Baby is currently the size of a HONEYDEW MELON!
Gender: Adding another BOY to our family! Check out our reveal photo.
Total Weight Gain: Surprisingly I've been holding steady at +25 for a few weeks now!
Maternity Clothes: Yes and while I'm not looking forward to that awkward in between time, I can't wait to get back into my pre-pregnancy clothes. I miss having a variety!
Sleep: Same old story. I wake up for at least a little bit in the middle of every night. The other night I was up for almost 2 hours so I decided to search Etsy for a newborn hat for Mason. Insomnia productivity!
Movement: Even though I feel like movement has slowed down, every time I have an ultrasound or NST the tech/nurse/doctor will comment on what an active baby I have! :)
Food Cravings/Aversions: I haven't had much of an appetite lately. I usually have to force myself to eat because not much sounds good. If I was allowed, I would probably live on smoothies at this point.
Best Moment This Week: I spent a lot of time at the doctor and hospital (see "extra notes" for more details) and we got great news about Mason's arrhythmia. The MFM (maternal fetal medicine) doctor said he's 99% sure it's a benign arrhythmia which means it will resolve itself! He said most cases dissipate before birth but if it's still there after birth it isn't a big concern. Usually it just means that the baby will need to be monitored. We were praying about this and I'm so glad we got such good news!
What I Miss: Energy! I also miss coffee lately. I want to try the new vanilla macchiato from Starbucks!
What I'm Looking Forward To: Being FULL TERM next week! That totally blows my mind, it went so fast!
Symptoms: I've started having contractions that I can actually feel now. Luckily they haven't gotten close enough together to be concerning. I also still have heartburn (mostly in bed at night) and my energy levels are super low.
Extra Notes From the Week: SO much to catch up on. I had a regularly scheduled appointment on 3/26 along with an NST. I found out at my appointment that I was 2cm and 70% effaced. The doctor said she wasn't concerned with my contractions since they didn't seem to be causing me to dilate anymore (I was 2cm the week before). However since I was 2cm at 35w6d she said to continue my "limited activity". I've been on limited activity for a while now so that was fine with me. I headed over to my NST. What they saw was that I was contracting (I wasn't feeling them....which is typical for me) and when I contracted Mason's heart rate would go down. This EXACT thing happened with Carson! Because of this they decided to do a spur of the moment ultrasound to check amniotic fluid levels and the size of the baby. Mason was measuring around 6lbs7oz and the fluid levels were great, yay! Then they put me back on the monitors. :/ I was still contracting and Mason's heart rate was kind of all over the place and we continued to hear the arrhythmia. Dr. G came in and said she was 90% sure everything was fine but wanted me to go to L&D for "extensive monitoring" and to get some IV fluids to stop/slow my contractions. I made arrangements for my mom to babysit Carson and drove home to get Nick. I was kind of panicking at this point and threw a few things in the hospital bag. Nothing for myself but 2 blankies for Mason and his coming home outfit....priorities! ;) Anyway, Nick & I got to the hospital and got a room in triage right away. They checked me and I was still 2cm/70%. Mason's heart was doing the same stuff - dipping down low and spiking up to the 170's. They started my IV fluids which really helped my contractions but before I was on the fluids for long, Mason's heart rate dropped down into the 60's a few times. They checked me again and I was now 3cm/70%. The doctor said "I'm not at all concerned that this is labor" which was comforting. Since my contractions basically stopped I was free to go home. They called to check in with Dr. G and she wanted me to get an ultrasound of Mason's heart the next day. SO on Thursday 3/27 I went to the hospital again to see a maternal fetal medicine specialist. We got an echo cardiogram of Mason's heart done which was really interesting. The doctor only got orders to check on the arrhythmia and he said that he was 99% sure it was benign which means it will resolve itself! I was so happy. There is a 1% chance it can turn into a fetal rapid heart rate which would mean I would have to deliver ASAP but he's confident we're in the 99%. The doctor said he thinks the cause of the arrhythmia is that the heart is sending 2 electrical signals to beat when it should only be sending one. When it sends two in a row, the heart gets confused and pauses for second....that's the arrhythmia we hear. I'm sure he explained it much better than I did so hopefully that makes sense! Unfortunately he wasn't able to examine the decelerations related to my contractions since they weren't on my orders. He said that's fairly normal but he was happy to hear I'm being monitored with weekly NSTs.
Carson was a wiggle worm this week!
Carson was a wiggle worm this week!
I've been dying to try the vanilla macchiato (iced) also! Maybe I'll get one tomorrow on my way to work and let you know how it is!
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