Little Gunning Update

Yesterday was the second of two check-ups in the last 4 weeks or so. Though it was actually the third trip to the doctor's in the last 4 weeks but I will explain...

Everything continues to progress well with the pregnancy. The most important thing of all -- cervix IS NOT dilating. Good stich, good stitch. Even though I have been having more frequent contractions (not painful, but sometimes a bit uncomfortable), they don't seem to be doing any damage. I am continuing on the medicine to keep the contractions to a minimum -- 3 times a day -- and it causes icky headaches, but not the end of the world. The doctor was a tiny bit concerned about the size of the baby so he did an ultrasound to check the baby's size and the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. Everything looked great! The baby is head down which is why it seemed like I was a little small. (Surprised me that he is head down since Jake never wanted to adopt that position.) The baby's estimated weight right now is 4 pounds which put me at an estimated gestation of 32 weeks (though I am only 31 weeks today). They don't adjust your due date because of that or anything, but it gives you an idea that MAYBE the baby will be a good size (still depends on when is born!). For comparison purposes, Jake was 5 lb. 5 oz. at 34 weeks when he was born.

This baby has always been extremely active -- kicking and moving and squirming all over the place. I have never questioned him moving around enough. About a week and a half ago, the baby was very quiet for two days and it made me a little nervous. It was as if, all of a sudden, he decided to hibernate for two days. So of course the doctor's office wanted me to come in. They hooked me up to the fun fetal monitor for about 20 minutes to make sure all was well... After about 2 minutes, the nurse looked at me like I was crazy. "This baby is moving all over the place. Heartbeat sounds great!" Well, yes of course he is moving around now.... because I am at the doctor's office! No more movement scares since then.

I go back in about 2 1/2 weeks for my next check up. That will be a couple of days before 34 weeks. Of course to me, 34 weeks is a huge milestone since that is when Jakey was born (34 weeks, 1 day to be precise). At the next appointment we will schedule the date to take out the stitches (around April 20th) and will also schedule the c-section (the week of May 4th). As I have said before though, I really want to go into labor on my own so I might try to push back the scheduled c-section another week :-)

Until then, it's business as usual -- plugging away at the project at work that I have been managing for the last year that is set to "go live" in 3 weeks. Here's to hoping that stress and the extra hours don't cause an early onset of labor!