39 Weeks Pregnant and Midwife Appointment!

I was 39 weeks pregnant on July 20th.

According to thebump.com, the Traffic Cone is the size of a watermelon.

The Baby

She is able to flex her limbs now and she is getting smarter by the week.

Her nails may extend past her fingertips. If they grow like her dads I can guarantee that they are long. 

She is probably around 8 lbs and around 20 in long. 

She is still moving all the time and the movements are very very strong. She also gets the hiccups 3-5 times a day. 

The Mama

Monday - Wednesday: After being in the hospital last weekend I am more than ready to have this baby. I am ready to stop worrying about my blood pressure and having to collect my pee. Hopefully we don't have more than 2 weeks to go and she will be here by 41 weeks. 

I am not really having a lot of symptoms of labor, just a few and none of them are the big ones such as major contractions, bloody show or mucus plug. I still have pressure when I stand, but it eases once I start to move around. I have had some off and on cramping through out the day and night since Monday, so I hope I have dilated and effaced some. Hopefully I will get more information tomorrow at my appointment. Bobby is pretty sure they won't let me go to much past my due date because of the blood pressure issues and the higher chance of getting preeclampsia. As much as I don't want to be induced, I would rather be induced then develop preeclampsia. They say they can do an induction that lasts as long as needed as long as I don't get severe preeclampsia. I am so over being pregnant and so ready to meet her that I don't know that I would mind the induction, but I'm still nervous it wouldn't work and I would wind up with a c-section, which I do not want. 

My nesting urge is gone and I am completely exhausted. In the last 36 or so hours I have slept 23 of them and I will probably take a nap today as well. Part of it is being exhausted from the hospital but I don't know where the other part is coming from.

Wednesday night I all of a sudden got the urge to finish all of my nursery projects and from 8 pm to 12:30 am I made curtains, a pillow and covered a diaper and wipes box with fabric. As soon as Bobby hangs the curtains and last few pictures the nursery will be officially done.

Thursday - The contractions I was feeling are completely gone today. My sisters and mom came over today and we went to lunch and get pedicures. I definitely didn't drink enough water yesterday
because my legs hurt today.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful, we just hung out and didn't do much. I started my 24 hour urine on Sunday morning and I'm hoping that is the last one I have to do.

The Midwife Appointment

The baby is in optimal birthing position and her heart rate is great. 

My blood pressure was lower than last week, but to be on the safe side they took more labs and I have to do a 24 hour urine from home starting on Sunday. She said she isn't really worried at this point though. She also gave the go ahead to start some natural induction stuff such as walking at night once it cools down. 

My next appointment will be our due date the 27th and I will turn in my urine. They are also going to do a sonogram to check fluid levels and the placenta. 

Overall she says I'm still good and there is no reason to worry; a birth center delivery is still in our future. 

38 Weeks Pregnant and Midwife Appointment!

I was 38 weeks pregnant on July 13th.

According to thebump.com, the Traffic Cone is the size of a pumpkin.

The Baby

She may have as much as an inch of hair, but if heartburn is a sign of hair she is going to come out pretty much bald.

She is slowly shedding the white vernix, but she will probably still be born with some, which is good for her skin. 

She is around 20 in long and weighs around 7 pounds. I have a feeling she is actually longer, but I could be wrong. 

Her head is about the same circumference as her abdomen. 

She has really started moving a lot, and they are strong movements. She moves mostly during the afternoon and early morning. 

The Mama

This week is VBS at our church and I am in charge of all the media stuff, so it has been a lot of early mornings and then I get a second wind late at night and am up late, so I'm rather tired during the day. It is also causing some swelling in my feet, but nothing to bad. My blood pressure has been fine, even during Braxton Hicks. 

I have been feeling more Braxton Hicks contractions since I started taking the Evening Primrose and drinking the Raspberry Leaf Tea. 

Last week I was sleeping like a baby, and this week I am barely sleeping at all, I can't get comfortable and I am constantly getting up to go to the bathroom. 

We have the nursery all set up, I only have three more projects left I just have to sew them on my machine, so I've been putting that off. Hopefully I can get to them before she gets here. I packed her diaper bag and I have everything all ready to go for her when we go into labor.    

I tried to get into my classroom this week to get it set up for my sub, but it looks like I will probably just be setting up the bare minimum a few days before school starts. Which may be nice, but the baby will definitely be here by then and so it will really just depend on when I deliver as to whether it is better or worse.

Since she has changed her activity. She is now more active in the afternoon hours, instead of at night/evening so Bobby hasn't be able to feel her move in a while. Last night I was trying to get her to move so he could feel her, but she was having none of it. He said, "I miss her and she isn't even here yet." It was the sweetest thing. 

The Midwife Appointment

The baby is doing great and has a really strong heartbeat.

I had another high blood pressure and even though they are only high at my appointments they wanted to go ahead and due blood work and a 24 hour urine sample to rule out preeclampsia. On Friday they called and my blood work came back with elevated liver enzymes so they sent me to the hospital for more blood work, the start of a 24 urine then, instead of Sunday at home, and to monitor my blood pressure every 15 min for 2 hours, along with a Non Stress Test (NST) on the baby.

We get to the hospital around 4 pm and it takes us an hour to get admitted since no one can tell us where to go so we rode the elevator a couple of times. Finally at 5 pm we are in a room in L & D getting hooked up. My first blood pressure was high (not surprising, we were pretty frustrated no one could tell us where to go), but the rest during the 2 hour period were fine. They took my blood work again and again it came back with high liver enzymes and they decided to make me stay for the full 24 hour urine collection and they monitored my blood pressure and did a NST every 4 hours. We still aren't sure why it was needed that we stay I could have done the urine at home and monitored my blood pressure at home, and then brought the urine back to to them Saturday night.

