Childbirth Education Class

I made it to 31 weeks and as of yesterday, I was still 163.5 pounds, with a cumulative weight gain of 21 pounds. Everything still seems to be on track and I am happy to report that my bloating has gone away. I realized yesterday that I haven't felt bloated in a while and I think the bloating might have disappeared a couple of weeks ago. My heart burn has not returned and I don't have any lower back pain. So doing good!

My husband and I spent most of the weekend at a childbirth education class at Harvard Vanguard's Wellesley location. It was extremely informative and I'm very glad I went (despite the hassle of getting to the class this morning on particularly snowy roads). We learned a lot about the labor and delivery process. I can now say that I'll know when I'm in active labor (and whether it is back labor because the baby is in a face up position with the back of his head pressing on my back). We learned breathing techniques and the various positions a laboring mother can be in to help with the pain. I no longer feel like this is a scary process and not one I can get through. My body is designed to do this and while there will be pain, I will get through it.

For right now, my plan is the following. I would like to go for as long as possible without pain medication. If I feel like I can't handle it, I would like my husband to reassure me that I can and offer me additional emotional support. If that fails, then I will take a shot of an analgesic, which will help take the "edge" off the contractions. But I am now adamant that I don't want an epidural and I *really* don't want a C-section. So that's the current plan. I'll try to be flexible, because I don't know what I'll decide when I'm severe pain, but I'd love to be able to stick to this.

In other news, I've been having Braxton-Hicks contractions. One woke me up last night and gave me a little bit of discomfort. I had another one at the childbirth class. When it happens, my entire belly gets really hard all over. It's a little weird, but now I know it is happening.

My husband is finishing the painting in the baby's room now (while I get some work done). Once he is done painting, I'll be very excited to move the dresser into the room so that it is no longer sitting in our living room. ;-)

Baby Room

Here are the colors that we picked out for the walls in the baby's room. My husband did a fantastic job painting and installing the chair rail! UPS should be delivering our bedding today - I can't wait to see it in person!

30 weeks!

Today, I started my 30th week of pregnancy. I can't believe that I am 75% (and possibly more) of the way there! Dr. Google told me that 100% of babies born after 29 weeks are viable and so while I don't expect anything bad to happen, it is reassuring to read that statistic. And since I am keeping track of my weight, I am up to 163.5 pounds, which puts me at a 21 pound weight gain. I've started eating salad again and it doesn't appear to be making me super bloated and so that's a good thing. The heart burn that I had early last week also seems to have gone away. I think I was working too hard and too late and eating too fast because once I slowed down and relaxed a bit, it went away.

The baby still seems to be sleeping through the night (unlike me). I feel him kicking during the day and all the way up to 11 pm or midnight, but then when I wake up in the middle of the night to switch positions, I don't feel him. I'm still pretty sure that he isn't waking me up and that I'm only waking up because I need to change positions (because my arms get numb when I lay on my side). It will be interesting to see how this baby sleeps once he is born.

Today we went to Jordans to pick up the baby's dresser. Our neighbor was nice enough to lend us his pickup truck so that we didn't have to spend $110 on delivery. Once my husband finishes installing the chair rail in the baby's room (and then fixing up the paint that got screwed up), I can't wait to see the dresser in the room. And on Monday, UPS should be delivering the baby's crib bedding, which is really exciting! It's all coming together quite nicely. I'm getting super excited and while I'm still nervous for labor/delivery, the childbirth education classes that we're going to next weekend should help with that.

Heartburn is not my Friend.

Well, the time has come for my pregnancy to no longer be a piece of cake, easy as pie or whatever other appropriate dessert reference you would like to insert. For the last 4 days, I have not slept much. I keep tossing and turning in order to get comfortable (especially to relieve the numbness in my arms). And in the past 3 days, I have developed what appears to be some nasty heartburn. I'm used to having reflux, which is fairly nasty but at least causes no pain. But the heartburn is new. I hope it doesn't continue for the next 11 weeks, but my educated guess says that it will.

