38 Weeks

Aside from being sick pregnancy has been going well this past week.  It's almost weird to say that it's gotten easier in the last few weeks because I feel like most women get increasingly uncomfortable; however,  Baby B dropping away from my rib cage made a HUGE difference.  Now I sometimes forget I am even carrying a little girl (until I try to bend over, or cough, or walk....okay, maybe until I move).

Ryan and I met with one of the senior midwives this week.  She has been a midwife for one million years and had oodles of experience regarding anything baby.  She estimated Baby B's current weight to be 7 pounds 14 ounces!  She then said, "I don't want to scare you, but you could easily be pregnant another few weeks because the baby has a lot more room to drop down."  AAAHHHHHHHHH!  This could mean we could have a 9 or 10 pound baby.  The midwife then pointed out that she doubts people really feel a difference between birthing a 6 pounder or a 9 pounder.  Let's hope she is right!

Here are some other fun facts:
*Baby B's heart tones were in the 140s.
*She is in a position that tends to make labor very fast but also very intense.
*My fundal height is already at 40 inches (the amount of inches is supposed to match the amount of weeks pregnant you are....but Baby B is just going to be a big baby).
*Baby B knows when we are at the doctor's office and always puts on quite the show of moving around and kicking.

But here is the BEST fact of all:
*My platelet levels are holding steady at 101.  This might mean I am just still sick.  BUT it might also mean that they are just set on remaining at that level.  I will talk to my hematologist again soon.

Wondering when Baby B will arrive?!?!

Conundrum

I became sick on Thursday.  Took Friday off to get all better.  Laid around most of Saturday just to be sure.  And by Sunday I felt fabulous.  So fabulous that I did things like clean out the fridge, scrub down the microwave, go shopping, clean cobwebs from places that have been bugging me for months, and I walked up Dead Man's Hill (twice).  Today I woke up sick again.  I guess I over did it.   It probably didn't help that I went to work this morning and facilitated a training where I had to talk for several hours straight.

Here is where the conundrum comes into play.  I want to do all of these things to prepare for Baby B, but I have no energy because I am so busy with work and now I am sick.  I think the sickness is my body telling me to slow down.  But if I stop working now then that means less time with Baby B before  I have to go back to work.  And I can't stop preparing for her to get here.  That just isn't an option.  But if I keep working this hard then I will never get better and then I won't be able to have a good labor.

Ugh.  I guess I just want my cake and to eat it too....

And then the clouds came rolling in....

I went to the hematologist today and while I was hoping to get some answers to all of the unknowns I have been faced with lately I ended up with just a huge heaping pile of more questions.  To top it off, I woke up sick today.  Sore throat, watery eyes, headache, chills, running nose + 38 weeks pregnant =fun times.

When the hematologist found out I was sick she seemed less excited about my platelet levels spiking.  So we will see what they look like when I am feeling better.  She also found a few more NRBC's in my blood and informed me that my red blood cells are looking "wacky."  She said the shape of the red blood cells are consistant with what red blood cells look like right before a person has liver failure.  But they checked my liver and it is functioning normally.  So I remain a medical mystery.  Or she might have some hunches about what is going on and didn't want to scare me.  They need more blood but they can't take my blood right now because I am sick.  So that leaves us with Operation-Make-Me-Healthy.

I am now hoping Baby B does not decided to come because going into labor when you already feel like crud to begin with sounds like a bad plan.

The clouds came into Portland today and the weather is matching my mood perfectly.  

All SMILES!

Best news ever today!  My platelet levels spiked to a whooping 103!!!!  Even though that is still pretty low it's the highest it's been in a long time!  I am a medical mystery.  All I can say is that I hope my body knows that it has to make it through labor so it went into platelet making overdrive so that Baby B can come out safely.  So, Baby B, that's your cue!  Time to meet the world!

