Paul & Sarah » development

Two Months! (8w1d)

Sarah — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:44:01 +0000

Where has the time gone? I can’t believe Kieran is already two months old. And yet, it seems like so long ago that I was pregnant…. WAY more than 2 months.

Today we went to the pediatrician for Kieran’s Well-Baby visit and his first vaccinations.

Length: 22″ (10-25%) [up from 20" at his 1mo appt]
Weight: 10lb 3oz (10-25%) [up from 9lb8oz 13 days ago: a better, slower rate of gain]
Head Circumference: 40cm (50%) [up from 37.5cm at his 1mo appt]
Vaccines: Hep B, Polio, DTaP (Diphtheria, Tetanus, & Pertussis/Whooping Cough), Hib (Meningitis), PVC13 (Pneumococcal disease), and Rotovirus

We discussed a couple of things with Dr. Hodapp –

Constipation: We were thinking about this as an acute condition, when we need to be thinking about it (and treating it) as a chronic condition. So it’s diluted prune juice twice a day for the foreseeable future. Dr. Hodapp assures us that it’s not hurting Kieran to have the juice, even though he understands our concern about him having that much sugar at this young age. Juice is what fixes normal baby constipation, so that’s what we’ll stick with. Dr. Hodapp says that it’s more than likely not any of Keiran’s formulas that are causing the constipation, as we’ve continued to have a stopped-up baby across three difference formulas now. (And HALLELUJAH, we don’t need to be sticking with a formula for 2 weeks to see if it helps. Dr. Hodapp said if we don’t see a big change within 2-3 days, we’re not gonna see one.) Apparently like gassiness, constipation just happens, and as long as the usual remedies work there’s nothing to be concerned about. So this means we can dump the soy formula and it’s horrible toots, poots, and possible hormonal side effects. Hooray!
Gas: Nothing we can do. DANGIT. All the home remedies we want to try are fine. But all infants are gassy for the first three months at least, and ours just seems to be particularly so. Again, formula doesn’t really make that big of a difference according to Dr. Hodapp. So we’re welcome to try whatever we want in that regard.
Reflux: Got a new prescription for the Zantac which has worked wonders for our little guy. Dr. Hodapp confirmed that we were correct to up his dose on our own 10 days ago because Kieran had put on so much weight. Our new prescription is written at a better dosage, and Dr. Hodapp predicted that Kieran would outgrow the reflux before the prescription needed to be re-written again.

Dr. Hodapp assures us that we’re doing fine, and Kieran is thriving like crazy – so whatever we’re doing at home is working and to keep it up. He was pleased to hear that Kieran is smiling, following objects with his eyes and reaching for things in front of his face. Developmentally, he’s right on target for his actual age, and physically he’s doing just great. He’s surprisingly strong and able to hold his head up to look around for longer than expected at this age.

Kieran is sleeping longer at night, but certainly not through the night yet. We usually get a 4-hour stretch starting around 7:00pm, and a couple of 3-hour stretches after that if we’re lucky. Unfortunately, he’s taken to waking up for the day around 5:00am and cannot be persuaded to take a nap much before 10:00am. Paul is suffering greatly with this, because he gets stuck with this early-morning shift. It doesn’t help that Kieran’s natural fussy time seems to be first thing in the morning (as opposed to around dinner time for most babies.) We’re hoping that as we get a better handle on the constipation that Kieran won’t wake up so fussy.

Kieran is learning to love the swing and bouncer. He just this week noticed the mobile above the swing for the first time. His slack-jawed amazement was too cute for words. Having somewhere we can put him where he can be entertained and soothed by the motion is very nice when we just can’t pace and bounce him anymore. This week we’ll set up his IKEA baby gym with it’s plushy play mat and overhead crossbeams with dangling toys. We’re transitioning into more of an ‘entertain the baby’ household as Kieran’s attention span has grown and he’s now able to engage with us for longer periods of time.

