Week 29: Thumper has a face!

So I'm 29 weeks today, with 11 weeks to go!

I haven't been feeling the baby move as often or in the same place as I had up until last week so the OB decided to have me come in a week early for my 30 week ultrasound (I'm 29w today).

Power to the People!

Turns out she's breech with her little feet jammed into my crotch, kicking and wiggling her toes against my cervix and bladder, just as I'd suspected. We actually saw the little punk's toes WIGGLING against my bladder. But seeing it on the screen made me feel so much better somehow. Her head is above my belly button to the right and her back is to the left of my belly button, so her hands are moving around but not in place where I can feel them anymore. Plus she's getting bigger so has less room to jab.

Our Apple Cheeked Beauty

I was surprised at how clear the u/s pictures were of her face! She has these chubby little cheeks and in one of the pics, she appeared to be smiling!! She was breathing, and she balled up her hand into a fist, which the u/s tech said were all good signs that she wasn't in any distress at all. Colby and I were crying and sniffling.

She's measuring a week ahead, with a big head and belly, so she's gonna be a chunky monkey. She's at about 3 lbs, 7 oz now and I think the tech said the projected weight at birth would be about 9 lbs. I was only 6 lbs when I was born, but Colby's a lot taller than me, so I think she's getting my bulk and his height.

 I just hope she spins around in the next few weeks. I want a natural birth!!

Week 28: In which Thumper takes up jack hammering

On Friday, 11/12, I was feeling pretty well until the early afternoon when I started feeling some extra pressure and thuds about as low as it can be. Because the baby usually was kicking semi-regularly around my belly button, this struck me as unusual.

I went home a little early and lay down on the couch. I was still feeling these tremendous spasms in my bladder and cervix and it was making me cry out a little. I went to bed but after several "dead baby" dreams I decided to call the doctor on-call at 3:00 a.m. She was asleep but called me back 1/2 hour later, saying it sounded like the baby was breech and was just kicking me really low. Because of my history, she said I should at least come in to the office to be checked out, but offered to call the ER if I wanted to come in right away. I decided to hold off a few hours because I was starting to feel some flutters in the belly button region and presumed that was her hands.

The Doc saw me at 10:30 and he said the baby was just low, and that now might be the time to start thinking about bed rest. He wrote me a letter for work, advising me to reduce my work hours if that's affordable to me, but said I could play it by ear. He recommended bed rest and bon bons for the rest of the weekend.

I watched the first 2 seasons of "Weeds" on Netflix and by Monday I was feeling better. I worked a little more than a half day at the office and the remaining couple of hours from home. Tuesday I worked a full day but have been feeling jack-hammered again this morning, so I should probably head home soon.

Week 26: Honey, oh sugar sugar!

Babygirl is 1.7 pounds, and 14" long (hot house cucumber size). She can hear and breathe a little. She's getting to the point where if she decided to show her face now, she'd had a pretty darn good chance of making it. Every day, I breathe a little easier!

Glucola: The Pukemaker

I had my 3-hour glucose tolerance test (GTT) on Monday, November 1. Three hours. Four blood draws. One bruised, hungry, nauseous mommy.

For three days I had to follow a very strict diet of way too much food (fruits, veggies, bread, meat, dairy, juice, snacks, cheese) and no sugar. Happy Halloween! Colby handed out all the treats so I wouldn't have to look at them. We went with full size candy bars... the good ones, too, not Pay Days and Baby Ruths. I did miss seeing the costumes. We had relatively few trick or treaters and most of them sounded old.

Then I fasted from 8 pm Sunday to 8:30 am Monday. The phlebotomist at Quest was amazing... so sweet, friendly, called everyone "sweetie" and remembered each time I had an hourly blood draw. First was after the fast, then I had to drink the orange flavored glucose drink. Chilled, the stuff isn't bad, especially when you're starving. Unchilled, it's like cough medicine. I made a face and the phlebotomist said, "I know, it's naaasty, isn't it? You've got 5 minutes to drink it. Let me know if you need to throw up, sweetie."

I didn't need to but it was nice to know it was an option.

First draw from my right arm, second from my left. I asked her if they move to hands for the other two and she said, "Most people just do them all in the same arm." So I thought, really? For #3 I tried my right arm again (the left had hurt a little, maybe because I'd just had last week's blood draw from there) but that was so painful, I actually said, "Ow!" in the middle of a sentence I was uttering about the weather. I told her the last one would be the back of the hand.

I got the results back the next day... NO GESTATIONAL DIABETES!! I celebrated with a fun size Snickers (our backup Halloween candy, since we usually run out... plus we started out with several fewer than we'd bought... which might be in direct correlation to the reason I failed my glucose screening....) and a McDonald's Quarter Pounder. And a fun size peanut M&Ms.

I went to Mary Kay training and made a new friend. Yay!

Last night (Tuesday) I went to Penny's Noodles in Oak Park with my friend Jennifer. I highly recommend them, especially the Beef Fried Rice. Sooooo good. And we had ice cream at Peterson's afterward until they kicked us out.

Maybe it's all the sugar I was finally allowed to eat but dang, Sarrazine has been a crazy woman inside me! Rolling back and forth, poking things out of my belly button, just non-stop. It's awesome!