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.

32 weeks and 5 days

I had my 32 week appointment today. Heartbeat was good at 152. Baby girl is still head down and my belly is still measuring about a week and a half ahead. Nothing to be concerned about there.

When she came in, my midwife was slightly concerned because I had lost four pounds over the last two weeks, but after grilling me on what I’m eating, what’s been going on life-wise, my vitamins, and how much I’m drinking, she’s not worried. Baby girl is still growing so obviously she’s getting enough of what she needs. My midwife thinks that the weight loss is because I’m just not eating as much due to being uncomfortable, dealing with the heat, and sleeping more now that I’m not working.

Overall, a good basic boring appointment. I’d be happy to have several more of those before the middle of August!

Here is a picture of me at 31 weeks 4 days (before my job interview):

And this is me yesterday at 32 weeks 4 days:

I'm not sure there is a huge difference in size, but I think there is a shape difference just based on the pants I was wearing in the two pictures. The dress pants have a much more shaping panel than the gaucho pants in the second picture.

Yes, I did mention a job interview! I had an interview at Trevor-Wilmot Unified Elementary school last Thursday. It's a 4K-5th grade general music position, and it would be an amazing school to work at! They seem to have amazing resources, and I feel like the only questions that I really stumbled with during the interview were the ones regarding technology that I've never had access to in my job. I should hear something in the next two weeks about whether or not I got the position, but I was one of only seven candidates interviewed, so I'm trying to be hopeful. However there is one small problem if I get the job......

We found an apartment and it is no where near Trevor. It is in Caledonia, on the far north side of Racine. It has two bedrooms, central A/C, a gas stove, and a porch. The complex has a pool and is super close to the lake as well as the Racine Zoo. Both bedrooms have doors to the porch and the closet in what will be the baby's room is huge so it will have plenty of room for her stuff as well as my yarn. The master bedroom closet is plenty big as well. The bathroom has an open space under the sink and the separate toilet/shower and powder room that we've been used to in our current apartment. It doesn't have a dishwasher or washer/dryer, but we've survived without those in the past, and I think we'll be okay. We would only be sharing laundry facilities with five other apartments, so it's not like a huge building where we'd be fighting with tons of other people.

The commute would be about 45 minutes. Yuck, and I'm sure it would be even worse during the winter. But we couldn't afford to lose the apartment on the off-chance that I get the job. I may decide to suck it up and commute for this year and then we'd move out closer to Trevor in 2013, but we'll see. I'm still not convinced that I'm going to get the job, especially since the belly was an obvious presence in the interview.  It didn't come up (legally, they can't ask), and I just couldn't figure out a good way to bring it up so I didn't. I'm not sure if that will hurt or help me.

The last major thing going on is my thesis. My proposal approval finally came in toward the end of last week. I haven't done much with it since this week was more devoted to getting unemployment and Badgercare paperwork in order. I am planning to get the SurveyMonkey process up and running tomorrow while Matt is playing a wedding so I can get it sent out. Then I'll continue working on research while the data comes in. I've taken two weeks to be a lump; next week that is soooo going to change. I'm going to try to devote at least two hours a day to the thesis plus two hours a day to packing. And somewhere in there, I'll do my mandatory work search stuff for UI.

I'm just not sure where to start with the packing, honestly. I want to make sure the baby stuff is some of the first stuff unpacked, but we won't have the crib or changing table until after we move. We are getting both from my cousin Jenn; my brother is picking them up from her in MN the weekend we move into the apartment. But honestly, baby girl will be sleeping in our room for at least the beginning in the Pack N Play, and someone has picked that up, so she'll have a place to sleep at the beginning. The Pack N Play also has a changing table so we'll be okay. She's going to use the old dresser that I took with me when I moved out (it was my brother's and my dad's before that), so that and a bookshelf may be the only furniture in her room at first. Eventually, she'll have the crib:

the changing table:

the old dresser, a bookshelf, and my mom's blue rocking recliner. We also have blue Yaffa block shelves and some blue wire shelving that we can use in there. She's going to have to share her closet with my yarn supplies, so some of those shelves might get put to use in that manner. I'm also thinking about taking our lanterns from the livingroom and making them into owls. We'll see how it all works out when we move in.

We have some furniture that we're going to need to get rid of in order to fit in the apartment, but not too much. Hopefully, the day bed can go back to my mom's basement until we have an extra bedroom again. However, my desk and the two green chairs are gonna have to go. My folks don't have space for it, and we don't have the money to spend on a storage unit. It would add about $75 to our monthly rent to get one, and I don't think they're going to fit in the storage unit in the basement. I hate to get rid of the chairs though since we might need them once we have a house. Maybe we can find some nice friend with space in their basement to store them for us.......

Wow, the post got really long. I guess I need to write more often!!

