I figured I'd put at the beginning the most important thing: the heart looks great. Overall, the cardiologist appointment this afternoon went really well. Dr. Kurichety is very personable, and he immediately put both James and I at ease. I got an EKG and a sonogram (of the heart, not the baby), and the results were perfect. The sonographer did give us a little peek of JJ at the end of my screening, and it was kind of funny because she kept finding the heart while she was looking for him. I guess that IS her job. :)
There was no reason to put me on a monitor since they only monitor for 24 hours, and since my episodes have happened so sporadically, there really isn't any need. The biggest concern would have been if they found something that would cause concern during labor and delivery or if I would need extra monitoring for the big day, but it doesn't look like there's anything to worry about at this time. I'm going to follow-up in about a month to see if there's still any concerns, but I'm so close at this point to having JJ (9 weeks to due date!), I think I'll just stick it out. The only thing would be if it gets worse before it gets better (a common theme with pregnancy, really), and then I call him.
In other news, I was able to take a full breath today which lead me to believe that JJ's starting to move down a little bit. Suddenly the mound that sat high in my chest is around my middle which is great. I can breath and nothing is beating up my bladder ... yet. He's moving a ton, which is really fun, and I can't wait to meet him!
I also bid my feet farewell this morning. It was raining so I figured I should wear my boots. I struggled with the socks and the boots and finally had to sit down to finish the task. Goodbye, feet, goodbye.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Baby Pee - 30-Week Appointment
Hard to believe that I'm already going to the OB every 2 weeks! This pregnancy really has just flown by, and - in true Way-Way / Mommy / uber-planner fashion - I have had a couple of mini freak outs. Cases in point:
Luckily for everyone around me, I have been able to contain the freakouts for the most part and hidden them from the public. My credit card, however, has not fared nearly as well. Retail therapy, right?
The appointment itself was fine. JJ's heartbeat sounds great, and he's moving around a ton. This morning, he did some crazy somersault that I'm pretty sure involved a trapeze and maybe a diving board; as long as he didn't manage to flip himself into a breach position (he's been head down every sonogram I've had) then it's fine. I'm measuring right at 30 weeks, and I managed to gain 2.5 pounds in 2.3 weeks; glad that wasn't the rate that I gained this entire pregnancy! I look as though I have strapped a very large bowling ball to the front of my body, and walking after I've been at rest for awhile is definitely a challenge.
The last thing is I mentioned how I've had a couple of instances where my heart rate seems to go up, and I have a hard time bringing it back down. I mentioned it at my last appointment, and Dr. Jaffee said I should cut out caffeine (not an issue; already done even before the pregnancy, really) and chocolate (harder but do-able for the baby). It happened a couple of other times in the two weeks since my appointment, so she went ahead and referred me to a cardiologist just to check it out. The last was last weekend where my heart rate hung out at about 120 for just under an hour -- I know watching Claire in swim lessons is a little scary, but this was extreme even for me. My doc said she thinks it's nothing and quite common during pregnancy (hormones, increased blood flow, etc) and I've had no blackouts or chest pain, but no reason not to get it checked out. Yay, insurance!
Interesting pregnancy facts from the Internet (because the first thing you do when the doctor says anything medical, like "tachyarrythmia" is look it up ... which, btw, I do not recommend looking up in Wikipedia unless I want to scare myself with things that I know have nothing to do with me right now):
I have my appointment on Monday, so you can come back here and check out the result, but like Dr. Jaffee says, I'm not worried at all and am pretty sure it's nothing. It's not like I was exactly an Olympic athlete before this pregnancy, after all, so it's no wonder my body is complaining a bit at everything I'm putting it through. I should probably just be grateful that I'm still able to get down to the floor to play with Claire AND get back up again, albeit slowly and completely ungracefully!
Something I've noticed for future reference (though not for me since I don't think we'll be having any more) is that the OB's office seems to run behind in the afternoons unlike in the mornings (something about babies being born or something). Plus, it's a lot harder to drop whatever I'm doing at work that day to sneak off to a doctors office; much easier to just not start anything yet at all. Note to self, shoot for morning appointments!
- On Monday (the 19th, mind you), I got it in my head that I need to finish the nursery NOW. In fact, I need to finish in YESTERDAY but my turn-back-time machine seems to be in the shop. The need was so great, I decided I needed to go shopping THIS WEEKEND instead of waiting just one more week until Partners Card week (that would be the 30th ... 11 days from the freak out) to get the mattresses and furniture. Talking to Kim and Michelle got me off the ledge, though, and I decided to focus my energies elsewhere ... for now.
- Speaking of redirecting my energies, this week I've really been focusing on baby names. I feel like I'm constantly throwing out names to James, sometimes the same one 4 or 5 times just to see if he'll change his mind. Finally he finally said "why do you feel like you need the name today?" and I said something to the effect of "I feel like SOMETHING needs to happen to get ready for this baby! Do you realize I can count on my HANDS how many weeks we have left of this pregnancy, and we have NOTHING DONE!??!?!!?!?"
