With just three more weeks to go and at about six and a half pounds (though weight and height vary from fetus to fetus), your baby is doing just fine. You can expect weight gain to be about half an ounce per day. (Boys, though, are likely to be heavier at birth than girls. And here's a bit of boy baby trivia to back that one up: Moms carrying boys tend to eat more than moms carrying girls — a foreshadowing of teenage refrigerator raids to come.) Since your little one is considered full-term now, if your baby was to leave the wet nest this week, he or she would likely thrive. That's because Mother Nature and you have done such a fine job.
So what's keeping your little one busy while waiting it out until D-day? Practice, practice, practice. Your baby is simulating breathing by inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, sucking on his or her thumb, blinking, and pivoting from side to side (one day you feel the tushy on the left side, another day it has swung around to the right side). All these are skills needed for his or her next gig — starring as newborn.
Here's an interesting fact: Your baby's head (which, by the way, is still growing) will, at birth, be the same size circumference as his or her hips, abdomen, and shoulders. And guess what's making an impression (literally) these days on those shoulders and hips: fat — causing little dimples in those cute elbows and knees, shoulders and hip, and creases and folds in the neck and wrists.
Today's doctor's appoointment was quite interesting! First of all, the weight issue. She's still happy with me. It hasn't really moved. I probably could have lost more, but I cheated on the weekend b/c I really don't think I should be losing weight like I did. So as long as I don't gain (according to her scale) then I'm good. OK, but that aside today I am officially considered full term! That means Bagel can come now and she'd be just fine. Group B Strep test came back negative, so that's good! She checked my cervix (so uncomfortable) and although it's still closed, she said that it was much softer than last week. So she thinks that there will be no problem getting my cervix open once I start to dilate. Basically once I dilate, I probably won't be once of those who will be 3 cmm dilated for like 3 weeks. She said that my cervix being much softer than last week is a good sign. We also got ANOTHER ultrasound today! Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures b/c our little girl would not show her face. Good thing Junior was off today so he could see. the purpose of the ultrasound was so the doc could take some measurements and make sure all was good. But she also wanted to try and get a shot of her face so she could print it and give it to us. Let's just say Toni is already stubborn. Anyway, all the measurments came back good and our little booger is in the 57% which mean she is of average size right now and just a tad over 6 lbs. HA! I knew she wasn't a big baby. But that just means the weight gain is all on me. Sigh... but I'd rather that than have to push a 10 lb baby out. We did see her move some which was really cool! She waqs sucking her thumb and all her little fingers did like a little wave of some sort. It was cool!!! She has a really nice round head, which I'm sure will get molded otherwise during birth, but hopefully it will come back to the perfect round shape!
But ok, the most exciting news! While the doc was doing measurements, she measured the amount of water (amniotic fluid) in the womb. Now techinically she measured at 10 (10 what, I don't know.) which she said is normal but she said from what she was seeing it seemed like the water was a little low. That means we might have to have the little booger sooner than planned! eeek! It's exciting! But she is going to measure the water again next wednesday before making that decision. But witht he fact that my cervix is soft and water may be low, i'm excited that I may have a baby sooner than I thought! We'll just have to wait and see.
I need to get a move on and finish packing my bag and wash her new going home outfit! I know, of all the adorable outfits I got during my showers and I STILL bought a going home outfit? Well, I wanted one that was one piece and buttoned up in the front so that I don't have to pull anything over her head the first few days. I heard it's best. I also need to get a couple of books to read in the hospital. One on breastfeeding and one about the first year of the baby b/c I do NOT want to go into this totally clueless!
So, what's new with me? Well I now get this crazy radiating pain down my sciatic quite regularly and sometimes I get this crampy like pain down there. I'm guessing that's a contraction. Still, not getting those regularly yet. The sucky part is when I get that cramp the SAME time the radiating pain comes on. OH MAN! I almost fell over the first time it happened. The sciatic thing really sucks because it makes walking that much more difficult and I'm already waddling. So now I waddle with a limp and my feet look like one huge kolache with 5 sausages sticking out. it's not pretty. On top of that, my southern region is sore ALL the time. It's so swollen it hurts. And my fingers... well besides them looking like sausages too, they hurt a little. Now I know it's a bad habit, but when my figners feel a little stiff I pop my knuckles and it feels better. Well, I can't just do that anymore. I try but it hurts and it also feels like there is so much extra fat or fluid or something surrounding my fingers that it keeps me from being able to opo my knuckles. So... my fingers are left stiff and a little uncomfortable. I'm starting to want my body back. haha! It's getting so difficult to even move.
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