I’ll be returning to work full time on September 13th. I’ll be in the office from 8:30-2:00 four days a week, working from home the balance of the day and all day on Wednesdays. I’m grateful to my supervisors for having such an open mind to a flexible schedule. Of course, this arrangement will be reviewed regularly to make sure it’s working for everybody, but if nothing else it will help us transition into a different schedule. Currently I’m working part-time from home with occasional office days. It’s been a good way to ease into Paul having charge of Kieran for longer periods of time while I’m working. I’m not looking forward to leaving my boys, but this is what’s necessary for our family. I have 1000% confidence in Paul though, which makes it a little easier. And it sure beats daycare, that’s for sure.

But for now, we are enjoying our little boy every moment. He is the light of our lives. Our little miracle.

Brute! (7w)

Sarah — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:42:11 +0000

OMG, it’s not our imagination! In the last 15 days, Kieran has gained 28 ounces – 1.75lb!!! He’s been eating like crazy, and it shows! In the last couple of days, we’re finding that the footie sleepers that fit fine last week are too short now, Kieran is filling them out so well. He’s fine in his newborn-sized onesies, pants and rompers – but he can’t fully stretch out his legs in his footie sleepers anymore! (We can barely strap the newborn sized disposable diapers on him anymore. Same goes with his preemie-sized cloth diapers!)

I weighed him today at the lactation consultant’s office, using their very precise scale. Paul and I are going to try to get his length tonight – I think he’s grown taller too. I can’t believe how BIG he looks now, especially compared to the pics we took in the hospital.

I’m boxing up the stuff that Kieran is outgrowing to give to Paul’s sister, who is due at the end of September. It’s harder than I expected to box up Kieran’s clothes like this. We’re happy that Cassie will get to use them, but folding up our favorite outfits from our son’s first weeks of life… it’s hard to do so immediately after he’s outgrowing them. I’m saving the striped preemie-sized onesie that Kieran wore in the hospital. I don’t know that we’ll save something from each other size… but it’s tempting.

Tonight, I’m continuing to re-do Kieran’s dressers. I was a little over eager with their organization when I filled them up a week before going into the hospital. Makes it kinda hard to know what sizes are what, and makes putting away laundry a PITA. Now that I’m removing nearly all the newborn clothes, it will be easier to get at his various types of clothing in his current size of 0-3 or 3. Stuff that he won’t be wearing for another 4-6 months doesn’t have to be in the dresser yet, methinks.

My little boy is a little brute!! But man, he’s so cute! Paul and I are struck several times a day with just how precious this little guy is. He’s becoming more alert and aware of his surroundings every day – so interacting with him is getting more and more enjoyable. We haven’t had a smile yet, but we’ve had cute grimaces. (A silver lining to the gas that plagues our little man no matter what formula we have him on.)

Kieran is starting to hit some development milestones too – like reaching out for things, grasping and not letting go. He frequently holds on to my shirt or finger while he’s eating. He reaches out for, grasps and pulls off my glasses at least once a day now while we’re playing. (I don’t mind cleaning my glasses when the fingerprints are SO TINY!) He’s able to hold his head up really well – which I think comes directly from his dislike of being burped. I put him on my shoulder so he can rear back his little head and tell me off directly into my face & ear. Good exercise for my little man.

It’s still very much an adventure, but I think Paul and I are doing a pretty good job. Paul is fantastic with Kieran, which makes it a little easier to contemplate going back into the office in three weeks or so.

Follow up on Breastfeeding II (5w5d)

Sarah — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 04:40:03 +0000

The struggle continues…

My supply continues to dwindle. The herbal supplements don’t seem to help (neither the Mother’s Milk Plus nor the Fenugreek seeds) although I don’t know that I’m taking enough of the Fenugreek seeds because I don’t think I smell like maple syrup.

I’m averaging less and less with the pumping every day. Sometimes I’ll get over an ounce (30ml) combined, but like this morning, I got just over 10ml combined. That is SO frustrating, let me tell you. That’s a lot of time being tied to that pump for so little return. I’m working to increase the number of times I’m pumping though, in the hopes that I can bounce back.