- The best had something to do with "I'm 30 weeks pregnant! Claire was born 8 weeks from now!!!!!!!" which seems to make no sense unless you know that Claire was born at 38 weeks. Listen to what I mean, not what I say.
Luckily for everyone around me, I have been able to contain the freakouts for the most part and hidden them from the public. My credit card, however, has not fared nearly as well. Retail therapy, right?
The appointment itself was fine. JJ's heartbeat sounds great, and he's moving around a ton. This morning, he did some crazy somersault that I'm pretty sure involved a trapeze and maybe a diving board; as long as he didn't manage to flip himself into a breach position (he's been head down every sonogram I've had) then it's fine. I'm measuring right at 30 weeks, and I managed to gain 2.5 pounds in 2.3 weeks; glad that wasn't the rate that I gained this entire pregnancy! I look as though I have strapped a very large bowling ball to the front of my body, and walking after I've been at rest for awhile is definitely a challenge.
The last thing is I mentioned how I've had a couple of instances where my heart rate seems to go up, and I have a hard time bringing it back down. I mentioned it at my last appointment, and Dr. Jaffee said I should cut out caffeine (not an issue; already done even before the pregnancy, really) and chocolate (harder but do-able for the baby). It happened a couple of other times in the two weeks since my appointment, so she went ahead and referred me to a cardiologist just to check it out. The last was last weekend where my heart rate hung out at about 120 for just under an hour -- I know watching Claire in swim lessons is a little scary, but this was extreme even for me. My doc said she thinks it's nothing and quite common during pregnancy (hormones, increased blood flow, etc) and I've had no blackouts or chest pain, but no reason not to get it checked out. Yay, insurance!
Interesting pregnancy facts from the Internet (because the first thing you do when the doctor says anything medical, like "tachyarrythmia" is look it up ... which, btw, I do not recommend looking up in Wikipedia unless I want to scare myself with things that I know have nothing to do with me right now):
Heart and Blood Flow: During pregnancy, the woman's heart must work harder because as the fetus grows, the heart must pump more blood to the uterus. By the end of pregnancy, the uterus is receiving one fifth of the woman's prepregnancy blood supply. During pregnancy, the amount of blood pumped by the heart (cardiac output) increases by 30 to 50%. As cardiac output increases, the heart rate at rest speeds up from a normal prepregnancy rate of about 70 beats per minute to 80 or 90 beats per minute. During exercise, cardiac output and heart rate increase more when a woman is pregnant than when she is not. During labor, cardiac output increases by an additional 10%. After delivery, cardiac output decreases rapidly at first, then more slowly. It returns to the prepregnancy level about 6 weeks after delivery.
Certain heart murmurs and irregularities in heart rhythm may appear because the heart is working harder. Sometimes a pregnant woman may feel these irregularities. Such changes are normal during pregnancy. However, other abnormal heart sounds and rhythms (for example, diastolic murmurs and tachyarrythmias), which occur more often in pregnant women, may require treatment.
I have my appointment on Monday, so you can come back here and check out the result, but like Dr. Jaffee says, I'm not worried at all and am pretty sure it's nothing. It's not like I was exactly an Olympic athlete before this pregnancy, after all, so it's no wonder my body is complaining a bit at everything I'm putting it through. I should probably just be grateful that I'm still able to get down to the floor to play with Claire AND get back up again, albeit slowly and completely ungracefully!
Something I've noticed for future reference (though not for me since I don't think we'll be having any more) is that the OB's office seems to run behind in the afternoons unlike in the mornings (something about babies being born or something). Plus, it's a lot harder to drop whatever I'm doing at work that day to sneak off to a doctors office; much easier to just not start anything yet at all. Note to self, shoot for morning appointments!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Seriously?!
So, after getting lots of "are you okay?" queries from folks, I realized I never updated from my last appointment on how JJ is doing. On Wednesday, he was still sort of quiet but started picking back up. On Thursday, he was back to his old self, and since then, he's been giving Pele a run for his "Athlete of the Century" title. Not that I want you to, but I'm at the point where you can physically see my stomach moving when he kicks .. though I refuse to think about whether that's just my fat jiggling from the force. :) Thanks for all the well-wishes and inquiries!
My "Seriously?!" title from something I stumbled on today. This is something I already knew, but it blows my mind every time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-life_balance
C'mon, US, get with the program!
My "Seriously?!" title from something I stumbled on today. This is something I already knew, but it blows my mind every time:
United States is one of only five countries out of 173 that does not guarantee some form of paid maternity leave. (The other countries are Lesotho, Liberia, Swaziland, and Papua New Guinea).Us and Swaziland ... how proud we must be. In fact, "fathers are granted paid paternity leave or paid parental leave in sixty-five countries; thirty one of these countries offer at least fourteen weeks of paid leave". Needless to say, the U.S. does not guarantee this to fathers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work-life_balance
C'mon, US, get with the program!
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Baby Pee - 28-Week Appt
Had my Week 28 appointment with Dr. Jaffee today. It was supposed to be on Thursday, but I called the office this morning to get it moved up today because I was a little nervous -- okay, a LOT nervous -- that JJ was not moving around like his usual self.
