maternity photos

i have been waiting to take my official maternity photos because i wanted to be pretty far along. also, i wanted luke to take them so that i could have more of a say in how they turned out. luke was a good sport even if it wasn't his favorite thing! these were taken christmas day... 39 1/2 weeks pregnant. the only bummer is that luke isn't in any of them (but he doesn't mind at all).

39-40 weeks

40 weeks

 39 weeks

well, we made it! here i am, week 40 and no baby. yet. this last week i had 2 appointments, one on monday and one on thursday...

Week 39
monday appointment:  i went in and had the stress test as usual. baby was moving, his heart rate was great. no signs of problems. all was well. then the doctor came in to do the ultrasound and check my amniotic fluid. (side note: this was the one doctor i hadn't seen for an appointment, only met her once). my fluid measured low this time..7cm or so, even though it had been good the last couple weeks. so the doctor says, "well, if you don't go into labor in the next couple of days we'll set up an induction for thursday."
WHAT? she said it just like that and it totally caught me off guard. so i responded, "an induction? before my due date?"
"yup" she responded.
that seemed a little hasty to me, and i didn't want to just jump on board so quickly without a reason for doing so, so i then said... "well as far as we know the baby isn't under any kind of stress and seems to be doing just fine, right?"
then she says, "yes, the baby seems to be doing fine, it's just that when your fluid levels are this low it usually means that your placenta isn't working as well. But if you would rather come in here on thursday for a normal check up you can do that instead."
"ya, i would rather do that" i responded. obviously i wanted to do what was best for the baby, and jumping into an induction without there being a real need for it didn't feel right, but i figured we would know on thursday if things hadn't changed and then discuss our options than.

she then proceeded to check my cervix to see if i was dilated. i had this done just the week before, i had only been dilated about a finger tip... the process was a little uncomfortable but it didn't hurt at all. well, this doctor had a very different method and i soon found myself gripping the table, holding back tears and trying not to kick this doctor in the face! she was so incredibly forceful!!! i was not prepared for that! she then hands me a pad and tells me i am bleeding from the exam. WHAT! that was a not anything like the week before! she then leaves the room and i just immediately started balling from the pain. i was at 2cm and 50% effaced. (i come to find out that all the patients complain that she is too forceful when checking the cervix....awesome). that was an interesting appointment and i was pretty upset afterwards.

thursday appointment: this appointment went much better. stress test went well, baby seems to be doing fine. and my amniotic fluid was back up to 8.5cm. the midwife said that it is possible that my body is just really sensitive to how much water i am drinking. also, she said the baby's position can sometimes affect the fluid level...i guess if he is sitting in a certain place it's harder for my body to produce the fluid.
...also my belly measured 38 cm, and i have gained about 16-17 lbs this pregnancy.

Week 40
i have a doctor's appointment tomorrow (monday), so we will see how baby is doing. i have been having contractions for a couple days now, but they are very mild and random. sometimes it's hard for me to tell if i am having one or not, i usually have to feel my stomach and see if it is hard or not. but there hasn't been any kind of pattern to them. maybe they are just braxton hicks and not contractions? i don't really know.

i still feel good, i haven't been that uncomfortable. the baby does like to push his head into my cervix fairly often which makes a little sharp pain. i feel like he wants out but that my body isn't quite done with him yet. also, there is a nerve in my right leg that i often feel when baby moves...it sends a zing down my leg. other than that i am feeling pretty good! everyone says by the end you are so ready to just get the baby out, but i haven't felt that way. that's about it for now though!

38 weeks

38 weeks

so something kinda scary happened about a week ago, everything is good! But the doctor had us a little worried about the baby. 

so...the place where i go to have my pre-natal appointments consists of 3 doctors and a midwife. the person i see for my appointment is determined by what day i go (which also means that any of these 4 ladies will be delivering the baby depending when i go into labor). i usually have my appointments on thursdays, so i mainly see the same doctor every time. 

35 week appointment: i went in on a monday, so i met with the midwife for the first time. she told me that i was measuring small (34cm) and that if i continued to measure small they would have to just double check my amniotic fluid levels. (amniotic fluid is what the baby lives in, it allows the baby to move and provides cushion and protection along with other things). i wasn't too worried because i had been measuring small my whole pregnancy, and this was the first time she had seen me, so of course she would notice that.

