29 weeks!

Sorry for the late post... I have been in mourning over the election results. I can only hope that our baby girl arrives happy and healthy before Jan 20 so I can tell her Obama was the president when she was born. Now on to the regularly scheduled blog post...

"Hey stretch marks, guess what? You’re an asshole.

 

Stretch marks are cause when your skin stretches or grows rapidly and the protein that makes up the connective tissue in your skin (collagen) is disrupted.

 

You are more prone to them if you:

• Have a darker complexion
• Your mom had them (thanks genetics -- hopefully you inherited her child bearing hips and a low body mass index too) 
• You are young (your skin hasn’t already been stretched out by age and the perils of life yet) 
• You put on your pregnancy weight quickly

You aren’t alone though, even though up to 90% of pregnant women get them, 70% of women that aren’t pregnant have them and 40% of men have them too. You can get them during growth spurts in puberty, weight gain, and body building, just to name a few. Can you prevent them? Well, it can’t hurt to try. Most sites recommend that you try to keep your skin hydrated and well moisturized to help minimize stretch marks. Hey, if nothing else it will help the brutal belly itch you often get during pregnancy.

 

Trying to pace your weight gain is also recommended but I found that to be a tricky one seeing I was putting on loads of weight that didn’t seem to coincide with my french fry consumption – I think the body just packs it on when it’s ready – but that’s just my personal observation.

 

Hey, but you know what? You earned those stripes lady, I say wear ‘em with pride and strut them with the body builders." -Pregnant Chicken

Size/Info: According to my Nurture app she should be 15.2 inches long and weigh 2.5 lbs but according to Maternal Fetal Medicine she weighs 3.3 lbs! Yay for a big girl! She is the size of a butternut squash,  a Barbie car, a gallon of milk or a New England cottontail rabbit. Muscles and lungs are continuing to mature and her head is growing bigger to accommodate her developing brain. She is getting close to her birth length but has a way still to go in gaining weight.

What's new this week? Last weekend I noticed that she wasn't as active as she had been. I tried to calm myself as she was passing her kick counts but they were SO different. On Monday morning at 4 am I woke up to pee, had a glass of milk and held my belly so I could feel her move. But she didn't move. At all. I laid there for an hour before I decided to call my midwife. She sent me to Labor and Delivery for a non-stress test (NST). Jason had to work at 7 am so he got dressed for work and we drove separately. I sobbed on the way to the hospital imagining the worst. The NST showed her heart rate was completely normal and also monitored contractions (I wasn't having any). They also decided to do an ultrasound and everything looked normal but she had flipped over to breach. I still couldn't shake this feeling of worry.

 

We could see her heart rate as well as mine on the monitor

 

My appointment with Maternal Fetal Medicine was moved up to Thursday and during the ultrasound she looked great but I have excessive amniotic fluid. It may be no big deal but it also can cause all sorts of complications... Dr. Schafer said that I was just over normal and that maybe she had just peed so not to panic just yet. (Hard for me to do). I go back to see them for another ultrasound in 3 weeks. Excessive amniotic fluid explains why her movements  have been muffled. She has a lot of room to move around in there so although she is moving, she may not be making direct contact with the wall of my uterus.

 

 

 

Symptoms: Braxton Hicks are off the chart. I can't walk up a flight of stairs or around the block without having one. I have had increasing pain in my upper abdomen that I think is my muscles tearing - oh yay.

 

Food Aversions: Still no taco's

 

Food Cravings: Donuts, cake and more donuts.

 

Fitness: Lately all I am getting is my once a week yoga class. Damn Braxton hicks.

 

Bump: The belly is definitely growing and feels quite taut. No stretch marks yet but I think it is just a matter of time....

 

 



 

Medications:

7:30am: 6mg prednisone (down one more mg), 40mg Lovonox injection in the belly

9am: 1 Prenatal and 2 DHA

7:30pm: 40mg Lovonox injection in the belly

 

Baby Preparations: Just more nursery prep! Gifts have started arriving and I am torn on whether we should open them now or at the shower? We have a master to-do list that I created but that Jason is getting accomplished. He has been working so hard to get it all together.