Cravings/Aversions: I am really into red grapes these days. I also had a craving for Cajun food recently. Otherwise nothing new to note. I guess I'm reaching the stage of having very little room left for my stomach because on several occasions I've been unable to finish a light meal and have ended up very uncomfortable and sick. It should be no big deal for me to eat a chicken sandwich and yet I could only manage half the other day at chick-fil-a. I guess I'll have to start eating smaller, more frequent meals. Which is. . . annoying. I don't have time for that.
Symptoms: I am having very mild swelling in my fingers now but I'm still able to wear my wedding ring. I'm hoping I don't reach the point of having to leave it off. I have nausea after meals sometimes now as I mentioned above. I am very tired all the time but often have insomnia at bedtime. I can often fall asleep at bedtime but wake up in the middle of the night and find myself unable to get back to sleep. I am hot all the time. We keep our house relatively cool but there are times I find myself sweating just sitting. I guess this is preview of what menopause will be like!
News this week: We had a little excitement recently. I had a day that I wasn't really feeling our little girl move. She has her lazy days but generally I feel her at least a few times. On this particular day I hadn't felt her at all so that evening I drank a big glass of orange juice and laid down to try to get her to move. No luck so we went over to the hospital to get checked out. The doctor had advised that a decrease in movement is worrisome and reason enough to make a trip to L&D. So we went and got hooked up to the monitors. Avery looked good. My blood pressure was good. But I was contracting every 2 minutes! I didn't even know it. Once I relaxed some I could feel the contractions but it was odd to know they were coming so frequently and I hadn't realized. Thankfully I was not dilated at all and after relaxing in bed for awhile they tapered off. Guess this mama needs to slow down some! I have noticed Braxton hicks here and there when I'm really busy or worn out. Luckily nothing terribly regular (that I know of!) yet. We had a 4d ultrasound at 32 weeks and it was an amazing experience! I will try to attach some pictures at the end of this post. Our little girl is BEAUTIFUL!!! I am so in love. There is nothing like seeing the movements I've been feeling for months. I will definitely recommend the experience to anyone considering it in the future. Coming up this week we start some new testing. We will be doing weekly non-stress tests and biophysical profiles. I believe the non-stress test is similar to what I experienced at L&D the other day. I think I'll spend a little time on the monitors just making sure mom and baby are doing ok. I think the main idea is to make sure baby is still thriving in there and not under too much stress. I don't know much about the biophysical profile. From what google tells me, it accompanies the above and looks at fetal movement and amniotic fluid level. They are able to score the baby on a scale and the score gives an indicator of how well the baby is doing or if they may need to be delivered. I'm guessing that because my hypertension can cause some strain on the placenta which in turn would put stress on the baby this is their way of making sure that hasn't happened yet. I should know more after this week. I have my first testing tomorrow and see the doctor Wednesday. The countdown has begun! This baby is coming sometime in the next 6 weeks or so! I think the plan is still to induce at 39 weeks if she doesn't come before then. Things are getting real!