Kieran is basically refusing the breast all the time now. Having to give him thickened feedings because of his acid reflux has necessitated using an even more open bottle nipple, which requires even less effort than a regular bottle nipple for Mr. Lazy Nurser. We give him the occasional un-thickened bottle with the tightest nipple we have just to remind Kieran what it should be like. We can tell that frustrates him. So when he’s offered the breast (even when I’m nearly engorged, so I know he could get a fair feeding outta me) he just fusses and squirms and cries and won’t nurse. We’ve tried giving him a half feeding with a bottle and then offering the breast when he’s not ‘starving’ – but Kieran is convinced that he’s starving until he’s full.

It’s disappointing on several levels.

I was SO INCREDIBLY looking forward to nursing Kieran. The bonding, the special time, the perfect nutrition that only I could provide, the easy-clean-up diapers.
The Cost. Even using some of the most inexpensive formula we can find (currently Target’s house brand “up & up” Partially Broken Down version) is gonna add around $60-75 a month to our budget that already doesn’t quite cover everything. And as he grows, that figure will only increase. (I can’t imagine if we had to stay on one of the name brands. The Target stuff runs ~$.46/oz whereas the cheapest you’ll find Simalac is ~$.89/oz at Costco or Amazon.)
Formula diapers are not as pleasant as BF diapers were. Just sayin’.

On the bright side though, Kieran is gaining weight like a champ. He’s still right at the very bottom of the growth percentage charts – but that mostly has to do with the fact that he was 3 weeks early and such a tiny peanut to start with. ~8lb is teeny for a nearly 6 week old baby. But then again, ~8lb for a nearly three week old baby is still small too. He’s gaining ~1oz a day, which is a very healthy growth rate – so his pediatrician is happy with that.

Truth be told, we’re a little concerned about him gaining weight too fast with the thickened formula – but we’re carefully watching Kieran’s signals and feeding him when he actually tells us he’s hungry, feeding him a set amount (currently 3oz + 1T of oatmeal cereal) and waiting to see if he asks for more 10 minutes later. Sometimes he does (and gets another 1-1.5oz + cereal) and sometimes he doesn’t. The oatmeal cereal added to his formula adds the nutrition/calories equivalent to another ounce of formula. So he’s getting what he needs to grow at the rate that works for him.

I’m bummed that Exclusive breast feeding hasn’t worked out. (Not devastated though, which is a VAST improvement over my mental status for the first 2-3 weeks of this adventure.) But I’ll keep trying with the pump, which we have rented through September and see how it goes. I’m comforted by knowing that any breastmilk Kieran gets is better than none, but that regardless he’s growing well and thriving.

Holding Pattern & Why I LOVE Dr. Schwartz (35w4d)

Sarah — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:38:48 +0000

Fairly boring appointment today. Did the test for Group B Strep, the results of which should be back on Friday. (Most people carry Group B Strep on them with no worries, but if I’m currently carrying it, the baby can get REAL sick if exposed to it during a vaginal birth. Two doses of antibiotics via IV during labor will take care of it if I am positive.)

Amniotic fluid was back up to a 6 today, so that’s good. Little man was happy to show us how well he practices breathing, and had fun kicking the ultrasound transducer. Monitoring was the same as usual, requiring the buzzer to get things going. But once he woke up, he proceeded to kick the contraction monitor pad for about 5 minutes. His heartrate did a scary little deceleration thing a couple of times, but he bounced back quickly – so that’s OK.

Blood pressure was mixed: 164/97. So it was higher than it has been, but the diastolic was under 100, which is good. Dr. Schwartz said he was OK with my BP today, so yay.

Paul and I chatted with Dr. Schwartz about the plans for the rest of this week and next. (We also talked about developing an iPhone app vs a fee-for-service website…) But once we got home, Paul was explaining to his Dad what my status is and kinda had it all wrong. We talked, but Paul was still pretty convinced that he had it right and that the induction wasn’t happening unless it was an absolute emergency. So I e-mailed Dr. Schwartz. Below is the actual e-mail conversation (along with an explanation of what’s up for the next 5 days):

On Jun 16, 2010, at 8:10 PM, Sarah wrote:

Sorry to bug you, but Paul and I seem to have heard completely different things at today’s appointment and I’m hoping you can clear things up.