The urine collection started at 6:30 pm so we were stuck at the hospital until we got the results of that after 6:30 pm on Saturday. This was a really long 24 hours. Of course the night was long, being woken up every 4 hours for blood pressure and a NST. Besides the fact that hospital beds are one of the most uncomfortable things I have ever slept on. Bobby's chair-bed looked more comfortable. The one fortunate thing is that even though they are supposed to check on us every hour, the nurses stuck to the every 4 hour schedule since we weren't in labor and had no baby to check on.

Several of the NSTs took a while. The baby kept moving around so much that it was hard to get a consistent reading for the 20 min that they needed. She didn't like the monitor and would push against it and move.

Finally, 6:30 rolled around, and around 7:30 they came back and said the protein in my urine was 217 mg and since anything under 300 mg is ok that we could go home. I only had two high blood pressures in the whole 24 hour period and that was at 5 pm on Friday when we got there and then 24 hours later at 5 pm on Saturday, although the Saturday one was only 3 digits over the limit compared to the 10 or so digits it was over on Friday.

We finally left at 8:00 pm Saturday evening. I got a full 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep Saturday night at home, not even a bathroom break, then took a 2 hour nap Sunday afternoon and I'm pretty sure I could to bed tonight by 10 and pass out without a problem. Crazy!

I have to call the Birth Center on Monday morning and follow up and see what the next steps are. Although I don't have preeclampsia, I could still get it so there is a chance we will be induced within the next week or so, especially since we are at term on the 20th (39 weeks). Even though I really don't want to be induced, I also don't want to develop preeclampsia, so I'm not really sure what is going to happen. I really hope she decides to come on her own and soon, but I'm thinking she is a couple weeks from being ready as I haven't really had any symptoms that labor is imminent. 

37 Weeks Pregnant and Midwife Appointment!

I was 37 weeks pregnant on July 6th.

According to thebump.com the Traffic Cone is the size of a winter melon.

The Baby

She is practicing some skills: inhaling, exhaling, sucking, gripping and blinking. 

She is also getting ready for her first dirty diaper, hopefully she will hold off on that until she is born. 

She measures around 19 inches and is probably around 6 to 7 pounds. 

She still moves all the time, but has been more active during the afternoon instead of the evening. 

The Mama

They say the urge to nest is supposed to kick in this week, but it hasn't yet for me. I have a lot of increased pressure in my abdomen, especially when I get up from sitting or lying, and I have to pee all the time, about every 30 or 45 min, sometimes less. I am hoping this means she has dropped, but she still looks like she is in her normal spot. 

I have been drinking a ton of water but still seem to always be thirsty. I drink over 120 oz a day, but it doesn't seem to matter. I was having trouble sleeping, but that seems to have gone away and I've been sleeping pretty great, besides having to go to the bathroom all the time. 

I did test positive for Group B Strep so I will have to have antibiotics while in labor, which means a Hep-Lock IV. I have started eating yogurt with probiotics to help as well. 

I am definitely in the 'over being pregnant' phase. I am tired, hot and huge and ready for her to be here. It would be lovely if she would make her appearance during week 39! I do have a few things to get done over the next week and a half or so, such as the nursery, VBS, my classroom, but after that she can show up anytime!

I still need my naps during the afternoon, I get a lot more done when I get them in then when I don't. My chiropractor visits have gone from twice a week to once, which has been nice. Overall I'm not feeling bad at all, just tired. 

Last week Bobby's company switched insurances and that has been the biggest ordeal ever, but I did get my breast pump ordered and they covered it 100%. It isn't the exact one that I wanted but it is still a good one and you can't beat free!

She dropped after I started taking the Evening Primrose Oil, but I still haven't had any Braxton Hicks contractions. All the extra leg room has given her a lot of leg exercise. I love all the little movements even if they tend to keep me up at night.

I started feeling nauseous on Thursday night and during most of the day on Friday. I'm wondering if it had to do with my chiropractor appointment that I had on Thursday morning. Here it is Saturday morning and I'm still not feeling all that great and I've had several headaches and during Friday morning my calves felt like I had been on them for 24 hours straight the day before. My blood pressure has still been fine though, so I'm not really worried, just ready to feel better, but I think that probably won't come until after she gets here. 

The Midwife Appointment

My blood pressure has been fine at home, but was still a little high at the appointment. She said since it is randomly high and not consistently high that she isn't worried. I am taking magnesium and calcium supplements to help keep it low though. 

The baby's heart rate was 156, and she is still head down. I am measuring 38 weeks instead of 37, but overall she is healthy. 

I haven't had a lot of Braxton Hicks, so in order to help soften my cervix I am now taking Evening Primrose Oil twice a day and drinking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. 

The insurance switch has really thrown some kinks in our plans and we are now not sure if we will be delivering at the birth center or the hospital that the midwives practice at. We are hoping to have all our answers next week before she gets here. 

Overall everything is going well, and we are just counting down the days until she arrives!

Maternity Pictures

My amazing best friend offered to take our maternity pictures and I really think they turned out great!

We went to a small Arboretum near the town I grew up in, which also happens to be the place we took our engagement pictures almost 5 years ago.

We were two days shy of 32 weeks and it was the last Saturday in May, in Texas, so it was rather warm. You can definitely tell I was getting sweating and not feeling my best by the end of the shoot.