He still moves around a lot, but I am increasingly becoming more uncomfortable. It is nothing really bad...yet, but I'm sort of scared that it will get bad. I'm hoping it won't, though. I need to change positions pretty frequently, or I get stiff. The joints where my legs meet my pelvis hurt. That is the weirdest one! Just imagine wanting to grab THAT area to "support" it when it's hurting. Ya, right. I'd definitely look like the pervert my confused patient accused me of being the other day. Sometimes my mid-back is achy, especially on the right side (I don't get that), and sometimes it's my lower back. Sciatica hits occasionally, sometimes mid-butt, sometimes upper-but, sometimes going down my leg. I try to stretch when that is occurring, and usually that helps. But the totality of all of this is annoying! It makes me lazy! However, I usually do pretty well at work because I shift positions often, but am able to sit down and rest when needed. You'll see me occasionally lean forward on another chair...this is because I'm stretching my back and keeping my legs open wide, like a man, and hiding that fact with the chair in front of me! Lol. One girl was making fun of my upright posture (which I have to maintain when this little guy moves a lot because his toes rub my ribs), but I told her what I was doing with the chairs. She said she'd have never guessed, and she's had 3 kiddos now. Sweet! It seems I'm hiding it a bit!
Moving on, we did have to go to Labor and Deliver Triage the other week. Remember those Braxton-Hick's contractions? Well, apparently you're not supposed to have them as frequently as I was having them that week. So I called my doc's office and chatted with the nurse, and she set me up with an appointment with another doctor in the office (which I don't mind because I should try to meet as many as possible and one of them, not my regular, could potentially be on call to deliver my baby). Well, on the way in, his nurse called and said just go to triage. Ugh. Whatever.
Everything turned out fine. When I checked in, I told them that I was having frequent Braxton Hicks contractions, to which they shortened in report to the next nurse, "She is having contractions and she is 29 weeks." Well, that's not what I said, but I'm not going to argue. One nurse said to me, and I thought it was jokingly, "You know it is too early to be having contractions?" I responded with, "Oh, ya, I know." Duh...that's why I'm here, but I tried to play it off like I wasn't worried...I just wanted to be checked out and told everything was fine. When she gave report to the triage nurse, though, I started wondering if she was trying to tell me I was full of it...especially when the triage nurse came in calling them cramps. Lol. Whatever, sure, we'll call them cramps for now and figure this out.
And, they were contractions and did show up on the monitor (which really means nothing) as mild contractions. Not that I wanted them to be contractions, but it made me feel better that at least I didn't look like the crazy pregnant lady freaking out about nothing. That nurse said she also saw "uterine irritability," which I think, wonderful, my uterus doesn't like me. They ran a test called the fetal fibronectin test. Don't bother Googling it. I think different doctors will take the results differently, but, the way my physicians (and me, personally, after learning about it) understand it, is that a negative result is the most meaningful. A positive, well, doesn't mean anything really, but we would rather have a negative. Brandon looked it up while we were waiting for the results and said what he found was that a negative result meant that I would be 97% UNlikely to go into labor in the next two weeks. Guess what? NEGATIVE! I was happy about that result.
They also went ahead and had me go see the perinatologist who was just upstairs and get my last ultrasound done. Cool, I had no problem with that. I'd have to get it done eventually. He teases me and tells me I needed to be more boring, to which I insisted to him I was trying. Everything looked great. I am still so surprised at the things the ultrasounds can see. I saw the report he sent in, and it said my baby has a 3 vessel cord (which is how many vessels there are supposed to be, but, occasionally, babies have 2 vessel cords. Sometimes that comes with risks, sometimes its just a fluke). Also, Brandon said all the measurements he saw put our little guy measuring at 31 weeks or more (mind you, I was 29 weeks at the time, so almost 2 weeks ahead on measurements!). I saw the head circumference measuring at 34 weeks. Holy cow. This is definitely Brandon's big head baby! The kiddo is still a boy, my fluid was measuring just fine, my placenta is still anterior, and blood flow looked good, and my cervix was not shortening (meaning getting ready to go into labor). All was well per the ultrasound.
I get wheeled back downstairs (lemme tell ya, I get dizzy just riding in elevators...doing it in a wheelchair was so much worse!) and put back on the tummy monitor in triage. Did I mention that along with his heartbeat being heard the entire time, which was pretty cool, you heard him kicking CONSTANTLY! I swear, 3 hours of kicking. What the heck was he doing and when in the world does he sleep? Whatever, the triage nurse thought it was funny, and I liked hearing it.
Basically, after that, the doc said, well, she's fine. Guess she just has lots of contractions. I got my RhoGam shot and I had to help the nurse navigate the computer system to discharge me (they use the same system as my hospital. If I didn't help her, I might still be there!). They tell me to take it easy and keep drinking water (which I had been doing, but whatever), and come back if they last longer, get stronger, become regular, or change in nature, especially associated with leaks or whatnot. On our way out we run into the doc and he was really nice (yes, I had NOT seen the doc the entire time, but he had patients upstairs and the nurse checked in with him frequently...I sooo wasn't being nosy, she was just way easy to hear on the phone when all I had was a curtain separating me from her). Anyhow, he then tells us that night shift workers have a higher risk of going into pre-term labor, which I hadn't heard from anywhere. I doubt he's making it up, but, hmm, interesting. Can't and don't want to change it, so I'm not going to worry about it.
I see him, actually, again this Friday for just a check-up. I think I'm now being seen more frequently. I don't know if it was because of the contractions thing, or it was just time to be upped to more frequent visits. I'll find out more Friday, most likely. But I'm either on every 2 weeks now or 3 weeks...but I'm betting it's two weeks (mostly because it was only 2 weeks ago that I was there).
We interviewed our first pediatrician yesterday, too. I did not know really what to ask, what to expect, or anything. In my experience, I've disliked doctors for the care I've received. I can't imagine interviewing them first...but we're trying this just in case. We have one more set up, and there is another in town that comes recommended that I need to set up, too. Anyhow, she was really nice. They don't have separate waiting rooms for sick kids (since well-baby and well-child checks are necessary, you don't want to be there with the sickos, right?), but she did mention how they try to manage that with different appointment times and such. We talked about the philosophies of the practice, the other covering physicians, how questions are handled, how after office emergencies are handled, breastfeeding, circumcision, and behavioral issues. We liked her. I suppose I'll get a better grasp after we meet the next guy. But, at least I'm not feeling totally lazy anymore about getting a doc lined up for my son.
And this weekend will be our first of 2 classes I signed up for! I only signed up for one called Prepared Childbirth and Breastfeeding. The childbirth class will be Saturday. I don't really have questions or concerns, other that really wanted to try to go med-free, but some of the reviews I've read on message boards about going to classes like this are great. That the girls felt so much better about the entire process after the class. Plus, we get a hospital tour along with it, so next time we have to go up there we'll know where to go...though, I sort of had to figure that mostly out already.
Here are the ultrasound pictures! The first three look a lot alike, but, there they are!
And a random picture...
Just trying out the crib!
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