29 weeks

I'm now at 29 weeks and 162.0 pounds. This means that I've gained 19.5 pounds thus far. I think that my weight readings last week must have been off (perhaps I was retaining water?) because it did seem like I gained a lot of weight all at once and I don't think I actually "lost" weight this week.

The baby has been kicking a lot lately. He doesn't seem to be too active after 11 pm and although I'm not sleeping well, I'm pretty sure he isn't kicking at night. It seems like it takes him a while to wake up too. I start feeling him a lot around lunchtime. He is still kicking me on the right side only. I guess he is head-down but not quite vertical and his feet must be pointed towards my right. That's my only explanation for it.

Today, we bought a Sealy mattress for the crib and picked up my glider rocker at the BabysRUs. We also went to Jordans furniture and bought a 7 drawer dresser, which will also serve as a changing table. Here is a link to what it look like: http://www.thefurniture.com/store/proddetail.asp?prod=PLSKI-633100

I think it's so cute - each of the faces of the drawer can be customized with slide-out panels. The dresser comes with red, blue, green and wood colored panels, but we might paint the green panel the colors that we are painting the walls so that it matches nicely.

We also ordered bedding for the baby's crib: http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/kli/kli5703beds.html?aff=frog. I ordered a bunch of the accessories too (I'm such a sucker!). I especially like the turtle throw pillow. I got an additional set of sheets and another window valance in order to fit our larger window.

In addition, we signed up for childbirth classes, which we're taking over one weekend - January 10-11, 2009. I feel a lot better now that a lot of this is out of the way.

My husband is going to start painting the baby's room this week while he's working from home and I'm at the office. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

28 weeks, 3 days

I am 28 weeks, 2 days pregnant now. I guess I'm officially in my 3rd trimester and seeing the midwife/doctor every 2 weeks instead of every 4 weeks. I had my appointment today. The baby's heartbeat sounded great, around 140 beats per minute. I now weigh 163 pounds, which puts me at a 20.5 pound weight gain. I thought I was doing just fine on the weight gain, but the new midwife that I saw today says that the new thinking is that a woman should gain between 20 and 25 pounds during her pregnancy. I had thought 25-35 pounds was normal. Oh well. It appears that I'm going to gain more than 25 pounds given that this is only 4.5 pounds away and I still have 12 weeks to go! Then the midwife told me not to worry about it, which makes me wonder why she brought it up in the first place?

I'm not sleeping well these days. I toss and turn and have to change positions about once an hour. I guess I knew this was coming. I just hoped it would come later. It's not that I can't get comfortable to start. I just end up uncomfortable later on. When I lie on my side, my shoulder and arm end up going numb and so then I flip over to the other side (which is not necessarily an easy process). And I'm not making sleep easy for my poor husband either, who is waking up with my tosses and turns. It may be time for me to sleep in the guest bedroom.

I was in Florida on vacation last week, visiting with my parents and sister. Man, the weather was awesome. I went swimming in the outdoor pool 5 times and was really proud of myself. When I first started, I could barely swim 10 laps of freestyle straight. By the end of the week, I was swimming 40 laps (1000 yards) straight through. Each swim, I did 60 laps, which isn't bad for a 7 month pregnancy woman. I just wish I could keep up the exercise back here in Boston.

Gestational Diabetes? NOPE!

Today, I had my monthly check-up appointment with my midwife. Before I saw her, I went to the lab where I had to drink about 6 ounces of this utterly disgusting sweet orange liquid. It was about 10x sweeter than orange Gatorade. After 1 hour, they drew my blood to check the glucose levels. I will hopefully find out later today whether or not I passed. Hopefully, I did pass or I'll have to do the 3 hour test (and I'd rather not have gestational diabetes).

The checkup went well. My blood pressure was 105/70. The baby's heart beat was strong and he was moving around while the midwife was examining me. She said that the baby is still neurologically immature and there really isn't a pattern to his movements yet. She says that starting around 28-32 weeks, I should notice more regularity to his movements.

UPDATE: I passed! Apparently, my blood glucose level was 109 and anything below 139 is a pass. I also found out that I'm not anemic (which seemed to surprise the midwife since she said "and you're not even anemic!") So I'm very happy that I (and the baby) are super healthy!