I’m under the impression that barring any significant change to my condition, you’ll do a Jedi-worthy amniocentesis on Monday morning which will confirm binary-style whether the little man’s lungs have matured enough to be on the outside. If the test comes back with a yes, you’ll have me report to the hospital Monday evening to start the induction. If the amnio comes back saying baby’s lungs aren’t mature yet, we’ll hang out and do another amnio a week later to check lung maturity then.

Paul is under the impression that I’m not being induced until the situation becomes an emergency, and that Monday’s scheduled amnio is just to give us an idea if the baby could handle being outside the womb when that crisis time comes, whenever that is.

So, who’s got it right?

Sarah
——-
Hi,

As is probably the case in any disagreements that you and Paul might have, YOU heard correctly and Paul is wrong. Please feel free to refer Paul to this email throughout the rest of your life.

JKS

Sent from my iPhone

I LOVE my OB so freaking much. So we’re just hanging out for monitoring on Friday and then the amniocentesis on Monday morning. We’ll have results that afternoon, and either we’ll be at the hospital that evening, or we won’t.

Updating from home… (35w3d)

Sarah — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:43:55 +0000

I was totally expecting to get sent to the hospital today, but I got sent back home! Yay!

Dr. Schwartz re-did the fluid check and is confident he saw 5.5-6 worth of fluid in there. Heck, he even thinks there’s enough that he could do the amnio on Monday. He says he likes a challenge. My BP was fantastic today, with the diastolic under 90!! (I forget, it was 140-something/80-something.)

So I’m home now, gonna go take a nap. Monitoring and Group B Strep test tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes. I’ve got a monitoring appointment on Friday and the amnio scheduled for Monday morning.

Oh, and Dr. Schwartz obliged Paul while he was hunting for fluid and took some measurements. The little man is weighing in at just a tad over 5 pounds right now. Not sure about his length cuz the measurements were kinda all over the place, but the weight is a good estimate at least. Our little bag of sugar! :)

Possible change in plans… (35w2d)

Sarah — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:12:47 +0000

Today’s appointment for monitoring was pretty darned good. I walked in feeling better than I have in a while. Excellent blood pressure again (147/90) and after some not-so-gentle prodding, good numbers from the kid on the monitoring strip. (He did not appreciate me chugging half a bottle of ice water to get him to move and getting my whole belly woggled by the nurse.) Trace amounts of protein in the urine (up from zero) but not OMG either.

The bad part comes during the ultrasound where they’re measuring the amniotic fluid around the boy. The levels should be around 14 on average, with 5-25 being the extreme low and high ends of the scale. Anything at or below 5 is cause for major concern. I’ve been sliding down that scale and was at a 6 on Wednesday and Friday last week. I forced fluids this weekend, making sure I was taking in well over 100 ounces a day in the hopes of bumping up that number.

Today all the head nurse could get was 4.8 – and that was after 20 minutes of looking and looking all over. So the oligohydramnios is very much in affect. What exactly this means, we’re not sure. We know it ain’t good, but the fact that this is happening towards the end of the pregnancy as opposed to towards the beginning is good. If it were at the beginning, it would be because of some abnormality with the baby. Now it’s just a culmination of my pre-existing medical conditions: hypothyroidism, hypertension & diabetes.

Dr. Schwartz is in his other office across town today and tomorrow, so they called him while we were at the office to see what he wanted to do. We were sure he was gonna send me over to the hospital. But he asked to see me in his other office tomorrow instead. So we’re taking that as a sign that there’s no need to totally freak out just yet. Mostly what oligohydramnios means at this point is that delivery is gonna be a bit more complicated and the chances of a cesarean are probably higher. There isn’t anything they can really do to reverse it – like putting me on a saline IV to pump me full of fluids or something. (There are some therapies that involve pumping fluid directly into the placenta, but those are mostly for use *during* labor.) There isn’t enough amniotic fluid around the baby to *do* an amniocentesis – so we don’t know how much that will blow out next week’s plans. With such decreased levels of fluid/cushioning around the baby right now, the chances of him laying on his umbilical cord and squashing his blood/oxygen/nutrient flow increase. This is where I am SO GLAD that I completely trust Dr. Schwartz and his knowledge/experience in treating high risk women like me. Whatever he says tomorrow is OK with us. If he still wants me to try for a regular birth, I’m all for it – but if this situation necessitates a cesarean from the get-go, we’re OK with that too. Whatever gets our little man out safely.

