Oh, the Drama!

(well, as much drama as you get from me when I'm pregnant, which isn't a whole lot, but still....)

I had my 37 week midwife appointment this morning. My weight is good, I've gained 27 pounds for the whole pregnancy, and after losing last week, I am back up 2 pounds. The midwife came in and we went over my birth plan, which she had no issues with (yay!). However, it did lead us to a small disagreement. According to her chart, my due date is Tuesday, April 28. According to my calculations (and the number that's been in my head for the whole pregnancy) I'm due on Sunday, April 26. I'm sticking to my date, as it's based on charting my temps, and I know EXACTLY when things happened (if ya know what I mean!).

Next, we found our heartbeat (it took a minute, cause this kid is so low, she's hiding behind my pelvic bone), but we found her eventually... nice heartbeat of 140-150. Then she measured my belly, and what do you know, I'm measuring small... about 35 weeks. Of course, no visit at this point in a pregnancy is complete without an internal exam. I'm about 1.5 cm dialated (not much progress!) and "very soft". And the baby's head is WAY down there. That's good and bad, as it makes me quite uncomfortable, but at least she's heads down!

Since I was measuring small last week, she decided to do an ultrasound, just to make sure everything's okay, and baby's growing right. None of this is a surprise to me. I remember measuring small when I was pregnant with Trevor, and getting a late ultrasound to confirm the size of the baby then too. I have no recollection of any such happenings with Blake, so either it didn't happen (and I wasn't measuring small?) or my memories of that pregnancy have gotten lost in the shuffle and he's already suffering from being the "middle child".

So the tech did the ultrasound. She got some great pictures and looks at the baby, and took lots of measurements. I learned quite a bit from her too, and even got to see the umbilical cord, and found out it's not (currently) around her neck/head/body (which Trevor's was). So that was good to hear.

Turns out baby is measuring about 7 lbs 3 oz which puts her in the 75%. So there ya go, all you people who think I'm measuring small. I just carry my babies well, and ALL inside me apparently! She might be my biggest baby yet!!! On the downside, my amniotic fluid is measuring just inside the average range. My AFI is 8, and they worry if it's below 6, or above 20. So to be safe, she wants me to increase my fluids and do kick counts. So twice a day I have to count how many times she kicks in an hour, if it's less than 5, then we worry and call her. So far, no problem.... we got 5 kicks in the 15 minutes I've been sitting here typing!

Also, the ultrasound showed that my placenta is 'aging' faster than usual. Gee, this kid is making me age fast already, and she's not even born yet!!! At the moment, there's nothing to worry about, but it's just something to watch. From my googling just now, they age the placenta based on calcifications (calcium deposits). I wonder if the quantity of calcium I take in affects this... in particular I'm thinking of the 10-15 Tums that I've been taking daily to help with heartburn. For a while I was using some OTC stuff like Xantac, but the Tums work better. Hmmm...

If anything does change, they might induce me, but since I'm full-term there's no major issue with that. Other than the fact, that I'd prefer not to be induced since I've been down that road before, with Trevor. But if her health is in jeopardy, I'll do it!

So that's the update from here. Oh, and since they were doing an ultrasound and looking around anyway, I requested a reconfirmation..... and yes, it's still a girl! Whew!