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:
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