Last bump shot!!! 39 weeks

This last week actually didn't go by quite as slow as I thought it would....that's not to say it went by quick by any means.

I've officially gone on maternity leave as of last Friday and honestly.... I think I'm equally excited about having 12 weeks off work as I am bringing Thomas home! Granted, I'm not too excited about not being PAAAAAID for 12 weeks but ya know :)

Monday was supposed to be the first BPP of the week but as I was getting ready to leave for the doctor's office, 4 inches of snow just randomly dropped from the sky. I figured if I could just get out of our subdivision it would be ok, since the plows don't seem to have our address. Wrong....the plows weren't even out yet so the entire town was full of yucky sticky snow and my car was having none of that. I figured it was probably more important to stay home and alive and not risk sliding off the road than going to the BPP, so I called and rescheduled for Tuesday instead.

Tuesday....back to the old routine my boy was. He gave me quite the fright when I first saw him on the screen and he wasn't moving. Instantly my mind went to a dark place and all I could think was "No no, not again" but turns out he was just sleeping. Apparently the tech could see the look of dread on my face and quickly moved the wand to his chest and said "He's breathing....see?" . OMG, thank you lady. He eventually woke up enough to pass the BPP but the tech marked on the chart that he was "sluggish". Blood flow looked good , fluid was fine, so we left for the day.

Thursday, he was a little more responsive which was good. Passed the BPP again....got the talk from the MFM that even though we're days away from csection that still I need to be alert for any changes of movement. I know they're being precautious but really I don't need to hear that because now that's all I can think about again. Thankfully since we've been home Thursday he's been bopping around a little bit (even let his Daddy see him do some alien moves this weekend!!!). We actually got a picture of him too!! Usually we don't get pictures during the BPP!

After the BPP at the MFM, we headed over to the OB for my last prenatal appointment/pre-op visit with the OB doing my csection. He went over all the details about the procedure which made me feel a little more calm about this whole event. The only thing that made me kind of sad is that they don't allow phones or cameras in the operating room. So that traditional picture of the dad holding baby by the mom's head while she's being sewn up? Nope, we wont get it :(     Granted, I'll probably look much better once I'm sitting up and able to hold him myself so those pictures at least I'll be more coherent but still.... for us, I would have liked that picture. Oh well. If I'm getting a baby that screams and breathes when he's taken out than I guess I don't have much right to complain about not getting one type of picture right?!?

This weekend I've been trying to think of things to do baby free to celebrate my last weekend that I don't need a sitter and/or extra muscle strength to cart Thomas with me. First I went to BBB, yes yes I know I hate that place and swore I was done buuuut, being on unpaid leave for 12 weeks got me thinking I should get shower and birthday gifts for those that fall during the leave now while I'm still bringing some cash in!!  I was smart about it though and ordered everything on BBB online for instore pickup so all I had to do was go to Customer Service and pay for my bag and leave. PHEW, so much easier!!!

Then I went to Target, stocked up on food for the house and snacks for our hospital room. Funny story, when I came home and started unloading the bags into the living room I happened to notice a small trail of water droplets behind me on the floor. Immediately I thought "OMGGGGGG this is it....my water broke!!!!!"  until I realized....." Wait... my pants aren't even wet..." ummm yeah, one of the gifts for one of the showers exploded in the bag and was leaking. LOL. Major bummer.... thankfully it was still salvageable and still can be given as part of the gift.....because I'm not going back to BBB now for sure, LOL

Today, Sunday, to celebrate 39 weeks and last bump shot day. I am headed to an early Easter brunch at my family's house. I decided to get a little dressed up in one of my maternity dresses which I coincidentally never wore during this pregnancy! Guess that's what happens when you work from home and yoga pants become business casual wear :)   Later today I think Jim and I are going to hang out at Barnes and Noble just for some quality us time and quiet time alone. He is officially on leave with me for the next 3 weeks and I'm sure he's pretty excited about that as well...he gets paid of course though, LOL 

Well.... I must be going now!!  Next blog post will be a welcome Thomas post either way :)

38 weeks.... single digit DAY countdown begun

The crazy birth dreams have started and this has already been a long week but I feel this upcoming week will be longer....  Two dreams were nightmares.

One of which I was on bed rest and no one could even come to see me so I was lying in bed alone.

