Gestational age: 39 weeks
Weight: -.5 pound
Total weight gain: 26 pounds
BP: 122/70
Fetal Heart Rate: 145
Dilation: 4.5 cm
This past week has been interesting. Last Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday I had a lot of strong Braxton Hicks contractions in the evenings. In fact, on Saturday night, they started off pretty small and got progressively stronger and closer together. At around 8:30 they were 6 minutes apart and stayed that way for about an hour. If I was a first time mom I might have made Forrest take me to the hospital. Even though I knew they were not quite the real deal - they were getting closer in pain to what I know they should be. After talking with Forrest - I realized that all of our main kid watching people were out of town for the weekend - Bellingham participating in the Ski to Sea race, Wenatchee and Lake Oswego. Um... crap. I called my mom and she willing agreed to come up Sunday morning (we found some other friends willing to help us out Saturday night if need be - and Forrest's parents know that they are "on call" at all times). My mom arrived around noon on Sunday and left Monday around 5. I had approximately 3 contractions the entire time she was here.
Today I woke up not feeling well. I haven't been hungry all day and I am exhausted. I have taken two naps while letting my children watch tv. I walked into my doctor's appointment almost convinced that there had to have been some progress over the week and that she would just send me to the hospital. 1/2 a cm is not enough progress and I am back home. My doctor was surprised to see me this week - she had been on call Thursday and Friday and kept waiting for me to walk into the hospital. She is willing to induce me this Thursday, but I'm not quite ready to go that road yet. (Interesting side note - according to my last period, I will be 39 weeks on Thursday. On all her early ultrasounds - baby measured 5 days ahead of my LMP -which makes way more sense of when I think she was conceived - which would have been 39 weeks on Sunday. I choose Tuesdays as my weekly date - so that I would be inbetween both.)
I am actually pretty comfortable at the moment. I am having a hard time sleeping - because my hips end up hurting and I spend a lot of time flip flopping in bed. I haven't hit that "I'm done with pregnancy" phase yet - so while I would love for Baby girl to make her appearance, I am not quite ready to induce to get her out. My doctor knows that I want to avoid pitocin and would be willing to just break my water and see if that gets my body to go into labor, but there is no guarantee that it would work, and then pitocin might need to be used anyway. So, we will wait. And I will enjoy my two big kiddos - who were pretty disappointed that the baby wasn't coming out today.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
38 weeks
Stats on May 21st, 2013
Gestational age: 38 weeks
Weight: -.5 pounds (Gotta love losing weight when you are pregnant!)
Total weight gain: 26 pounds
Dilation: 4cm
Last night I started having some pretty strong Braxton Hicks contractions. Strong enough that they were slightly painful, but nothing that made me stop what I was doing to get through them. I had the dilemma of going to sit on my exercise ball (which usually gets my contractions going) or go watch tv and lay down. I chose to lay down since Forrest is sick. I would like my husband to not be feeling like death while I am trying to labor naturally. The contractions eased a bit, but continued through the night. Today they have been every 10-15 minutes.
While I know that being 4 cm dilated means absolutely nothing - I did come home from my appointment and finish packing my hospital bag - just in case. Squirt is lower than she was a week ago, but my cervix is still pretty long. Our plan is to head to the hospital as soon as I have 3-4 regular contractions in a row due to how fast Selah's labor was (4 hours total) and I want to be ready.
I am feeling pretty fantastic. Squirt moves frequently and I love to watch my belly rolling and contorting with her movements. She doesn't have the hiccups very frequently, but it is always funny to me to feel them in my hip/butt when she does. I am getting up 1-2 times a night to pee, but honestly it doesn't bother me. That first middle of the night pee is my favorite - because it feels like a normal non-pregnant pee. Getting back to sleep is a chore, but I'll deal for the next few weeks or days. :)
Forrest and I have narrowed down Squirt's name to 2. We don't have a middle name yet, but I am pretty sure I know what it will be. The kids are starting to get really excited about her arrival. Selah keeps asking when I am going to leave them so they can go to a friend's house. They also ask interesting questions like "How is she going to come out of your bottom?" "Are these (my boobs) full of milk yet?" "How do they get full of milk?" It is pretty entertaining.
We are just waiting for Squirt to make her arrival. Will I make it through Memorial Day weekend? Will she be a May baby or a June baby? How big will she be? Is she going to look like her siblings or be completely different. Can't wait to find out!
Gestational age: 38 weeks
Weight: -.5 pounds (Gotta love losing weight when you are pregnant!)
Total weight gain: 26 pounds
Dilation: 4cm
Last night I started having some pretty strong Braxton Hicks contractions. Strong enough that they were slightly painful, but nothing that made me stop what I was doing to get through them. I had the dilemma of going to sit on my exercise ball (which usually gets my contractions going) or go watch tv and lay down. I chose to lay down since Forrest is sick. I would like my husband to not be feeling like death while I am trying to labor naturally. The contractions eased a bit, but continued through the night. Today they have been every 10-15 minutes.
While I know that being 4 cm dilated means absolutely nothing - I did come home from my appointment and finish packing my hospital bag - just in case. Squirt is lower than she was a week ago, but my cervix is still pretty long. Our plan is to head to the hospital as soon as I have 3-4 regular contractions in a row due to how fast Selah's labor was (4 hours total) and I want to be ready.
