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.