Another, I couldn't find Thomas' heartbeat and rushed to L&D, only to have them tell me that although they found his heartbeat something was very wrong and I was being rushed in for an emergency Csection and Jim wasn't even there yet.

The other night's dream was just funny.... I'm wondering about pain levels of after having a csection so I guess my mind is wandering. I dreamt that the hospital bed was more like a waterbed and the nurse had to come in with big buckets of water and keep filling it up. Also, there was a special section for water that I could drink. It was like a little tubing off the mattress that reached my mouth so if I was thirsty, since I couldn't sit up in the dream, I could just reach over to the tube and take a little drink. LOL.

The last week has been ok compared to previous weeks I suppose. Monday I had my NST followed by the BPP. The nurses all came in to find out why I had a BPP scheduled the same day as the NST because apparently you're supposed to schedule them for alternate days. Well, the MFM purposely scheduled them for Monday after the NST because I was constantly getting sent to see her. That way, at least, I was already on the schedule. So the nurses at the OB office still didn't like that answer....yet then proceeded to tell me that it was good I had the BPP scheduled because he was failing the NST again and we'd be sent to MFM. :::SIGH::::  Really? LOL.

On a side note.... I was happy to see I had gained a pound, which put me back up to my weight at Thanksgiving when I plateaued. It made me so happy and put me in a great mood!! Until I got in the elevator to head over to MFM. Since the weather is warmer, I didn't have a coat on and so its pretty obvious that I'm pregnant by now. The lady that was on the elevator with me said "Aww, when are you due".  I told her "Technically April 5th, but will be having a csection at 39 weeks on March 31st....sooooo TWO WEEKS, YAY!!!"  She looked at my belly and back at me and said "Two weeks???? You're too small to be having a baby in two weeks!!!".  Bubble burst. Thanks a lot lady.

My deflated ego and I headed over to MFM for this BPP. Of course little stinker passed with flying colors as he likes to do. While I was there, I asked the nurses at the MFM if it wouldn't make more sense to just cancel the NSTs and come there twice a week for the BPPs instead? They agreed and so they put me on their schedule for two BPPs a week and we cancelled the NSTs. It just made more sense.... if I'm going to sit on the monitor over at OB and tie up the room for an hour and half, only to get sent to MFM, why not just go right to MFM?

Thursday I went into the OB for my regular appointment....and had to explain why the NSTs were cancelled, that was interesting conversation, haha. Anywho, appointment went well. Unfortunately between Monday and Thursday that one pound was gone again. Guess the Muscle Milk isn't bulking me up like I hoped it would.

As of Thursday there was no dilation and no effacement, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure I was having a couple contractions the day before. Oh well, as long as everything is sealed up tight for now that's ok if there are just a couple. My Group B Strep swab came back negative which is good news!! Urine and blood pressure still looking good!

Following the OB appointment, I headed back over to MFM for our second BPP of the week. Since Wednesday, he's been actually pretty active. He was not only wiggling around on the monitor (which he usually does but I cant feel) but also doing little moves that I could see on my belly. Oh this kid....why must he drive me so insane?? He now seems to be back to his usual schedule and movements which makes me feel A LOT better and (somewhat) less nervous. I'm pretty sure (call it mothers intuition) that he just didn't want the monitor on him so he was purposely so uncooperative to get us the BPPs instead. Haha.  He still wont do his alien style moves when Jim's watching....although I think its just because Jim gets tired of staring at my belly for so long and looks away just as he moves :)

Last couple days have been super looooong. Been getting migraines, cramping is picking up, I just feel sick to my stomach and generally not feeling well. So we will see what the next week holds.....either next Sunday's post will be a "Hey I had a baby" post or "OMG two more days" post. Scary either way :)


Here's 38 weeks!!

37 weeks

I like to come up with funny nicknames for Thomas, my usual one is "T-dog", however yesterday I realized another funny nickname. "T Payne"...get it? Like T Pain?  lol So I think when I'm getting Thomas' bottles ready I'll sing to him "Let Me 'Make' You A Drank"....haha, just kidding. :)

On with the week...

