Babies! (pregnancy post)

I'm proud to announce that Jen had her little bundle of joy yesterday afternoon -- a bouncing 6 lb, 8 ounce baby boy. I won't reveal the name since I'm not sure she's even okay with being mentioned in my blog, but by all accounts, Mom and Baby are doing great.

Yesterday was a very interesting day for our little guy, too. This is going to be a pregnancy post, so if you are not interested, it's best to skip this one.

The day started with my normal 30-week appointment with my regular ob/gyn. These appointments are now every two weeks, and they literally take about 5 minutes - weigh in, blood pressure, pee in a cup, the doctor comes in, he finds the heartbeat, chats for 2.3 minutes, and then you are out the door. No biggie.

I told the doctor about the pain/pressure I'd been having in my pelvic floor since Sunday night. It was becoming more and more significant - almost as though you need to use the restroom, but you don't. Everything below my belly button ached, and anytime I stood up, it got worse very quickly. Even sitting upright for too long was painful.  After hearing this, the doctor called the specialist and got me the earliest appointment with them that morning. The biggest concern, of course, was that the fibroid was pressing on my cervix, causing it to shorten prematurely. As we know, this is how preterm labor starts and once a person is dilated, strict bed rest is usually the answer with delivery imminent.

Thankfully, Brian, trusty husband, wheelchair pusher, and pie-provider, was with me. We drove to the specialist talking about all of the worst case scenarios (i.e. I deliver that day, baby goes to a level-III NICU for the next two months) as I imaged my bag of waters ready to pop at any second. I really felt as though I was doing something wrong; my pregnancy has been one problem after another.  It has been so stressful. I think he and I are going to take a long break from breeding once this pregnancy is over, just to recoup and reclaim some of our sanity.  We don't even hope for the best anymore, since it never seems to work out.

And the news we got at the specialist was NOT what I expected...at all. The tech immediately located the fibroid (they always go for the fibroid first...never the baby, always the fibroid. And then they make comments like, 'Wow! Check out the size of that one!') and to everyone's surprise, it had NOT grown (!!) in size, and - AND - it's location changed! It is now up on the wall of my uterus, several inches away from the cervix. Apparently, as my uterus grew, it took the fibroid with it. It was plain as day on the u/s screen - there was definitely a distance between the cervix and that big lump of tissue. Hooray! Good news!!

The tech then moved on to cervical measurements...anything above 2.5cm is considered very good. Up on the screen, in glowing green letters popped '3.7cm.'  Even better! The tech seemed to be enjoying Brian's and my reaction to the information - we yelled out and fist-bumped to every piece of good news. This was becoming the best appointment ever!

Then she got to the growth scan. Yup, still a boy. She measured the head....34w.  She measured the abdomen...34w.  She measured the arms and legs...32w, 6d. I looked at her with confusion, as I was only 30w, 4d. She just kind of smiled and said, 'Wow, this kid is growing. He's measuring well over two weeks ahead on every measurement, and his head and tummy are in the 96th percentile. This is going to be a big kid!' Brian and I just kind of got silent. I asked her about a weigh estimate, and she flipped to another screen and up popped the biggest number I had ever seen - FOUR pounds, TWELVE ounces. Mind you, most 30-week babies weigh around three pounds. My child is a pound-and-a-half heavier. According to growth charts, that puts him in the 86th percentile. He has grown from 2lbs, 2oz on June 2nd to 4lbs, 12oz on July 1st. No wonder I'm feeling so huge. Baby B is a little tank.

The rest of the appointment turned out fine - they checked me for gestational diabetes (due to his size), and my sugars were perfect. Considering Brian was a 10-pounder, the doctor thought our baby just might genetically be on the big size. She also thought we might have just caught him during a grownth spurt, and his weights will even out over the next few weeks. Or...he might just be a very large baby. All of the women looked at me with sympathetic eyes, and one even offered this condolence: "After 38w gestation, or a measurement greater than 4000cc (9lbs), we offer an elective c-section to the mother." She even squeezed my hand.

I just find this incredibly funny.  Four weeks ago, I was in an absolute panic with the idea our child was going to be a micro preemie. Now, I'm looking at all of our 0-3 month clothing thinking our little pumpkin will blow through those in about 10 minutes - and overjoyed at the prospect. Let him grow and be big and healthy - we can always buy more clothes. Hell, we'll dress him in a sack if necessary. 

Also, because the fibroid moved, I'm now eligible for a natural delivery (there had been past concerns that it was 'blocking' the exit.') But - because of the size of the baby, it looks as though the birth will still be a c-section. Go figure.

I now need to go into twice-weekly fetal monitoring since my fluids are high (26, when 10-24 is considered normal). Polyhydroamnios is fairly common and rarely dangerous, but it definitely (again) explains why I feel so gigantic. It also explains my lack of fetal movement; my kid has an entire swimming pool to move around in, and only occasionally hits the side of the 'pool.'  And, of course, it explains my pelvic pressure. I'm just glad to be monitored further; nothing is better than reassurance.

So, things are going very well for us. It looks as though this baby will probably be joining us in mid-August. However, I'm hesitant to make any predictions since clearly, I'm consistently wrong! This little guy has proven he has a mind of his own. I guess this is a good introduction into the world of parenthood. :-)