We had our 36 week appointment on Monday and I was nervous. I knew our doctor was going to check to see if I had progressed any more from 1.5 cm and I was afraid I had with all the contractions I've been having. I tried to stay optimistic since I haven't run in 2 weeks, but I was still nervous! While we were in the waiting room the administrative assistant called me up to tell me our doctor had been called out for a delivery and we would see the Physician's Assistant. We started our appointment with the Group B Strep test and then she went on to the ultrasound. Since baby's size wasn't measured at our last appointment, she measured Elise. Elise's heart was beating at 148 bpm. Afterward she checked me and said that she would put me at 1-1.5 cm dilated, so no progress since our doctor last checked. It was such a relief for me and I felt so happy and calm after finding out. Ever since our 34 week appointment I've been stressed that Elise will come before 37 weeks but now I am confident she will hang out for another week. I'm really hoping for 38 weeks now.
March 10, 2015
Baby's Size: Baby girl should be more than 18.5 inches and almost 6 pounds. She should be gaining about an ounce per day or half a pound a week! She is shedding most of the downy hair that covered her body along with the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that protects her skin. At our appointment she was measured as 5 pounds, 11 ounces which put her in the 49th percentile. That was a relief because at 32 weeks when she was last measured she was in the 79th percentile. I know the ultrasound measurements aren't super accurate, but I'm glad she's not on the large side anymore!
Weight Gain: I'm up 29 pounds from my starting weight. That means I just gained a pound each of these past 2 weeks which I'll consider a win since Elise should be gaining about a half pound a week herself! I'm 4 pounds over what I gained with Carter, but I'm done worrying about it. Obviously I'm going to make it longer than I did with him and gain over 30 pounds. I've accepted that!
Maternity Clothes: It's finally gotten warm enough to pull out the spring maternity clothes I've been eyeing in my closet during this entire pregnancy. Ty had a co-worker give him a bag of spring maternity clothes and I had a friend do the same. I'd been starting to think Elise would arrive before it warmed up enough to wear them with the weather we've been getting. I'm so excited to wear the spring dresses!
Sleep: I've been so uncomfortable lately and have been having such a hard time falling asleep. By the end of the day my back is really sore and it makes it hard to get comfortable even with my body pillow. I wake up to go to the bathroom and also wake up at other times because I'm having contractions in my sleep which is rough. With all the trouble getting comfortable and being a tummy sleeper, I am so looking forward to sleeping on my stomach again! Although I'm having trouble sleeping at night I got an extra burst of energy this week and didn't take naps during Carter's naptime. During naptime I want to be up and moving and getting things done. The only problem is that I've gotten pretty much everything done I needed to in order to prepare for Elise's arrival which makes me antsy. I want to have more stuff to do but I know if I did, it would be driving me crazy that I hadn't already gotten it done. Weird dilemma, I know!
Symptoms: My contractions have eased up in intensity but are more frequent. I have them all throughout the day. Thankfully they aren't the intense stop and breathe through them contractions. I've also had contractions where my entire belly tightens, much higher than I usually feel contractions. My back has also been really sore! My skin has gotten itchier and I can't help but scratch it. One day I looked in the mirror and freaked out because I thought the scratch marks were stretch marks. I thought I'd gone from no stretch marks to stretch marks covering my entire belly! Thank goodness that wasn't the case! I haven't had swelling in my feet since last week. I've been having a lot of hip pressure and pressure down low in my pelvis which makes me think Elise must have dropped a bit.
Running: Still just walking, but one more week and I'll be able to start up running again. In the mean time I've decided an advantage of walking over running is that I don't have to change my clothes to walk. I just wear whatever I was already wearing. That's really a huge advantage when you are pregnant and bending over is such a challenge! I walked a total of 12 miles this week, walking mostly 2 miles per day.
Food Cravings: Some days I have a huge appetite. Other days I feel kind of sick. I've still been all about apples with peanut butter, but other than that I can't think of any cravings. Although I have been loving ice cream in a cake cone.
