We had our 31 week appointment this morning. It was our first two-week visit. If I count correctly, we have 6-7 visits left until the baby's born, and possibly less, if it's early! The appointment went well. I'm measuring at 31 cm, right on target. Blood pressure and urine were good. Best of all, I only gained two pounds! That's the first "normal" weight gain I've had this entire pregnancy! It seems as if the diet changes are working. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. The heartrate was 142. It seems to have settled down in the low 140s now - that's where it has been the last several appointments.
We asked about the on call schedule at the practice. Since there are 6 doctors, it's good to know how they work that. It turns out that it's more or less luck of the draw who is on call from day to day and weekend to weekend. I'm sure they schedule it in advance, but Dr V said there isn't a set on call schedule that can be depended on. I then asked how the other doctors are as far as sharing philosophies about L&D stuff - episiotomies, c-sections, etc. She said they all more or less share the same way of thinking, which doesn't surprise me much I think. I just hope it's an accurate statement!
We also asked Dr V if she had any recommendations of pediatricians, since lately that's been near the top of my list of things to take care of. She described the practice she takes her son to, which happens to be very near us. She said it's been great - weekend hours, separate sick and well waiting rooms, fantastic doctors, and so on. I asked the name of the practice and surprise, surprise, it's the same practice that I've had other people recommend to me. So, I think that's the one we'll go with. Haven't decided yet if we'll interview individual pediatricians or just pick on. I need to call on Monday and find out what we need to do to get in with them and how that works. I just hope they are taking new patients!
Oh, and congratulations to Debby for leaving the 100th comment!
By the end of the day yesterday I was in agony, or awfully close to it, and all because of my pants. At least, that's what I'll blame it on for now. They have officially grown too small - or I too large, however you want to look at it. The place where the stretchy band meets the normal fabric was cutting into my lower abdomen right at the bladder/pubic bone level when I was sitting, and boy did that hurt. I was having almost cramplike feelings, very similar to the hint of cramps I get when my period is just starting, only lower down. The pain was relieved by standing up or otherwise relieving the pressure on my tummy, but even then I was uncomfortable.
Apart from pants, it is possible that the crampy pain is also caused by a urinary tract infection. I've been having symptoms off and on for a few days, but since I've never had one of these before I wasn't sure if what I was feeling was that or something else or whatever. So when this morning I continued to have the crampy pain after a whole night of pantslessness, I decided a call to the doctor was in order, since I know crampy pain is not a good thing in pregnancy. After a bunch of phone tag, I finally got to talk to a nurse (the same nurse I talked to last week after my fall) and she said to stop by and leave a urine sample at the lab and they'd have the results by Friday's appointment. She also said that Dr. V wanted to phone a prescription to the pharmacy that I should start taking right away "just in case." So I stopped at the lab on the way home from work and later we picked up the prescription. Normally I wouldn't start taking it until I had the results of the test back, but since UTIs can contribute to preterm labor and because the crampy pain has continued off and on all day and is really icky, I decided to go ahead and start it. It goes against my nature to take antibiotics in the first place, let alone while pregnant, but for the baby, I'll do just about anything. Which seems contradictory, since the baby will also be getting this drug... bah, I don't know. If I think about it too much I'll be upset.
I posted a new belly pic tonight. It's on the Page O Bumps (thanks to Lisa for the inspiration on that name!).
Already another week has passed! Today we're 31 weeks. The counter timeline on BabyCenter is getting perilously short. I remember being thrilled when I tipped over the middle point at 20 weeks, and now we're barreling headlong into the end. Somehow a whole 10 weeks just up and disappeared!
Over the weekend we did a bunch of baby stuff - Jason put together the crib while I worked some more on cleaning and organizing the upstairs. We got everything to the point where pictures could be taken. They aren't exciting, and probably not the final arrangement of everything, since as of right now it's a little cramped. Actually, it's always going to be cramped, but I think we can use the space more efficiently. So, to see how things are now, go here to see our "nursery." There's also a link to the left under Pregnancy Pictures.
This weekend I also did some housekeeping on the the site. I put all the belly pictures on one page, and I finally -- it only took me 8 months! -- did something with the archives template so the archives look like the rest of the site.
