Trying to be Patient

So it's been a crazy week. The stretching that the doctor did last week caused some symptoms, like false labor, that had me convinced I would be going into labor soon. But here I am, 10 days later and still pregnant.

My mom decided to fly up last Wednesday because we were afraid she'd miss it. It's great that she's here though because Charlotte started spiking a fever on Thursday (103 at one point!) and I have so little energy right now that it would have been really draining to take care of her by myself (she still has an insane amount of energy even when she's sick). Her fever broke sometime Friday night, and apart from a runny nose and a lingering cough, she's pretty much back to her normal self.

Over the weekend, we decided to drive to this pizza place that supposedly has a labor inducing pizza.  I'd heard about it from one of Charlotte's friend's moms, whose friend went into labor shortly after eating it.  Chris was dubious (he is a man of statistics after all) and believed it was just a way to get people in the door to eat their pizza.  But the "Prego Pizza" was good and topped with pretty much every pizza topping known to man - pepperoni, ground beef, ham, linguisa sausage, regular sausage, green bell peppers, onions, and who knows what else.  Anyway, apart from causing indigestion in both Chris and my mom it did zero for me.  And of course, for all their success stories, I am sure there are hundreds where nothing happened.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday morning, and not much had changed.  She stretched me to a 3, which was also very painful.  She said to come back on Friday, only to be reminded by her medical assistant that she wouldn't be in on Friday.  So we're scheduled for next Monday, and after that, we'll talk induction.  It was a little disheartening, especially since my mom is already here.  However, I do not want to be induced if I don't have to be, so let's just hope I don't make it to my Monday appointment.  The doctor still thinks that this baby is going to be a pretty good size, and I'm willing to be induced between 40 and 41 weeks, but still, it would be great if she just came on her own.

My mom and I walked to the grocery store and back yesterday, which was close to 4 miles total.  On the way there, it wasn't too bad, I was walking pretty well, and it only took 30 minutes to get there.  We stopped and had a drink at the coffee shop and then headed home.  It was going up hill that started causing stabbing pain in my side, so that I was walking really slowly. My mom jogged/walked back to get the car, but I'd made it almost home by the time she picked me up.  Lesson learned - stick to my normal slow 1.5 miles around the wetlands.

Other than that, other than sleeping pretty horribly, I'm feeling fine.  Heartburn is still awful, but can be managed with medication.  The baby's room is done, although it needs to be tidied up.

Anyway, I feel like things are progressing faster than when I was pregnant with Charlotte, but who knows.  I was sure, given what was going on last weekend, that this baby would already be here, but I guess not.  Apparently, I'm really good at being pregnant and staying pregnant.  This is a good thing until about 36 weeks, but now? I'd really just like to have this baby already, especially since my mom is here.

38 Week Check-Up

I've been feel pretty lousy this week. I caught Chris' cold, and my energy level has just plummeted.  I can't breathe very well unless I'm standing or sitting propped up, and doing more than one activity leaves me feeling exhausted and light-headed. So I've been taking it easy.  However, last night, I had about an hour of menstrual-type cramping, and I worried, "is this the beginning of labor?"  It subsided, thankfully, because as I've mentioned, I'm not ready quite yet for this baby to get here. The cramps did have the effect of kicking Chris into high gear by getting more things ready - he washed the infant car seat fabric and got the Pack N Play out of the garage (although Charlotte immediately stole the three little plush owls that make up the mobile).  I think it was a wake up call that she could be here any day.

Fast forward to this morning.

I had my 38 week check-up this morning.  Not much to report - blood pressure is great, I gained two more pounds, but that's about it. I saw a new doctor today because mine has been on maternity leave for the past six weeks, so I'm being shuffled around a lot.  This doctor was really nice. She asked about my plans for delivering this baby, as in, do I want to go into labor naturally or be induced.  I told her, I would love to go into labor naturally, but that I was willing to go to 41 weeks again.  This gave her pause, given that Charlotte was 9 lbs 9 oz when she was born.  So the doctor did a cervical check, stated that the baby's head was way down low (which explains the horrible pain I get every time I roll over to the other side in the middle of the night) and asked if she could "stretch" me, in hopes that doing so will put me into labor naturally.  I said yes, and oh my gosh, was that painful! But she did end up stretching me to two centimeters, so we'll see if that does the trick.

The doctor said she'd see me at my next appointment on Monday, March 5, and that if I wanted to be induced at 40 weeks, she'd be totally fine with that, or if I wanted to wait longer, that's okay too.  I also think that this baby isn't as big as Charlotte was, and the doctor agrees. However, she said that I have the body type that could hide large babies really easily (i.e., I have a really long torso).