Monday morning I had my usual NST. Technically he passed the NST but since I had mentioned decreased movements they thought it was best I go over to the MFM to get another BPP done just to be sure everything was ok. When the MFM was finally able to see me, see did the BPP which he passed thank goodness. However, she did note that his stomach was measuring small....8th percentile to be exact. She considers anything under 10th and over 90th to be of concern, plus he now is weighing 5lbs 7oz, which is fine but puts him only in the 20th percentile as a whole which is down from the 29th at his last scan. Since I was not feeling him moving around as much, she will have me come in Mondays after my NSTs for BPPs just to keep an eye on him. As far as she can tell she didn't see anything wrong but given my history and the circumstances she wants to be extra careful. She told me "You already lost Jack....we don't want anything to happen to Thomas". Yes, thank you. She mentioned that she's had woman come into the office for an NST or BPP and be sent right from the appointment to L&D so I will from now on be traveling with my hospital bag just in case!

Tuesday I got a call from the OB's office to schedule my C-section! I asked for March 30th but apparently that is a busy day of C-sections, go figure, so March 31st it is. Provided Thomas doesn't pull any funny business and/or he grows properly between now and then, his birthday will be March 31st. They did offer April 1st to me as well but something about having a baby on April Fools.....mmmm yeah no.

Thursday, was NST #2 of the week. Thomas earned himself another BPP for non-cooperation. His heart rate is elevating on the monitor but I'm not feeling him so the OB came in while I was on the monitor to chat. He buzzed him a bunch more times....heart rate up then heart rate back down and back to sleep, LOL. The OB ran another BPP on him which he passed, again!, but he's in a funny position almost on a diagonal so its possible that he's punching/kicking inward and I'm not feeling it as much. I feel a little better seeing him on the screen and seeing him moving and breathing but I swear this child is giving me massive amounts of anxiety. 19 days at most and I can see his sweet little face. I really need to see him in person not on a screen.

Yesterday I treated myself to a little pre-baby pampering. After my chiropractor appointment, I got a mani/pedi done so my nails look nice while I'm laying on the csection table, LOL....oh and for newborn photos in the hospital too of course. I ran a few errands in between chiro and the salon and by the time I got home yikes, my feet/ankles were sooooo swollen. I've had a couple "off" blood pressure readings last couple days at home (despite the OB nurses telling me they're hearing it at a crazy low reading). It comes back down to close to normal after laying around for awhile but being up and about seems to make it creep up. Its not scary numbers (yesterday was something like 126/92 if I remember....night before was around 134/88) but definitely not my usual readings. On the plus side, there hasn't been protein (so far....knock on wood) in my urine, no blurred vision, so I'm thinking/hopeful that its just a 37 weekers woes. Regardless, even if its not a normal woe, he's considered full term today, even at his peanut weight, so it makes me feel better that we're in a much better position should pree rear its ugly head on me again.

So yes today is full term....37 weeks. Where did this day come from....it went so slow yet snuck up on me so fast. Tomorrow I'll be going back to the MFM after our NST for our now weekly BPP. I've got my hospital bag in the car just in case....speaking of just in case....just in case this is my last "bump" shot, here's 37 weeks. Yikes, I think my belly actually grew this week for a change!!

36 weeks....Whoops!

Sorry folks....I took so long to blog my 36 week post that I'm almost at the 37 week mark!!

36 weeks and we're getting closer to meeting little Thomas.

My 36th week wasn't too eventful for a change. It was, however, the looooooongest week ever. I think after being in L&D the week before and seeing those contractions on the monitor I was sure I wasn't going to make it to my shower that Sunday. But we did!

We had two NSTs that week, which Thomas eventually passed but needed his usual ridiculous amount of buzzing to do so.

Strange enough, lately my blood sugars have been getting low. Weird huh? Saturday evening, my parents got into town for the shower and came over for dinner. While I was standing there talking to my mom I didn't feel very well all of a sudden. I asked Jim to bring me my Accucheck and sure enough.... 63!!!  WTF, 63?? It was only 6pm and although I didn't have a TON to eat that day, I sure did eat breakfast and lunch! I popped 4 glucose tabs and chugged a big glass of water. I don't like those tabs though I've decided. They made my face feel really warm and in hindsight maybe I should have only taken two? When I checked my sugar 15minutes later like my Endo instructed in these situations, it was 123. Ugh, what?  Then 2 hours after dinner it was 116. So yeah, I think I messed up my sugar equilibrium pretty bad there. Since then, I've had low sugars but not that low and its been manageable.

