38 Week Prenatal Checkup

I had my 38 week checkup on Tuesday September 10th.

Blood pressure was normal 127/73, weight 147lb. 

Non-stress test performed to check for fetal distress and he passed, though he didn't cooperate for a bit. Fetal heart rate was in the 120s. It's usually in the 140s and he did not move around much. To get him to wake up and move, the doc put some loud noisemaker on my belly to startle him and he jumped at that. Heart rate accelerated on movement so he is good.

Doctor checked and I am fully effaced and dilated 1cm. So there was some progress. It could be nothing or who knows.

One more checkup next Tuesday and my scheduled c-section will be on Wednesday. Most of that appointment will be the pre-surgical lab tests and pre-admission into the hospital so all we will have to do is show up and go straight to surgery.

37 Week Prenatal Check-up

Today I had my 37 week prenatal checkup, and it was fortunately uneventful. I weighed in at 146lbs, down one pound from my last checkup. Blood pressure was very normal at 113/71, down quite a bit from my last appointment. I had my first non-stress test. They had me lay down on a table while they put a fetal heartrate monitor on my belly, and they handed me a button to press whenever I felt the baby move. They basically watched whether fetal heartrate went up or down with movement. My baby passed that test and did very well. Normal heartrates were in the 130s and 140s, and with movement the heartrate moved into the 150s.
All healthy!

36 Week Pregnancy Update

Happy full-term pregnancy, Killian! We should be meeting you very soon.

I am now on weekly doctor appointments. I had my 36-week check-up last Tuesday. Things had been getting a bit strange the week before, but my doctor reassured me there was no concern.

I'll start with the story of the strangeness, then continue on with my 36-week checkup.

It started at my 34-week check-up. All seemed very normal. My blood pressure, which had previously been low, was now in the normal range. That seemed strange to me as it indicated a 20 point jump in 2 weeks. At my 32-week check-up, I was 107/71 blood pressure, but at my 34-week I was up to 122/72. Doc asked me if I had any swelling, looked at my ankles, and said "Nope! No swelling at all". Apparently he cursed me.

Two days after my 34-week appointment, it was very hot and I admit I was probably dehydrated. Sasha and I went to Walmart and as we walked through the pharmacy area, Sasha asked me about the blood pressure machine. I explained the concept of blood pressure to her and let her use the machine to take her blood pressure. Her arm is still so tiny yet that it didn't really get much of a reading on her, but I had considered it mostly an educational venture anyways. I sat down and let it take a reading on me so that she could see it actually work. I was at 130/75, which is starting to get a bit high for me. At the same time, I noticed my right ankle had swollen up quite a bit and my right knee was starting to swell as well. I couldn't find my ankle bones, and if I pressed my swollen foot with my finger, the imprint lasted a minute (pitting edema). Later on that evening, I was noticing a few other strange symptoms. I was really irritable and felt angry for no reason.
I told my husband about the symptoms, as he was in medic school at the time, and he thought it sounded a bit like preeclampsia. He encouraged me to get rehydrated and elevate my leg.

The next day, the irritability was gone fortunately, but the swelling was still very significant. I made much more effort to stay indoors (it was hot outside), drink lots of extra water, and keep my swollen leg elevated. I felt some strange pains on my left side abdomen, and the baby dropped. With the dropping of the baby, I felt a whole new range of symptoms. My rib pain disappeared and it was easier for me to breathe, but I felt a lot more pelvic pressure and my bladder capacity was significantly reduced. I also had a harder time walking around.

It took about a week for the swelling to go back down. It never returned to normal, but fortunately the swelling stayed just on the right ankle and didn't spread elsewhere. At some point the next week, the baby un-dropped. I didn't know that could happen but it did. He somehow clawed himself back up into my rib cage.

So, back to the present! At my 36-week check-up, I told my doctor of the symptoms I had earlier in the week, and he was quite unconcerned. Clearly my baby was no longer "dropped", and my swelling was very mild he said.

My blood pressure was 132/75. Weight was 147 pounds. Baby's heartrate was 144. And I will now be seen for weekly appointments.

DIY Rebozo Wrap Complete

From top left clockwise: Hemming the osnaburg, gradient dying the green side, gradient dying the blue side, and finished wrap.

I definitely intend to do a lot of baby wearing when Killian arrives. I had previously posted about the Mei Tai carrier that I had sewn, but the Mei Tai is actually the third baby carrier I now have for Killian. About a month ago, I made this DIY short wrap, called a Rebozo, out of osnaburg fabric. Osnaburg is strong, light-weight, but only comes in a plain off-white color, so it had to be hand-dyed. I performed a gradient/ombre dye job on the fabric after I got it prewashed and hemmed. The dying job took me about 2 days.

Can't wait to carry my little guy in this wrap!

C-section is scheduled. Week 33 pregnancy update

It's a Boy! 20 week ultrasound (old but I hadn't posted this here yet).

