Tuesday, April 23, 2013

35 weeks and tired

Man! I am normally a pretty tired person, but I have never in my life been this tired before. I am praying I get some energy back soon! I haven't been sleeping all that well, but it's not like I don't sleep at all. I have been sleeping most of the night. I guess it's just preparing me for when the baby gets here. I can't believe I am nearing just a month until she should be here! Five weeks to go until my due date. I really hope she gets here at that time.

I had a doctor's appointment on Monday. I was measuring right on track at 35 cm. That's the first time I've measured exactly on track as far as size. I guess drinking more water might have helped bring the fluid back up. My weight jumped up 3.6 pounds in just a week. Yikes. Maybe that was a mistake. Or, perhaps that makes up for my two tenths of a pound weight gain over the two weeks prior. I am up 26.9 pounds total. That short lived goal of only gaining 30 pounds is slipping away, but if I don't have too many more 3.6 pound weeks, I may be able to finish under 35 pounds. We'll see! I can't remember my blood pressure exactly. For some reason I am thinking it was 100/74. I don't know, but I know the nurse said it was normal. The baby's heart rate was 150. 

Now that I am past 34 weeks, the doctor is seeing me every week plus or minus a couple of days. He is also asking me a lot about if I am feeling any braxton hicks contractions (or tightening as he calls it) or pain. So far I've only had tightening, no real pain. I also had my group B strep test. I guess if it comes back positive, it's no big deal, they just make sure those mothers are on antibiotics during labor and delivery. He's also going to be checking me each week. I was 1 cm dilated. The baby is head down, so let's hope she stays that way. He said that's not too bad for being one day shy of 35 weeks. I guess that's a baseline for him to see if I am progressing each week. 


Family Baby Shower

My sisters threw me a baby shower this past Saturday! I am so thankful for them. The shower was wonderful.  I also got to stay the weekend and hang out with my sister that hosted and her sweet family. I don't get to see them that often, so it was a great visit.

Chris got to hang out with his dad who had traveled to Evansville with Lori, Chris' stepmom to attend the shower. One of my brothers and my brother-in-law of course also hung out with Chris and Keith during the shower. They had fun playing pool in the basement! This was our first baby shower, and we got a lot of wonderful gifts for Miss Bridgette Renee!

Here are some photos from the shower. The quality isn't great on all of these. We had to bring the quality down on my camera in order to be able to take more photos!


beautiful cake with her monogram




Charis and Emberly striking a pose!





























Glad I got a baby book! I totally forgot to register for one!



My oldest sister, Melay said this gift was from my mother. She passed away almost 12 years ago. This was my baby bedding that was bought special for me when I was born. Melay had held onto it for me for the last decade.





People always look so good opening gifts. Ha!




Diaper Cake Melay made for the game! Lots of goodies for Bridgette!

Leigh Ann "made a baby." Funny line from the afternoon. This "baby" is made out of diapers and goodies for us to keep! Pinterest has some neat ideas! 

34 weeks

I am a week behind on my 34 week post, so I will attempt to catch up! I saw the doctor again last Tuesday. He said I was measuring a little small (first time for everything, right?), and since I had asked if I would have anymore ultrasounds to look at the baby, he said it was a good time to go on and do that. He just wanted to make sure the baby was still growing on track! I'd done a couple of ultrasounds over the last couple of months, but they had looked only at my cervix to make sure the small amount of bleeding I was having on a couple of occasions wasn't my cervix trying to open too early. Each time they checked, it was nothing, so I've pretty much stopped worrying about it.

From the ultrasound last Tuesday, I learned that the baby was measuring around 5lb. and 11 oz. I think I am going to have a big baby! That was my birth weight, but I was also born about 7 weeks early. The tech said she was still measuring about a week ahead. They said that she has hair. You could see the little lines sticking out from her head on the screen. I wonder if she's going to look like a little Mexican baby with a lot of hair! They also told me that my fluid level was on the low end of normal, which might explain why I was measuring small when before I had been measuring a week or two bigger each time. They told me to drink lots of water to help bring that level back up a bit. I am usually really good about drinking lots of water, but I think I had gotten so busy that I was starting to slack off!

I had gained only .2 pounds since my 32 week appointment (23.3 total). I am guessing that also might have had to do with being dehydrated. My blood pressure was 119/70. The baby's heart rate on the Doppler was 163, but an hour later when I was having the ultrasound, she'd calmed down a bit. It was around 135. I also got my Tdap vaccine to protect against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, which my doctor said I would get at the hospital after I deliver if I didn't get it now. I would rather get shots done now to get them over with! I already had to get a RhoGAM shot a few weeks back since I have a negative blood type. That will help protect the baby if she has a positive blood type. We won't know that until she's born, but if she does, I'll have to get another one of those shots after delivery to keep me from developing any antibodies to the Rh factor. That will protect any future babies that are Rh positive.

 
Here's my 34 week belly shot!
I had to work the Scholar of the Week Reception for the Honors College last Tuesday night. I grabbed a photo with my friend Big Red!

Monday, April 15, 2013

working and working

Today I figured out that since starting my very first job in June of 2001 at the age of 16, nearly 12 years ago, only a few weeks after getting a driver's license, I have never taken more than a couple of weeks off of work at once whether I had vacation time, sick time, holiday break or was transitioning to a new job. I am about to take off work for 12 weeks. I know being home with a baby will be hard work, but it's still strange to think that I've never been home that long before. Isn't that a strange thought? Or, maybe there's nothing interesting about this at all? I know people work for years and years, sometimes even all at the same place. I have to say that this did blow my mind a bit. I guess I am just getting older, so 12 years just sounds like a long time.

My dad was right when he was trying to get me to stop stressing out about finding my first job. I had just gotten my license, but had no job secured yet. He told me I had to work if I wanted to drive a car (to pay for car insurance and to save up for a better car), but not to worry or be in too big of a rush because once I had a job, I'd probably be working for most of the rest of my life! He was basically telling me that being a kid for a few more weeks wasn't going to kill me, and that it was probably a good thing to enjoy the little time I had left! I can see now that he was right!


Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Easter Weekend and 32 weeks

This weekend was busy, but good! We got to spend it with my family in Henderson. My brother hosted an Easter gathering at his house for my mom's family on Saturday. This was nice because I hadn't seen most of my mom's family since September, which was for some unhappy circumstances, my relatively young cousin's funeral. I was a little bummed that my grandparents were sick this weekend and didn't get to come, but hopefully I will get a visit in with them sometime before the baby comes. My grandmother will hopefully get to come to my baby shower in a few weeks.

Sunday we got up for church with my family at 7:30 a.m., which was early! Even though it was early, it was still a packed church. We ended up having to sit all split up in the choir loft, which was interesting. I always enjoy mass from the choir loft for some reason. I missed service at our church, but I realize it's nice to be able to share holidays with family sometimes too. It's always a sweet time celebrating the Risen Lord!

After church we visited with family and ate too much! There was lots of wonderful sweets for my growing fetus to enjoy! I sure paid for it on the scale today!

My doctor's appointment went well. I am still measuring a week ahead at 33 cm. My weight and the baby's heart rate was the same, 152! That's 22.2 pounds so far. It seems this baby is growing just fine! The doctor said he's expecting me to gain another 7-8 pounds before the end. I would be thrilled with that. I am thinking it could be more at the rate I am going! Of course, the Easter holiday and my lack of self control is not helping! My blood pressure was 112/60, which the nurse said is good.