Sunday was the big day!!! Friends and family came into town and we all celebrated the arrival of little T . As with Jim's family shower, we were overwhelmed by all the love for our little boy and overly crowded living room for a second time. My little cousins all picked out their favorite books from their own collections and gave them to Thomas. He's going to be the best dressed little boy and he has no excuse to cry for no reason because of all the rocking devices we have now, LOL. You can see the pictures on our family website if you'd like https://katespage.shutterfly.com/9007   password is jimandkate

So anywho.... yes almost 37 weeks at this point. Not a traditional "bump" shot but here was me on Sunday before the shower at 36 weeks exactly.

 



 

See you in a few days! LOL

35/35 Day!!

What is 35/35 you may wonder? Well, it means that I'm 35 weeks and there are 35 days left to go! However, in my case that's not really true.... I guess this is more like 35/28? That doesn't sound quite as fun as 35/35 though! Today, I "celebrated" by picking up my heparin at Walgreens and will start that next Sunday. Oh let me tell you, going from one shot a day to two shots? I'm super excited, LOL....which is why whatever side effects Metformin gives or gave me will be dealt with to avoid insulin which would put me at 3-5 shots a day instead. How did this pregnancy start looking like an IVF cycle again? Maybe that's why I keep having those dreams of a FET at 36 weeks, HAHA!! Although, if two shots a day of heparin allows me to have an epidural if or when I go into labor....so the eff be it. Seriously....I want the drugs. I'll take all the shots to have all the drugs, LOL

Anywho, this past week was the typical week....slow and boring. After our baby shower on Sunday, I had stayed up until around 10:30pm trying to organize the gifts and bring them to their proper places. A friend of mine said they made piles of what goes in each room and what a great idea that turned out to be. I sat on the floor and sorted , then when sorting was done, just carried piles to each room. Around 1030 though, although I wasn't completely finished, I decided to listen to my body which was telling me to rest. My legs and feet were soooo swollen. Of course, part of that is my silly self choosing to wear tight heeled boots all day. The other part being that I was sitting on the floor for like 4 hours too....not a whole lot of room for circulation in either situation. By morning though the swelling was gone. Normally I would have freaked out by any kind of swelling but I decided to rationalize with myself and decide I could only freak out if the swelling was still there in the morning. Thankfully, my legs looked normal, phew!

Monday morning's NST was rough. For me especially. The appointment (I don't know what I was thinking when I scheduled it) was at 8am, meaning I had to leave the house at 7am....meaning I had to wake up early enough to be out the door by 7am. OhmygodIwasSOtired!!!!   I literally went to that appointment wearing the same shirt I wore to the shower the day before, hair still curled and pinned, makeup still on, etc. I looked like a hot mess I'm sure. Thomas did his usual song and dance where he was not interested in cooperating when on the monitors but after being buzzed three times he finally gave the OB what they were looking for.

Thursday's NST....a different story. After being on the monitors for about 1hr45min, being buzzed repeatedly, he still wasn't moving as much as they wanted nor was his heart rate accelerating when he did move. The OB came into the NST room and when I saw her, I knew that wasn't a good sign. She sent me to Labor & Delivery to be put on a monitor for a longer period of time so they could tell more about what he was doing in there, so off I went to L&D.

Thankfully we took the tour end of January so I knew exactly where I was going. Only problem was....that damn "Cradle Club" mural on the wall. The second I saw that outside the entrance to the floor it hit me..... I'm going to L&D. As in....the place where babies are born. I don't want to go there today. Cue the hyperventilation and crying. I was alone (Jim had court...this was just a routine Dr. appt. today) and I was headed to L&D and there might be something wrong with my baby.

Somehow I made it down the long hallway and thankfully no one was around to see me in that state. When you get to the doors of the floor, its locked and you have to pick up the phone to get let in. I was so choked up that I could barely get my name out....I started explaining on the phone why I was there but she was expecting me so she cut me off and opened the door.

Pretty soon I was put into a L&D room, strapped to the monitors, given a TV remote and told that I'd be sitting there at least 2 hours. At that time, the OB on call would come in and review the strip from the monitor and we'd go from there. Longest.two.hours.ever.

When the OB came back two hours later he still didn't like what he was seeing. He said it wasn't alarming necessarily just not what he was looking for. He gave me the explanation that if you have a child in school and he brings home an "A" report card then you know he's doing well in school. However, if the grades haven't been posted and you haven't seen his report card yet then you can't really say for sure how well he's doing in school. Same thing with Thomas. Thomas wasn't giving us a report card so to speak. We could see he was doing something in there but couldn't be sure from his heart rate alone if he was ok, so the OB ordered what's called a Biophysical Profile test aka BPP which is just a fancy way to say an ultrasound but they look for certain things while doing the ultrasound.