Anyway, that's about it. I'm worn out from this fifteen minute appointment, so I'm going to go sit down and rest. I really hope that we at least have this weekend to get more things done. Plus, the new closets are being installed on Tuesday. And Wednesday is Leap Day, and I certainly don't want my baby born that day! But after that, bring it on! :)

Ups and Downs at 36 Weeks

Today marks one month exactly until my due date, and I'll be officially 36 weeks pregnant tomorrow.  I had my 36 week appointment today, and it's been so hard to be patient.  At my last appointment at 32 weeks, the ultrasound showed that Baby Girl was breech, and I was told that they'd schedule a c-section for me at 39 weeks.  I was both worried and semi-looking forward to a c-section - worried because it's major surgery and sad I would never get to experience spontaneous labor, but looking forward to having a date on my calendar that would only be three weeks away from today.  And for the past four weeks, I have been certain that she was still breech.  I've been feeling most of her movement on my lower right side. I was fully prepared to hear that March 2nd would be her birthday.

Anyway, the nurse practitioner did an internal check and when she couldn't feel the baby's head, she asked her medical assistant to bring in the ultrasound machine.  To my surprise, the baby is, in fact, head down, just way up high.  Her spine was along my right side, which means that she must have just turned over because as I mentioned the kicks were, until recently, down low on the right side. I haven't felt any on the left side yet.

So given the fact that she's head down but not anywhere near engaged, and nothing is happening regarding dilation, I'd say that we're probably headed to a late due date.  On the other hand, I'm measuring exactly at 36 weeks and everything else looks great in terms of blood pressure.  And despite feeling like I've been eating horribly, I only gained four pounds in the last four weeks, so I'm happy about that.

The nurse practitioner gave me my documentation to start my disability leave on Tuesday, February 21 (got to take advantage of being paid for President's Day), which means I'm all set to only have one week of work to go.  I'm feeling much better than I was four weeks ago, but I'm still looking forward to having some time to decompress before the baby gets here and the newborn craziness ensues.

We've also got a lot of things planned to get the baby's room ready before her arrival.  The room is painted. We've scheduled an appointment to get a custom closet built in both the baby's room and Charlotte's room for February 28th (it will be so much better than the current wire shelving).  My mother-in-law sent the crib bedding she made, and it looks amazing.  We've received our wall decals and the beautiful mobile I ordered from Etsy should be here any day.  The one thing that won't be ready by early March is a new glider for the baby's room.  The room has two windows in the far right corner, and because of their size and height, we didn't want any furniture underneath obstructing them.  A low glider will be the perfect thing for that space, but it won't be ready until early April.  Although the glider won't be here in time, I'll be sure to take pictures once the mobile is here and hung up and all the wall decals are in place.

Other than that, I just got word that my dear friend is being induced tonight for her first baby, so I'm excited to meet Baby Berry's future playmate. I hope all goes well for them!

My Body is Trying to Tell Me Something

Yesterday, I hit 32 weeks.  As I've mentioned, I've had an exceedingly easy pregnancy up to this point.  This week? My body started telling me things. Like slow down. Like ease up.

It was a really busy week at work with our quarterly board meetings.  Normally, I get to work at 7:30 and can ease into the morning by checking my email and eating breakfast.  This week, it was go, go, go all day.  Suddenly, after a two hour -long meeting on Thursday, my energy level crashed, and I'd never felt more exhausted. I started seriously worrying about how am I going to continue this level of activity for another four or five weeks? Thursday night was also the first time that I've had any swelling at all. Wow, it's like every third trimester symptom was coming crashing down on me at once.

And then yesterday morning, I was sitting in one of our committee meetings and had about four Braxton Hicks contractions in the span of 45 minutes, and I started panicking, since I know the magic number is at least 4 in an hour.  I immediately wondered if I should go to Labor and Delivery. A co-worker, who has boy-girl twins grabbed her purse and told me she would drive me.  Meanwhile, I called Labor and Delivery, and after hearing my symptoms (no pain, no bleeding) I was told to put my feet up and drink a lot of water.  I work for a healthcare membership association, so one of our board members, who is a family practice physician, came in and also talked me down.  He said it would probably be wise to go home and take a bath and also that it's totally normal for a second pregnancy to get more and more BH contractions.

