Week 36/37

Quick boring appointment for week 36/37. No cervical check (yeah!) and the GBS test was nothing like I was expecting. They did do a quick blood prick for checking iron, but didn’t tell me the results. I don’t think that office as the lab on-site like the office over at the hospital. My blood pressure was slightly elevated, but I think that was because I found out when I got there that I was 15 minutes late. I had gotten my times confused so I was flustered when she took my blood pressure. No one seemed worried about it so I’m not.


I didn’t really like this doctor. I hadn’t seen her before, and she just didn’t come across as particularly friendly. Nice, pleasant, just not friendly. Granted it could have been because I was late, but she was just very clinical. I see all the doctors and midwives in the practice so I won’t see her again unless she’s on call when I go into labor, but I hope I don’t have to work with her again.


Anyway, baby’s heartbeat was 152. She measured me, but didn’t tell me what the number was. I did gain about two pounds which I’m guessing is a bit of baby and a lot of water. My feet have been puffy the last few days and while I got my wedding rings  on today for pictures, I’m thinking I may not try wear them again until after the baby is born. They’ll come off at the end of the day; it just won’t be comfy when they do.

News of day one

I am totally super excited about my new job! I had my first day of being actually on-site at my new school. It was awesome. I actually got to observe one of my future students who has been taught this summer by a previous co-worker from two jobs ago. So we spent part of the day catching up which was fun. I'm super excited about this position. I had been a little concerned after the formality of the training over the last few days, but it honestly seems like all the things I loved about my last job with the bonus of true administrative, financial, and educational support. A total win-win situation. They've already figured out a plan to cover my students (all four of them!) while I'm on my maternity leave (they're dividing them into two other classrooms for the weeks I'm gone).
I also talked with my director about my plans to breastfeed, and he instantly was supportive and said that they would definitely work out a plan for me to have a private place to pump and I could store my milk in his fridge in his office, so I didn't have to put it in the staff lounge fridge. Turns out that either he isn't as young as he looks or he started having kids really early, but he apparently has five kids at home so he's totally on-board with supporting me in this. It is so amazing to feel so supported!! I guess I hadn't realized how unsupported I really was at my last job until I felt how supported I feel here after only three days. Our business director is also pregnant, due in December.
Everyone was very kind and asked how I was doing, when I was due, and genuinely seemed excited that I (and the other new staff) was on-board.

In baby news, we have our 36/37 week appointment tomorrow. I know that I have my GBS test tomorrow so I'm guessing they'll check my cervix while they're in there. We'll see... Baby girl has been quite active and wiggly, and based on how much I'm still feeling her in the front, I think she's still head down but facing front. I keep telling her that things will be better for both of us, but it's apparently not getting through to her. We are also have an elective 3D/4D ultrasound tomorrow, courtesy of Betsy who just thought we had to have one so she hooked us up! So after not seeing baby girl since week 28, we get to see her tomorrow. I'm excited!!

I've had some pretty persistent pelvic pain the last week or so when I stand up, walk, shift on the couch, roll over in bed, etc. Essentially, it hurts to do anything other than sit on the couch. Even lying in bed is no longer consistently comfortable. Eventually, my hips start to ache. My mom commented on Tuesday that she thinks I've dropped a little bit, and that would coincide with the increased discomfort, but who knows..... And if she hasn't dropped at all and I'm this uncomfortable, I am not looking forward to her dropping. I know they say that you get to breathe better (hasn't really been an issue for me as long as I'm not walking up stairs), but the pain is obnoxious and I'm tired of peeing. I was up like five times last night, and I can't even begin to count how many times I went today at work. As much as I am not mentally ready for baby girl to arrive, physically I think I'm getting to that point. I do want her to be as grown as she needs to be though so I'm hoping she takes her time.... but not too much time.

The move is slowly but surely progressing. I haven't updated in ages so the blog-world doesn't know that we're moving into a house that we'll be renting from my dad's cousin and his wife. Three bedrooms, a basement with a bar, and central air are all waiting for us, as I type. We've already moved a ton of boxes in as well as smaller pieces of furniture, but the big move for the furniture is Saturday so we can clean on Sunday. My going back to work has somewhat thrown a kink in the moving plan, so Matt's doing a lot more on his own and I love him for it! I know I can't do much anyway, but this summer has been rough for us to keep motivated to get anything done, so I'm happy that he's done as much as he has without me nagging over his shoulder.

I am loving mani/pedis. I'm not sure why I've never done this before, but I've had two, and I'm hoping to get one more in before baby girl comes. I'm considering getting a gel manicure since it will last longer even though I'm going to be washing my hands way more once she's here.

Eeeeek!!!!!!

I got a job!!!!!

Baby drama

2:15 We will be heading for the hospital shortly. I called about an hour or so ago because we've had a dramatic decrease in movement today after two days of slightly decreased but still okay movement. She's moved a little bit, but she's just not reacting to the stuff that ALWAYS makes her wiggle (ice cream, ice water, Matt playing the guitar and singing, blowing my nose, laying on my side, etc. ). So I talked to the nurse and they decided that it was better safe than sorry, so I'm going in so they can hook me up to a monitor and make sure that things are okay.


6:00 We are home and things are fine. They hooked me up to the monitors for about an hour to see how her heartbeat and movement were doing and whether or not I was having contractions. 
Her heartbeat is fine; the doctor called it reactive which means her heartbeat is responding and accelerating to external stimuli. She’s just apparently really sleepy right now. Her movement was really minimal even when being stimulated from the outside. They used this buzzer thing on her to try to get her wiggle and to see if they could stimulate her heartbeat, which worked, but not for long. She’d jumped, her heartbeat would spike, but it wouldn’t last for more than a minute or so. But she was reactive and didn’t appear to be in distress. 

Unfortunately, they were more concerned about me. Apparently, I was having some pretty sizable contractions. I knew I’d had some but I had been identifying the contractions as baby movement. I thought she was just doing some stretching. I was wrong. Once I figured out that’s what was going on, I freaked out a tiny bit because I’ve been feeling those several times a day for weeks and everyone kept acting slightly surprised that I was feeling them and that they were that strong at this point. They also seemed a bit stronger today than they have in the past. The doctor didn’t mention that they were regular or anything; she thinks they are BH, but was concerned that I was feeling them so strongly. 

So she checked my cervix to see if there was anything going on there (OMG! that hurt!!!!!). I’m not dilated at all, but I am slightly effaced. Nothing to worry about at this point, but when I mentioned the contractions felt stronger today, she made it very clear that if they got stronger or if at any point, I was still really concerned about the baby’s movements that I needed to call and they would bring me back in to check on us. She told me to lay on my left side of for the rest of the day and make sure to drink at least 32-48 oz of water before bedtime tonight.


In other news, Socks has a tumor about the size of an acorn squash in his abdomen. It doesn't appear to have spread, but they're going to confirm that tomorrow prior to surgery. He should be walking in about a day and home in three days, so that's positive. He should hopefully put back on some of the weight he's lost (ten pounds since March).


It was rough news to hear, but since the prognosis appears to be good, I guess it could be worse. It was just hard to hear after having such a worrisome day of our own.