Sneak Peak

My sister and I got a sneak peak into Baby B's world today via ultrasound.  Poor Ryan missed out.  My team of doctors wanted to make sure that Baby B would be big enough to deliver in case they needed to get her out ASAP (depending on my platelet levels and such).  They also wanted to make sure there would not be any other complications because we have enough to deal with already.

The good news is that we have one healthy and beautiful little girl!  And BIG too!  She already is estimated to weigh 7.4 Ibs.  That is what I weighed when I was born!  So I hope Baby B knows she can come out WHENEVER she wants!  Maybe tonight??? (hint hint, nudge nudge!).  I do not want her to cook for another few weeks and end up being 9+ pounds......so the sooner the better!

We are meeting with the hematologist on Friday to go over more blood results.  I feel extremely anxious for this appointment so I hope Friday gets here as fast as possible.

I will leave everyone with a picture of the little lady.  They had trouble getting a good profile shot because her head is so crammed into my pelvis (she is locked and loaded!).  But they did manage to get a picture of her lips and nose .  She totally has her dad's profile.  And his AMAZING lips.  Totally Angelina Jolie style.  I can't wait to see her in person!

37 Weeks

Full term! Full disclosure!  Here are some belly pics in the flesh.  Stretch marks and lopsided and all.

Random confessions of a pregnant woman: I have always had a deep innie belly button.  I think the below picture shows as outie as it's going to get.  And how excited am I to finally have an outie!  I can now fully clean the inside of my belly button to my hearts content.  Thank you to my mother for instilling the idea to clean my belly button from a very young age.  Mission finally accomplished. 

In more serious news, this week has been a roller coaster ride for so many reasons.

To name a select few I found out my platelets dropped to 74.  And they found something in my blood that might indicate I am having some issues with my bone marrow.  Hopefully I will get more answers about this soon.  And this past weekend I thought I was going to have a baby.  Turns out I experienced some false labor.  I got Ryan up at 4am and was so excited thinking that things had started.  Regular contractions! But then they stopped around 11am.  And that was that.  Nothing since.  And the highest point of the roller coaster ride was my one year anniversary being married to Ryan.  I love him so much.  And with all the stress this week has brought I cannot think of a better person to share it with!

Here is the onsie we bought for Baby B on our honeymoon in Spain when we were dreaming up our life together.  I can't wait to see her in it!

Even though I am looking very pregnant I have been feeling less pregnant.  I am hoping this means Baby B has dropped!

Baby B's Nursery

We have been working hard to make an optimal environment for our favorite little girl.  I think I mentioned in an earlier post that Ryan wanted to make a Death Star nursery.  Well, we settled on a solar system themed nursery and I love it!  We still need a few finishing touches such as hanging the rest of the wall art and we are getting another special mobile for over the changing table.  But for the most part it is complete!  Other goals we had for the nursery were to make it as soothing and comforting a place as possible.  I went with montessori principals in terms of less clutter and creating defined spaces.  Here are a few of my favorite things about the nursery:

The softest and most comfortable chair thanks to Ryan's mom.  We are planning on spending a lot of time in this thing.  In fact, I have already found Ryan sitting in it on several occasions.  The blanket on the chair was made by Ryan's grandma. 

What a cool starry light!  Thanks to some of our favorite New Yorkers we have some magical ambiance.  

Movement mirror and star play mat.  Lots of tummy time to be had here!

Montessori inspired toy shelf.  

People have been giving us books galore.  And we love that  Baby's book shelf is almost full!

Space mobile over crib. 

My favorit blanket.  SO SOFT that I cannot keep my hands off of it.  If baby girl is anything like her mother she will be in love.

Baby B's favorite stuffed animal is waiting for her!  Again, SO SOFT Ahhhhh...can't even handle it! :)

The same bed sheets my little sister slept on 20 something years ago.  How cool is that?

One of our wall art pieces.  

I didn't like the closet doors in this room so we replaced them to match the floor to ceiling curtains on the windows.  

Bumgenius cloth diapering! 