Food Aversions: Still get grossed out even just thinking of smoked meat.
Movement: She's starting to run out of room a little bit. I don't feel her moving around nearly as often. She still moves around when I lay down in bed at night and occasionally when I sit down during the day. Her movements also aren't as dramatic as they were before.
Best Moment of the Week: A friend threw me a sprinkle to honor Elise on Saturday. It was so good to see everyone and I had a blast. I got a few more decorations for Elise's room that we already hung up on Saturday and I washed all of her new clothes and put away all the diapers. Her nursery is officially complete! After I got everything accomplished in the nursery Ty installed the car seat in his car which we will drive to the hospital. He will install the car seat in my car later since we will be leaving it for Jeremy so he'll have Carter's car seat in case he needs to go anywhere. Carter's car seat will have to move to accommodate Elise's seat, but we don't want to move it yet because then we'd have to climb through the trunk to get to the back row and my parents will be in town this weekend for a St. Patrick's Day race. We'll all be riding in my car and it would be circus for the people riding in the back seat to have to climb through the trunk!
I took a year leave of absence from work for this school year so I needed to go up to school and officially resign for next year. While I was there one of my old coworkers said, "I wish I looked as cute as you when I was pregnant." It was very sweet and made me feel good, especially since I feel huge!
Currently Loving: That I haven't progressed any more since 34 weeks. My stress level is pretty much non-existent at this point. I just feel so calm and happy. I'm so ready to meet Elise, but it is reassuring to know it is highly unlikely for it to happen soon. Carter was perfectly healthy and scored 9/10 and 10/10 on his Apgar scores even though he was born at 36 weeks, 2 days. But he was so skinny and needed to plump up which led to him eating every hour day and night. That meant I was sleeping in 15 minute increments for the first week of his life. It was rough. I'd so much rather Elise hang out in my belly for a while longer so I can at least get my not that great giantly pregnant night's sleep. Plus I'd be worried that we were just lucky with Carter and she might end up needing help from the NICU.
Miss Anything: Mostly just sleeping on my stomach and Braum's frozen yogurt soft serve. I'm so ready to meet our baby girl!
What Big Brother is Up to This Week: Most of the time Carter points to my belly and says that's where Issy Eese is. One day this week Carter pointed to his belly and asked, "Carcar, Issy Eese belly too?" Another day he stuck a sticker on my belly for her and then gave my belly a kiss. He loves telling people that the nursery is Issy Eese's room. He'll point to her crib and tell them that's where she's going to nap and night night. I've hit the point where I can't bend over or do certain movements without grunting. Carter has started mimicking me and will grunt when he bends over. It's pretty hilarious! His Gma, Gpa, Oma, and Opa were all in town this past weekend for the sprinkle and Carter loved all the attention! He did great with the time change too. I always worry that Daylight Savings Time is going to throw him off schedule, but he takes it like a champ! We had our appointment at 2:40 on Monday so I needed to put him down early for his nap. I knew putting him down at noon rather than 1:00 would be no problem, but I had forgotten about Daylight Savings Time starting on Sunday. When I realized that I got a little bit worried because it would be like putting him down at 11:00 normally. A little before noon I told Carter it would be time for his nap soon. He looked at me, stood up, walked into his room, and climbed into bed. Then he asked me if he could read some books so I got him some board books and set them in his bed. He read books for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep. Say what?!? How did I get so lucky to have such a great sleeper? All of those nightly wake-ups and not sleeping through the night until he was 9 months old were so worth it to have a toddler who is such a good sleeper! Week 36 Bumpdate with Carter. That was my last bumpdate with Carter so from here on out I won't be able to link to a bumpdate for Carter.
Guesses: With both Carter and Elise we had a "Guess Baby's Birthday" calendar at our gender reveal party. Carter was born so early that we didn't get to the point where we started looking at the calendar to see if anyone had guessed he'd be born that week. The closest guess to his birthday, December 14th, was my Grandma LeAnn who guessed December 30th. I told Ty it would be so much fun this time around if we made it longer and could look each week to see who had guessed Miss Elise would be born in the upcoming week. If you weren't at the gender reveal and didn't get to guess, leave one in the comment section and I'll add you to the fun! We have one guess for this upcoming week with my best friend, Erin, guessing March 16th (36 weeks, 6 days). There are lots of guesses coming up in week 37 which will be fun to keep track of!
