34 Weeks

Another week has just flown by and here we are at 34 weeks. Not much change over last week – Pip continues to roll a lot when moving, rather than kicking outright or stretching out. It’s fairly painful sometimes – this kiddo likes to put arms up above head, push that way and stretch out legs at the same time and push the other way. This distends my belly pretty clearly, as far as I’m concerned, though Sabs still says he can’t see it. Heh.

I had either food poisoning or a 24 hour stomach thing on Sunday night. That was zero fun. Way too much like the feeling of being in transition last time, with the twisting gut, pain in the sides and then the puking. The baby dropped right after everything purged, rendering the top of my abdomen almost flat, as if he/she were taking refuge down in my pelvis to hide from the violence going on around him/her.

Thankfully, the incident did not kick off labor and the pressure didn’t break my water.

We’ve got a long weekend coming up, hurray! I’m really looking forward to spending the time with Sabs and Vic as a family as the countdown gets closer and closer to baby day.

33 Weeks

We had a very long wait for the appointment today. They must have gotten backed up with a lot of deliveries. It took nearly an hour for us to be seen, and since we had no burning questions, doc was understandably … swift.

At any rate, stats for this week:

Weight: 252.5
BP: 118/78
Fundal Height: 33.5 cm
Urine: Good
Baby’s Heartrate: 140s

Talked about the pelvic pain and pressure and the continuing, ferocious Braxton-Hicks. Doc suggested I get a maternity belt to help relieve the pressure some and to try to swim and stay off my feet as much as possible.

All eminently doable things.

Basically … everything is good As I told the nurse, so far, so good, healthy uneventful pregnancy. Yay.

Oh yeah, and Doc is also pretty sure that Pip is head down, based on the position of the heartbeat.

I got a box from my online mom’s expecting group from my secret shower buddy and that was cool. And then the box of stuff I ordered arrived with a bunch of sleeveless onesies for Pip, given that the heat will probably be pretty bad this summer.

I set up the crib today – it still needs a new, higher mattress in order to be on level with ours, but there’s plenty of room for it next to my side of the bed, which is nice.

So basically, other than washing some clothes and picking up a dresser … we’re ready. Well okay, we still need to unpack a lot in the new place, but yeah, we’re in pretty good shape this time.

Now I’m going to go do some unpacking and then put my feet up and snooze until Vic gets home.

32 Weeks

Not much new for this week – the heartburn is starting to get worse, so I need to make sure to drink as much water as possible to dilute the acid. I also really really need to get me some Tums.

Alien movements are increasing. At intermittent intervals, watching my belly move is far more interesting than anything else going on at the moment.

My pelvis hurts. The bones are starting to spread majorly and everything “down there” aches in a “I’m stretching out, yo” kind of way.

We’re mostly moved, and I’m really liking the New Place. It’s clean and open and airy, unlike the cave-like atmosphere at Old Place. I want to keep it that way. It’s also very quiet, except for cars pulling in and out in front of the house. I can only hear the neighbors going up and down their stairs and I’m sure they can hear us too, because two of the steps have creaky, creaky boards in them. This bodes well for being able to rest and relax.

The Master Bedroom really -is- bigger and has more usable wall space than Old Place too. There’s room for the crib next to the bed. So I’m pulling the mini-cosleeper off of the registry. We won’t need it. We should be able to do just fine with the portacrib. Just need a board to slide over its platform and under our mattress, and some sturdy rope to tie it together with since we’ll be using it as a sidecar and a good mattress for it, maybe some extra foam to really lift the bed up tot he same height as our mattress for easy swapping back and forth between my space and Pip’s.

We’ve got two bookcases up in our room now too, and still have room for my sewing table and two dressers. We’ll be putting some of Vic’s bedtime favorites and our own on the small bookcase next to the bed, and most of our scifi/fantasy collection on the larger one and then also filling the bottom shelves of the bookcase in Vic’s room with the children’s books for Vic and Pip. The kids’ room is still a mess – we have to put the slide bed back together, but I’m eyeing the space and thinking it’ll make a good play room for the kids. I’m pondering a second futon, or some form of fold-out for guests too. The rocking chair fits in there along with the bookcase, Vic’s dresser and the bed, and there’s room for a second dresser still, so there’s ample room for both his and Pip’s stuff.

The closet in there is bigger than ours, so it’s likely that will wind up being the ‘storage’ closet and ours will only be used for clothing.

Suffice to say, it’s a better layout for dealing with two children and we should be very comfortable here with Vic and Pip.

The only down side is that the steps are a little narrow and I really need to take my shoes off before going up and down, because otherwise, my feet don’t fit properly and I risk falling in my current ungainly state, though I did manage to get Vic up the stairs, half-asleep and into bed last night. That’s thanks to the nice sturdy railing. And yes, I know. I’m not supposed to do that.

Once we get the crib set up, and a new dresser for Pip’s things … we’re basically ready for baby.

31 Week Prenatal

Another good prenatal visit. Everything’s tracking along as it should be – the third trimester growth spurt is definitely underway.

Weight: 250 lbs
Fundal Height: 31cm (See the big jump there? See? See? )
BP: 128/80
Urine: Good

Heart beat in the 140s, low and to the left of my belly button and Pip appears to be head down by feel.

And I can’t say enough how much I love the C.N.M in the practice. She rocks. She’s just so attentive and listens carefully to everything I have to say and is considerate and caring and it’s just such a difference from doctor-care, no matter how good my OB usually is too.

She checked my ankles for edema, and followed up on the Braxton-Hicks, asked lots of questions about them and how they feel. We talked more about my fast labor history and she counseled coming in ASAP, as we’ve planned, if I feel even the slightest twinges going on in my back. She also said something along the lines of “And don’t let the advice nurse pooh-pooh you either, given your history. You just come right on in, so you don’t have that baby in the car.”

She so totally rocks.

She even did a little bit of extra doppler checking, about where exactly Pip’s heartones were coming from and what their quality was like, so she could give me an idea of where he/she is lying. She said that when it sounds whooshier and you hear it more to the side rather than the top, that means that the baby is probably lying along my back, since you can hear the heart better through the -baby’s- back. Interesting huh? So Pip is curled up along my spine, head-down and that explains why I keep seeing baby buttinski out my front

Alien!

Okay, I just had my first little alien moment for this pregnancy. Pip just stuck his/her butt up and out and rolled over and my abdomen shifted four inches to the side. Hee. And ooooooooooooof.