The diapers are so cute and little!  I'm obsessed.  I might become less obsessed when they are filled with poop....but maybe not!

Drawers are packed with little clothes and ready for Baby B to start modeling some of them!


More favorite things coming soon......

36 Weeks

They say mamas are supposed to start nesting right around now.  I think I have done a few uncharacteristic things--like dust in places I have never thought about before, and scrubbed off our front door (I always thought it was off-white......).  This being said, I think the nesting fever has affected Ryan way more than me.  He has been on some type of mission lately.  First, he made an excel spreadsheet shopping list of all of the groceries we need.  This included things like 18 onions, 30 carrots, 16 pounds of lamb, etc. He then set to work on making huge crock pot meals big enough to feed an army.  Our house has been filled with delicious smells and while he will give me a little bite here and there the majority of the food is being frozen for after Baby B.  I seriously think he believes he must cook and freeze enough food or we will starve once the little girl is here!  He stayed up until 1:30am on a work night cooking away.  I am so excited to eat some good food.  Baby B better get here soon!

The Blood Doctor

I went to my hematologist appointment today and I love her for so many reasons.  Now that I have been deemed as having a "high-risk" pregnancy I have a whole crew of people that I have to meet with and she just might be my favorite one.  She is very direct and tell-it-like-it-is which I appreciate.  She also seems very smart. And so calm.  And the best part is how complimentary she is because I always walk out of her office on a compliment high.

I learned today the following things:

1. My platelet count is now at 77.
2. If my low platelets is caused by pregnancy it should stop dropping soon--it would be unlikely to drop below 70.
3. If my platelets drop below 70 it might mean it's not due to pregnancy.  I could have an autoimmune disorder that was triggered by the pregnancy.
2. Getting a cesarean would be dumb and she will tell the other doctors this too.
3.  An epidural is now officially off the table with a platelet count below 80.  She offered to pump me up on steroids starting now to raise my platelets but they have side-effects that are not so great.  I declined and there is no going back now.
4. If my platelets continue to drop it could affect the baby's platelets too.
5. Induction is not completely off the table if my platelets continue to drop.
6. There should be no reason why I cannot continue to have a water birth and she will let them know that the hospital policy that says I cannot is dumb too.

That about sums it up.  They took a WHOLE bunch more blood from me (not my favorite part) and I should get more test results soon.  I will continue to meet with my hematologist throughout the end of my pregnancy and she might even be at my birth (or close by to consult with at least).

While all of the other doctors made it seem like getting the baby out of me would be an impossible and dangerous task she made me feel like there is hope (obviously there is hope, I am being dramatic).  But you get what I am saying....right?  When your medical professionals seem to freak out it can be oh so very scary.  I am thankful to have her!  We are meeting with a whole other team of specialists on Tuesday so more updates will be coming!

35 Weeks

We got some bad news this week.  My platelets have dropped down to 84.  The 70-range seems to be when people start to freak out--so people seem to be preparing to freak out now, which freaked me out. My midwife called and asked that I start getting my platelets counted every week instead of every other week.  I also will have another appointment with the hematologist.  She has been consulting with an OB and thinks that I should start meeting with the OB too....just in case.  We have a lot of unanswered questions.  Hopefully we will find out more information soon.

I have been in a lot of pain this past week.  No position is comfortable for more than a few minutes.  I also gained a lot of weight in a short period of time--10 Ibs in 3 weeks!  I am blaming all of the cake I have been eating from baby showers, birthdays, and weddings.  No more cake is needed!  In fact, I went to a wedding last night and we left before the cake even came out to risk temptation.  Along with the rapid weight gain I developed my first stretch marks.  Three of them right next to one another on my right side of my tummy.  They aren't horrible.  And it's not like I had a model bikini body before.  But man.

I hope she is early.  I am huge and don't know how much longer I can stand being pregnant.  Thoughts of going running, painting my own toenails, and not struggling to put on my shoes enter my mind daily.    

I'm SO ready to meet you babygirl!