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| Elise's sweet little face! |
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| Her tiny little feet and toes that I can't wait to kiss! |
Weight Gain: I'm up 29 pounds from my starting weight. That means I just gained a pound each of these past 2 weeks which I'll consider a win since Elise should be gaining about a half pound a week herself! I'm 4 pounds over what I gained with Carter, but I'm done worrying about it. Obviously I'm going to make it longer than I did with him and gain over 30 pounds. I've accepted that!
Maternity Clothes: It's finally gotten warm enough to pull out the spring maternity clothes I've been eyeing in my closet during this entire pregnancy. Ty had a co-worker give him a bag of spring maternity clothes and I had a friend do the same. I'd been starting to think Elise would arrive before it warmed up enough to wear them with the weather we've been getting. I'm so excited to wear the spring dresses!
Sleep: I've been so uncomfortable lately and have been having such a hard time falling asleep. By the end of the day my back is really sore and it makes it hard to get comfortable even with my body pillow. I wake up to go to the bathroom and also wake up at other times because I'm having contractions in my sleep which is rough. With all the trouble getting comfortable and being a tummy sleeper, I am so looking forward to sleeping on my stomach again! Although I'm having trouble sleeping at night I got an extra burst of energy this week and didn't take naps during Carter's naptime. During naptime I want to be up and moving and getting things done. The only problem is that I've gotten pretty much everything done I needed to in order to prepare for Elise's arrival which makes me antsy. I want to have more stuff to do but I know if I did, it would be driving me crazy that I hadn't already gotten it done. Weird dilemma, I know!
Symptoms: My contractions have eased up in intensity but are more frequent. I have them all throughout the day. Thankfully they aren't the intense stop and breathe through them contractions. I've also had contractions where my entire belly tightens, much higher than I usually feel contractions. My back has also been really sore! My skin has gotten itchier and I can't help but scratch it. One day I looked in the mirror and freaked out because I thought the scratch marks were stretch marks. I thought I'd gone from no stretch marks to stretch marks covering my entire belly! Thank goodness that wasn't the case! I haven't had swelling in my feet since last week. I've been having a lot of hip pressure and pressure down low in my pelvis which makes me think Elise must have dropped a bit.
Running: Still just walking, but one more week and I'll be able to start up running again. In the mean time I've decided an advantage of walking over running is that I don't have to change my clothes to walk. I just wear whatever I was already wearing. That's really a huge advantage when you are pregnant and bending over is such a challenge! I walked a total of 12 miles this week, walking mostly 2 miles per day.
Food Cravings: Some days I have a huge appetite. Other days I feel kind of sick. I've still been all about apples with peanut butter, but other than that I can't think of any cravings. Although I have been loving ice cream in a cake cone.
Food Aversions: Still get grossed out even just thinking of smoked meat.
Movement: She's starting to run out of room a little bit. I don't feel her moving around nearly as often. She still moves around when I lay down in bed at night and occasionally when I sit down during the day. Her movements also aren't as dramatic as they were before.
Best Moment of the Week: A friend threw me a sprinkle to honor Elise on Saturday. It was so good to see everyone and I had a blast. I got a few more decorations for Elise's room that we already hung up on Saturday and I washed all of her new clothes and put away all the diapers. Her nursery is officially complete! After I got everything accomplished in the nursery Ty installed the car seat in his car which we will drive to the hospital. He will install the car seat in my car later since we will be leaving it for Jeremy so he'll have Carter's car seat in case he needs to go anywhere. Carter's car seat will have to move to accommodate Elise's seat, but we don't want to move it yet because then we'd have to climb through the trunk to get to the back row and my parents will be in town this weekend for a St. Patrick's Day race. We'll all be riding in my car and it would be circus for the people riding in the back seat to have to climb through the trunk!
