38 weeks 4 days

Why is everything just so hard!? haha I've been debating on whether or not I want to start my maternity leave a little early. I'm having a hard time focusing and getting anything done at work and half the time I come home early because I can hardly keep my eyes open. I even fell asleep the other day on the lunch room couch!! (Why was I even lying down on the lunch room couch you ask? Because I just couldn't sit at my desk anymore, I needed to lie down!)

As of Friday there was no change - still just 2 cm dilated. The doctor said that my placenta has some calcium deposits which tends to be more common at the end of a pregnancy. It means that the placenta is starting to weaken a little. He said it wasn't all that bad and nothing to be concerned about. If it was to happen mid-pregnancy than it would definitely be a concern. I asked my doctor about when he would induce me (if necessary). Because of my BP issues he doesn't want me to go over my May 5th due date. So I think if there is still no change at my Friday appointment (April 29th - 39 weeks 1 day) than we'll schedule an induction for the following week (the week of my due date). This is the LAST thing I want. I really want to go into labor naturally. He did say that we'll induce sooner if the baby is showing signs of stress or my BP starts to increase too much.

My appointment is at 10:30 tomorrow morning, think they'll be any change? I haven't noticed any contractions the past couple of days. Although sometimes I think the Braxton Hicks contractions can go unnoticed. My appetite has been insane! And by looking at these pictures you will notice that my belly is also insane! Sometimes I don't think that it feels that big, but other days I'm like "holy crap, who put this here". :)

Nursery and Belly Update

The nursery pics above include when friends of ours helped paint the room a few months ago. Everything seems to be in its place now we're just waiting for the little lady to get here.

I ended up having an ultrasound at my doctor's appointment today. The baby weighs about 7 1/2 pounds and if I go until my due date she will definitely weigh more than 9 pounds! She looks great though. I'm still 2cm dilated - no change there. (boooo) I could still "go" at anytime though! Fortunately, my blood pressure has been staying relatively low. My weight gain is a little more than I had hoped for - 32 pounds. Not much I can do at this point! And the time has come to say I've got stretch marks. Yes - on the underneath part of my belly. It makes me very sad. The first 3/4 of my pregnancy I felt like things were *perfect*. I was loving every second of it. Then this past month things got "hard". Physically I'm tired, but emotionally I'm like on a crazy roller coaster and it's not fun. The weight gain started to bother me and more recently the stretch marks made their grand entrance! I can admit to the constipation, the extra gas, or even the extra "discharge"! but to admit I have stretch marks is uncomfortable for me. sigh*


Once our little girl is here I'm sure these stretch marks and this weight gain will be the furthest thing from my mind. The stretch marks I can only hope will fade quickly. I plan to breastfeed which tends to burn a lot of extra calories so I don't feel I'll have trouble getting the weight to come off.

37 Weeks I'm ready I'm ready I'm ready

This weeks Doctor's appointment went fairly well. Tuesday my BP was a little high. My first reading was 128/86. The nurses did a second reading after I finished up my appointment and it got higher - 136/92! The Doctor debated on increasing my medicine which was the last thing I wanted, but he decided to wait and see what it would be like Friday. Fortunately on Friday it was a little lower at 130/82 so still no increase in my med's - thank God! On Friday I was 2 cm dilated and 50% thinned out (effaced). YAY! Yes, I know I could be 2 cm for weeks, but I'm excited just the same. I'm hoping maybe things have changed a little by my Tuesday appointment.

Tomorrow night I have my breastfeeding class from about 6-8:30. I'm not super excited about going - it's going to make for a very long day.

Tim and I went out shopping today and picked up a few more baby things. The baby's room is ready. My bag is packed. I wanted to make a couple more dinner things to freeze, but I just didn't have the energy left to do it this weekend. O well! Guess that means my family will have to make us stuff! :)

36 Weeks - Time for Child Ed Classes!

No, they don't call it Lamaze class anymore. We do go over breathing exercises though among many other things like the birthing process, child care after the baby is born, we get a tour of the labor area/nursery, pain meds, and we talk about the questions we have. We also got a ton informational stuff. Yesterday was our first class, 12-5 and today we have another class 12-5 and then there is one more class Monday, April 18th from about 6-8:30 and that class goes over just breastfeeding. Most of the class yesterday kind of went over stuff we already knew, but I'm still happy we're taking the class. There are 10 other couples in the class -"interesting" couples. The instructor is really great! She's really animated which makes most everything funny - at one point Tim and I were the only ones laughing and we both had to make a conscious effort to stop! :) I guess not EVERYONE finds her as funny as we do.

My Dr's appointments this past week went well. Everything seems to be staying right around "normal". I'm noticing some swelling in my feet and legs. Right now my feet look better - ankle bone has reappeared and my toes will spread a part again. My hands also look a little less vienna sausage like. I wonder how long this will last?

Less than 4 weeks to go until our due date. I think we're pretty much ready - with the word ready used very loosely. There are still a couple of things I'd like to get before she gets here, but they are not "must haves". I'd like to get a few meals cooked and in the freezer so when we get home we have some dinners that will be easy to thaw and reheat. I did make some banana bread and blueberry muffins so far. Next weekend I'll probably make a larger grocery run and get some things made up.

My hospital bag is almost ready. I need to get some stuff together for Tim (not that he can't pack for himself, but there are some things I don't think he'll consider to pack). I'm going to be a Mom - I think I'm getting scared!

35 weeks - Ultrasound!!

We had another ultrasound today! It went really well! Our little girl is weighing in at 6 lbs 4 oz. They measured her limbs and those seem proportionate to her size so that's good. Her organs look good, she did what they call 'practice' breathing, and she's in the head down position (which she was at the last ultrasound too, 3 weeks ago). We say her sucking on her fingers and open up her mouth. She has hair!! We weren't able to get a picture of her full face, but we did get some good profile pictures. She's got chubby little cheeks that I plan to squeeze as soon as she gets here! The last ultrasound pic is of her hand! She had her fingers spread right out.
Everything else looked good as well - my BP was 118/78 and my weight and urine looked good too! On Tuesday I had the Group B Strep test done and it came back positive. About 25% of woman have Group B Strep as one of the bacteria's in their vagina and I just happen to fall into that category. This means I'll need to have an IV of antibiotics during delivery. If I don't there is a chance I could pass the Strep onto the baby during delivering and she could get very sick.
Hopefully she decides to come a little a early so that way I'm not delivering a 10 pound baby! She's going to continue to average about 1/2 pound weight gain for the next 5 weeks. I had a couple of dreams last night about delivery and having her here. One of them I don't remember much about, but I do remember the due date being April 21st or 22nd! Wouldn't that be crazy if that really happened? The other one I think was a due date of April 1st (today!) and in the dream I remembered me asking Tim a ton of questions because I couldn't remember anything about the birth of the baby. In the dream it just seemed like she was all of a sudden here, but he remembered everything about the birth - weird.

I think I swallowed a basketball!