Belly pics: 34 and 35 weeks

I didn't get around to posting my belly picture from last week, so here are both this and last weeks' comparison shots. I really need to stop doing comparisons, because they make me more and more nervous. What do I have in there, a whale? I've been calling babyhill "Peanut", but maybe I need to call him/her "Shamu" instead.

I just realized that next week will be my last comparison belly shot, because I didn't make it to 37 weeks with hilltot. So no more freaking out about my comparative corpulence. Instead, I'll just wonder how I can possibly get any bigger without falling over every time I stand up.

Still calm!

I had my 35-week check-up and NST today, and everything looks really great! Babyhill was super active during the NST, but I didn't have any contractions at all while I was on the machine! Of course, I had four contractions while I was having my check-up, but that's just because I was moving around. I had one every time I had to lie down (to get my belly measured and for a quick ultrasound amniotic fluid check) and get back up again.

My belly is measuring right on target and the amniotic fluid is still good (20cm, which is still high normal). Since babyhill measured in the 80th percentile at my last ultrasound and is performing so well during NSTs, Dr. H decided we don't need to do another ultrasound growth check. The reason for the growth checks is to make sure that the baby is not suffering from IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction) due to the single umbilical artery, and this baby is clearly not having trouble with being too small.

In fact, Dr H asked me to think about where I would draw the line for having a VBAC -- would I consider another c-section if this baby is measuring 9 or 10 lbs? She said since my hips are pretty narrow, it might be difficult (or impossible) for a large baby to fit through. However, the external and internal dimensions of my hips aren't necessarily the same, so it could be fine. I'm still planning on a VBAC, but if we start venturing into the 10+ lb range, I might rethink things.

Another thing we are considering is having a doula during the birth. Dr. H is very supportive of that idea, saying that doulas have been shown to quite drastically reduce the chance of having a c-section. For several reasons, I have some fears around this birth that I didn't have last time -- mainly that the baby will not do well in labor. At the same time, I very much want to have a VBAC, both for personal/emotional reasons and because the recovery is so much easier. I can't imagine trying to take care of both a newborn and hilltot while recovering from abdominal surgery. What I am worried about is that I will panic during labor (due to my fears of the baby not tolerating labor) and will jump to having a repeat c-section. I don't want my possibly unfounded fears to cause me to decide to have an unnecessary c-section.

So, a doula. This is someone who is trained in labor and delivery, whose main focus is to support me, and who can calm me down and keep me focused on what I need to do. Although Dr. H understands my fears and promises that she will "talk me off the ledge" if necessary during labor, she said that she might not be the doctor delivering me and a doula would ensure that I get the support I need no matter who is there. Everyone I've known who used a doula has said they wouldn't ever do it differently -- the doula made the experience so much easier for both the mom and the dad by allowing them to focus on the important stuff while she took care of the details. That sounds pretty good to me.

Anyone out there have recommendations for a Seattle doula who is experienced with VBACs?

Calm before the storm?

Or hopefully, just calm.

Today I had my 34-week appointment and NST. Unlike last week's excitement, everything looked great today! I did have 5-6 contractions in 20 minutes (the normal rule of thumb is to call your doctor if you have 4 contractions in an hour), but that was a LOT better than last time (when I had too many to count). And this time most of the contractions were nice and gradual, making rolling hills on the print-out rather than spiky mountain ranges. Dr. H was happy with the change, so I'm happy.

I'm measuring ginormous and the baby's head is still down, which is great. Babyhill's head hasn't engaged in my pelvis yet, so we're going to keep an eye on things and hopefully he/she will stay head down! And based on my last ultrasound and my measurements today, Dr. H says that babyhill is probably about 5.5 lbs right now...which is 1 oz heaver than hilltot was when he was born. I said, "So I'm not crazy to feel like this baby is so much bigger..." and Dr. H said, "Nope. You're probably right." Of course, in utero weight estimates are notoriously inaccurate.

My amniotic fluid is measuring on the high normal side (21 cm on the AFI, normal = 8-24 cm at 34 weeks), which means that the baby's systems seem to be working just fine. Babyhill was extremely active during the NST and had hiccups for at least 15 minutes of it, and Dr. H's nurse commented that I have one of the busiest babies she's seen. The good thing is that the baby's heart rate increased whenever I had a contraction, which is how things are supposed to work. Hilltot's heart rate decreased during contractions, which ended up with him not being able to tolerate labor.