I am feeling pretty fantastic. Squirt moves frequently and I love to watch my belly rolling and contorting with her movements. She doesn't have the hiccups very frequently, but it is always funny to me to feel them in my hip/butt when she does. I am getting up 1-2 times a night to pee, but honestly it doesn't bother me. That first middle of the night pee is my favorite - because it feels like a normal non-pregnant pee. Getting back to sleep is a chore, but I'll deal for the next few weeks or days. :)
Forrest and I have narrowed down Squirt's name to 2. We don't have a middle name yet, but I am pretty sure I know what it will be. The kids are starting to get really excited about her arrival. Selah keeps asking when I am going to leave them so they can go to a friend's house. They also ask interesting questions like "How is she going to come out of your bottom?" "Are these (my boobs) full of milk yet?" "How do they get full of milk?" It is pretty entertaining.
We are just waiting for Squirt to make her arrival. Will I make it through Memorial Day weekend? Will she be a May baby or a June baby? How big will she be? Is she going to look like her siblings or be completely different. Can't wait to find out!
Monday, May 06, 2013
36 weeks
Stats on 5/6/13
Gestational age: 35 weeks, 6 days
Weight: + 2 pounds.
Total weight gain: 23 pounds
BP: 118/80
Fetal movement: Squirt likes to spin and move and kick her feet out right below my ribs
Baby's heartrate: 128
Dilation: 1.5 cm
Today I had an ultrasound to check on baby's growth and fluid levels. One of the concerns of people with blood clotting disorders and on Lovenox is that the placenta can start throwing little clots and there can be low fluid levels. My fluid is on the normal to slightly high side so that is fantastic. Squirt is currently head down (yay!) and in an excellent position for labor. Her butt is on my right side with her feet kicking out towards the left. They are estimating that she is currently 6 pound 6 ounces - but that can be off by up to a pound either direction. Most likely she will be my biggest baby (Eph was 6 pounds 12 ounces and Selah was 7 pounds 11 ounces) at around 8 pounds. The ultrasound tech was unable to get me any pictures of Squirt's face - she is pretty tucked into her position around my right hip and wasn't being cooperative.
I was a little surprised to be 1.5 cm dilated already - I haven't had any regular braxton hicks for over a week. I know that it means absolutely nothing for when I will go into labor - but it is nice to be progressing without being in any pain. If I can get to 4 or 5 cm without actually being in labor (just like with Selah) that would be fantastic. I asked if 3rd babies come faster or slower than their siblings and was told by my doctor that it is a crap shoot and it can go either way. Selah's labor was 4 hours start to finish and I would love for Squirt's to be the same. I will be switching to heparin on Thursday. My doctor gave me a two week prescription so that if I do go into labor before then that I won't have a stockpile of unneeded heparin.
My doctor also told me I didn't need to write up a birth plan. My desires for this labor are - no pitocin, no epidural and minimal amount of monitoring. Of course - if baby or mommy shows any sign of distress then everything gets thrown out the window and we do what we need to do. Pretty simple birth plan, and I trust myself and Forrest to make informed decisions and share what we want with the hospital staff.
Next appointment is in a week!
Gestational age: 35 weeks, 6 days
Weight: + 2 pounds.
Total weight gain: 23 pounds
BP: 118/80
Fetal movement: Squirt likes to spin and move and kick her feet out right below my ribs
Baby's heartrate: 128
Dilation: 1.5 cm
Today I had an ultrasound to check on baby's growth and fluid levels. One of the concerns of people with blood clotting disorders and on Lovenox is that the placenta can start throwing little clots and there can be low fluid levels. My fluid is on the normal to slightly high side so that is fantastic. Squirt is currently head down (yay!) and in an excellent position for labor. Her butt is on my right side with her feet kicking out towards the left. They are estimating that she is currently 6 pound 6 ounces - but that can be off by up to a pound either direction. Most likely she will be my biggest baby (Eph was 6 pounds 12 ounces and Selah was 7 pounds 11 ounces) at around 8 pounds. The ultrasound tech was unable to get me any pictures of Squirt's face - she is pretty tucked into her position around my right hip and wasn't being cooperative.
I was a little surprised to be 1.5 cm dilated already - I haven't had any regular braxton hicks for over a week. I know that it means absolutely nothing for when I will go into labor - but it is nice to be progressing without being in any pain. If I can get to 4 or 5 cm without actually being in labor (just like with Selah) that would be fantastic. I asked if 3rd babies come faster or slower than their siblings and was told by my doctor that it is a crap shoot and it can go either way. Selah's labor was 4 hours start to finish and I would love for Squirt's to be the same. I will be switching to heparin on Thursday. My doctor gave me a two week prescription so that if I do go into labor before then that I won't have a stockpile of unneeded heparin.
My doctor also told me I didn't need to write up a birth plan. My desires for this labor are - no pitocin, no epidural and minimal amount of monitoring. Of course - if baby or mommy shows any sign of distress then everything gets thrown out the window and we do what we need to do. Pretty simple birth plan, and I trust myself and Forrest to make informed decisions and share what we want with the hospital staff.
Next appointment is in a week!
Friday, May 03, 2013
Mariners Game
I love to watch baseball. On the top of my list of things to do before Squirt makes her appearance was to go to a Mariners game. We were able to go to a game last Saturday. It was bat night for all kids under 14, the game started at 6:10 and Felix Hernandez was pitching - triple win.
Ephraim was very excited in the car.
Selah - not so much.
We bought the cheapest tickets that we could, which ended up being in the very last row in the 345 section. At first I wasn't happy with our seats - but really they were perfect. The kids had room to walk around a little bit, and Selah could turn and look at the Port of Seattle and the big boats when she was bored with the game.
The view from our seats. Ephraim paid good attention to the game and has been practicing bunting at home "like the guy at the game."
The kids did fantastic. They made it through the whole game, danced to the music and loved cheering when we got a home run.
I am so glad that we were able to check this off of my list. Hopefully we will get in another game after Squirt is born.
Ephraim was very excited in the car.
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