The same co-worker said she'd drive me home, but I demurred, since I wasn't in any pain, and I didn't want to have to drive all the way back to work to get my car later.  Once I was home, I sat down and tried to relax, although I was still having BH contractions every 10 to 15 minutes.  My OB's office called to inform me that my 32 week appointment was cancelled as my doctor was now officially on maternity leave because she was having contractions, so they rescheduled me with a new OB for a couple hours later.

At the appointment, I had my weight and blood pressure checked, and I knew my blood pressure was much higher than normal. The medical assistant didn't seem concerned, probably because the computers were down and couldn't see that my blood pressure is usually much, much lower.  I talked to the new doctor about my symptoms from the past few days and the stress I've been under at work, and she went ahead and checked to see if I was dilating.  Luckily, I'm not at all.  She also recommended that I have a non-stress test to see if I was actually contracting, so after the normal prenatal exam, I was taken to another room while a nurse hooked me up to the monitors.  I also passed the NST without any problems -- baby girl's heart rate was actually fun to listen to because as she would start moving more, her heart rate would accelerate and then decelerate once she calmed down a bit. But I didn't have a single contraction during that time.  The nurse also did an ultrasound to measure the amniotic fluid, which I guess is now standard practice after an NST.  It was at that time that I confirmed my suspicions that baby girl is still breech (all her kicks have been really low, like she's tap dancing on my bladder).  Finally, I had the nurse retake my blood pressure, which had thankfully gone down since the beginning of the appointment.

Anyway, all this to say, my body is clearing telling me that I need to slow down.  The stress of the new year (combined with the fact that we're severely short-staffed right now) is catching up with me.  It's time to make some changes, like taking some issues off my plate and probably working from home more.  It's hard to say no, but I know I'll be on maternity leave regardless in five weeks, so I might as well start slowing down now.  Thankfully, I have Monday off for Martin Luther King's birthday, but Charlotte has it off as well, so it probably won't be as restful of a day as it could be.  Still, it's better than being at work.

Here Charlotte and I are last Monday (at exactly two months to go):

Third Trimester Already?!

Suffice it to say, this pregnancy has flown by.  Today marks 27 weeks and exactly 3 months to the day until D-Day.  I feel I owe it to this baby girl to document some of this pregnancy. So here's a self-portrait at 27 weeks, taken with my cell phone in our master bath. I think I look much smaller than last time. Or maybe it's because I'm further away in this shot? What do you think? Or maybe I'm just carrying much lower?

I'm feeling great now that I finally had a dose of antibiotics prescribed to me last week.  After 4 plus weeks of hacking all the time, I was dying for some relief.  They seem to have done the trick, as my cough is pretty much nonexistent.  I do, however, have a lot of congestion, but I think that can be attributed to the insanely dry weather and general pregnancy symptoms.  Other than that, this has got to be the easiest pregnancy ever. No back aches, no trouble sleeping, and no swelling (to date).  I do have Braxton Hicks contractions all the flipping time, which are strong enough to stop me in my tracks, but I don't have them more than the troublesome 4 times per hour.  Also, the coughing fits were causing a number of BH contractions, so the OB checked things out, but there is no indication of any signs of pre-term labor. Phew!

So yeah, three months to go.  I feel like we have so much to do before Baby Girl makes her appearance.  We have picked out our paint colors, and Chris' mom is going to sew the bedding.  They're coming out next week, so we can figure out fabrics and all of that.  The plan is this - a light coral/peach paint on the bottom, and a bright vanilla color on top.  The fabric will be a light teal or aqua.  We bought a dresser at fifty percent off when this nice baby store went out of business, so that was really exciting.

Charlotte is getting more excited about having a baby sister.  The other day she was sitting in my lap as I was getting her shoes on, and she felt the baby kick her back in protest. I asked if she felt it, and she said "yeah on my back!"  So I think that made it more real for her.  And she's so cute when she says that her baby sister will use her old crib and some of her old clothes.  She has also named her baby sister.  We read out a list of names we're considering, and Charlotte has glommed on to one name in particular, Phoebe.  We like the name Phoebe obviously, as it was on our list, but I'm not sure it's the name yet.  However, anytime we bring up another possibility Charlotte says "No! Phoebe!"  Uh oh. What have we gotten ourselves into?!