I'm having weekly NSTs and appointments now, and Dr. H will also measure the amniotic fluid at each appointment. I'm happy to have made it to 34 weeks (well, tomorrow) and now I'm feeling a lot better about my chances of making it to at least 36 weeks. And maybe 37? 38??

Here's a picture of me and monstro-belly taken last night. My feet look and feel like swollen sausages too, but I won't take a picture of those. Or at least, I won't post one. You're very welcome.

"Share" is not in baby's vocabulary

Seems that babyhill is taking after hilltot in the "sharing" category. See, while I'm growing a baby, I share all of my nutrients (and energy) with the baby. In fact, the baby takes everything first, and I get whatever is left over. It's nature's way of making sure the baby is taken care of, with the assumption that if I need more nutrients for myself I will find a way to get them.

The problem is that I started off with a deficiency in certain things, especially red blood cells and iron. Now that babyhill is proving to be at least a gazillion times the size of hilltot, he/she is taking more iron than I have to give. I've been taking iron supplements throughout the pregnancy but my body still can't keep up. My anemia is becoming more and more symptomatic, which includes heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and faintness in addition to the regular fatigue. Since it would take 2-3 months for any additional iron supplementation to take effect, there's not really anything we can do about it now.

I ended up in the ER on Friday because of shortness of breath and faintness. We didn't need to check babyhill -- luckily the baby handles all of this quite well -- but Dr. H wanted them to check my heart and lungs and to make sure I didn't have a blood clot. I got an EKG and chest x-ray along with a barrage of blood tests, and I'm glad that they were so thorough and everything checked out. Now at least we know my heart and lungs are OK when I'm feeling like this! And I guess this is pretty much how it's going to be until babyhill makes his/her debut.

I can handle another 4-6 weeks of this though. Hear that, babyhill? I don't mind -- you stay nice and comfy in there and I'll manage things out here. Deal?

Belly pic: 33 weeks

OK, back to my amateur belly pictures. How is it my belly looks so small and dainty in the pictures Judith took, yet so large and out of control in the pictures I take? I think part of the problem is that I'm comparing them to 2007...and I get more and more alarmed every week. What is going on?? Isn't this the baby that is in danger of IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction, i.e. being too small)? And wasn't hilltot the baby in danger of being too large due to gestational diabetes??

So we've made it to 33 weeks! Only one more week until we hit the "safety zone" -- babies born between 34 and 37 weeks have a high chance of being born healthy. Of course I would prefer to make it all the way to 37 (or even 38, if I dare dream) weeks so that we have a full-term baby, but Dr. H told me that if labor starts after 34 weeks, they won't do anything to stop it. Especially now that we know what happens when I take terbutaline. Not only am I one of the small percentage of people who react badly to Nifedipine (which we discovered when I was having preterm contractions with hilltot), but I'm also one of the even smaller percentage of people who react badly to terbutaline. There aren't many more options for stopping preterm labor, so our best chance is to just make it until at least 34 (or 38...c'mon baby!) weeks on our own.

The baby hasn't dropped yet, although I honestly don't know where it would drop. My belly already rests on my lap when I sit down. I've heard that second babies often don't drop until labor starts, and I'll be happy if that's true for me. I remember feeling like I was trying to keep a bowling ball from falling out when hilltot dropped!

I'm thrilled that babyhill has flipped around to be head down, and now I'm just hoping for him/her to turn a bit to be anterior-facing. Right now, baby is facing my right side, which is better than posterior-facing (like hilltot was) but still not ideal. I feel kicks and punches and twitches and hiccups all over my belly though, so I have no idea if the baby has turned or not.

Things are going well other than the whole preterm contraction stuff. I had a glorious prenatal massage on Wednesday (thank you Chris and hilltot, for my Mother's Day present!) and the massage therapist was careful to stay at least three zipcodes away from any pressure points that might cause contractions. I have a lot of back pain so I spend a fair amount of my evenings in either child's pose or cat-cow pose. I generally wake up around 1 AM with painful heartburn and spend 30 minutes or so trying not to throw up, and then I wake up again around 3:30 or 4 AM to go to the bathroom (again). Pretty standard pregnancy stuff. I have contractions whenever I stand or walk for too long, but so far they are irregular and not too painful so I haven't started tracking them.

Otherwise, I'm just counting down the days and hoping to make it to full-term! I'm also thinking that it might be time to start getting things prepared for babyhill's arrival. Maybe buy some diapers, wash some of the newborn clothes, set up the co-sleeper...

Meanwhile, here's my aggressively growing belly:

Official -- and gorgeous -- belly pic preview!

