Week 35

He's nearly here! Most 35-week babies weigh 5 pounds or more and rarely experience major complications if born before they officially come to term. You may feel a tingling or numbness in your pelvic region as the extra weight presses on your nerves, as well as increased movement in your upper rib cage where his feet have come to rest in preparation for the head-down journey into the world. Three to four percent of full-term babies never adopt this position, but remain breech (with their heads facing up). If your baby is part of this stubborn minority, you may be at greater risk for a cesarean section. To prevent this, your caregiver may attempt to turn her from the outside using a process called "external version." She'll also do a sonogram to determine the baby's exact position before deciding whether to attempt a vaginal birth.

Baby Shower 2

So I am finally posting pictures from the baby shower that was thrown for me in Virginia. I got so many wonderful gifts & had a great time. A big thank you to Regina, Shelley and my mom for making it such a great day. Noah is already spoiled and we haven't even met him yet!

Week 34

Exactly how would you like your child to enter the world? An increasing number of parents-to-be are creating birth plans. These documents may include everything from medical preferences to environmental concerns (low lighting, soft music, and so on) during labor, delivery, and postpartum. Try to keep the plan to one page or less--busy caregivers may not have time to read it otherwise--and give copies to your doctor or midwife and to hospital or birthing center staff as well. Keep in mind, however, that medical necessity may derail some of your preferences.
We don't exactly have a "birthing plan" but we did talk with the doctor on Monday a little about what we are expecting. Basically I told her that I don't care if I have a c-section and I want drugs. I am all for anything to make it more comfortable for me and my baby! :)

Can you say UNPREPARED?

Shortly after the alarm went off this morning, Ben asked a very important question: How do we know when to go to the hospital after you go into labor? My response: I have no clue. He let out this crazy sigh and said: We are so unprepared. I mumbled something about not having any bottles or diapers.
So I have spent the entire morning thinking about nothing except that we are so unprepared for what is going to happen sometime within the next 7 weeks or so. Our childbirth classes don't even start until January 11th- hopefully I don't go into labor before then.
If you know me, you know that this is really not like me. I am always the prepared one, the one who has thought everything through. Not this time. I think it has something to do with the move from Virginia to Jacksonville. Maybe it has something to do with us not living in our house yet. Or maybe it has something to do with all of our belongings, including my large stack of pregnancy books, being in storage. Regardless, I feel the stress building. I have come to the realization that I have no idea what to expect in the coming weeks. Fortunately we are moving into our new house this weekend and one of the first boxes I open will contain my pregnancy literature. After I find the books, I will devote the rest of the weekend to figuring out what in the world I am supposed to be doing to prepare for Noah.

Week 33

Starting at about week 26, your baby has slept and awoken at regular intervals. He closes his eyes when he sleeps, and he'll even dream during the last month before birth. No one knows what babies dream about in the womb, but they show reactions ranging from frowns and smiles to crying and kicking. Asleep or awake, you may feel the kicks in a new place around now--in your rib cage, just below your breasts--as he moves into the head-down position where he'll probably stay until birth.

PUPPPS

So last week a very strange thing happened to my ever growing belly. I developed a small rash that itched like crazy and eventually spread over my entire stomach region. Since I was on vacation in Virginia, I tried to come up with lots of excuses for the rash: new soap, new detergent, new shirt, etc. Mind you, since the rash was only on my stomach, none of these explanations for the rash really made much sense.
So I went to the doctor on Monday and was diagnosed with PUPPPS. For those of you, like me, who are unfamiliar with this- here is the explanation:
A common rash during pregnancy is Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy. This is a most unpleasant rash with an incredible itch that's only cure is delivery of the placenta. Although this is most common in first pregnancies, it has been known to occur in subsequent pregnancies. This problem affects one in about 160 to 200 pregnancies.
The onset of this rash is usually the third trimester but it has been known to appear in the early post partum period. The rash starts on the abdomen and then spreads to the extremities. It is an unbearably itchy rash. Happily the rash doesn't normally spread to the face. After delivery of the baby, the rash and the itch rapidly disappear. There are no known ill effects on the baby. Some doctors believe this to be an allergic reaction to the placenta but they also have noted a relationship to maternal weight gain, newborn birth weight and the incidence of twins.
So, needless to say, I have bought a huge tube of hydrocortisone that I can't leave the house without.

Week 32

This week is a milestone of sorts: Babies born after this time tend to do well even if they are premature. Nearly 10 percent of babies are born before week 37, when they officially come to term. At 32 weeks, all major organs are functioning except the lungs, which may need further time to develop. But your little one doesn't exactly look like a rosy cherub--he weighs about 3 pounds, and his thin, wrinkly skin hasn't filled out with the layers of fat that develop later. Luckily, in many cases, all he'll need is some time in an environmentally controlled isolette to become the chubby angel you imagined.

Week 31

He's entering a growth spurt. For the next eight weeks, he'll gain weight faster than he increases in length, at the rate of about half a pound a week. The bigger he gets, the harder it will be to "see" him on ultrasound and get a good estimate of his size--the margin of error increases to 15 percent by the end of the third trimester. But he's definitely growing fast, and you'll notice that his kicks will start to feel more like squirming as he runs out of room to roam.