the actual “plug” part. I called Karlis in the bathroom and showed him and he starred at it and said “what the hell is that”. My words exactly at the time. So I called my doctor at 8:00. She happens to be off on Mondays so I got the on-call doctor and told her. She said that someone usually has to be at least 2 cm dilated before this can happen. She said I didn't have to come in because at this point if I go into labor they will not stop me which is a little surprising since I was just at 34 1/2 weeks. She said to rest all the time and drink plenty of fluids. I talked to my regular nurse again before we hung up and I said I would see her on Wednesday at my regular appointment and she was quiet for a second. I thought maybe I had said the day wrong and then she said "well if you don't have a baby by then" and that is when I fainted. ;)

I have made it until today and still no baby (thank goodness). We still have things that we need before she comes home but it is kind of hard when you have to be resting all the time. Karlis can go by himself but I kind of wanted to pick some of these last minute things out too. Plus the thought of him in Babies R Us alone is frightening. I am afraid he won’t come back home, I will never see him again and he will move to the Bahamas or something. So not sure what to do on getting those things.

My contractions are increasing everyday but not to some crazy amount. They come and go but sometimes it will be hours before I have one. It also depends on how much activity I am doing. And activity these days is taking a shower or walking up and down the stairs just one time. Not much at all but it makes me have them.

A new symptom that has developed within the last couple of weeks seems to be getting worse as we get closer. My knee joints started killing me awhile back and I just thought I was going nuts. Getting out of the recliner was/is painful. I just ignored it and figured it would go away. I was wrong. It got worse and now my finger joints hurt. I knew that as you got closer to labor things start to loosen up by some hyped up hormones in your body. I guess the main reason they do this is to get your pelvis loose and spreading. What I didn’t realize is that my body would get confused and prepare to have her via my knees and if that doesn’t work my fingers seem to be back up. I really can’t blame my body because we forced it to do something that it didn’t want to do naturally on its own so it is doing the best it can. Plus it’s always good to have a back up method in case a vaginal birth doesn’t work out. :O)

So it’s back to the doctor tomorrow. I assume we will still get her weight and now see how much I have dilated. I also want to check with my doctor about taking something to help develop her lungs. I will be 35 weeks tomorrow so I know she still has some developing to do. Guess we will see!

Still not so good

I was a little anxious about the appointment today because I started having contractions on Sunday. The only thing that would ease them is laying down for awhile. They felt like really really bad menstrual cramps with back pain and then the pressure and contracting of my uterus. Men truly have no idea what they are missing. So today my doctor examined me again with her go-go gadget expandable arm. A week ago today at 2.4 cm my cervix was considered to have thinned 30% or I was 30% effaced. Today it had thinned 70% or I am 70% effaced so I lost 50% in a week which is a little scary. Good thing is I have not started dilating. Everything is still closed but she said things are really starting to soften. She also seemed a little baffled as to how low the baby is. She mentioned it 3 times and then would just sit there and tap her nails on the desk like she was pondering over it. I guess there is nothing to correct this but it sure hurts. I had told them I was having tons of pressure so I guess this is why. They hooked me up to a monitor for 20 minutes to monitor any contractions and see the baby’s activity. I knew I wasn’t haven’t any at the time so it didn’t show any when they were done. What it did show was this active “crazy” baby. It sounded just like the Kentucky Derby was taking place in the room. Her heartbeat was like a gallop and went from 135 to 160 and then she got the hiccups. We heard those for a good 10 minutes. A couple of nurses came in the room and said she was a rowdy, noisy baby. So even though my body is struggling to contain her she is having a great time. So I am to continue 24 hour rest until we go back next Wednesday. My doctor seemed anxious to get a weight of the baby and then she said we would decide what to do next. I have no idea what that means.

On top of our broken washing machine our microwave has also died. We can’t seem to catch a break in the home department. But one good thing…..we finally have a bed! So tonight we might be able to spend a night back in our bedroom for the first time in a month. It will feel like we are at a hotel. As far as sleeping do things ever change in that department. I wish I could sleep in the water. This seems like it would be so much easier than trying to roll over from side to side. Plus I finally took a count of how many bathroom breaks I need in the night and I had to go 8 times. About 1 hour of sleep is all I am managing to do at one interval. This leads me to wonder if our body’s do this to us so getting up all night with the baby will not be as big of a shock. Kind of makes sense. Okay until next time.