An ending, an appointment, and preparations

It was a busy week. The school officially closed on Friday. So after our last two days with students, we spent two and a half days trying to sell as much as possible and then on the last day, we either donated or pitched the rest. I pushed myself a little too hard on Wednesday while finishing up my packing in my room, so I wasn't able to do much after that. There was dehydration puking Wednesday (and the corresponding spots) and Braxton-Hicks contractions on all three days. Friday morning, I woke up with a nasty case of the runs.

After keeping nothing in my system all day Friday, I went to my previously scheduled doctor's appointment. I was glad that I had already had the appointment scheduled, so I could ask about what I could take. She told me that I could take Imodium and gave me 24 hours of a liquid diet and an additional 24 hours of a bland diet. Talk about cruel and unusual punishment for a pregnant, but I'll get to that in a minute.

On the baby front, things are good. She is still head-down, facing forward. Her heartbeat was good and strong. The midwife measured my belly and I'm measuring at 33 weeks which is two weeks ahead, but the midwife said that two weeks on either side was acceptable. She did ask me to be aware and watch for decreased fetal movement. According to her, that is less than ten movements in four hours. That has not been an issue so far, and this weekend was no exception. She's a wiggly little one.

As I mentioned before, asking me to be on a liquid diet was cruel and unusual punishment. Well, it would be for any pregnant woman, but especially the day of a baby shower. Yeah, a baby shower, especially one where I knew there would be gobs of awesome food. Here is the diaper cake that Sam made.

The turtles on the top were from our registry, and the owls and the tag blanket were made by my friend. I am a turtle fan and DH is an owl guy, hence all the turtles and owl. The top layer of burp cloths are basic cloth diapers that my friend backed with a variety of awesome fabrics.

The baby shower was amazing. It was a Perry the Platypus theme so everything was orange and turquoise and there were Perrys all over the place. Interestingly enough, I had on a dress that exactly matched the turquoise so I fit in with the theme too. Tons of food, as I mentioned above, and the favors were jarred cookie mixes called Perry Pastries. It was awesome; Sam completely outdid herself. She also did a Price is Right game. She knows that I'm not a huge shower game fan, but also can't resist buying tons of stuff so this was a compromise between us. We got a bunch of awesome gifts: a Finding Nemo bathtub, the turtle bath toy scoop that we had registered for but taken off thinking it was too extravagant, lots of clothes, some adorable onesies that my friend decorated, the baby carrier for Matt, a few handmade blankets, a knitted stuffed turtle that I'm trying desperately not to judge (I'm such a snob, I know), tons of diapers, etc. It was awesome.

We have flippage!

We had our 28 week appointment today and loads of good news all around. I passed both the GD test and the iron levels. The drink, other than being very cold and making my teeth hurt, didn't have any effect on me or the baby. In fact, she was yawning during the ultrasound. It was super cute!!!

We then had our ultrasound, and she is now head down! She could always flip around again, but I'm happy that she flipped. I wonder if that's what I felt last night when I thought she was doing jumping jacks. They were able to get the last few pictures the needed from the anatomy scan. She also did a couple of 3D shots, so we got two of those to bring home plus two regular pics. All her measurements are good, either a few days ahead or right on schedule. She weighs about 2 pounds 12 ounces right now, up about a pound from our last appointment.
Look at that nose! It's so cute!! My mom says it looks like a nose from her side of the family, which Matt totally agreed with. He thinks she's got my nose. And with the amount of time she's spending with her hands in her face, I won't be surprised if she's a thumb sucker.

Then a boring normal appointment. Just chatted about how I was feeling, the hip/groin pain (totally normal), the annoying pain in my ears at night (potentially related to excess fluid from allergies/pregnancy, but if it doesn't stop in the next few weeks, go see someone), and we were on our way.

I did ask about my weight gain, not that I'm worried but just curious. She said about a pound a week would be average. Since I was carrying extra weight around prior to getting pregnant, she said half a pound would be sufficient for me personally. She did say I'm doing great though. I'm at a net gain of 9 pounds which is just peachy for almost 29 weeks. She fully anticipates that unless I blow up like a balloon over the next 10 weeks, I'll probably weigh less than my pre-pregnancy weight after giving birth, especially if I breastfeed. We also talked about baby's weight gain, and she said that, on average, from about week 32 or so they gain around half a pound or so. At that rate, I'm looking at an 8+ pound baby. Eek.

We scheduled my next few appointments because they are now two weeks apart rather than four weeks. Crazy! I am almost 75% done with my pregnancy. I'd say I'm starting to freak out, but honestly, with everything else going on, my pregnancy is the least worrisome thing on my mind. Not to say I don't worry about it, but I'm much more concerned about money, jobs, housing, insurance, and thesis stuff.

I haven't put up any pictures of myself on here, but here is the most recent shot of the belly. It has changed shape a little in the last week and a half. I wonder if that coincides with her decision to flip?

27 weeks

29 weeks

I think I definitely look rounder in the second picture. My belly button hasn't popped yet, but it's getting very stretched.