She Who Must Not Be Named, 36-38 weeks

How far along?  38 weeks 

New from this week?  (or weeks as the case may be)  As you've probably noticed, I've once again slacked off on the updates.  Week 36 was uneventful so nothing really to report for that week.  We did start the lovely internal exams that week.   

Last week, Derek was out of town finding a place to live when we move.  Fortunately, he found a nice house to rent and it was a relatively uneventful week for me.  I did end up in the doctors office for an unscheduled appointment on Wednesday due to limited movement.  But at least it we got to skip the hospital since it was during business hours.  Thursday I went back to the office for my usual weekly appointment.  My blood pressure was still running a little high.  

Sunday and Monday of this week she again had limited movement.  Since she had been active while I was trying to sleep, we decided that rather than head to the hospital immediately, I'd try a cup of coffee.  That seemed to do the trick for a little while.  I always thought that once I started feeling her move it would be reassuring.  In general though it's been more stressful.  I had my usual appointment Thursday.  My blood pressure was higher than before.  This along with not moving much earlier in the week again earned us some time with the monitors.  And once again we were the first ones in and last ones out of the monitoring room and she had to be buzzed to wake her up.  Fortunately, her heart rate looks good and my blood pressure came down a bit after sitting in the recliner for a while.  For the last few days, I've been having regular braxton hicks contractions.  Hopefully they will help get stuff going.

The movement concerns, combined with my increasing blood pressure, has bumped us up to twice weekly appointments for next week and probably the week after and I've been instructed to rest, rest, and rest.  The whole rest thing is hard when we are trying to get everything ready for her.  Also, the doc doesn't want to let me go past my due date.  

What I miss?  In general, I can't complain about being pregnant as I've felt pretty well and it has gone pretty smoothly.  However, I will say I miss being able to sleep.  It started out with the bathroom trips, painful swelling in my fingers, numb hands, and aching hips waking me up.  Now it is more the insomnia.  I just toss and turn.  And since moving around at this stage takes quite a bit of effort and occasionally grunting, I've been keeping Derek up as well.  I've been thinking about taking something to help me sleep but was concerned about making the baby even more sluggish.  I asked the doc about it, and he seemed to think it would be ok, so I gave it a try last night.  I slept a little better.

What I'm looking forward to?  Having an outside baby.

Milestones?  Reached full term last Friday.  Only two weeks and a day until my due date.  

She Who Must Not Be Named, 35 weeks

How far along? 35 weeks 3 days

News from this week?  I had a non stress test on Thursday.  We were the first ones in and last ones out.  She was not moving as much as they like, despite eating before I went in and drinking ice water there.  After about 45 minutes or so they pulled out the buzzer to wake her up.  Everything was fine after that.  I wasn't having contractions this time, fortunately.  My blood pressure was still up but not considered high yet.  I've started having some swelling in my hands all the time now.  This is a little concerning considering my blood pressure has been creeping up.  But hopefully these things won't become an issue.  In general, I feel pretty good still.  I'm tired all the time again.  The insomnia combined with the middle of the night pee breaks and the aching hips make it nearly impossible to sleep any length of time.  I'm not sure if it is better or worse than the first trimester exhaustion, at least then I could sleep.   I went for a massage on Friday.  Definitely nice.  Thanks to Derek's parents for the birthday gift.  We are scheduled to have more classes this week but they will probably get cancelled if the weather gets as nasty as they are predicting. 

Movement?  She's moving around at the moment.  I'm watching my bump move around as I type this.  However, she's been her usual lazy self the last few days.  She barely passed her kick counts Friday and Saturday.  Sunday she was a little more active.  Maybe she didn't like the lap desk touching my stomach when I was working on thank you cards.

Food cravings?  I woke up this morning needing lemonade.  I wanted it enough that we made a trip to the store this evening despite the crowds resulting from the coming storm.

Milestones?  Apparently I look really pregnant now or something.  At least five people commented on my bump on Sunday.   I should take a picture this week.  Maybe I'll do that tomorrow, I'm already in my pjs tonight.

