Pregnancy Update: 36 Weeks

I feel like this blog is quickly becoming a pregnancy blog, if only for the fact that I never seem to have the mental capacity to write at any other point in the week other than my obligated weekly pregnancy updates. Oi…this isn’t what I intended.

Nevertheless…I am 36 weeks pregnant today. In some circles, this is considered “full term.” In others, it is “early term.” So, in my mind, I consider it “the point at which they really won’t stop labor if it comes” and “the point at which I don’t need steroid shots for baby boy’s lungs.”

Cramping/Contractions Update

The cramping has continued on and off. From what I can recall, it doesn’t seem to come after anything in particular, with exception to yesterday when I was snowblowing in the driveway for a little while and cramping set in once I had gone back inside. (FYI: our snowblower is tiny. My father handed it down to us before the first big storm hit a few weeks ago. Little pushes and pulls is all I do!) I continue to have Braxton Hicks contractions as well; I actually woke up when my belly was in the middle of a tough one the other morning, but my bladder was very full and that might have had something to do with it.

All in all, I don’t see much progression on the getting-ready-for-labor front. Which is okay. It’s still early yet.

CNM Appointment

My appointment last Friday went well overall. We listened to baby boy’s heart, had my belly measured, and I had my GBS swab done (not the worst thing in the whole world, especially when you compare it to a cervical check or a Pap smear, but it was uncomfortable) with results pending. I forgot my damn paperwork at home, of course. *facepalm* My CNM told me that my belly was still measuring ahead (which we knew from the surprise visit on Wednesday), so she scheduled me for a growth scan on the same day as my appointment next week—which, by the way, will be my last every-other-week appointment. Whoa.

And then I asked her, if baby boy was measuring way ahead, if induction was a possibility.

Her answer was no.

WHAT?!

Okay, so it was more like…no, not really. It wasn’t a hard no. But it wasn’t a yes, or even a maybe. And for those of you who’ve been following my personal twitter (@sammipants_08, if you’d like to, #shamelessplug), you may be confused. Yes, I threw a big shit fit when I found out I might be carrying a big baby. Yes, I got really nervous about him coming early. But if you also recall, I freaked out about a c-section as well. Which, if baby boy is really big, is a bigger possibility than it was to start with. So…I almost feel like I would rather be induced. (Actually, I’d like to go into labor earlier than 40w on my own, above all, but that’s pretty much out of my control.)

After giving me her answer, she said she and my OB would assess after the ultrasound. With more information, they would be able to discuss options with me, like c-section. When I asked if I would absolutely have to have a c-section, she said no, and that many women pursue vaginal birth despite big babies. She said a woman’s stature has very little impact on how well delivery goes, as there are so many variables. She also said the ultrasounds could be off by a pound—both ways. They could say he weights eight, and he could come out seven. He could also come out nine. My CNM told me not to worry too much about it now, and reassured me that a full discussion would be in order once they had the ultrasound results in hand.

So…we wait, then.

Oh, one last thing: she doesn’t think the localized back pain I’ve been feeling is baby boy’s foot in a rib. It’s too far back. She was concerned about my liver and wanted to check my LFTs (of course, I forgot to go to the lab, and then I’ve been snowed in for two days, so…) just in case. I highly doubt it’s my liver, especially now. In fact, I told a friend the other night that the pain had more or less disappeared. Of course, then I got into work and halfway through the day, started feeling the pain again. Arg! I’ve deduced it’s just strain/discomfort from the pregnancy in general.

Nursery Update

Let me start by saying this first: my daddy is the best. The BEST!

Since my husband was drilling down in the Cape, I asked my father if he would come up and finish prepping the walls for primer and paint, since the snow has been eating up all of my husband’s free time during the week. He came over early Saturday morning and worked until the afternoon. He finished washing the last wall, scrubbing the wallpaper glue off, we both spackled the rest of the big holes in the wall and as many little ones as we could, and then he sanded all of the walls from top to bottom.

So the next up on the list is to vacuum the room and walls of the sanding residue. Then we do our first coat of primer. Then we spackle and sand any obvious blemishes we missed. Then we do a second coat of primer. Then we paint!

It seems so easy when I list it out like that. Of course, we don’t have a shop-vac to get rid of the residue. We were going to get one earlier this week, but, you know, SNOW AGAIN, so…yeah. Once again, we are in limbo until my exhausted husband has the time/energy to buy one. If I could lift it on my own, I’d go out and buy one myself today! Damnit!

I also haven’t ordered the furniture yet. The stuff I want I can mostly buy off of Amazon Prime, including the crib, so I’m not too concerned. But this relentless snow could seriously mess with delivery times, so…I need to get on that…soon…

Symptoms and Things

Just for fun, here are some of the late pregnancy joys I’ve been having in the last few weeks:

• cramping/Braxton Hicks contractions
• short of breath/inability to take a deep breath without yawning (I hate this one especially at night, because it causes this claustrophobic panic, like I might stop breathing in my sleep)
• back aches and pains
• leaky, itchy, sore boobs (sorry to the one or two men that maybe read this blog)
• itchiness of the belly (and of the back, and the legs, and the butt, and there really isn’t a place I’m not itchy)
• exhaustion (probably from carrying this big boy around and made worse by insomnia and a constant need to pee hourly at night)
• heartburn, and occasionally nausea
• extreme emotional instability (I almost cried yesterday when I thought the cafe lady put something other than honey mustard in my chicken wrap…turns out it just looks different here—probably because they make it themselves?)

  

  I mean, I have fat fingers to start with, but my rings were sized to fit my fat fingers. Which, as you can see, they no longer do. ©Motherhood & Everything Else

• swelling (NOOOO!!! I managed to avoid this almost entirely my whole pregnancy, and suddenly, over the last week, it’s here…in my feet and in my hands—I even had to take my rings off the other day *cries*)
• sore, sore, sore joints (particularly in my hands—it hurts to bend my fingers even the slightest bit at some points)
• insomnia
• headaches (this is more of a regular, everyday-type of thing for me, though, as a woman with a history of migraines…the pregnancy half of it is that I can’t take the medicine I normally would to deter the worst of them)

Full (Early) Term and…Ready to Go?

To end this post, I’ll just touch upon the fact that this is it. This is the home stretch; anytime in the next 28 days, this little boy will be joining the world. I am filled with a lot of emotions when I truly allow myself to think about it: gratitude, amazement, disbelief, anxiety, terror, excitement, impatience, fear, love.

I am no longer “watching out” for labor signs so much as “looking for.” If I start having contractions, it’s go time. If I lose my mucus plug, it’s go time. If my water breaks, it’s go time.

Which means I really need to get some things done. Call about the breast pump. Pack the damn hospital bags. You know, these things I’ve been mentioning for the last who-knows-how-many weeks and haven’t done. Queen Slacker of Slacktown, that’s me. Sheesh.

Well…whatever. If the last nearly-three weeks have taught me anything (yes, stupidly abundant amounts of snow, I’m talking to you), it’s that shit is going to happen and there ain’t nothin’ you can do about it sometimes. I’m starting to acknowledge this. Does that mean I’ve accepted it and am calm? No. Not at all. But seeing it is a start. Acceptance will come. Hopefully before I go into labor, so I don’t freak out.

[And for those of you who are bored as all hell with these pregnancy updates, I promise at least one blog post between now and next Thursday that doesn’t have to do entirely with pregnancy. My next ipsy Glam Bag should be on its way soon (not that it’ll arrive here in any sort of on-time fashion, because snow), so I want to get the review of January’s out of the way before then. And I also might post about the snow. Because what else is there to talk about if you’re from New England other than snow.]

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