Week 36 - 9 Months

I am now in my 9th month of pregnancy!!! In the home stretch. Emile things I'm going to give birth in two weeks; I'm thinking it will be more like 5 weeks. Very soon we'll have our little girl home with us!

I've decided today that I no longer recognize my body -- I don't see remnants of the non-pregnant me left. I'm getting ready to finish being pregnant not only to hold our daughter but to be able to bend over to put my shoes on and go for a run! It's hard to see around the big belly, swollen feet, hands and calves, and skin rash on my neck and arms. Not being able to get out of bed or up from a chair easily. The constant waddle due to aching. I miss the old Rachel. Of course, the outcome makes it all worth it -- I just wish I still saw me in the mirror.

I visited a pediatrician's office on Wednesday, Growing Child Pediatrics, and was pretty happy with it. I've heard great things about the place and it turns out our neighbor, Tippy, takes her son there also. We're looking for a place that will work with us on the vaccination schedule and that is helpful for encouraging successful breastfeeding. So far this place seems to fit what we're looking for. So we've pretty much decided to go with this office. We don't choose our actual pediatrician until after the birth -- the doctor on-call will be the one who comes to the hospital to check her out the first day etc. After that we'll get a chance to decide if we want to stay with that doctor or go with another. I'm glad to finally have this item marked off my list of things to take care of before the birth.

I've started packing my bag for the hospital which I hope to have finished by tomorrow. There are a few things I want to pick up at the store like non-slip socks to walk around in. Emile and I will be putting the car seat in my car and ordering our video camera tomorrow. Now, if we could only decide on a name.

She's been moving around a lot the last few days -- I can actually now distinguish more of her body parts. It's pretty neat to see and feel.

Week 35

Two weeks until I'm full term. Time is really flying by! I had my 34 week doctor's appointment on Tuesday (34w3d) with Dr. Placide. He was much younger than I was expecting but a nice guy. Everything went well. He said my weight gain was on track (surprised me, I feel like a whale), blood pressure looked good, etc. He confirmed that she's still head down (yay!) and estimated that she's about 5 lbs right now, average weight. My fundal height measurement (measurement of my belly from my pelvic bone to my breast bone) indicates I'm a little further along than 34 weeks -- more like 36 and half weeks but I don't know if this will have anything to do with whether she'll decide to come early or not. Dr. Placide also indicated he didn't think the skin rash I've been bothered with is actually related specifically with pregnancy but rather because I'm pregnant and more sensitive to things, I came in contact with something that's causing an allergic reaction. He recommended taking Benadryl -- and surprisingly, the rash was gone by the next day and hasn't really bothered me since then. I wish the nurse would have said that two weeks ago when I called versus telling me it was just a normal pregnancy symptom.

Starting with my next appointment at 36 weeks, I'll be going in to see the doctor weekly until she's born! Emile is planning to come with at the next appointment because they'll be doing a Group B Strep test which is an internal exam -- they'll be able to tell at that point if I've already started dilating or not (won't be getting my hopes up, it will still be early).

I've started moving my projects at work over to others for my upcoming maternity leave. I want to make sure everything is taken care of well before I head to the hospital. My plan now is to work up until I go into labor so pretty much anywhere between the next 2 to 6 weeks!

We finished the nursery!!! I'm very excited about this. Since my dad and Emile painted, we had chair rail installed which Emile painted and then did some other touch-up painting. We've assembled the crib and put up the blinds, shelves, plants, decorations and diaper stacker. Just this morning, we got the glider in (but I have to call the store on Monday -- the finish is scratched up and poorly painted! Not something I really want to deal with). I'm really excited with how the room has turned out. We're still planning to add a small bookshelf next to the glider for her books but just haven't gotten one yet. Now if I could only convince the cats that the crib and the changing pad are not their new sleeping spots!

Our little girl has been moving around quite a bit now but it's much different than before -- a lot of poking out of her limbs and so forth. It's kind of weird to see my stomach go from being round to being lop-sided with a butt pushing out! My belly feels really heavy now so when I lay down on my side I typically have to have something supporting my belly. I've also noticed that my crotch feels bruised or like I've been riding a horse for awhile. Apparently this is pelvic floor pain and is caused by the weight of the baby pushing down on my muscles. It's not painful or anything, just annoying at times. According to the books, our little one should have a sufficient amount of surfactant in her lungs for them to work well on their own now.

Also, I've definitely felt her hiccup a few times over the last few weeks. At first I wasn't sure that that's what it was, but now I feel pretty confident -- there will be these repetitive bubble type feelings I'll get in my belly that last for a few minutes. Emile's even felt them with his hand. It's pretty neat!

Don't forget to enter a guess for when you think our little girl will arrive and her expected weight! (see the orange box on the right) I'm curious to see what everyone thinks!

