Big Milestone - 37 weeks!

At week 37, your pregnancy is considered full term, meaning baby is likely to thrive after birth. Baby spends these last weeks in preparation for the outside world… meaning careful refinement of the blink, suck, inhale and exhale. Meconium, which you’ll probably find in the first diaper, is accumulating in the intestines. If (okay, as) you worry about giving birth, consider what it’s like for the little one. During the journey out of your womb, baby will produce more stress hormones than any other time in life.

At my last doc appointment, I was told that it could be anytime now. Especially if my fluid level gets too low again. At any of my fetal diagnostic appointments, if my fluid measures below 5, I was told that they would admit me and induce me. I have continued resting and drinking lots of water, but now I feel much better about what might happen if the fluid is low.

So, today Jeremy and I have been busy making final preparations for our girl's arrival. I assembled the swing that we bought yesterday. Jeremy figured out how to install the car seat. We've also just been doing little organizing and rearranging things around the house. I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be.

Bring it, Baby Girl!

Happy first Father's Day, Jeremy!

Soon enough you will have the baby in your arms. In the meantime, you've already been such a great daddy - reading to her most nights, reminding me (ahem) to do my nightly kick counts, picking out the cutest little outfits at the store, always bringing a little something home for her from your trips. She is one lucky little girl!

Good thing Rudy let you practice on him!

36 week picture

Since there are only a few weeks left (yay!!!!), I thought I would start doing a pic each week now. So here's my belly at 36 weeks. Doesn't look like she's dropped yet, but according to the ultrasounds, she's still head down. I down think she'll be changing her position at this point. There's just no room!

Another test and another ultrasound today

I seriously feel like all I've done this week is go back and forth to the hospital. At 7:35 a.m. this morning, my phone started ringing. It was Fetal Diagnostics - surprise, surprise! They said that I needed to do another one of those contraction tests today because the one from yesterday didn't quite look right. I already had an appointment with them anyways, but we changed the time to be a little earlier so that I would be able to make it to the ultrasound appointment in time.

So, instead of sleeping in today as I had planned, I got up and took care of some things around the house and took off for FD. My fluid came out 5.6 which was acceptable. The contraction test today was much quicker than the last 2 times. We were able to start getting contractions pretty quickly. However, when we were done, the contractions didn't seem to want to end. They just kept going and going. Finally they were far enough apart that I was allowed to leave.

The next appointment was an ultrasound to do a growth scan. They were able to determine that the baby is measuring about 5 days ahead of my due date. She weighs about 7 pounds! Seven pounds sounds perfect to me. I hope she doesn't get too much bigger before I deliver. This doctor seemed to think that everything was looking great and his recommendation would be for the baby to come at 39 weeks. I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by that and he said basically to induce at that time. Sounds good to me!

Jeremy's mom will be here on Saturday to help out. Jeremy will be traveling a litte next week, so it will be nice to have the company. She'll be here for around a week. Who knows - maybe she'll actually get to see the baby while she's here! I still have a gut feeling that this baby will come earlier than we expect.

Happy Anniversary Jeremy!

Today is our first anniversary. This year has been a busy one for us - especially the last few months!

I thought I was going to have today "off" from doctor visits, appointments, hospital, etc. However at 7:55 this morning Fetal Diagnostics called and wanted me to come back to repeat a Contraction Stress Test that I had done yesterday. I was there for 4 hours!

When I finally got home around 2:30 this afternoon, this was waiting for me on the counter:


Thank you, Jeremy for this day!

Today didn't go exactly as we had planned, but we are definitely thankful for each other and our soon-to-hold-in-our-hands baby.

Have to take things day by day....

Well, at the doctor's office this morning, she decided I needed to go back to Fetal Diagnostics again. So I headed over there. I spent about 3 hours there. The fluid was pretty much the same as yesterday. On the first measure, she came up with 3.7. So she brought in one of the nurses who measured me yesterday and this one got 5.6. I also had the pleasure of stimulating some contractions so they could see what they baby did in response to them. I don't really understand all of this either, but I guess they were okay with it because they finally sent me home.