So this afternoon and this evening are final prep, just in case. All bags are being packed (we were doing laundry this morning already) and final arrangements are being made. I’m gonna try to go get my nails done. Gonna get the Ragu Bolognese made and in the freezer, along with the Creamy Italian Chicken. (There’s a lot of simmering involved there – I’m not gonna be slaving over a stove.) We’re hoping that Murphy’s Law will kick in if we get all this stuff done tonight. Paul is pretty anxious, but I’m doing pretty OK. I am keenly aware that I need to stay calm, and having tasks to focus on helps me greatly with that.

We’ll update tomorrow after the appointment here and on Facebook. (Facebook will probably get updated faster because it’s easier to do from our phones.) We’re halfway expecting to be told to go to the hospital from our 9:00am appointment. I’m all the more glad that we have a 7:45am appointment to meet the pediatrician tomorrow. Gonna be a busy day. Prayers would be appreciated.

Couple of Notes (34w5d)

Sarah — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 07:18:02 +0000

1) You may have noticed that the dates on the posts rolled back by two days. The actual count we’ve been using this whole time was based on an ultrasound dating from my 2nd ultrasound – way early on. My official due date never was changed from July 17th.

But now that the gestation date makes SO MUCH difference, I’m reverting back to the original count based strictly on the original due date. Mind you, the little man has measured all over the place based on ultrasounds – he was measuring more than 2 weeks ahead on length at one point. But Dr. Schwartz is going strictly by due date, so we are too.

2) Breastfeeding class was tonight, and it was fantastic!! I’ve been doing a lot of reading, research, and asking other mamas about BFing, but 3 hours with a lactation consultant that included a video of actual mothers breastfeeding their babies was SO helpful. The instructor sat with us after the class was over and answered our questions about how things will be different because our little guy is coming early. I learned that I do have the right to refuse formula at the hospital, no matter what the baby’s blood sugar is. No one is gonna be happy about it, but it’s my right. I’m not saying that I will refuse it absolutely, but I am SO glad to know that I can. If nursing and skin-to-skin contact doesn’t help his blood sugar, then *maybe* formula will be OK – but I want Paul and I to have the opportunity to try all other methods of helping our baby before resorting to something with 2-week repercussions, especially if he is stable enough to be nursing at all. (And to that end, if he’s not able to breastfeed for some reason, I can request he be fed through an NG tube or from a cup – he doesn’t *have* to get a bottle.)

2a) Dude, breastfeeding is freaking AMAZING. I am gonna be SUPERWOMAN – with the ability to give my baby EVERYTHING he needs. I am confident that my body will do what it’s supposed to do and that breastfeeding will go just great. I’m looking forward to it. Paul completely supports it.

2b) Melt-my-heart moment tonight: Paul asking the LC about how to do “Kangaroo Kare” with our little guy in case I have a cesarean or he ends up in the NICU. He’s planning on bringing button-down shirts to the hospital now so he can comfortably cuddle his son skin-to-skin.

3) I have a highly recommend pediatrician to call tomorrow to schedule an appointment with. I’ve been meaning to look for one, but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Fixing that.

4) No, we still don’t have a name yet. We’re working on it. There’s a list. We’re not just holding out cuz we can. Really.

I think we’re both excited, but I know I’m a little freaked out. It’s not like there’s a ton of stuff to do still – but things just got REALLY real. There’s a date, and an appointment. Holy cats.

Set a Date (34w4d)

Sarah — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 06:35:19 +0000

Good appointment today. Little man was lazy again and had to be buzzed several times to move while being monitored. His heartrate was in the 170′s for a while, but no one seemed to think anything about it.

My BP was in the same range of high, but not as scary as it has been. They always take it twice now, so today’s readings were 156/97 and 150/99. The response to this is: “meh”. Oh, and I lost three pounds since last week – that also didn’t really elicit a response. (But hey, my a1c is 5.7 – so HOORAY for excellent diabetes control!)

