Laughing with Sarah

Introducing Samuel Tyler Bills Born November 21, 2013 at 7:52 a.m. 7lbs 11oz 19 3/4 inches long

38 weeks 3 days, to be exact. Time for my regular Wednesday post-doctor appointment update! Got up today, got ready, looked at myself in the mirror, and as usual, belly is still way way way up high. Every day, I hope that I'll look in the mirror and find that hedgehog has dropped, but today is not that day. Headed off to my appointment this morning, knowing that today was going to be another internal check, like two weeks ago. I suppose that I was feeling a little anxious about it, but nothing serious. My legs were also really puffy this morning, so I suppose I was anxious about that, too. Either way, despite feeling calm and happy that my weight has stabilized (one pound up over last week, but exactly the same weight as the week before that), when they took my blood pressure, it first came back as something crazy, like 150/90. Eep. The nurse took it twice in a row, but both readings were high, so we decided to try again at the end of the appointment, just to see if it was anxi...

Just a quick update from last Wednesday's 37 week appointment. Nothing much to report. After two big weight gains in a row prior to last week's appointment, my weight held steady from 36 to 37 weeks. That was nice. Hopefully it means some of the crazy water weight and swelling are slowing down. Blood pressure is fine - holding steady at my usual pre-pregnancy levels. Baby is still head down, but definitely not dropped yet, heartbeat is 140, belly is measuring on target. My group B strep test came back negative, so that's good. And that's about it. My next appointment is this Wednesday, and the plan is to re-check me for any progress. I am not feeling convinced that there's going to be much of a change from two weeks ago when we last did that. I haven't been feeling any contractions that I know of. Occasional moments of soreness under my belly, and very occasional cramping, but everything that you read about pre-labor contractions talks about a noticeable tig...

This morning was the first of our every-week appointments. It was packed with lots of stuff. First, weight. Five more pounds up over two weeks ago. All water, really. Nobody is concerned, which is heartening. My blood pressure was similar to last time - 122/80 - so nobody is worrying about the swelling in my feet and legs. My doctor just feels bad for me. :) It took forever to track down hedgehog's heartbeat today; probably because, at this point, the baby in my belly is, well, a pretty fully-formed baby, and so there are limbs and backs and bones and fat, and you have to monkey around to find a chest shot with the doppler. But heartbeat/belly measurements were nothing out of the ordinary. Baby is still head-down, though not at all engaged. Still floating. Dr. Locke did some feeling around on my belly and suspects that "we aren't winning any size awards" with this baby, meaning that he suspects a small-to-average baby. I'm TOTALLY fine with that. But we shall ...

We are now in week thirty-six. Crazy. Physically, I feel better than I did for most of last week - sometime overnight, late in the week, I think hedgehog shifted position, so my stomach removed itself from my throat, which made both my heartburn and queasiness feel a lot better, and meant that I've had a few nights now of better sleep. Not great sleep...but the getting up twice to use the bathroom sort of wakefulness, not the waking up every hour because my heartburn and tummy felt so awful. That being said, I have pretty much slowed to a screeching halt. I am tired all the time. Not sleepy, necessarily, but my body is slow and cranky. I don't really bend anymore, and I go through stretches when my belly just feels sore from doing routine things, like rolling over in bed. I'm super-slow, and having a harder and harder time doing any physical sort of stuff, which is frustrating, because lots of my routine house chores are far more physical than I ever gave them credit...