Week 34

Two big milestones this week -- Airlines will no longer allow me to fly on their planes and most importantly, if our little girl comes early, I won't need steroid shots to speed up development of her lungs. Her lungs should be developed enough to handle it if she comes early. Relieving news!

Today Emile and I attended a Infant/Child CPR class. We've both taken CPR before for adults but there were definite different things to do for a child and definitely an infant. I'm glad we went. Hopefully, we'll not have to use it though.

On Tuesday, we attended our final birth class with Elissa Brody at Carolina Childbirth Classes. Up to this point, we had been watching birthing DVDs that Elissa provided to us. The 2-hour class with her on Tuesday was very helpful. She reviewed the items discussed in the birth videos and then had me practice some of the breathing techniques (I prefer the slow breathing typical in the Bradley Method than the short breathes of Lamaze (they only teach one form of the Lamaze breathing nowadays versus the 5 different types from years ago)) while Emile practiced some pain soothing methods on me. I think it will help both Emile and I feel more comfortable with what to do come delivery.

Yesterday, I officially noticed that I have lost my ankles and seem to have developed "cankles". This makes me incredibly sad! I don't like feeling this large. I was really hoping to avoid the cankle look by working out occasionally, drinking lots of water, and eating pretty well -- but that didn't seem to work. I no longer wear my wedding rings, I get itchy skin rashes, I snore, and I now have cankles. All it all, it could be worse so my pregnancy is still going well.

According to the books, our baby is probably around 5.5 lbs now. I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday so I'm hoping to find out if he has a better estimate based on my actual size. Given how large my belly feels, I wonder if she's actually on the higher end of the scale. I sure hope not! I can't believe I'm already at 34 weeks. In as little as 3 weeks or probably at most 7 weeks, our little girl will be here. Very exciting but slightly scary at the same time!

Week 33

We're starting to get things checked off our list of to-dos before the baby comes which I'm relieved about. This past Tuesday, Emile and I toured the hospital, Rex, that I'll be delivering at. Rex is about 35 minutes from our house in Raleigh. We were pretty impressed with how progressive the hospital was -- they have available birthing balls, tubs, birthing bars, etc. Our little girl will get to room-in with us the entire time -- she won't need to leave the room unless there is something wrong (which hopefully is not the case) or I ask the nurses to watch her if I want to take a shower or something (if Emile isn't there). The rooms are all LDR (labor, delivery and recovery) although you're only in there for recovery for about an hour and a half before moving on to the post-delivery rooms for the remainder of our stay (1-2 days for vaginal deliver, 3-4 for c-section). I was glad to hear that electronic fetal monitoring is not required the whole time I'm in the hospital -- if things are going well with both baby and I, they'll only do intermittent monitoring which means I'll have more flexibility to be up and moving around (better to help labor progress than to be laying in the bed the whole time hooked to a monitor). They also have lactation consultants available and encourage breastfeeding within the first hour after delivery. Overall, we were really happy with the hospital and have no reservations about delivering there. I'm so glad to have the tour out of the way.

Today, Emile finished touching up the paint in the nursery and we both put the crib together. I'm so excited to start decorating. The paint job that he and my dad did looks great and we're really happy with the chair rail. Here's a sneak peak at us putting the crib together. Once I have the room fully decorated, I'll post photos again.



The big pregnancy issues for me this week have been round ligament pain and a skin rash. On Sunday night, I woke up to take one of my many bathroom breaks when I got this horrible pain shooting down the left side of my belly. It then emanated over to my right side. Nothing I did would make it go away -- I was walking around the bedroom and house, breathing like in the birthing videos, rubbing my belly etc. I started to get a little worried that it was a contraction and I was going into pre-term labor but it lasted for about 2-3 minutes so I didn't think it was an actual contraction. It eventually went away but I didn't sleep well after because I kept checking the clock to see if it happened again (and if so, when). Luckily, it didn't. I spoke with the doctor the next day and she confirmed that it was mostly like just round ligament pain which is just caused by the muscles around my uterus stretching etc. Little things like moving the wrong way etc. can spark it. She was actually surprised that this was the first time I had it happen, at 32 weeks. So far, it hasn't happened again. Given how much I thought it hurt, I figure I'm in a world of trouble when I actually start having contractions :)

I've also started developing skin rashes at random times throughout the day and at different places on my body. Mostly I get it on my neck, underarms, forearms, upper chest, hands and feet. It itches and is driving me nuts (although on the scale of things, it could be worse). The doctor confirmed that it is normal for pregnant women to randomly get skin rashes at this stage in pregnancy. Pretty much the only thing to do for it is put Calamine lotion or something similar. It should go away after I give birth!

Our little girl is probably about 4.5 to 5 lbs now (I feel like I'm getting huge overall). She will gain more than half her birth weight in the next seven weeks. She'll begin to move less now as she runs out of room and curls up with knees bent, chin resting on chest and arms and legs crossed.