Amniotic fluid was even less today though. The nurse worked and worked to find pockets of fluid to measure, couldn’t find the required number of pockets for the full measurement, but calculated it at 6 based on the largest pocket she could find, down from 9.6 on Monday. And again, they wanna see 14. So yeah, I’ve been put on notice for that. I’m drinking. I really am. But now I’m chugging. If it’s lower on Friday, I get sent to the hospital for more intensive monitoring. I’m chugging, cuz I don’t want that. I want another weekend at home.

Dr. Schwartz entered the monitoring room asking “What are you doing still pregnant? I thought you weren’t gonna get this far!” So yay for levity. He’s impressed as hell that I’m still doing my Easy-Bake thing but thinks the end is getting close. My labs from Monday were all good, but things in general are just continuing on a not-good vector, so he wants to have a plan in place. To that end:

NEXT Monday (not this coming Monday, but the one after that) June 21 will put me at 36w2d. 36 weeks is the magic number for pulling the baby with essentially no guilt – the beginning of diminishing returns to my health for keeping the baby inside. On the morning of the 21st, Dr. Schwartz will do an amniocentesis to measure the maturity of the little man’s lungs. The results will be back that afternoon (fast, right?) and assuming everything looks good (which we expect it to because of the steroid injections I got last week) Paul and I will arrive at the hospital at 8:00pm that night to start the induction.

The induction process will take a while. Like overnight for sure. In the morning they’ll check me, hopefully find me 4cm dilated or better and they can start the pitocin. If I’m not dilated 4cm on Tuesday morning, they’ll give me a 2nd dose of Cervadil and let me go another 12 hours. So that part alone just to get me dilated a bit could take 24 hours. The pitocin could take 24 hours on it’s own too before things really get going – although we hope it won’t. (Cuz let’s not forget that I’m not allowed to have anything to eat or drink anything once I arrive at the hospital to start the induction. Ice chips: that’s it. Glucose and insulin IVs. yum.) I’m planning on getting an epidural, so there’s a hope that my being relaxed and pain-free will help the pitocin work quickly and get labor moving. Where it goes from there, we have no idea. Go with the flow will be the rule of the day.

So we’re looking at probably at June 22 or June 23 birthday for our little man. This of course assumes that things stay copacetic for another week. I’m still being monitored three times a week and at any time Dr. Schwartz says he could send me across the street to the hospital for more in-depth monitoring is something goes pear-shaped.

A bit of good news though: our little guy won’t be a preemie. Now that we’re past 34 weeks, he’ll be pre-term, but not a preemie. And at 36 weeks or later, there’s at least a chance that he won’t have to go to the NICU, meaning he can come home with us when I’m discharged! No way to know how things will go until he gets here, but we’re thrilled with our chances of our little guy not going to the NICU.

So that’s where we stand now. One more week of holding on, hoping to keep my BP where it is and keep my labs steady. But OMG, in like a week and a half, we’ll have a baby!!!

(NTS: figure out a dang name! and find a pediatrician!)

To recap BP over the last few weeks for perspective:

Date	BP
June-9b	150/99
June-9a	156/97
June-7b	162/103
June-7a	153/95
June-3	147/97
June-2	157/110
May-26	155/97
May-19	131/83
Apr-28	138/85

Fetal Monitoring (32w4d)

Sarah — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:07:57 +0000

Today was my first experience with fetal monitoring. They did an ultrasound to see what position the baby was in and then took me to another room with a reclining chair for me to hang out in to be monitored. It took the nurse a minute or two to find his heart with the monitor, but once she got that thing strapped on, it was clear as a bell! (Actually, the baby started kicking the monitor which was funny to feel and hear!)

My blood sugar took a nosedive while we were there though. I’d had a super busy morning and a board meeting right before my appointment, so I just hadn’t eaten enough. I took my blood sugar and it was at 48, so I asked for and chugged some juice.

My blood pressure though… not good. It’s been 138/83 or lower this whole time. Today’s lowest was 155/96, and that was after I was done with the monitoring, so I’d been chilling out for a while. So they took some blood and another urine sample, and I’ve got the 24 hour urine collection to do tomorrow. (I did one when I was about 20 weeks or so as a baseline.) We’ll see. Dr. Schwartz says he’s not worrying about me yet so I’m not to worry either.