I'm doing real well overall, just the same ol' complaints - hips, low back, feet. The usual. Fortunately heartburn isn't a constant thing, though I keep expecting it to get worse any day. So far it hasn't. I am awfully tired these days, though. It doesn't help that right now I've got a mild cold. It's just a sinus thing, really. I have never felt completely sick with this, just annoyingly not well. But it is sapping my energy, which is a feat of epic proportions seeing as how for the past few weeks I've had very little energy to spare for sapping or any other purpose.
I'm getting awfully anxious to be done with work. I haven't decided yet when my last day will be. I want to stay as long as possible, but that will depend on everything staying normal with the pregnancy. So, assuming that, and assuming the baby doesn't come sooner, maybe March 26? (No, I lied. I want to quit NOW, but if I want us ever to buy a house, I have to keep working as close to when the baby comes as possible. Harrumph.)
We start our childbirth classes in two weeks! Although it seems a little far off, I'm sure it'll be here in no time.
I am, without a doubt, pregnant. I have a distinct, undeniable pregnant waddle, noticeable most especially when I'm tired or have been sitting down for a while. My low back hurts. All the time. My feet hurt. All the time. My belly shifts and leaps about all of its own accord. I have to pee pretty much all the time, and with increasing frequency, when I actually go, there's little there to expel. I can no longer put my shoes and socks on or take them off without much to-do -- or without the help of my lovely, darling husband. Rolling over in bed is a big to-do all its own and takes much thought and maneuvering. If I sleep longer than two hours at a stretch without waking up to pee or because of pain in my hips, I am surprised and delighted.
Yep, that's pregnancy. Everyone said this would happen, and now look. It has. I couldn't be happier.
We met with the second doula candidate last night. She was very different from the first. She was younger (younger than us, even!) and more outgoing and assertive. She is also a whole lot less experienced - working toward her certification, instead of certified with 65+ births under her belt.
I didn't feel quite as comfortable with her as with the first one, but her assertiveness is something that both Jason and I really liked. We felt she'd be really good at speaking up when something was going on that went against our wishes (assuming it wasn't actually necessary, of course...). She said that she never spoke up directly to the medical staff either, which is good. We wouldn't want Dr V or the nurses to feel she was getting in the way. Also, I don't think she would have any problems being there with us and offering suggestions of what we might want to try as far as changing positions, etc. (Not saying the first doula would have problems with this - after all, she has done quite a lot of this stuff!)
I keep coming back to not feeling quite as comfortable with her, though. It's not that I felt uneasy around her, or stiff and awkward. It's not that she made me feel embarrassed about having her see me in a vulnerable state. It's not that I felt modest around her, either. I can't put my finger on it, exactly. The closest I can come is that it is the strength of her personality and her assertiveness itself. The feeling that she might wash right over me, if that makes any sense.
That being said, she impressed me as being capable and confident in her abilities. She was recommended to me by another doula who wasn't able to take us as a client - that woman said that this doula was one she would use herself. While I don't personally know that woman, the fact that she would use last night's doula herself says something. Out of all the doulas in the area, she only named a handful.
We have the phone number of one more doula, this one recommended by the first one we talked to. I keep forgetting to bring it to work with me. I think I'd like to meet with her, if she's available for a late March birth. If she isn't, then I am not sure what we'll do. On the one hand, there's Doula 1 who is going to be out of town the two weekends on either side of our due date, and while she can provide backups, that's still far from ideal. On the other hand, there's Doula 2, who lacks experience and I'm not quite as comfotable with -- again, not ideal. Which is the best bet? I'm not sure I know at this point.
I slipped and fell on the ice in our parking lot this morning because of the lovely, incredibly prompt plow and shovel service our apartment complex offers. OK well not because of that, but thanks to at any rate. The because was my own stupid fault for forgetting the ice was there. Anyway. So I fell and landed on my leg. My belly smashed into my leg and hurt like a @#$&$%* for a couple minutes. I called the Dr's office when I got to work and talked to a nurse who said everything should be ok as long as I don't start bleeding (none yet!) or cramping. But now I'm freaking out about every little twinge, because suddenly I'm doubting my ability to tell what's a cramp and what's a normal twinge. Argh.
