Tracking the Baby Bump: Week 33

Hello, again!

So, I'm sorry I missed last week. I have had a lovely cold for the last two weeks, and last weekend it was getting to its worst. So, I decided to skip my post.

Baby Stats: (I'm wondering when I should stop this... because who knows how big my baby will be? A friend of mine had a baby that was 18 inches.... and the book is telling me my baby is 18 inches.....)

Height: 18 inches
Weight: 3 1/2 lbs
If he were a fruit, he would be a: pineapple

What has happened these last two weeks? A lot! (So you are warned this will be long... But interesting, I think!) Even what happened TODAY was a lot. Yes, I have a story to tell!

I'll start with the story. The background to the story is that at my last appointment, my blood pressure was a little high. I was sick, so they said they weren't too worried. I also gained 9 pounds which was 3x what I have been gaining every month.

Fast forward to last night. I was having some strange vision problems. You know how it looks when you get your picture taken and you have spots in your vision? Well I had a long line of spots where I couldn't see. It seemed pretty bad.... so we went to bed in hopes my vision would be normal in the morning.

This morning, I still have spots on my vision, but thankfully not that huge line. I've done enough reading in my pregnancy books that I knew high blood pressure, vision problems, rapid weight gain, swelling (which I had just developed), and protein in your urine (which I seem to have every once in a while) are all signs or preeclampsia. I would just google what that is, but it's basically severe high blood pressure, which left untreated can develop into eclampsia, which means you will have a lot of seizures. So, we thought we should get this checked out. Being Sunday and my OBGYN's office closed, we thought it smart to go over to Walgreens and get my blood pressure checked for free. This we did, and my blood pressure was 153/97. Woah! So we waited a few minutes and did it again. 163/98. So needless to say, my blood pressure was high. So we called the on call doctor for my OB office and he told us that from what I was saying, it would be best to have some tests done at the hospital.

So, we went to the hospital! It was kind of like a practice run through for when I go into labor. We went up to labor and delivery, we registered with the hospital, then they took me to a labor/delivery room exactly like one I will be in when I deliver the baby! They had me change into a gown and they put on a fetal heart monitor. Over the next couple of hours, I had my blood pressure taken numerous times, gave a urine sample, and got my blood taken for testing.

Here's my bracelet from the hospital:

By the end of the two hours, my blood pressure was normal and all the tests they took were normal. We were all relieved and the doctor told me he was really glad I was paying attention to my body, because women have come in with the exact same symptoms as me and they had severe preeclampsia. For some reason I was spared that trial (for now), so we are very happy! It was a kind of scary few hours, but I've always been the type of person that is very calm in emergencies (like when I filleted my finger on the table saw in woodshop.... I had to tell Chelsea it would be okay, not the other way around). So all is well!

The doctor told me to take it easy this week if possible. He asked me if I didn't work or if at work I could just sit and relax. Ha! I told him about my job and he told me that if anything gets worse, they may ask me to take it easy and could even say I shouldn't go to work, so here's hoping that it doesn't get to that point! It would stress me out way too much! Plus, who wants to be on bed rest?

Now, onto less serious things!

Prego Symptoms:

- Swelling.... major swelling! Okay, not too major. I don't have kankles, thank goodness, but my wedding ring is definitely off for the rest of the pregnancy, all my flats hurt my feet, and in the past few days, bending my toes and fingers, I can feel the excess swelling. It reminds me of going on Trek. I walked with my hands by my side for 10 hours a day, and by the end of the day, my fingers were huge! So huge I couldn't bend them very far. It's not that bad, but I can feel the pressure when I bend my fingers.

- A bazillion stretch marks. Dislike.

- Carpal Tunnel Syndrome? Did you know that a lot (and according to my What to Expect book, a majority) of pregnant women get some carpal tunnel syndrome? Well, for the last week or so, my arm has been hurting during the night. And when I say hurting, I mean, I wake up, need to pick up one of my 4 pillows I tend to use, or just want to turn over, and so I move my arm to pick it up or to help me move, and I get this sharp pain in my forearm. I really couldn't figure out the problem. There was no bruising, I hadn't remembered hurting my arm, I wasn't sleeping any differently, there was no change to my body that should have brought on such pain! So, in all my research online, and I know I shouldn't self-diagnose, but I think this is my problem. Apparently, when you sleep on your arm (which I tend to do) or when you don't move it for a long time, that can bring on these symptoms. So, my lovely mother gave me a wrist brace, which I used all yesterday and used last night as I slept, and I had no pain when I woke up! Yay! It's so nice being able to come up with a solution to the pain.

