31 weeks

Oops, I missed a few weeks. Well, we're now at 31 weeks (7 months today) It's a great feeling to get into the 30s and out of the 20s.

Everything is going well. Midwife is happy, I'm happy and I'm assuming baby is happy.

This week hasn't been the most fun - trying to sort out medical insurance is a nightmare. Currently they are telling me that the only way I can get my hospital charges covered by insurance is to give up on the midwife completely, and go see the group of obstetricians in my health group. No matter that I'd actually rather have a midwife for the more personal and natural care, and the lower likelihood of interventions. I've been finding out that midwives are regarded with great unease here, insurance doesn't like them because they're considered very high risk, high liability and not very medically qualified. No matter that my midwife is a certified nurse midwife, has been delivering babies for 30 years, teaches Doctors obstetrics at USC, and works with the best obstetrician in town. Anyway, rant over. Hopefully it's going to get sorted through some sort of appeal process.

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks:

29 weeks

30 weeks

31 weeks

Baby shower

My baby shower is going to be on January 13, and two of my good friends are organizing it. They just sent out the invitations yesterday, they are just lovely. Here is a sample.

(We wish all our NZ family and friends could come too, but it's probably a bit far for a Sunday afternoon.)

Oh, and the link on the invitation has a couple of letters missing - if you're interested in looking at it the website is Anna and John's baby registry.

28 weeks

Yesterday was a busy day. Firstly, I had an appointment with the perinatologist to go over my clotting blood results once again, just to check I was still happy with just being on baby aspirin and didn't want to switch to heparin/lovenox injections. It's such a hard decision as there aren't any "right" answers, so I just decided to stick with the aspirin for now. The perinatologist does want me to go in for weekly "non stress tests" from now though, just to make sure that everything looks OK. And if things change, then we can reassess. I believe (although I don't know for sure) that a non stress test involves hooking up monitors to my tummy and tracking contractions (if there are any) and baby's heart rate. A good result is when the baby's heart rate increases 15 - 20bpm with movement and then goes back down. I guess I'll find out more next Thursday.

I also had an ultrasound which was fun. Baby was head down, although I'm sure he/she will move between now and birth, I'm glad he/she's practicing being in that position.

Here's a 3D ultrasound picture of baby's face with arms up. Very cute!

Then I saw my midwife, and every time I see her I like her more. Things were looking pretty good. My blood pressure was up a bit when I went in (but I had just been rushing round trying to get to appointments and get some work done in between) so she rechecked it after I lay down for a bit and it was back down to normal. My proteinuria levels were +1 (have no idea what this measurement means, next time I'll remember to ask), which is still within normal she said, but slightly elevated, so she is just watching it. No edema. And no weight gain in 2 weeks - which is my biggest accomplishment. I passed my glucose screening and my iron levels are very high. The lab forgot to run my antibody screen so I have to go back and get blood drawn again for that.

This week has been going well, although I've definitely started to become more uncomfortable. My stomach is a bit crampy and sore when I move (particularly when I try roll over in bed - John thought I was heffalumpish before, just wait until he gets back in 3 weeks!) and I think it's just everything stretching to make room for baby.

So here are lots of stats for the week:

Fundal height: 28cm
Baby's heartbeat: 145bpm (it's very consistent, been between 137 and 145 every time it's been checked!)
Baby's weight: 3lb/1359g (this is quite large! They estimate this by looking at the ratio of AC/BPD/FL/HC)
Biparetal diameter ("BPD" - the transverse width of the head at its widest): 7.54cm
Occipitofrontal diameter (the "OFD" is measured perpendicular to the BPD): 9.57cm
Head circumference ("HC"): 27.65cm
Abdominal circumference ("AC"): 23.84cm
Femur length ("FL"): leg1: 5.31cm/leg2: 6.26cm for average of 5.79cm

According to the chart that is on my ultrasound DVD, most of these measurements put baby's growth at 30 weeks+, so I guess it's not going to be a small baby. The estimated gestational age by measurement was 29w6d (at exactly 28 weeks) with a due date of 2/9/13. We'll see. I'm sure these measurements aren't really all that accurate!

Here is me for this week:

 

27 weeks

I'm a little behind on this week, since I'm already 27w3d, but that's OK. And I can't even blame being busy with work since we had a very nice long Thanksgiving weekend (Thursday and Friday were holidays here).

I did my gestational diabetes screening last week, and it wasn't fun, as predicted. Drinking the orange flavored sugar syrup containing 50g of sugar in 5 minutes wasn't too bad, but it made me feel pretty awful afterward. I definitely had to lie down to get my blood drawn. No results yet, but I have an appointment with the midwife on Friday, so I guess she'll tell me then.

Baby has been very active this week, with all sorts of gymnastics happening. Still not enough to wake me at night though. I'm not sure if he/she sleeps when I sleep, or if I just sleep heavily enough not to notice (which could very well be the case since I've slept through raccoons trying to get into our bedroom and John getting up to figure out what was going on). Otherwise everything is going great, no complaints at all!

I had a lovely Thanksgiving, a friend came to visit for the weekend as her husband is away too. We went to a geology family's place for dinner, and had lots of traditional food, fun and laughs. It still surprises me that Thanksgiving seems to be bigger than Christmas here. We also went for a walk in the monarch butterfly preserve (still too early for the migration though), and ate lunch on the beach while watching dolphins. Lots of fun!

Belly button: still in, but not for long. The top part is very very shallow now, and the rest is getting shallower!
Gender prediction: Still no real feeling either way.
Stretch marks: Still none!

Here are some very bad self portraits for this week (with Sahara in the background in her favorite spot).

26 weeks

This week I had a midwife appointment, which is always fun. We're up to fortnightly appointments now which is a bit exciting - only 14 weeks to go! This week I also have to get my gestational diabetes screening test done, which doesn't sound like too much fun, but one of those things that is necessary.

My fundal height was measuring 26cm (right on for 26 weeks) and baby's heartbeat was 137bpm. Blood pressure (just for you mum) was 110/60.

It was great as Susan (midwife) showed me where the head was (just to the right of and above my belly button). Now that I know what it feels like, I've been able to follow it around, although baby doesn't seem to be flipping too much, it's often in the same place.

Here are a couple of bump pictures from this week (apologies about the quality, it's hard to take them by yourself, it was very bright outside and my camera wasn't co-operating). I'm quite excited because I can see my hips again! Baby bump has definitely moved more out the front, and a few people have commented in the last couple of weeks that I don't look at all pregnant from behind (I'm sure that's some old wives' tale as to what gender it's supposed to be!).

Baby has been moving around a lot, and kicking lots! A few days last week he/she must have been in a different position and kicking downwards, but this morning he/she's back to normal and creating earthquakes in my belly. A great feeling! (Here's some video)

I'm feeling really good, hardly any aches or pains or even discomfort. Sleeping is great (with the help of my huge pregnancy pillow) and everything is just going so well!

I need some suggestions of fun children's music that is acceptable for parents to listen to as well. Any ideas?

Belly button: still in, no indication of it sticking out yet
Gender prediction: I was so sure it was a boy earlier, but now I'm thinking more towards girl.
Stretch marks: Not on my tummy yet