36 week appointment: I went in on a thursday, meaning i saw the doctor that i usually see. she saw that the midwife had wanted to check my fluid levels so we did an ultrasound this day. she seemed super relaxed, like "you've been measuring small the whole time, i'm sure everything is fine" attitude. my belly measured 33 cm this week (1cm less than the weeks before) but i wasn't too worried because they told me that it is normal to get smaller at the end as the baby moves down. anyway....we did the ultrasound, she kept saying, "there's a pocket of fluid here, and another one here...looks good." she then took some measurements, it seemed like she wasn't measuring all of them and didn't seem concerned at all.

37 week appointment: i went in on a monday again....so this is the second time seeing the midwife. she told us that last week the doctor had only measured 7 cm of fluid, and that that was borderline low! she said you should have at least 8cm of fluid and no less that 6cm, so that i was at a kind of dangerous level. she also measured my belly at 32 cm....i had gone down another cm! she then did an ultrasound and found 7.5 cm of amniotic fluid...but she said that there was a pocket she couldn't measure because the umbilical cord was going through it. so luke and i are a little surprised, because the week before the doctor hadn't seemed worried at all!! but this  midwife was really concerned. i was told to take it easy and to make sure to drink lots of water. i was also scheduled for 2 additional testing later that week. a strew test and another ultrasound at a different facility to get a better reading of the fluid level.

....so luke and i were really concerned. she had explained to us that i may need to be induced early if there wasn't enough fluid. because it would mean that my placenta wasn't working properly (the placenta is what provides nutrients and oxygen to the baby). it also meant that the baby wasn't very well protected.

....after that appointment i had luke give me a blessing, and then i made sure to drink lots of water and rest! but at the same time i felt weird, like everything was fine, that maybe this was a little of an overreaction. but i was totally fine doing the extra testing to make sure everything was fine.

....so i went in for stress testing first (just a few days later). they just monitor the baby's heart rate for a while to make sure he isn't under any stress and that he is getting enough oxygen. during this appointment the midwife came in and explained that i needed to be on moderate bed rest. meaning i needed to spend most of my day lying down with my feet up. but she said everything looked great on the stress test, and that the baby wasn't under any stress!

....then i went to the hospital where i would have the more in depth ultrasound (same day as the stress test). the ultrasound technician measure 12.5cm of amniotic fluid! (much more than 7.5cm earlier that week) and then she also measured the baby to make sure he was still growing...and i measured 1 day behind my due date which is awesome! so that made us feel A LOT better, and we no longer felt worried! it was really nice to have the confirmation of those tests.

my first thought was that the midwife had just measured wrong...and that everything had been fine the whole time. but after my 38 week appointment i felt differently....

38 week appointment: monday, we did another stress test, everything looked great! and then the midwife came in and went over my ultrasound with me. she was super happy how everything turned out. said i was no longer on moderate bed rest or at a dangerous level. she measured my belly at 36cm (much better than the 32cm from just one week before). i asked how there could be such a big difference in so short a time. she then explained that the amniotic fluid is constantly being replaced and can change in just 24 hours. it was possible that i had just been dehydrated! 

looking back, i am almost positive i had been dehydrated. i had been waking up really thirsty during the nights, and had even felt a little dizzy walking up the stairs one day. i hadn't been counting how many ounces of water i drank, just drinking when i was thirsty. so, even though it was a little scary...and everything is totally fine now(had another ultrasound and stress test since and things look great:)but i am just really grateful that i was made aware of the situation!

long story! but just want to remember this pregnancy and what went on! also, i did kick counts for like 5 hours one day...just to see how often this baby moves, he never went 30 minutes without moving....and does probably an average of 8-10 movements every 30 minutes (or did that day) and they say he should be moving at least 10 times every 2-3 hours.

neighbors

i just wanted to put up a some pictures of our friends! danny and emily live next door to us, and emily is just 3.5 weeks ahead of me with her pregnancy. well, they had their baby last sunday (dec. 1st) and i got to go and take pictures of their birth experience! emily has a different doctor than me, but i will be delivering in the same hospital! it was seriously such a sweet experience to be able to witness, and has actually left me feeling more excited than scared for our own baby's arrival. 