- Continuing difficulty bending over, rolling over, and in general just getting up. Especially when sitting down, it just takes such effort to bend to get something off the ground! And moving when I'm lying down, I feel like a walrus or seal because I have to make such a great effort for such little movement ha ha. Jed is so kind and will get out of bed (not in the morning, just if we're lying in bed on our computers or something) or he will come into the living room to help me up. I hardly even have to ask anymore; if he sees that I have to get up, he will often just come over and put out his hand to help. I love that he is so thoughtful :)

- My belly button has never been so small. Circumference-wise and depth, it is for sure smaller. I am still an innie, but with seven more weeks of growing, I think I could make it to a flat belly button. How strange!

- Weight gain.... I went to my 32 week check up last week.... and I had gained 9 pounds! Ah! I was consistently gaining 3 pounds at each check up, so that was a little scary to have gained 3x the normal amount. I wonder if it has to do with the retaining water. At my check up, my blood pressure was not where it should be, either, so I wonder if we should be worried... However, it was just the beginning of my cold, so the nurse said it maybe had to do with being sick. The interesting thing is, just like how my sleeping habits haven't changed, my eating habits haven't either! I have exercised/eaten just about the same throughout this entire pregnancy, meaning I hardly exercise and I snack quite a bit. I'm getting the the point in the pregnancy, though, where I will go in to the doctor at 34 and 36 weeks, and then every single week after that. It's so weird! I actually made doctor's appointments all the way until my 39 week appointment, because we won't know until that point if I will need on at 40 weeks or not! It is getting so close!

- My belly is huge. How can it get any bigger? I have 7 more weeks of growing.... about a 1/2 a pound of baby a week. How in the world can I get any bigger and rounder! I'm a little worried for the coming month and a half.... I'm still excited, but a little worried for how hard it will be to get around. I actually ran yesterday, because one of our students forgot her backpack, so I ran after the bus. I did not catch it, because it was too far by the time I got outside, but I ran down the hall. I doubt it was fast, but I still can run, despite this huge belly! 

- Heartburn still plagues me. It's pretty consistent, too, with what I eat. Pizza is still a huge love of my life, but I know for a fact I will have severe heartburn afterwards. Thank goodness for medicine.

- My gums still bleed when I brush my teeth. I am dilligent in my teeth brushing and semi-dilligent in the flossing, but my gums always bleed. The interesting thing is they don't bleed very often when I floss.... I don't understand, but that's the truth.

- I'm consistently hot. I sleep with the fan on and only a small blanket the majority of every night.

- For the past week, I have woken up almost exactly 12 minutes before my alarm goes off every morning. Not every morning have I woken up at the same time, and yet somehow my body knows when my alarm will be going off and I wake up before it.

- I've tried to figure out when the baby always moves, and I have pinpointed the one consistent time (partially because it's one where I am always sitting or lying down): 10:00 (PM). Just before or just after, that is when the baby is at his most active. The other night Jed actually got to feel him move for almost a whole 15 minutes. There were some pretty big movements, too. It's so fun to share that with Jed, because he doesn't get to feel him move much. Our baby seems to sense whenever I put Jed's hand on my belly. One interesting fact from the nurse who taught our prenatal class: with her babies, whenever they were active in her womb, for the first while after they were born, they were active then. So I guess I can already plan for a 10:00 feeding for the baby!

Those are the pregnancy symptoms..... So I mentioned that I was sick, and still am. My voice is rather funny and I use a ridiculous amount of tissues.

There are a couple of fun things that happened in the last two weeks that I will not write about in this post, but in their own posts. These two things are my amazing baby shower and our prenatal class! Oh they were both so great.

I will end with the fact that I am only 7 weeks away from having this baby. That is so insane to me (and Jed). I had a dream last week that I had the baby, and it made me wish the baby was here so much! I am in love with our little guy already. I am anticipating a lot of crying when our baby is born. I think just looking at him, realizing that he was growing inside me since July, that I've fed and nurtured him while he's in there, and now I get to hold him and love him and take care of him, gosh, I will be overwhelmed with emotions. I've been wanting to be a mom probably since I was 4 and played with my little dolls. I've loved babysitting. I've loved holding any baby I can get my hands on. Now it's getting so close that I will have my own little one to care for! I know it will be so hard, but I can't wait.