I had my 32-week prenatal appointment last Tuesday and all is well. These weekly appointments seem to be a waste of time, as I am healthy and all is normal. I have a 40 mile drive to get to my appointments, so they can be a bit inconvenient.
My weight was 139 pounds, up 3 pounds from my last appointment. My starting weight was around 115 so I guess that's a total of 24 pounds so far. I was over 150 pounds at the end of my pregnancies with each of my girls, so I'm not too worried. It is still a bit disconcerting to see such high numbers on a scale but I seem to be almost all baby and breasts.

My blood pressure was up quite a bit this visit compared to my last. At my last appointment, I had low blood pressure, around 100/60-something. This time it was 120/60-something. Not quite sure what that means, if anything. Probably nothing.

I had 2 prior c-sections and I am not doing a VBAC, so we scheduled our cesarean section date! My son Killian will be born September 18th at 7:30am, unless something changes sooner. It is a relief to actually have a date to plan for.

Doc measured Killian's heart rate, and it was in the 140s. I told him I thought he was in a head-up position. Doc checked and said in his opinion, he thinks Killian is head down. I guess I could be wrong. I knew for certain with both my girls so it feels strange not to be able to tell a head from a butt, but he has been moving a lot more than the girls did. The girls each chose their position and held it like a strategic warfare point, but this guy flips around and even lies sideways/transverse sometimes.

I have been quite uncomfortable. I am short and ran out of room long ago. I get short of breath often, especially after eating. My ribs hurt sometimes. But as of today, 45 more days to go!

DIY Mei Tai Complete

Sasha models a front carry on my Mei Tai with her favorite stuffed animal.

I made a mei tai (baby carrier)! It was quite a major sewing project for me as I am not very experienced at sewing more than hems. The carrier is reversible (khaki canvas on the 'man side', and a blue/white/tan stripe fabric on the other), has a hood that can turn into a newborn head support, has padding on the shoulders/belt/hood for comfortable wearing, and has pockets. My model Sasha demonstrates a front carry with her favorite stuffed animal, but it can also do hip and back carries. I still have a few more DIY projects to go but I am having fun learning new things.

A Coincidence at the Park

My husband is in the Army National Guard, and this last weekend his unit had its annual summer picnic in the park. Sasha and I met Jon at his armory and he drove us over to the picnic location. We met some of his platoon and squad members, and ate barbecue.

The park that the picnic was held was one of the nicest I've ever seen. There was a large busy outdoor pool and water park, multiple play areas for the children, and the playground equipment looked very modern and high quality. So it didn't take long before Sasha was itching to start playing at the playgrounds. They did look fun! After we finished our meal, we all went to the playground to play. Yes, all of us. The cool thing about having kids is being able to play on playground equipment with your children! I was a little tired of standing and looked for somewhere to sit, but there were so many pregnant women sitting on the park benches that I didn't see a spot to sit down. There seems to be a baby boom around this town.

The swings were open, so I decided to sit on a swing. Sasha followed me to the swings and sat on the swing next to me, and Jon pushed the both of us. It was fun and amusing for all of us. Because I was being pushed, I was swinging quite high and fast. I started to wonder aloud at what my poor unborn 30-week baby in my belly thought of all the swinging, and Sasha found my musings on the topic hilarious. She made a little baby voice and pretended to be the baby, all confused at the back and forth motion going on.

Here is where I mention that we have been referring to our unborn child by his name, Killian. There, now you know his name. Sasha was laughing and yelling "Killian is like, (baby voice) 'Hey what is going on?'". There was a woman pushing a toddler on a swing next to me, and she just halted when Sasha mentioned the name.

"What was that name she just said?", the woman asked me. "Who is she talking about?".

Jon and I explained to her that I was pregnant, if it wasn't obvious, and that we were naming our unborn son Killian.

She dropped her jaw in astonishment. She was also pregnant with a son, due a month after me, and her top name consideration for her unborn son was also Killian. She had never heard the name used before, and explained that it was a name of her grandfather. I also chose the name after my grandfather, so we bonded a bit over the coincidences. She explained that her mother-in-law hated the name and worried that a child named Killian would get called "Killer". I told her we'd embrace the nickname if that occurred, and that nothing sounded more awesome to me than imagining my future son going up to bat in a little league softball game, cheering "GO GET 'EM, KILLER!" at him to urge him on to greatness. She said that for the first time, she felt good about the potential nickname if it should come up, and that she really felt that Killian was the name of her son. I told her I don't even mind sharing the name with her, even though I expected that there would probably not be any other Killians in town. She did live in a different town, I rationalized, so the two would not be in the same classroom anyways.

As I parted with the woman, she and I walked to where her mother-in-law the name-hater was sitting. She told her mother-in-law that I was also naming my son Killian, to which the mother-in-law haughtily replied, "Good, she can have it". I walked away as the poor woman continued to try to convince her mother-in-law that it was a good name for the baby, but the mother-in-law looked unconvinced.

I suppose I shall never know if she is ever successful in naming her child what she wants. Some day, perhaps the two Killians will meet in the city again. Maybe the woman will bow to the pressures of her family and find a new name, or maybe she'll stick with it and it'll grow on her family like it did ours.