I had my 36 week appointment with my OB. Now my appointments will take place weekly until the baby is born. Any guesses on when the baby will come and whether it is a girl or boy? I think that will be fun to see if anyone can guess the date and gender! Josh and I are both thinking it is a boy since he is quite good at producing boys LOL! Josh is guessing the baby will come on February 25 and my guess is February 28.
At this appointment my blood pressure was weird. I had taken my time walking to the hospital from my typical parking spot a street away and I had taken my time walking through the hospital. I figured I would be fine only taking a couple of minutes after arriving to take my blood pressure. My first measurement was 146/63 and they want you to retake anything over 140. I gave the administrator the results and told her I would retest in a few minutes. About 10 minutes later, I took it again. It was 139/66 or so which was better but I wanted to see if it would keep going lower like it normally does as time goes by from the walk through the hospital. I took it a third time after waiting a minute or so and taking some deep, calming breathes. My blood pressure was 96/63 this time which freaked me out. I didn’t feel faint, so I took it a fourth time. This time it was 106/68 or so. I gave up at that point. I handed the administrator all three of the last measurements I had taken and sat down.
There was a medical student there this time which never bothers me except that this one was giving me anxiety! She took my belly measurements and her eyes went wide. She measured again and said, “oh that’s a little better.” This concerned me. I asked what was wrong and she said, “oh my first measurement was 42 cm which I thought was off and the second measurement was 39 cm which is a little better. Have you always been measuring big?” I said I believe so, but at my ultrasound a couple of weeks ago they determined it was just the position the baby was in and that the baby seems to be a healthy 2.5 kg baby at that point. She then says, “oh wow that is a big baby!” Now my heart is racing. Is my OB just telling me everything is fine but she is actually concerned behind the scenes?! The medical student then took the fetal doppler and the baby’s heartrate was in the 130’s and sounded great. I just stayed quiet waiting for my OB to come into the room.
Once she came in, she went over the results of the ultrasound again explaining that everything was fine: baby’s measurements were spot on, the fluid levels are great, the blood going through the umbilical cord was great, so she was happy with all of this. I asked about my measurement of 39 cm at only being 36.5 weeks along and she told me that was why she sent me for the ultrasound in the first place, to make sure baby was happy and baby is happy! I have been measuring that far ahead essentially the entire time apparently! They think it is due to baby’s position. Baby is still head down though so that is definitely great news. I am thinking about doing the Miles Circuit to try to improve the baby’s positioning and doing some research as to whether the fact that I am measuring big means that the baby is going to be “sunny side up” which will make it more difficult for the baby to get through the birth canal. There are also resources on the Spinning Babies website to help figure out the position of the baby and techniques to help possibly reposition a baby as well.
My OB leaves on Sunday to go on a running tour of Chile for the next 2 weeks. Kudos to her! I wish I enjoyed running and I want to get into running since I really enjoy playing soccer. So for the next 2 weeks I will get to see the other OB’s at the office. I know one of them because she not only delivered Joshua, but was my OB for when I was pregnant with Jonathan. She is really nice and has a very calming personality. The other OB is new to the office so I have not met him, but have seen him walk through the halls every now and then. Then my OB is back for my 39 week appointment and then my due date is the Friday she is back.
We will see when this baby comes! I only have Joshua and Jonathan’s labours to take into account since I was induced at 39 weeks for Joseph and Jordanna. With Joshua, my water broke 5 days before my due date and I delivered him 3 days before my due date. Jonathan was overdue by about a week and a half! So it is really up in the air as to when this baby will make its way into the world! I have had so many Braxton Hicks contractions at this point and they are so annoying! They have been ramping up despite me consciously ensuring I am well hydrated and moving about. They will come on if I get up and walk to do something, but then stop. Then they will come back when I sit back down again. Nothing ever stays as a consistent pattern though, but over the last few weeks, they have gotten a little more intense when they do happen. Hopefully this is all just preparing my body for labour.
Now we just get to wait until my next appointment. I am finally packing a hospital bag although I have had the baby clothes washed for over a month now. I just washed all of the breast pump accessories and some bottles just in case I need to use the breast pump at the hospital. I also charged the pumping unit so that I wouldn’t have to scramble to use it at the hospital. This way I also have some things together just in case I go into labour early, then I am not scrambling to get EVERYTHING packed. At this point, all I would have to grab is a change of clothes for Josh and I and our toiletries. Stay tuned for next week!
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