I took a year leave of absence from work for this school year so I needed to go up to school and officially resign for next year. While I was there one of my old coworkers said, "I wish I looked as cute as you when I was pregnant." It was very sweet and made me feel good, especially since I feel huge!
Currently Loving: That I haven't progressed any more since 34 weeks. My stress level is pretty much non-existent at this point. I just feel so calm and happy. I'm so ready to meet Elise, but it is reassuring to know it is highly unlikely for it to happen soon. Carter was perfectly healthy and scored 9/10 and 10/10 on his Apgar scores even though he was born at 36 weeks, 2 days. But he was so skinny and needed to plump up which led to him eating every hour day and night. That meant I was sleeping in 15 minute increments for the first week of his life. It was rough. I'd so much rather Elise hang out in my belly for a while longer so I can at least get my not that great giantly pregnant night's sleep. Plus I'd be worried that we were just lucky with Carter and she might end up needing help from the NICU.
What Big Brother is Up to This Week: Most of the time Carter points to my belly and says that's where Issy Eese is. One day this week Carter pointed to his belly and asked, "Carcar, Issy Eese belly too?" Another day he stuck a sticker on my belly for her and then gave my belly a kiss. He loves telling people that the nursery is Issy Eese's room. He'll point to her crib and tell them that's where she's going to nap and night night. I've hit the point where I can't bend over or do certain movements without grunting. Carter has started mimicking me and will grunt when he bends over. It's pretty hilarious! His Gma, Gpa, Oma, and Opa were all in town this past weekend for the sprinkle and Carter loved all the attention! He did great with the time change too. I always worry that Daylight Savings Time is going to throw him off schedule, but he takes it like a champ! We had our appointment at 2:40 on Monday so I needed to put him down early for his nap. I knew putting him down at noon rather than 1:00 would be no problem, but I had forgotten about Daylight Savings Time starting on Sunday. When I realized that I got a little bit worried because it would be like putting him down at 11:00 normally. A little before noon I told Carter it would be time for his nap soon. He looked at me, stood up, walked into his room, and climbed into bed. Then he asked me if he could read some books so I got him some board books and set them in his bed. He read books for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep. Say what?!? How did I get so lucky to have such a great sleeper? All of those nightly wake-ups and not sleeping through the night until he was 9 months old were so worth it to have a toddler who is such a good sleeper! Week 36 Bumpdate with Carter. That was my last bumpdate with Carter so from here on out I won't be able to link to a bumpdate for Carter.
Guesses: With both Carter and Elise we had a "Guess Baby's Birthday" calendar at our gender reveal party. Carter was born so early that we didn't get to the point where we started looking at the calendar to see if anyone had guessed he'd be born that week. The closest guess to his birthday, December 14th, was my Grandma LeAnn who guessed December 30th. I told Ty it would be so much fun this time around if we made it longer and could look each week to see who had guessed Miss Elise would be born in the upcoming week. If you weren't at the gender reveal and didn't get to guess, leave one in the comment section and I'll add you to the fun! We have one guess for this upcoming week with my best friend, Erin, guessing March 16th (36 weeks, 6 days). There are lots of guesses coming up in week 37 which will be fun to keep track of!
Her sweet little cheeks! Ah! You'll be kissing them so soon! Nesting when there's nothing left to do is the worst!!! I want to play the due date guessing game! I think she's going to hang in there stubbornly until 39 weeks, so I'll say March 31st. :)
ReplyDeleteIt definitely is the worst! Wouldn't that be crazy if she was 3 weeks later than Carter was? I think it is a definite possibility. I'm still feeling WAY too good for her to be arriving anytime soon!
DeleteVery cute! I'm glad things are going so well, and hope she waits until after St Patty's too. But, I also want her to come at any minute.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you! And it doesn't help that Carter was early so people are already anxiously awaiting her arrival and asking me questions they wouldn't be if he'd been born later!
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