Typically in the morning, right when I wake up and roll over, he gives me some strong good morning kicks and punches to say hello. Then, throughout the day, I get poked, prodded, and stretched by various arms, legs, elbows, and fingers as a reminder to who I'm carrying. Yesterday, when I woke up there was none of the usual, and then throughout the day, there were very few rumblings. I even took the time to stop at my desk to gaze and assess ... nothing. By the end of the day, I was getting a little trepiditious, so I got a 7-Up to try and wake him up with some sugar. Nothing except for some very light fluttering. Later in the evening, James went and bought me a variety of drinks to try and stimulate some movement; I went through orange juice and apple juice but nothing more than a bloated belly and a couple of tickles. Needless to say, sleeping was not restful or easy last night.
By this morning, the second morning that there were no morning calenthenics, I decided to call the doctor. Right when they opened at 9, I started dialing on my phone. I told the receptionist that I had an appointment on Thursday but wanted to see if they could fit me in today because I hadn't felt the baby move much the last 24 hours. She said she could get me an appointment later that day but put me on hold to talk to the nurse. She came back on the phone and asked how far along I was, and I told her "it's my 28th week", she relayed the message, and came back to tell me to come in immediately. Scary.
When they brought me in, we headed to the sonogram room after I gave my "sample" and found out that I gained 4 pounds in the last 3 weeks and confirmed that my blood pressure is a little high. Whoops. I blame the blood pressure on my nervousness but I admit the weight gain is all me. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor (you know, the one that squishes your stomach fat really tightly like doughboy rolls ... oh, you don't know? harrumph) so that it could document his heartbeat, and then I was given a trigger to push everytime I felt JJ move in the slightest. After about 15-17 LOOOOONG minutes of holding the trigger and monitor, waiting for bumps, and being entertained by James, Dr. Jaffee came back in to check the results and said 10 movements (even the slight ones) was pretty good for that time period but wanted to go ahead and have the sonographer come in.
The sonographer showed us that everything looked good -- at 27w2d, JJ's head is measuring at 26w6d, his femur bone at 28w2d, and he weighs about 2lb5oz -- which was definitely reassuring. I'll post the pictures from my various sonograms soon. My sugar test also came back with favorable results; the only thing is I need to take iron supplements which also happened with Claire (which James reminded me of since I had already blocked it out of my memory).
Whew! I'm hoping that's the last of the worries as I have enough to deal with as we go into this last trimester (ie "What should we name the baby?!" or "What do we do with Claire if I go into labor in the middle of the night?!").
Typically in the morning, right when I wake up and roll over, he gives me some strong good morning kicks and punches to say hello. Then, throughout the day, I get poked, prodded, and stretched by various arms, legs, elbows, and fingers as a reminder to who I'm carrying. Yesterday, when I woke up there was none of the usual, and then throughout the day, there were very few rumblings. I even took the time to stop at my desk to gaze and assess ... nothing. By the end of the day, I was getting a little trepiditious, so I got a 7-Up to try and wake him up with some sugar. Nothing except for some very light fluttering. Later in the evening, James went and bought me a variety of drinks to try and stimulate some movement; I went through orange juice and apple juice but nothing more than a bloated belly and a couple of tickles. Needless to say, sleeping was not restful or easy last night.
By this morning, the second morning that there were no morning calenthenics, I decided to call the doctor. Right when they opened at 9, I started dialing on my phone. I told the receptionist that I had an appointment on Thursday but wanted to see if they could fit me in today because I hadn't felt the baby move much the last 24 hours. She said she could get me an appointment later that day but put me on hold to talk to the nurse. She came back on the phone and asked how far along I was, and I told her "it's my 28th week", she relayed the message, and came back to tell me to come in immediately. Scary.
When they brought me in, we headed to the sonogram room after I gave my "sample" and found out that I gained 4 pounds in the last 3 weeks and confirmed that my blood pressure is a little high. Whoops. I blame the blood pressure on my nervousness but I admit the weight gain is all me. They hooked me up to the fetal monitor (you know, the one that squishes your stomach fat really tightly like doughboy rolls ... oh, you don't know? harrumph) so that it could document his heartbeat, and then I was given a trigger to push everytime I felt JJ move in the slightest. After about 15-17 LOOOOONG minutes of holding the trigger and monitor, waiting for bumps, and being entertained by James, Dr. Jaffee came back in to check the results and said 10 movements (even the slight ones) was pretty good for that time period but wanted to go ahead and have the sonographer come in.
The sonographer showed us that everything looked good -- at 27w2d, JJ's head is measuring at 26w6d, his femur bone at 28w2d, and he weighs about 2lb5oz -- which was definitely reassuring. I'll post the pictures from my various sonograms soon. My sugar test also came back with favorable results; the only thing is I need to take iron supplements which also happened with Claire (which James reminded me of since I had already blocked it out of my memory).
Whew! I'm hoping that's the last of the worries as I have enough to deal with as we go into this last trimester (ie "What should we name the baby?!" or "What do we do with Claire if I go into labor in the middle of the night?!").
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