So that was our welcome to 30 weeks. Happy 30 weeks, us! Ten weeks left until the due date. Countdown time! Of course, the fact that the baby could come in as little as 7 weeks is mighty strange to me. That's so soon! We're not ready! Shannon was telling me the other day that if she has her second as early as she had Fiona (at 36w4d), she'll be delivering in just 3 weeks or so. Yikes. So then I figured out when I'd deliver if I went into labor at that point and it turns out to be on Shannon's due date! Strange, eh?
Saturday afternoon we had our first meeting with a potential doula. It went really well and we liked her a lot. The only problem is that she realized the day before our meeting that she will be out of town on the weekends on either side of our due date. She said she has two people she can use as backups, but that we might want to go with someone else instead of her. She also said she'll just be in Cleveland so if we did go with her and labor started while she was gone she could always come down, but she said that wasn't the preferable scenario and we agreed. Interestingly enough, she told us that a friend of hers who is a doula but one of the many pregnant doulas in Columbus right now (and therefore not accepting clients) lives on the next street over from us. That would have been convenient! We have a meeting with a second doula tonight, and I have the phone number of a third, but still need to call her. Hopefully one of them will be The One!
We had our 29 week appointment on Friday - our last monthly appointment! It was an average kind of appointment. I passed my glucose screening last month, I'm not anemic, and my blood pressure is still low as can be. In the reverse of last month, where my home scale said I'd gained around 5-6 pounds but the doctor's office scale said 10, this month the doctor's office said 6 pounds and my home scale said 10. Go figure. At least it balanced out. I did ask Dr. V what my starting weight was, because I couldn't remember. It turns out that I've really only gained 30 pounds so far instead of the ...erm, well, lots more that I'd feared. Still, 30 pounds is a lot. However, it's not that far off the average, and after I realized that the guidelines they give you are based on averages, I felt better. After all, an average requires some people to be over the number and some to be under. I'm just lucky enough to be one of the "overs."
That being said, my talk with Dr. V did lead me to examine my diet more closely than I had before. While I'm not really overeating, the bulk of what I do eat during the day at work is primarily carbohydrates - fruit, cereal, toast, pasta, cheese crackers, and so on. I realized that I am probably not eating enough protein. So this weekend we made some changes to what I'm taking to work and eating for breakfast in an attempt to cut out some of the simple carbs and include more protein and complex carbs. We'll see if it makes a difference in the next two weeks.
Another question I asked Dr. V was about induction. She said that she prefers to induce at 41 weeks. That wasn't the answer I was hoping for, not by a long shot. I was really hoping to hear that she was flexible and as long as the baby was okay she'd let me go as late as 42 weeks. I'm going to bring it up again at the next appointment and ask if she has any leeway at all. I'm also going to bring up the fact that we charted to get pregnant and I know when I ovulated and that it was 4 days later than they're assuming (that is something that I didn't bring up at our initial appointment, although now I can't remember why). I'm hoping she'll at least let me get to 41 weeks based on what my due date should be going by my true ovulation date instead of the assumed O date. Of course, it may all be a moot point, but you never know. I just want to be prepared! And, if she won't budge, well, we'll just pull out every old wives' tale, natural methods for starting labor on our own. I do not want Pitocin!
Last week we got a sticker on our door from UPS that we'd received a package from Amazon. I was mystified, because I hadn't ordered anything. We missed the UPS guy wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, so he left the package at our apartment complex's office. Saturday afternoon we stopped by and picked it up. It turned out to be an item from our baby registry, the Safer Bather. The mystery was partially solved, but we still didn't know who had sent it! It came in a cute little gift bag, but the tag didn't have the sender's name on it. I didn't take the bather all the way out until last night. As I pulled it out, a paper fell out and at last the whole mystery was solved! It turned out to be from my friend Amy, from my writer's group. How very sweet and thoughtful of her! Thanks, Amy!