so...i will be posting more on my photo blog eventually, but i couldn't wait to share just a few! our editing system disappeared from our computer (we know why) so while i am waiting to get that back here are some of the unedited ones. emily did have a c-section so i wasn't allowed in the operating room...but i got to capture some of the other moments!

danny getting ready to go in the operating room

 luke got to hold baby rowen!

i also took some video with my camera, and danny and emily took some with theirs as well. emily went ahead and put a movie together showing the birth story! it's super cute! here is the link if you want to watch!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odmivWYZo9g&feature=youtu.be

weeks 33-37

37 weeks

 36 weeks

35 weeks

 34 weeks

33 weeks

I cannot believe how close we are to meeting our baby!! We are getting really excited! a week ago our neighbors and good friends, danny and emily chamberlin had their baby. we had the opportunity to go to hospital and take pictures for them, and it was such an exciting thing! i will be delivering at the same hospital, so it was so neat to get a feel for what it is going to be like for us! 

 i feel like i have been super lucky throughout my pregnancy. yes i write about the changes and the uncomfortable things that have been taking place, but most of the time i feel great! i sometimes even forget i am pregnant. but i feel like i am starting to get to know this baby inside of me, just by the way he moves. and it's fun to see how excited luke is to have a baby in the house. we get pictures and videos from dave and court (luke's brother and his wife) of our niece sally (the only niece we have) and it makes us so excited to get to have a baby too. I'm sure we'll be exhausted when the little bean actually comes, but for now, we're excited!

so this is what has been happening....

•  sleeping has become more difficult just this last week or two. I have been waking up more during the night and having to use the restroom...and then i am thirsty afterwards! so i have started putting a water bottle by my bed so i don't have to keep going to the kitchen in the night. plus, the cockroaches like to hang out in the kitchen at night, so i don't like going there in the dark.
• my legs and feet get cramps in them. i will be lying in bed, totally relaxed and all the sudden my calf will cramp, or my toes will cramp and get stuck in a weird position. it doesn't happen that often, but it's just funny.
• walking is sometimes more difficult. the other day i think i was actually waddling...like a penguin. i had been feeling good that day, and so i did a bunch of cleaning....and afterwards i was really tired and kinda stiff. and then the baby decided to change positions so that he was putting a lot of pressure pretty low. we were at walmart, and i had to lean on the cart at times for support. but besides that, the baby has been sitting pretty low more often, and so that just makes walking uncomfortable.
• when i lie down at night, my lungs sometimes feel really tight, and i have to take deep breaths until i feel like i can breathe normally.
• at my last appointment on thursday (36 weeks 4 days) i measured 33 cm for my belly and i have gained a total of 14 pounds so far. and the doctor said the baby was pretty low (he has been head down at every check up since 28 weeks).
• baby is still moving a lot. his movements are very strong. he still likes to stretch out his legs, whether it be to the side or straight into my ribs, but thankfully mostly to my side...usually the right side.
• acid reflux. last time i said it had gotten better...well, it got a little worse again shortly after writing that. it hasn't come back full force, but i definitely still get it. i have woken up a couple times in the night with my throat burning, and have had to sit up in bed til it calmed down. i have been taking Tums...which seem to help. sometimes the acid reflux doesn't affect my throat, but my stomach...so there have been a few times where i have had stomach aches from it.

what is crazy to me is how different everyone's pregnancy is. when i talk to friends who are pregnant i have experienced things they never have, and i will never experience things that they have. i have been asking my mom a lot recently about her pregnancies, labors, and birth experiences. they say you are a lot like your mom, and so far that has proven to be true. 

when it comes to labor and delivery i am feeling pretty good. i have read quite a bit, and am hoping that i can be flexible with my plan when the time actually comes. I do not want to be induced, i want the baby to come when he is ready. but if i really need to be induced for safety reasons i am ok with that...(we are thinking baby will be late). also, i would like to labor naturally for as long as i can handle it. i have no idea what my pain tolerance will be, so that will be interesting. but i do plan on receiving an epidural when it's time to deliver. so we'll see how things go!