She Who Must Not Be Named, 34 weeks

How far along? 34 weeks 1 day

News from this week?  I had my usual doctor's appointment on Thursday.  She seems to be measuring right on track.  Heartbeat was nice and strong in the 140s.  She was in her favorite position these days, head down and crammed into my far right side.  My blood pressure was up a little.  Not high really, just higher than my normal.  After the shenanigans a couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of being hooked up to the monitors for half an hour or so for a non-stress test and repeat blood pressure checks.  The doc said prior to the monitoring that if everything looked good he would see us at our regularly scheduled appointment in two weeks.  Afterwards, the nurse said he wanted me to make an appointment next week for monitoring again but I didn't get a chance to ask why.  That is a downside of a late afternoon appointment.  Derek and I think it might just be because my blood pressure didn't go down.  I guess we just start weekly appointments a week early.

Movement?  She seems to get the hiccups all the time recently, three times yesterday and a couple of times today.  They always seem to annoy her and get her moving.  But I feel kind of bad for her.  

Food cravings?  Nothing really.  I made some chocolate peanut butter oatmeal no bake cookies yesterday.  She Who Must Not Be Named seemed to approve.  I still have food aversions.  I never really expected them to hang around this long.

What I miss?  Being able to sleep.  Eggs over easy.

Milestones?  We started washing baby clothes this week.  Also, I forgot to mention it before, but we started classes at the hospital last week.  Today we had cpr and first aid.  

What I'm looking forward to?  Getting the rest of the baby stuff in order.  More classes Tuesday and Thursday.  My appointment on Thursday.  And also, hopefully, a pregnancy massage sometime this week or next.

She Who Must Not Be Named, 33 weeks

How far along? 33 weeks 3 days 

Best moment this week?  On Saturday, I was holding a friend's new baby and She Who Must Not Be Named kicked her the entire time.

Movement?  Still lazy some days but she passed her kick counts this week.  When she is active it really makes my belly wiggle.

Food cravings?  Nothing really.  Still a fan of grapefruit and fruit in general.

Milestones?  Not baby related but Derek and I celebrated our seventh anniversary a week ago. 

A different kind of excitement this week.  My shower was Saturday morning.  It was hosted by four friends.  One of them, we will call her J, was pregnant and five weeks ahead of me.  We planned the shower early enough that we thought J would be able to attend.  However, her water broke early on Saturday morning and she delivered a beautiful baby girl that afternoon.  The shower was still lovely and we got to visit her in the hospital afterwards.  

Owl cake made by a friend.  It tasted as good as it looked.

She also made these cookies.

Loot from the shower.

Closeup of the blanket made by J. 

She Who Must Not Be Named, 29-32 weeks

As you may have noticed, I slacked off for a few weeks.  A lot has happened in that time.  On December 14, I celebrated my 30th birthday.  I told Derek all I wanted was cake and decided on a red velvet cake.  We couldn't find a cake mix so decided to try it from scratch.  It wasn't my best baking endeavor.  The edges were too crispy but the center not quite done, so it fell.  It stuck to the pan.  Then the top layer slid off.  It tasted pretty good but I was still disappointed.  On December 17, I reached 29 weeks.  Fortunately, Derek's graduation on December 19 was an excuse to make another cake.  It turned out much better.  Derek's parents, brother, and grandparents visited for the graduation.  It was nice to see everyone and the ceremony was quite nice.  There may have been a little incident in which the rude people sitting behind us were told to shut up, which it totally out of character for me, but aside from that it was nice.  Derek is happy to be finished with school finally and we are enjoying his free time.

December 22, I had my 30 week appointment a few days early because of the holidays.  She Who Must Not Be Named had a nice strong heartbeat but since she tends to be lazy with regards to movement, or laid back as we like to say, the doc wanted me to do kick counts twice a day.  Although the doc wasn't too happy about our 7.5 hour drive for the holidays, we spent December 23 through January 5 visiting with family and friends.  But I am now done traveling for a while.  While out of town, we hit 30 weeks on Christmas Eve and 31 weeks on New Years Eve.  Family and friends gave us a shower on January 2 while we were in town.  Between it and Christmas our living room is now overflowing with baby stuff.  Lot of pink things.  Let's just hope she really is a girl.

