Good Doctor Appointment

Belly- 33 Weeks

Last Sunday I woke up and while getting dressed I caught a look at my belly in the mirror and thought to myself. "hmmm, my belly looks smaller..." I just figured I was imagining things. Throughout the day I kept looking at my beachball (ha!) and thinking the same thing "it looks smaller.." I was also running to the bathroom even more frequently than usual (honestly, that's hard to imagine) cause it felt like Mr. Vic was grinding his head into my bladder. I asked Matt later on that evening if he thought it looked smaller, without any hesitation he says, "Yes!". So I figured that with the increase of pressure on my bladder and the different shape of my belly, Victor was starting to drop a bit more.

Monday brought not only peeing about every 20 minutes, but several braxton-hicks contractions throughout the day. Then Tuesday I woke up with BHC. They were more often than Monday and noticable enough that my boss made me call my doc just to make sure there wasn't anything I needed to do. I knew they weren't real contractions, and I also knew they weren't close enough together for him to want me to come in or anything but I called anyway. The nurse said just what I thought she'd say, that unless they were about 5-7 minutes apart there was nothing to worry about but try and drink more water (great, more trips to the bathroom) and rest when I can (yea, right, I have a 9 hour workday).

So wednesday morning rolls around and it's time for our docs appointment. The nurse had made a note in my file about the BHC and asked me if I was still having them, I told her I'd probably had 2 of them since I'd woken up. I'd been up for almost 2 hours, so no biggie. But my doc wanted to check my cervix just to make sure the contractions weren't doing anything. I am not dilating yet, but am about 60% effaced. Vic's still head down and his head is about a -3 station, which is still kind of high, I don't even want tot know what it's going to feel like when he drops more!! He also said that especially since Vic's been measuring big, he was not going to let me go past my due date. Doc thinks I'll go into labor on my own around 39 weeks, Matt thinks 37 weeks and I'm just praying I don't have to be induced!

The saving grace is that since I'm already starting to efface, at least I know my body is progressing on it's own. If I do end up having to be induced hopefully it wouldn't be very difficult. But still praying I don't need to be induced. I want things to start naturally. I just have this horrible thought that I'll end up being induced and then end up with a c-section and I REALLY don't want a c-section. I know alot of people have them and a lot of people do just fine with them, but I really want a regular delivery.

Anyways, the BHC continue while I'm up and walking around or at work or whatever and then as soon as I lay down they go away. Luckily, my boss has finally figured out that I'm really pregnant and is starting to cut back on my hours. I think it helps that I mentioned to her that my doc made a comment about me not working more than 6-7 hours as I get further along. So I'm still getting extra hours, but my shifts are shorter. For example, my typical shift on a Monday has been from 9-7. 10 hours. Tomorrow I'm working 8:30-12:30. yay! I was originally hired on at 25 hours to begin with, and have been working about 40 hours for several months. Partly it's my fault, everyone has to get all their vacation time in before I go on maternity leave, so I then have to help cover shifts while they're gone.

My mom had open heart surgery on Friday. A month or 2 ago they were doing a EEG and discovered that she had a devective valve that was probably a birth defect that no one had ever noticed before. So they had surgery to replace it. The surgery took about 6ish hours (I'm not sure exactly how long it was, just guessing) and she was pretty out of it for awhile afterwards, after having open-heart surgery who wouldn't be? They got the breathing tube out that night and yesterday they moved her off the ICU into her own room and she was even walking on her own for a bit! I'm so glad she's doing better and that she's going to be ok. She's still got a long recovery ahead, but she's a fighter and I know she's going to get better, fast!

Since Matt is now the co-manager, he's been working some extra hours. Part of it is since we still only have 1 car, if I get off an hour or so after him he'll just stay at work to finish things up before he comes to get me instead of going home and then driving right back. I have to say, one of the best things about only having one car means that we are actually spending alot more time together. Since there are only 7 more weeks until we are never alone again, I savor every moment that we get together.

Matt's baseball team played last Sunday night for the championship title. They won the first game against the #1 team and so they played a second game to figure out who the Champion was. They unfortunatly lost the 2nd game but they put up a great fight and still got 2nd place in the league! I'm so proud of my husband :)