I love love LOVE these pictures! Even though they are of me and therefore that makes me a bit narcissistic. But really, they are of my belly and therefore of babyhill, and I especially like the ones with hilltot and Chris (well, his hands) in them.

As I mentioned earlier, I had my official belly pictures taken last weekend by the fabulous Judith (of Fernstrom Photography). She just posted a few of the shots to her blog and I can't wait to see them all! Although I already know I want the one of hilltot snuggling with my belly blown up to wall size and perhaps painted on the side of the house. I'm also thrilled that there's at least one "zen" shot -- I don't remember pausing long enough between chatting and laughing to look so maternal.

And so, without further ado, here are the preview images:
http://fernstromphotography.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/06/beauty-and-the-belly.html

Not again...

So today was a surprisingly eventful day in babyhill land! The original plan was to have my regular 15 minute OB check-up, followed by a 30 minute NST (non-stress test) which would show that the baby's heart is great and my uterus is nice and relaxed. I suspected things would be a bit off when I woke up feeling like I had just swigged a bottle of wine and was trying desperately to keep my balance in a wildly spinning room (note: I felt like that while I was still lying down in bed). I ate some food, drank a ton of water, and checked my blood sugar. My blood sugar was normal, and nothing stopped the room from spinning. I was glad that I already had a doctor appointment scheduled.

My appointment was uneventful (blood pressure and pulse were normal, even though I still felt dizzy) and Dr. H said she thought my dizziness might be from my chronic anemia getting worse as the pregnancy continues. Even though I'm already taking double the regular dosage of iron supplements every day, I might have reached a new threshold and have started feeling symptomatic anyway.

So off I went to the NST room to be monitored. There was another woman in there who is 41 weeks pregnant and doing everything she can to get labor started naturally. The way the room was set up, we could see each other's charts but not our own, so we kept each other up-to-date. Turns out we both developed chart envy. Hers was nice and stable with a couple light contractions that built to their peaks slowly and evenly (showing no sign of impending labor). Mine was full of huge spiky contractions. We asked the nurse if we could trade charts, but no go.

I ended up getting a shot of terbutaline, a beta-adrenergic agonist bronchodilator. Basically, it relaxes smooth muscles (such as the uterus) and is used to stop preterm contractions. After the shot, they monitored me for another 30 minutes and the contractions had stopped. So far, so good! But Dr. H wanted me to have a quick ultrasound to check the baby's position, blood flow, and now my cervical length (because of the contractions). I had a bit of time before the ultrasound, so I went to the front desk to schedule my next few appointments.

As I was standing at the front desk, I suddenly felt super dizzy and nauseous and broke out into a sweat. I interrupted the receptionist and said, "I'm sorry, I need to sit down" and as I backed toward a bench, apparently I turned a lovely shade of gray. A nurse happened to be passing behind me and the receptionist yelled for her as I fell. The nurse guided me down on the bench and called for help, and soon I was being wheeled back to Dr. H's office. I rested there for awhile as they monitored my heart rate and blood pressure and gave me some crackers and juice. Eventually I felt a bit better and they wheeled me to the lab for my ultrasound.

The ultrasound was fine. The baby looks great (and is very busy), my cervix is still over 3cm, and everything looks just as it should. Even better, the baby has turned to be head down! No more breech!

I headed back to Dr. H's office for a last check-in, and she verified that things look great on the ultrasound. The dizziness and fainting are concerning, but don't seem to affect the baby at all. Now my job is to "take it easy", eat well, stay hydrated, and call Dr. H with any signs of dizziness, fainting, or contractions.

So after a relatively uneventful pregnancy, looks like we're back in preterm labor land. I'm hoping this was an isolated event and the terb will do its magic to stop things until I'm full-term (5 more weeks). However, I'm a bit worried about the instruction to "take it easy". Hilltot is not a "take it easy" kind of guy, and the last thing I want or need is to end up on bed rest.

Oh, another lesson learned: take Chris' car to the rest of my appointments. Thinking I'd only be gone for 45 minutes, I took my car -- the one with the car seat, the stroller, AND the Ergo carrier. 4 hours later, Chris was trying to figure out how to get to the hospital with hilltot. He ended up putting him in the BOB stroller and started walking. Luckily I didn't get admitted to the hospital, so I was able to leave and pick up my boys as they trekked across the city.

The silver lining of this entire day? I got a surprise ultrasound! Here's babyhill at 32 weeks! This is the best profile shot we were able to get -- babyhill was quite annoyed with being bothered all day and kept turning or placing a hand in the way of the image. To be honest baby, I don't blame you.