That brings us up to this week.  Yesterday morning (Thursday), I had an appointment with the nurse practitioner.  Everything looked good, but she had a hard time finding the heartbeat.  It was a little unnerving, especially since it was so strong and easy to find two weeks before.  After moving the doppler around and pressing pretty hard on my bump, it was again nice and strong in the 140s.  Because of the appointment, I didn't get a kick count in in the morning.  Both before and after the appointment she wasn't moving around much.  We had appointments with the optometrist in the afternoon.  Still not much movement.  When we got home, I had a snack and some caffeine then did a kick count.  I got 3 kicks in the hour, rather than the 10 I needed.  I called the doc.  By the time I talked to the nurse it was after 4.  It was thus to late to get in to see the doctor and she sent me to the ER to be sent to the labor and delivery floor for monitoring.  I feel like I have been emotionally stable this pregnancy, not too many tears or anything.  (Derek agrees with me and I don't think it is just because he is afraid of me.)  But this situation had me in tears.  I think this in turn freaked out Derek.  Good times.  After I calmed down a little, we headed to the hospital.  I spent about 2 hours hooked up to the monitors.  They found her heartbeat right away.  For the first hour, she moved maybe three times but her heartbeat looked perfect.  Then I think she got the hiccups.  After that, she spent an hour kicking the contraction monitor and they couldn't keep her on the heart rate monitor because she was squirming too much.  In the end she was fine, just lazy.  I was, however, having a number of contractions.  So now I get to watch out for those, in addition to doing the kick counts.  I told her that the hospital visit is coming out of her allowance and she had better behave.  Although, I suspect that in addition to being laid back like her parents, she is stubborn like one of us as well.  I wouldn't be surprised if more monitoring is in our future.

Today (Friday) we hit 32 weeks.  Only five weeks until I'm considered full term, only 8 weeks until my due date, and 9 weeks maximum until she's here.  I guess we should pick out a name.

Derek's graduation.

Some of our shower loot.

Lots of food and cake at the shower.

She Who Must Not Be Named, 28 weeks

How far along? 28 weeks 

The good?  Her heartbeat was nice and strong yesterday, in the 150s as usual.  Blood pressure, iron, and everything seems normal.  And I passed my glucose tolerance test so bring on the Christmas goodies.

The bad?  I shouldn't enjoy too many goodies as I should watch the weight gain this month.  I had a surprise physical at my appointment since it wasn't noted in my files from the other doc that I'd already had one.  I was poked and prodded and had my bump manhandled.  At least I got a real gown and sheet, rather than the paper ones. 

Best moment this week?  I felt something poking my side earlier today.  It wasn't exactly comfortable so I rubbed the spot.  I think it was a foot and rubbing it startled her.  I got kicked several times.

Symptoms?  Acne.  The occasional nausea still.  A growing Santa like belly.  But according to Derek, I'm not getting any jollier.  

Movement?  She's still fairly lazy.  The nurse practitioner was amused that I called her lazy when she asked about movement.  She seems to flip between transverse and what I think is head down once or twice a day.  I never know where I'm going to feel her next.

Food cravings?  Apparently citrus fruit, we bought 10 lbs of grapefruit and 8 of oranges tonight.  We'll see how long they last.  I'm also looking forward to birthday cake next week.  I'm thinking red velvet.

Milestones?  I've now moved up to appointments every two weeks.

She Who Must Not Be Named, 27 weeks

How far along? 27 weeks 

Best moment this week?  Derek defended today.  I got kicked the whole time. 

Movement?  I had my glucose tolerance test Thursday morning.  The sugary drink didn't get her moving.  But the decaf coffee with artificial sweetener that I had in the afternoon did.  She doesn't seem to be a morning person.  Her favorite pastime this week was apparently kicking or headbutting my bladder and cervix.     

Food cravings?  I may or may not have finished off 5 lbs of grapefruit in 5 days and then started on a 10 lb bag.  (I thought of you, mom)

What I love?  Watching and feeling my bump move with her kicks and wiggles.

What I miss?  Being able to taste test cookie dough, cake/muffin batter if I want.  I made three batches of muffins for Derek's defense.  It was torture. :)

Milestones?  This week begins the third trimester.