I feel the same though. Swelling hasn’t gotten any worse. No pain in my upper abdomen. I’ve had a twinge of a headache a time or two in the last week, but nothing severe or lasting at all. No weight gain since last week. (Shocking since I’ve been so dang hungry!) I’m trying to think positive and assume it was the busy/stressful day at work directly before the appointment or because my blood sugar was so low. We’ll see. If pre-eclampsia has started, we’ll figure out a way forward from there.

Unless something changes though, I’ve got an appointment for monitoring in a week, and then I go to twice weekly after that. FWIW, the baby monitored excellently today – Dr. Schwartz said he couldn’t be more pleased.

Tonight we went to our Baby Basics class, and were fairly disappointed. I didn’t learn anything at all. Paul at least got to change a diaper on a baby doll and we both burrito’d the doll and put a shirt on it. Some of the information presented directly contradicted what we’ve already learned in our Prepared Childbirth classes, and what we’ve read in books and online. So meh. Good to have the experience under our belts, but we’re both looking forward to the Breastfeeding class in two weeks much more. I figure between the couple of baby care books we have, my experience, and just fumbling along – we’ll be just fine.

Fetal Echocardiogram (31w4d)

Sarah — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:04:44 +0000

Today was a good appointment, if sightly underwhelming from what I was expecting.

I’m up three pounds over the last three weeks – continuing my steady single-pound-a-week trend. Dr. Schwartz is very happy with this.

Blood pressure was 131/83 when he nurse finally did as I said and took it on my bicep. She did it at first on my forearm (which I appreciate because it doesn’t hurt as much) and came up with 161/89. Nothing doing, says I. I know I can do better.

The fetal echocardiogram was basically a detailed ultrasound watched by the cardiologist and Dr. Schwartz, but mostly the cardiologist. The nurse worked hard to get weird angles – we didn’t recognize most of what was on the screen. Apparently they were getting a good look at various organs. Cool views of our little man’s heart, with all four chambers doing their thing. The cardiologist said that everything looks good at this point, no thickening of the muscle, and all the parts seem to be in the right place and hooked up correctly. They couldn’t get all the angles necessary to rule out a VSD (ventricular septal defect – the condition I was born with) but he said that’s very hard to do before birth anyway. The fact that our baby has had an echocardiogram now means that he’ll have one before we leave the hospital after he’s born: standard procedure.

After the echo, the nurse did a regular ultrasound, taking measurements of random stuff and trying to get measurements of the pockets of amniotic fluid. I wasn’t able to pay attention to the screen as much as I’d like because Dr. Schwartz was talking to me – but what I did see looked good. Our little guy is weighing in at 4 pounds exactly and is measuring 4-5 days ahead, which Dr. Schwartz says is just fine considering how tall Paul and I are. We didn’t get any pictures or anything, the nurse said he wasn’t cooperating at all and she never saw his face.

The pains I’ve been feeling along the bikini line are apparently my pelvic bones opening up and widening in preparation for labor. It’s the ligaments that hold those bones together stretching – which explains why things tighten up down there and then stretch out again. All normal parts of pregnancy. As are the pains I’ve been feeling at my waistline with hardly any exertion. I’m relieved to hear that it’s all normal – makes it easier to put up with for the next 4-6 weeks. And that’s how I look at all this – just stuff to get through for the next little while. And there’s really nothing I can’t put up with for that long.

It was funny how Dr. Schwartz asked about my swelling – he said “I can see by your new footwear that the swelling is continuing.” I’ve switched to Crocs sandals and flip flops, mostly because my hot feet are even hotter now. The swelling is as bad as it has been, but no worse. Again, Dr. Schwartz isn’t worried and neither am I.

Next week starts fetal monitoring and weekly visits. I’m hoping to keep the appointments at weekly, but I know they’ll go to twice-weekly fairly quickly. We’ll see how things go. We’re at the first of several milestones now: 32 weeks. It feels really good to have gotten this far. If the little guy came today, he’d have nearly the same chances as a 40-week baby. We’re hoping that things stay calm for the next four weeks – 36 weeks is our main goal. Anything past that is just gravy!