Please make it stop

It was 105 degrees today. At 10 PM, it has cooled to a nice balmy 91 degrees. It's supposed to be even hotter tomorrow. And the most important piece of information that is common to all of these statements: We don't have air conditioning. We're in the Pacific Northwest. Why in the world would anyone here have air conditioning?

Oh, and have I mentioned that I'm 9.5 months pregnant? Ugh.

Just for fun - 25 weeks of belly

Belly pic: 37 weeks (full term!!)

We made it to full term! I'm so happy to have made it this far so we don't have to worry about babyhill being a preemie. And according to the results of today's ultrasound, we also don't have to worry about babyhill being too small. Not even close.

Apparently, babyhill is having no trouble at all growing in utero. He/she is in the 87th percentile for size -- estimated at 7lbs 12oz today. With an average gain of 1/2 lb every week, that means we're looking at a 9-1/2lb baby if we make it all the way until my due date. That's nearly twice the size of hilltot. Of course, weight estimates are notoriously inaccurate and Dr H said that they tend to over-estimate, often by as much as a pound. But it is clear that this baby is large and that I am large as well. My amniotic fluid index is now 25cm, which is up from 20cm last week. My amniotic fluid level should be dropping at this point, so the increased numbers mean that I'm now diagnosed with "mild polyhydromnios" (just when I get to drop one label, I gain another.) It's nothing to worry about now, but Dr H will be keeping an eye on it.

One challenge that my vast amount of amniotic fluid presents is that it gives babyhill plenty of room to move around. Normally at this stage of pregnancy, the baby has already moved down into the pelvis and is too crowded to move. Not so with babyhill! He/she is having fun splashing around in the mommy pool and thus could flip to transverse or breech at any point. Dr H is keeping a close eye on that too, and she said when I go into labor, they're going to have to do some major investigation to determine exactly where the baby's head is (her quote: "None of this gentle poking and prodding that we do now"). She said that it could just be the baby is very tall, but I am carrying both long AND wide, which means that the baby could be positioned more sideways than up-down right now.

But the bottom line is that babyhill is doing well (and performed very well during my NST, as usual) and seems to be quite happy hanging out in my belly. No wonder, with all of that room in there! I am still not dilated and my cervix is long (37mm) and closed but I'm getting even more uncomfortable, I can feel lots of pressure in my pelvis, the top of my belly is sore, I keep popping my hips out when I move too quickly (ouch!), I can't sleep due to heartburn and/or the ridiculous heat wave we are having, my feet are swollen, my knees are starting to bruise internally from the weight, and I'm spending more and more time in my little nest on the couch. I do believe the "glow" of pregnancy is long gone! Now I'm just really looking forward to meeting little babyhill.

I'm also hoping that things will start moving along, because my mom and stepdad arrive on Tuesday to stay with us for 2.5 weeks and help take care of hilltot while we are busy delivering and caring for babyhill. Neither Dr H nor I ever considered that babyhill wouldn't arrive early, but now we're not so sure. What if A-mah and Opa come and go before babyhill even arrives? There's nothing we can do about that (induction is too risky with my c-section scar), so I'm having discussions with babyhill and trying to convince him/her that next Friday would be a lovely day to get labor started. Let's work together, shall we?

Here's my 37 week belly picture:

Moment of clarity

Barista: How old is your little guy?
Me: Almost 21 months.
Barista (gesturing to my belly): And how far apart in age will they be?
Me: Almost 21 months.
Barista and Me (in unison): Wow.

Non jamais vu

At this time during my pregnancy with hilltot, I was having contractions 3-4 minutes apart and was on the phone arguing with the doctor that I was NOT in labor because I had another month to go. The doctor won, we went to the hospital, and hilltot was born 12 hours later.

Right now, I am drinking a chocolate malt from Red Mill and not having contractions. Thus, I am feeling really confident that we will make it at least longer than we did with hilltot. If we can just get past tomorrow, then we will have passed hilltot's gestational time, we will have avoided the solar eclipse (which according to some cultures is a very bad time to have a baby), and the baby will be a Leo instead of a Cancer. Plus, we will be one short day away from being full term.

We can do it!

I hope my knees are ready

According to yesterday's check-up, the baby hasn't yet dropped. However, the bottom of my belly already rests on the tops of my thighs...while I'm standing up! Where in the world will this baby drop when he/she does? To my knees?

Belly pic: 36 weeks

This is it, the last comparison belly picture! I never made it to 37 weeks with hilltot, so this is the last belly picture I have from 2007. Good timing too, because I'm getting more and more dismayed every time I see the difference between my pregnancies. Even Dr H makes fun of me now. In fact, she ordered an ultrasound for next week to check the growth, not because she's worried the baby is too small, but because she wants to see "just what we're dealing with here".

Anyway, today I'm 36 weeks! 9 months pregnant! One more month until my due date, and only one more WEEK until we're full-term! I even made the rest of my weekly OB appointments today, all the way through 40 weeks (even though Dr H chuckled and said, "Let's schedule all the appointments, just for fun..."). Although the way things look today, I might make it further than anyone thinks.

I had my weekly NST, where the baby jumped and poked and kicked at the sensors and generally made a loud ruckus (the monitor amplifies motion as well as the heartbeat). The other woman in the room kept laughing and saying that she felt so inadequate with her nice calm baby. Her chart was flat and consistent, while mine once again looked like the Cascade mountains. However, since I'm already 36 weeks, neither the nurse nor Dr H were worried about the massive number of contractions I was having.

I had a cervical check as well, and Dr H told me that she'd expect me to be around 2cm dilated at this point. I was 1cm dilated at 36 weeks with hilltot, and since this is my second baby I should start dilating a bit earlier. Well, surprise surprise: I'm not dilated at all. Zilch. 0cm. The baby also hasn't dropped at all (so that's why the top of my uterus hurts so darn much), although he/she is still head-down, thank goodness. My cervix is softening so I should start dilating soon, but as of now I have a fair amount of work to do before labor will start.

I was pretty happy to hear this, until Dr H said, "But remember that you went from 1cm to 10cm in less that 24 hours last time. And generally your second labor will be about twice as fast." Oh yeah.

Regardless, I'm happy that I made it to 36 weeks and it seems that babyhill is content to stay put a bit longer. I have an ultrasound next Friday, which is when we get to see just how large and in charge this baby actually is. And the baby will officially be full-term at that point!

To celebrate reaching 36 weeks, I got a pedicure this afternoon. My toes (or at least what I can see of them) were looking pretty pathetic and I wanted to try to fit in at least one last pedicure before the baby arrives. At first I felt like I should pay more for my pedicure since my feet are so fat and swollen now, but then I reasoned (with myself) that my NAILS aren't any fatter, so it's not like they have to use more polish on me. And the ladies at the nail place were very funny and nice -- super curious about the pregnancy and telling me all their own stories. They were pretty certain this baby is a girl, so I think it's unanimous: the cashier at Fred Meyer, the waiter at Giacomo, and the ladies at AP Nail Salon are all positive that I'm having a girl.

Well enough chatter. Here's my final comparison belly picture! I'll still post weekly pictures, but I'm now officially beyond comparing my last pregnancy with this one. And note that in the 2007 picture, I'm intentionally sticking my belly out to make it look bigger. Brat.

Random thought of the day

If babyhill is a girl, then not only am I carrying my daughter in my belly right now, but I am carrying the eggs of some of my future grandchildren as well. Neat.

Note: A girl is born with all of her eggs already developed. Boys don't start creating sperm until puberty.

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.