While looking at the strip, he also asked me how I was feeling that day. "Funny you should ask doc.... today I feel really awful" was my response. When I woke up that morning I was 90% sure it would be a puking day....fortunately I scarfed my English muffin quick enough that my stomach settled to the point that I didn't need to bring a Jewel bag with me in the car. I did, however, just feel really sick to my stomach all day. As I was laying in that bed on the monitors the cramps started coming back too. Well....as it turned out, I was having contractions. Ooooh boy. The OB said that he wasn't really concerned with them, especially since Thomas' heart rate wasn't dropping during the contractions but they were definitely there! He then left the room and I sat around some more waiting for the radiology tech to come up with the ultrasound machine for Thomas' BPP.

Now, during a BPP, the doctors are looking for 5 categories to be met and you get 2 points for each category that is normal:
“scored” during the BPP:

Biophysical Attribute	Normal	Abnormal
Breathing	1 breathing episode within 30 minutes	No breathing episodes within 30 minutes
Movement	2 or more movements within 30 minutes	less than 2 movements within 30 minutes
Muscle Tone	1 or more episodes of active extension/flexion of limbs, etc. (i.e. opening and closing a hand).	Slow extension/flexion of limbs, partially open fetal hand, etc
Heart Rate	2 or more episodes of reactive heart rate acceleration within 20 min	1 or more episodes of unreactive heart rate acceleration
Amniotic Fluid	1 or more adequate pockets of fluid	Either no pockets or inadequate pockets of fluid

A perfect score is either 8/8 (if all categories are normal but heart rate acceleration isn't, it cancels that one out), 8/10, or 10/10. Thomas scored an 8/8 which was a major relief. Unfortunately, my thoughts that he flipped earlier in the week were incorrect and he for sure is still a little footling breech baby, stubborn as ever! As of this weekend, I'm officially seeing a chiropractor in hopes of getting him to turn. I'm also starting to try some of the Spinning Babies inversions so we'll see if those together have the ability to convince him to move!

At any rate, soon after the ultrasound tech left the room when the BPP was done, Thomas started kicking around.The nurse finally came into the room close to 4pm and pulled the strip off the monitor again and showed me how all of a sudden Thomas was giving them the reactive strips they were looking for. She said "If he had done this at 9am at your OB's office, you wouldn't have spent the day in L&D". Great, LOL

I got to take a peek at my contractions on the monitors as well.....ahh yes, definitely different looking than the flat line I usually see.  Before I left for the day, the nurse gave me the schpeel on when to call....when they're stronger, closer together, any leaking and/or bleeding, yadda yadda. Then I went home on my merry way. What a day.

So now I'm officially paranoid that Thomas is coming early. All day Friday/Saturday I've had "phantom leaking" ....where I think I'm leaking but when I run to the bathroom nothing is there. Just another fun trait of the 3rd trimester that is similar to the 1st...the constant panty checks!

Now its Sunday..... I'm 35 weeks. I'm pretty pleased having made it this far in the pregnancy and while I'd prefer him to cook until 39 weeks as planned, I'm "ok" with the possibility of him coming early. Matter of fact, I'd almost expect that he would and would be more surprised with him staying put until 39 weeks than coming early. I just only can hope that he waits until after next weekend so that we can all celebrate his arrival at my family's shower on Sunday. After that, he can do as he pleases I suppose. St. Patrick's Day would be a nice day for his birthday!  Especially since his Grandpa is Patrick and his big brother is John Patrick....and we're Irish (clearly) I think that would be a fine day to meet little Thomas James, don't you? :)

Here I am at 35 weeks! While I had gained back 1lb of the 2.5 that I lost..... I then lost an additional 2lbs so here I am officially at the weight that I was when I got engaged five years ago. Haha. My MFM doesn't know but I'm an under achiever....she tells me she would like me to gain 15-20lbs right? Well neener neener I'll only gain max 10lbs and show you! LOL totally not the plan but hey, little too late now!

Ok enough weight talk....bump shot time....Kind of sad we don't have too many more "bump" shots left!