I am really frustrated because I can't get a feel from doctor if all of this is okay or if she really has something else planned for me. She did mention something about 37 weeks, so I'm thinking that she is just hoping that my placenta hangs on for another 2 weeks and then she might induce. This however, is just speculation on my part.

On Thursday I have a growth ultrasound and will also be going back to Fetal Diagnostics. The U/S is done at a maternal and fetal specialists office, so I'm going to show up there prepared to ask lots of questions - they seem to be better about giving me answers.

In the meantime, just bedrest. Jeremy has been great in helping me out. I hear his mom is coming out this weekend to help us out too.

Update on the Samsung Shower

Our shower last night ended up getting cancelled so Jeremy brought all the gifts to our house and we opened them here, just the two of us.

His coworkers are soooo sweet. They got us so much off of the registry. If we have a surprise appearance in the next week or so, we will be totally ready for her.

I was sad that we didn't get to have the shower as planned, because these people are so nice and really seem to care about Jeremy (and me.)

Oh well, I guess I will get to visit with them after the baby is here and I can take her up to the office to show her off.

35 week belly

Disclaimer: This was taken late last night. I don't know why I always wait until just before bed to take these shots. I need to do them earlier in the day when I'm fresh!

And it's back down again.....

Today's appointment at Fetal Diagnostics was another disappointment. I had a feeling it was going to be like this. During the monitoring portion of it, I had a pretty big contraction. Partly because of this I had to stay on the monitor another 20 minutes or so. The nurse tried to explain to me why she needed the extra time, but it really went over my head. Something about wanting to make sure the baby wasn't re-something or another. Sorry, didn't make sense to me, but I guess it turned out okay.

The AFI was another story. When she first measured she came up with 2.98, which is really low. Really low. So she had me lay on my side for a few minutes to see if the fluid would redistribute itself and then had another nurse measure. The second nurse came up with 2.9. She was ready to call my doc and have me admitted and put on an IV for fluids. The other nurse suggested that I take a 15-minute walk and drink some water. When they measured me for the third time, they came up with a 5.9. Not great, but at least out of that danger zone. So, I got out of being admitted by the skin of my teeth.

However, they suggested that I do not attend the baby shower this evening. I called Jeremy to let him know that they could go ahead and have it without me and I didn't mind. He was going to talk it over with his coworkers and let them decide. I haven't heard what the decision is yet.

I have a regular OB appointment tomorrow morning with my doctor. I guess we'll talk about what's going on and see what she says.

This whole fluid thing has been an ongoing battle for me for the last 2 months. I don't know why it's been such a struggle to keep it up in the normal range. I'll keep you posted on what's going on with my situation.

35 Weeks!

Today marks 35 weeks pregnant, leaving me with only 35 days to go. A friend of mine told me that she had both of her girls in her 34th week - they were 7 and 8 pounders! An OB/GYN friend of mine said based on my current medical status, that she wouldn't be surprised if I had her by week 36. So, as much as I would like for her to come early, I know she would be so much better off if we wait at least another 4-5 weeks. I think I can bear this discomfort for that much longer. Did I mention that at my last growth ultrasound she was measuring 5 pounds, 5 ounces? That was 2 1/2 weeks ago. I have another one of those U/S on Thursday so we'll see how much she's grown.

Jeremy's work is having a baby shower for us tomorrow evening. I'm thinking it won't be a very traditional shower like we're familiar with because all (I mean 100%) of his coworkers are Korean. I'm looking forward to seeing the differences.

Please continue to pray for Ashley. Her family is celebrating Nolan's life on Friday and I know that this will be another tough week for her.

So it's back up again....

Today's monitoring appointment was a little better than Monday's. The fluid level is still on the low side, but it is showing another upswing to 8.4. Although the u/s tech did say she was being generous. She measured a pocket that I don't think should have counted because there was cord going through it. Because of all this, I don't want to get too excited at this number. Everything else looked good though.

