Everything looks good to go still. Her head is not quite as low as it was in previous weeks, but it still seems to be down, which is a good thing. I hope she doesn’t get up and moving around in there and throw a “breech” into the mix! That would NOT be good!!!
She’s still measuring good and growing, but when I asked about my weight for Marti, the doc said I still need to gain some more weight. I’m doing what I can without just packing on FAT for the sake of gaining weight. It’s hard because eating after work leads to acid reflux at night, so it’s a trade off. As long as she’s still growing and I’m eating pretty healthy food, I’m not too concerned. Marti says I look like I’ve personally lost a little weight, so I figure the baby is getting it from me one way or another.
Yesterday was my 36 week check up and I start going in every week now. I also started the twice weekly monitoring sessions which is just them tracking the baby’s heartbeat and checking me for contractions for about a half hour. To me, while I’m sitting there, it’s just a LOUD broadcast of my baby’s heartbeat combined with a record scratching sound every time she moves around and the machine gets way too much sound out of there! A little slip of paper comes out with a graph on it and I guess that is the accelerations of the heart, so they get not only the rate, but additional info as well.
They also check for my personal activity, but so far they didn’t pick any up. No contractions, in other words. I know my belly gets hard, but I told the doc I think that’s me bracing against her moving around because it hurts. I figured if I can relax my belly if I TRY, then it’s NOT a contraction. I just choose not to relax. If I do, it feels like she’s going to split some of my muscles pry her way out my abdomen wall.
For the record, the nurse that took the paper strip away then came back to unhook me said my baby looks beautiful, so everything read well there.
I also mentioned that I am short of breath a lot and it feels like someone is sitting on my chest or even my throat sometimes. She said short of breath is somewhat normal, but pressure on my chest is not. She said go see my regular doctor and he may want to refer me to a cardiologist just to have it checked out and be safe. I’m thinking it’s probably just the way the baby is pushing up into my lungs and the pressure on my wind pipe from everything getting dislodged from its regular position. It’s most likely nothing, but the word “cardiologist” was said in passing.
I put in my notice at work today that I will work 3/25/11 and that will be my last day until I return from maternity leave. I’m starting to get a little uncomfortable, and I can’t imagine it gets any better in the next 3 weeks. I read back on some of the stuff I wrote when I was pregnant with Abby and I think I was downright miserable during the last couple of weeks. No sense in punishing myself and going in to work after my due date. I don’t need to be a hero. Ha ha!
As much as Marti wants to know when she’s coming and plan his leave out, I am still going to try for a VBAC this time and let her decide when she’s going to come. Doc said if she’s not here by her due date, they like to have a c-section planned for a week after (although I can go a LITTLE longer if I want), so I’ll schedule that next time I see her on Thursday. I want to talk to Marti and choose a date first, so I didn’t schedule that yet. Plus, I do think just one week past the due date is still pushing it a little too soon based on what happened with Abby. The doc did say last time that she believes Abby was induced too soon. She was due on the 9th or 10th and they started inducing me on the 13th after the epidural stalled out my natural labor process. We all know how well that (didn’t) work, so as the 14th was coming to a close, I finally agreed to the c-section because after all that, I was physically spent and she wasn’t budging once I finally got to the magical 10 cm.
So, I’d like to see if I go a little bit further past the arbitrary due date, if it makes things kick into gear automatically without all the pitocin and whatnot. Don’t get me wrong – I’m ALL about the epidural when the time comes. But the reason I had the epidural wasn’t because of the contractions last time. I could have held out longer if it were just the contractions – and that is my goal this time.
I guess that’s about it for now. I have Abby’s best friend over for a sleep over tonight before I won’t be able to or want to deal with squeaky 5-year-olds having a blast. I can’t see putting that off much longer, and I can’t see pulling it off until quite a while after the baby comes!
I have a few presents for Abby for the big day and made a list, but haven’t actually packed a bag yet. Marti got the car seat installed in his car. It’s right next to Abby, so they are sort of facing each other, and it leaves room for another adult on one side as well in that configuration.
What else are we forgetting? It still doesn’t seem real to me that we will actually get to have this baby at home in about a month!!!! I’m still waiting for someone to pinch me!
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