33 weeks

Due Date: April 5th. If I don't go on my own, we are inducing in one week - February 23rd (34 weeks, 1 day.)

Musings on the Weekly Photo: Is that a cantaloupe or a baby? I'm sure you can imagine that if I were to go full-term, it would look like I stuffed a beach ball up my shirt!

Marination Time: 33 weeks

Weight Gain: Net (+14) as of today (part of my vitals are daily weights.) At least I'm not losing anymore!

Belly Button Watch: Still an innie! Kind of. But definitely not an outie!

Maternity Clothes: Umm, yeah. I don't really get "dressed" each day. Yoga pants and tank tops it is!

Fruit of the Week: I do believe we are now a honeydew! Most honeydews I've seen are smaller than squash, but whatever.

Name: We officially have two names (both first and middle) for each sex. Hurrah! Yes, we're still keeping them a secret. No, I'm not telling you.

Gender: Team Green

Movement: Depends on the day and the time of day, but bebe is still super-duper active.

Cravings/Aversions: I definitely still crave fruit and I definitely am back to being turned off by poultry.

Annoyances: Hello, third trimester hormone surge! I can cry at the drop of a hat and have an irrational desire to throw temper-tantrums over non-consequential things. Example: Last night my nurses took WAY too long to refill my water pitchers (we're talking hours, not minutes - I wasn't being that ridiculous) and I almost threw my empty pitcher down the hallway. I was also tempted to stomp my preggo, bed-ridden butt down the hallway to get my own damned water. I was so incredibly pissed that as soon as Mike showed up, I burst into tears. I know a lot of my reaction is partly to blame on hormones and partly due to being sick of being in the hospital, but I just want to go back to doing things for myself! Oh, and don't forget the return of the morning sickness, now complete with vertigo. Blech.

Highlights of the Week: I don't want baby to be any earlier than necessary, but I really hope I go on my own before next Thursday... let's say, oh, Wednesday night! My doctor actually won't be in town, so I will have another doctor from her practice, but they've all been very understanding and supportive of the few desires I have left (being able to walk around during labor aka not being tied to the bed, trying to get labor kick-started without Pitocin, or with as little Pitocin as possible and turn it off as soon as I'm in active labor, etc.) But considering the way everything else has gone thus far, I'm thinking I may be SOL. We shall see!

Bake, baby, Bake! 32 week update

30 weeks

31 weeks

32 weeks

Oh hi there, Baby! Smoochie Smoochie face. Approximately 4lbs, 1oz.

Due Date: April 5th. If we can make it, likely induction around or after February 23rd.

Musings on the Weekly Photo: It's a belly! Doesn't seem to be growing much, but the size seems to be directly related to where baby is hanging out. Now that s/he is head down, his/her size is dispersed over a larger area = smaller-looking belly. I will say that in clothes, it looks huge. Lacee and Mike each swear it gets bigger every day!

Marination Time: 32 weeks

Weight Gain: Net (+13) as of today (part of my vitals are daily weights.) I have lost weight since being hospitalized, but the doctor says she's not worried as long as Baby is growing - which s/he is! A lot of the problem is loss of muscle mass due to inactivity, so we have increased my caloric intake to fatten bebe up.

Maternity Clothes: Maternity clothes? What are those? These days I live in a rotation of yoga pants and three tank tops. Sometimes Mike throws a maternity t-shirt into my clean laundry pile and I'll try that out. :) The few cute maternity clothes I own are geared toward going out and about, therefore not so conducive to sitting in a hospital bed all day. Bummer.

Fruit of the Week: It's our final week as a squash.

Name: We officially have two names (both first and middle) for each sex. Hurrah! Yes, we're still keeping them a secret. No, I'm not telling you.

Gender: Team Green

Movement: It's an aaaaaalien.

Cravings/Aversions: Salad and fruit. No aversions to speak of unless hospital mystery meat counts...

Annoyances: Boredom mostly. Feet in my ribs once in a while and my hips ache from inactivity. But in reality, I feel pretty awesome especially considering the situation.

Highlights of the Week: Every day we keep baby in is a highlight. Bake baby, bake!

Update...

Sorry for the long absence. As many of you know, last Saturday I was admitted for the second time in pre-term labor. This time I had dilated to 3cm and was 80% effaced! Eek. They were able to slow the contractions again with the magnesium sulfate, but then on Monday afternoon. baby went and tried to get rid of his/her swimming pool. Anxious baby! We made it through that initial 24 hours without having a baby, so now it's been day-by-day. Eighty-percent of women who experience PPROM (pre-term premature rupture of membranes aka my water broke) go into labor within one week and we are now at 8 days! So hurrah!


A little bit of clarification since this seems to be an ongoing misconception, but just because my water has broken doesn't mean I have to deliver immediately. Yes, most of the time water-breakage is a sign of imminent delivery, but in the case of PPROM, not necessarily. If I were to go into active labor, they will not stop it but if we can increase the latency (cooking time), the benefits of keeping baby in outweighs the risks. Since amniotic fluid is dynamic, as long as I stay well-hydrated, baby continually creates more fluid (drinks it in, pees it out. I know, very gross.) The biggest concern is infection, so I have been pumped full of antiobiotics for the past week and they are monitoring my vitals closely. On average, for each day baby stays put, s/he will spend two fewer days in the NICU. Every day counts!
As for what has been going on more recently, my daily NSTs have looked great (minimal crimping of the cord, good accelerations) and as mentioned, they're watching my vitals closely for any sign of infection. Blood pressure and temp have been holding steady. They did an AFI (amniotic fluid index) today and Baby has built up his/her swimming pool to normal despite the slow leak! Hurray! The nurses have all been calling Baby D "rockstar baby" because s/he has been very, very active and easy to monitor. Just today we have a discovered that s/he loves the Mumford & Sons Pandora station! I asked my Doctor a bunch of questions this morning and these were her responses: 1. AFI? As I mentioned, we had one today and it looked great. Fluid levels were at the high end of normal and baby had a full bladder! 2. I haven't gained any weight in almost three weeks, which concerns me (my net weight gain is around 13 pounds since I lost ~8 to 10 in the first tri). Since I'm on complete bed rest and muscle weighs more than fat, there is probably some nutrient conversion going on. Baby is taking my muscle to grow, which is okay but the lack of gain still worries me. They had the nutritionist come in and we're going to try and up my caloric intake with more fruits and veggies (most of the hospital food isn't exactly appetizing, especially their protein choices.) Mike has been great about bringing me fresh fruit and snacks, so I'll try and eat more of that too. But my doctor said as long as baby is growing, she's not worried with the lull. We'll do a follow-up ultrasound on Friday or Saturday to check his/her progress (last sono was 1/28 and Baby was about 3.5 lbs.) 3. How long is she going to let me go (she has been very vague on this point)? If I make it to 34 weeks, she will test my fluid to see if baby's lungs are developed. If they are, she will induce me at that time because the risk of infection is too high. If not, we'll try to keep me going to 35 weeks. I'll be 32 weeks tomorrow, so we might have a baby in two weeks. Isn't that nuts? Obviously if I show any sign of infection, they'll induce immediately. The good news is because my uterus is so irritable, doc and nurses think it won't take much and I'll be able to avoid pitocin - something I've been against having since the beginning. But watch my words, I'll probably end up eating them. Haha.

So that's what we've got! Sorry it's taken me so long to get this up. If you have any questions, I have no problem answering them. Send 'em on over!