This morning I talked to Shannon on the phone. She mentioned her baby having hiccups, which reminded me that I hadn't felt my own having hiccups yet. I told her that. Then, mere minutes after I had hung up the phone, I felt a steady, repeated thump on one side of my belly. It was awfully regular to be just a kick. It didn't go on long, maybe for as long as 30 seconds, every 5 seconds or so. I don't know if it really was hiccups, but I'm betting it was. This child is practicing to be a teenager already. It just can't wait to prove Mom wrong!
Over the past couple of months, I've made birth plans using a couple of the many birth plan making utilities the various pregnancy websites offer. Last night I finally took one of them and fleshed it out more, so that it's more than a list of short statements of our desires and wishes. Doing this is one of the first steps I've taken toward actually preparing for the birth. Well, apart from all the reading I've been doing. Somehow, though, all the reading doesn't seem as much like doing something as creating a birth plan does.
So now we have a birth plan, one that basically asks the nurses and doctors to leave us alone as much as possible. I feel awfully picky and almost bitchy, reading it over. I feel as if the doctors and nurses are going to read this plan and roll their eyes behind my back and shake their heads and mutter comments about what a difficult patient I am/will be, and what a nuisance my Type is. But that's just how it's going to have to be - on paper at least. Maybe we'll get to follow our plan, maybe we won't. But it can't hurt to have the plan there in the beginning.
But there's still so much more to do. I know I wrote about this earlier, but it's a pervasive thing in my brain. I want to do things. I want to prepare. I am, I suppose, nesting. I want to start making a list of things to pack in the hospital bag. Not so much because it's necessary, but because it's one of the few things I can actually do right now. I'm really getting eager for my showers, and not in a greedy, give-me-presents sort of way. I want to get to that point so I have things to wash and fold and put away, and things to put together and install and get ready. And also so that I know what we still need to buy and can go buy it. There are some things we can and will be buying over the next few weeks, but so much more that will be necessary.
This morning while laying in bed, I was on my side but rolled forward so that my belly was on the bed. The baby really reacts to this type of pressure on the belly now, whether it's the mattress or my arm or Jason pressing against it when we hug. As I was laying there, baby began to kick and kick, wiggling around all over the place. At times I got kicks in three or four corners of my belly at the same time. Poor thing was complaining up a storm - get that thing off me! Stop crowding me! Later, Jason and I hugged and my belly was, naturally, between us. The baby kicked and Jason felt it through his belly. That was pretty nifty!
I'm a little late, but so what - Happy New Year! I honestly meant to write an entry or two last week. I mean, I had nothing to do, I was on vacation! I should have been updating every day. But alas, nothing.
We're so very excited to finally be here in the year when our baby will be born! Somehow that makes it seem all the closer. I remember a couple years ago when some of my friends were expecting their first babies, and they all wrote sentimentally about that at new year's time... now it's my turn, and I know just how they felt.
I've started to get really down and mopey lately. Not exactly depressed, just... well, I don't know. Down. Blue. I'm assuming it's a pregnancy thing, because although I do have tendancies toward depression, things in my life are generally damn good right now and I can't really see myself being depressed. Except for the hormones of course. Lately I find myself needing a good cry for no particular reason. So I cry a little and then I'm fine - it's especially nice when Jason notices that I need a cry (you can tell, apparently, just by looking at me) and pulls me to him and says "I think you need a hug." It's strange, this crying. I've never been like that before. Emotional and teary sometimes, but never the cry all the time thing.
Part of the reason for the blueness, at least recently, is wanting to do things to prepare for the baby but not really having anything to do. We've switched the rooms and have space for baby things, but not much to put into that space. It's another month until my showers so I have quite a long time to wait. Last night we were talking about all this, and decided to start making some of the big purchases we need to make. So tonight we did, one of them anyway. We bought a glider! It's a good thing we decided to buy when we did, because the one I wanted was on clearance. Another few weeks and we'd have missed out. The fact that we saved $170 on the glider and ottoman is a nice bonus, too.
I'm 28 weeks today. The baby's growing and kicking like crazy. It's somewhere between 2.5 and 3 pounds now, which amazes me. So big! And so much left to grow, too. At least triple its current weight, most likely more than triple. All in 12 weeks (give or take a couple, of course).