I will continue to really take it easy and try to drink lots of water. The water part has been very difficult for me lately. Not sure why because I love water. I guess it's just the amount of it that I know I need to be consuming.

It's also hard not being able to go shopping. There are so many little errands that I would like to run, but I know that I shouldn't. Jeremy and I talked about maybe going to Target and having him drop me off at the door and then me using their scooter. Not sure if we'll try that, but I guess it's an option. I will probably wait until at least next week - I really want my fluid to go up even more and don't want to jeopardize that.

This Saturday will be our last class. It's on breastfeeding. I definitely don't want to miss this one so I am going to let myself out of the house for the 2 1/2 hours to attend.

Such heartbreaking news

On Monday, a friend of mine who was in her 26th week of pregnancy had to have an emergency c-section. Her little boy, Michael Nolan, was born 14 weeks early. He weighed 13 oz. He was taken directly to the NICU for his care. The little guy fought valiantly for his life for 3 days before passing away this morning. I feel so bad for Ashley and Chris. They wanted this baby so much and already loved him so much. I have been praying for them for the last month or so when they found out that he wasn't developing like he should be.

If you get a chance, you can read her blog. It's the Ruby Baby on the Way blog that is listed under my blogs that I follow.

http://www.rubybaby09.blogspot.com/

The story is so touching. I am so sad that they are having to deal with this, but they also amaze me by the strength they have shown. Please pray for them as they work through this difficult time.

Disappointing news from today's appointment

Today was another Fetal Diagnostic appointment. The first half went great. Baby is moving, heartbeat is great, etc. Well, when we got to the second part - the ultrasound, well....it wasn't so great. I had really been hoping that I will have a steady increase in amniotic fluid. However, it dropped again - down to a 6.6. The nurse told me to go straight home, rest and keeping drinking water. The only time I should be getting up is to go the the bathroom.

I will admit that I may have been stretching the "resting" part of bedrest a bit. Yesterday I worked on laundry for most of the day, not to mention the Babies R Us trip on Saturday. I guess I have learned my lesson. I had planned to go to Target and the post office and run some other errands after the appointment today, but I figured the best thing would be for me to go home and do what the nurse said. So here I am, resting and sleeping. That's my big plan for tomorrow too. And the next day. And the next.

Hopefully Thursday will bring better news.

Saturday's Class

This past Saturday (also my mom's birthday - Happy Birthday Mom!) was our Baby Saver Class. I felt like it was an informative class, though most of it was information that I hope we'll never have to use. Besides talking about CPR, they also covered ways to make your house baby resistant. We probably should start working on this now - there is so much a baby can get into! Yikes!

Even though I've taken CPR before, it's been a really long time so things have changed. Did you know that it's now 30 compressions to 2 breaths? If you didn't, you probably need a refresher course also.

The hospital also has a BabyLine which is a phone number you can call whenever you have any sort of questions that are baby related. It's answered by nurses and it's free. We already have it programmed into our phones.

After the class we went to El Ranchito in Newport Beach for a nice lunch on the patio. The weather was simply gorgeous this weekend. From there, I needed to go home and rest, so I got a nap in.

When we got up (Jeremy likes this napping thing), we went to Babies R Us to get some things that I think we will be needed very soon after the baby comes. I keep having this feeling that she might come early and I definitely want to be prepared. That's the reason for the earlier crib post - we picked all that stuff up on Saturday.

Crib is finally complete!

As of tonight, the crib has a mattress, sheets and all that good stuff. The crib itself was put together several weeks ago, but we just bought the mattress last night. I laundered all the bedding today, so finally everything is on there. The bumpers, toys and quilt won't be in there for very long because of the AAP's recommendations, but I thought that since I have them I would go ahead and put them in there for now.



Wish I had a better camera so you could see better details - The P&S really doesn't do a good job showing that. Oh well.

