Week 37 sure was a shit show...nothing was in place last week! Not just for me, but for our whole family. The week started out fairly great. At my 37 week OB appointment, I tested negative for Strep B, baby was measuring a healthy 37.5 weeks, heartbeat was strong, and my blood pressure was still normal. I was even half a centimeter dilated already! All those Braxton Hicks were finally paying off. The only downside was that I had a UTI, but whatever. Pretty typical for my pregnancies. On Tuesday, I was feeling a ton of contractions and really thought baby was going to make an appearance last week, so I went into a flurry of activity. This included taking Parker in for a haircut, followed by going out for Thai food (I was hoping spicy food would keep the baby activity going!). Well, it's a good thing that contractions slowed that night because the next day Parker was so incredibly, miserably sick. It was the saddest thing I've ever had to watch and deal with. We'd made it almost 2 years with him never getting the flu! And man, when it hit him, it hit hard. We actually thought it was just food poisoning from the Thai place at first. Until I got sick on Thursday. And then Aron got sick on Friday. Ugh! It's the first time the 3 of us have all been sick at the same time, and it was so hard to take care of myself and be a parent. I hope it doesn't happen again for a loooong time!
I ended up being so sick that I had to go to the hospital (labor and delivery) on Thursday night. I couldn't keep anything down and got so dehydrated that my body started having contractions again. They were coming 2-3 minutes apart, and even though they weren't super strong, I was so worried I was in labor. I did not want to have the baby while I felt so horrible!! Luckily, after 2 bags of fluids and a shot of zofran in the IV, my uterus calmed down and contractions were just sporadic for the rest of the night. Aron was such a trooper, he stayed with me at the hospital (and I was only in the triage room so there wasn't even a super comfy chair!) and took such good care of me the entire night. It wasn't until noon the next day when I could finally keep water and a few saltines down. Which was exactly when Aron got sick. It took the entire weekend for all of us to finally be 100% recovered, although Aron still has a bad cold right now. Luckily Parker and I never got any of that. But of course, from being on the antibiotics for my uti, I now have a yeast infection. Again, pretty typical, but jeesh! Maybe TMI for some of you readers, but it's just a body. :)
This morning we had our 38 week appointment and the best news was that I'm now 1.5 cm dilated! Things are happening! It's crazy to think that I'm walking around at 1.5 considering that when we checked into the hospital for Parker's birth, I was only at 2 cm! That had felt like so much work just to get to 2, and now here I am at 1.5 without much work at all. Some of my random contractions have been pretty painful, but nothing like the early ones with Parker. Maybe the 2nd pregnancy really is easier!! I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow, so I'm crossing my fingers that Thursday is the big day. :) Aron's mom is also driving down tomorrow, so the Thursday timing would be perfect. The only downside is that we have Parker's birthday party planned for Saturday! So we'd have to cancel that, but of course we'll still celebrate the little man as a family.
Everything else today went great - BP still normal, baby's heartbeat was a strong 142. She's already sitting so low that they can't really measure my uterus anymore. My belly hasn't grown much at all in the past few weeks anyways. At the 35 week appointment I was measuring huge, but it hasn't budged from there. I also haven't gained any weight in the past 3 weeks, but my doc says that's totally fine. It's definitely fine by me! With Parker, I gained so much weight in the final month, and I was so miserable from being so swollen. I feel so much healthier this time around! Even though my diet could still use some improvement...forget I mentioned I'm sitting here eating lemon bites as I type!
Even though my belly is smaller this pregnancy, I somehow ended up with more stretch marks. Boo! But I also haven't been as diligent with my lotion, so I probably have myself and lack of discipline to blame. :) I think the fact that I popped so quickly didn't help. It's funny, because in the middle of the pregnancy I got so many comments about "any day now" when I really wasn't that big, and now all I hear are comments about how small I am! Baby is right on track but for some reason it just doesn't show as much. Even at the hospital last Thursday the nurse said "not much belly there!" So funny.
Not much else to add about the last few weeks. Apart from a week of the flu, everything has been pretty normal. Like I mentioned at the start of this entry, everything feels kinda perfect. Our house is clean (cleanish...I mean, I'm still me. Ha!), Aron's mom will be on her way down to help out tomorrow, I'm already dilating... life is good! I'm so excited to meet baby girl!!
Here's a bunch of random pics that I kept meaning to post from earlier in the pregnancy. Enjoy my "small" belly pics!
September 27, 2015. The day we announced the pregnancy to the world!
September 27, 2015. The day we announced the pregnancy to the world!
November 7, 2015. My belly got big! (And: bubbles!!)
November 26, 2015. Thanksgiving? Or maybe the day after. Taken in Vegas when we visited Aron's mom and fam.
December 4, 2015. Aron's work Christmas party!