Before we had the mattress, we put the bedding on there just to get an idea of how it would look. The cats obviously wanted to check it out too because the next day we saw this:



Hopefully they had a bad experience and will stay far away from the crib from now on. (Jeremy and I had a good laugh out of this though. We could just imagine the cats hopping around trying to get out, but their little feet kept going through the holes! Poor kitties!)

Fetal Diagnostics

Today's visit went pretty well. I had a coffee in the morning and although my appointment wasn't until 3:30, I think I still had a bunch of caffeine in my system. Because of this, she was very active during the monitoring part of it. Which was actually good, because I didn't have to lay there for too long waiting for her to do her thing.

(As a side note - I normally drink only decaf coffee and rarely have any caffeine in general and today I remembered why. I will not be having regular coffee anytime in the near future - my head was spinning for hours from that coffee! Damn you, free McDonald's McCafe coupon!)

My fluid has come up slightly - up to a 9 from 8 on Monday. Small increase, but I'll take it. I will continue to rest and drink fluids and hopefully it will keep coming up. Hopefully it will be in double digits on Monday.

Bedrest....

is not all it's cracked up to be. Of course, I'm enjoying the many extra naps I am able to get in and goodness knows that I definitely need them. But to feel so restricted is not such a great thing. The doctor has said that I can take quick trips out here and there, but I find that even short, easy ones really do tire me out. As a matter of fact, that's been happening for over a month now. Each Saturday when we would try to go shopping for baby and run some errands, I wouldn't even make it half way through before I would make Jeremy take me home so that he could do the rest on his own. I guess I really was needing the doctor to finally tell me to take it easy.

Not sure what I'll be doing for the next 6-7 weeks, but I guess a trip to the library for a nice stack of books is in order. I think I will break down and start reading the Twilight books. I hope there isn't too much of a wait on them at the public library.

Yesterday I went by my work (albeit a temporary position) to let them know I wasn't going to be returning and to say my goodbyes. As much as I really didn't like that place, it was a little sad. I had been there about 8 months. The way I figure it, I probably started there right about the time I got pregnant.

Tomorrow is another trip to Fetal Diagnostics. I'll let you know how that goes.

Some ultrasound and doctor appointment updates

Last Thursday I had an ultrasound done. The purpose was to take a look at the fibroids that were discovered at my very first u/s and see if they had grown at all. The good news is that they weren't able to see them, so apparently they haven't grown much at all, if any. They also determined that the baby weighs 5 pounds, 5 ounces! They said that is right on target, but based on what I've read it seems a little big. But, I figure if for some reason we have to deliver early, that she is at least a pretty decent size.

The bad news is that my amniotic fluid level was a 5. This is very low. The doctor at the ultrasound office decided that I needed to go to Fetal Diagnostics on Monday or Tuesday to start the monitoring again. I made an appointment to be seen on Tuesday.

Today (Monday) I had a regular doctor appointment. When we discussed the amniotic fluid level with her and our concerns of decreased fetal movement, she decided that I should go straight over to Fetal Diagnostics for monitoring and not wait until tomorrow. She also decided that I need to be on bedrest until further notice.

My visit to Fetal Diagnostics went pretty well. Her movement and heartbeat were fine. The amniotic fluid was an 8 today. Still low, but much better than 5. I will take it easy the rest of the week (bedrest), and hopefully by Thursday it will be back up again. If it gets below 5, I will probably be admitted overnight and will be put on an IV with fluids to try to get it back up.

Cross your fingers that this number keeps going up! I don't want to be in the hospital so soon!

Childbirth class

Jeremy and I both agree that this class wasn't terribly helpful as we didn't get to practice the breathing and other relaxation techniques too much. However, we did realize that once I go into labor it won't be a panic to try to get to the hospital immediately. It sounds like we will have some time during early labor to relax before we have to head to the hospital. However, if this happens on a weekend day, we will probably get in the car and try to head over there immediately because the traffic is horrible during that time. The hospital is right by the PCH, so the beach traffic is horrendous!