So that's about it!  Next week I have to take the dreaded glucose test again. I just have to remember to give myself enough time between lunch and taking the test so as not to cause what happened last time.  Because the three hour test is NO fun. Think non-sugary thoughts for me! :)

The Never-ending Cold and a Pregnancy Update

So I've had a cold for two weeks now.  Pretty much ever since I got back from Hawaii, I've been sick.  I had these coughing fits that almost caused me to throw up I was coughing so hard, but now it's mainly just congestion and a bad cough.  I wake up each morning feeling like I must have smoked for 20 years, the coughing is so bad (of course I really have no reference point except those episodes of Mad Men when Don and Betty Draper wake up and can't stop coughing).

I had my 23 week appointment on Thursday. I guess I was supposed to go in at 24 weeks, but the medical assistant must have miscalculated when she set up the appointment.  Anyway, everything is going great on the baby-front. I've gained 17 pounds so far, which is at least 5 to 7 pounds fewer than I had at a comparable time last pregnancy, so I think that's a good thing! It must be that I don't have as much time to just sit around, waiting for this baby.  Instead, I've got a very active 2.5 year old to chase around.

Baby girl's heartbeat is strong.  I'm definitely feeling her much more these days, but I think she's still breech (which is totally normal), because I think mostly she's just tap-dancing on my bladder. It's a really strange feeling, especially when I'm driving home from work.  I asked the doctor about the cold. She checked my lungs, my ears, and throat and everything's clear except for the congestion.  She told me to start taking some allergy medicine combined with an expectorant to try and get the congestion to go away.  Otherwise, I'm just stuck coughing until this cold goes away.

I was looking through my blog to compare my pregnancy with Charlotte.  Last time, I had bad back problems, my feet were already swelling from time to time, and I needed a pillow between my legs.  This time? None of those!  I really feel great, apart from some occasional heartburn.  The only time I haven't physically felt great was after I played tennis when we were in Hawaii.  I think I was moving around too much to chase after the tennis ball because the next day I could barely walk!  I guess I forgot about how much lateral movement there is in tennis and how much loosening of joints occurs during pregnancy.  If I play any more tennis before Baby Girl comes it will have to be me just standing there while someone else hits balls directly at me. 

Chris also just set up my bike to make it stationary. I tried it yesterday, but I think the resistance was way too strong because I felt completely winded and exhausted after only about seven minutes.  I also wasn't wearing my padded bike shorts, so it definitely wasn't a comfortable experience! I will have to try again over the weekend.

No belly shots right now, but suffice it to say, I think I've popped. At least that's what everyone else says!

Update and Second Trimester

I can't believe it's already September and I'm exactly six months from my due date! So I've already been out of the first trimester for one or two weeks depending on whose calculation of first trimester you use, but I find so little time to blog when I'm still so tired.  I'm still pretty tired, but feeling pretty good overall.  I would really, really, really like it if I didn't have to keep getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.  That would be awesome.  And I did overdue it yesterday by jogging in the morning - I was feeling pretty crampy for the rest of the day.  The doctor's assistant said that I made my uterus mad and that I should refrain from running anymore.  I'm feeling much better today.

We had the genetic testing ultrasound last week, and it was pretty exciting to see the little peanut stretching his/her legs, moving his/her arm near his/her face, and being jolted by the ultrasound wand.  It really made me feel like I was actually going to have a baby again.  We have a ton of pictures, but I'm just too busy/lazy to actually scan them onto the computer.  Suffice it to say, we think he/she is adorable. :)

We've scheduled the "big" ultrasound for Monday, October 17, so we still have a little over five weeks to go.  I really don't feel like I'm hoping for one or the other - I truly mean it when I say that I would be equally happy with either a boy or a girl.  On the one hand, it would be fun to have a boy, since we already have a girl.  On the other hand, I love my little girl so much and would love to have another.  Chris would like to have a boy since he has all these dreams of playing basketball and baseball with him, but who knows? Charlotte could get into basketball  herself or we could have a boy who has no interest in sports.

As for Charlotte, we are working on our pre-baby list.  We bought her an adorable comforter, pillow sham, and sheet set from Pottery Barn Kids and just today, her new twin mattress and box springs were delivered.  We haven't set it up yet since Chris has to deconstruct the crib first to get it out of Charlotte's room.  We did let Charlotte sleep with her pillow last night, and she was in.love.  Who knew that a "big girl" pillow would elicit such excitement?  I think we're both scared about her actually being in a bed.  We have toddler rails, but I just know it's going to be hard to make her think of the bed as the place to sleep and not have fun.  When we picked out the mattress Charlotte had so much fun running around and flinging herself onto the mattresses. She'd lie down for a second and then pop up and say "Wake up! Wake up!"

We've been trying to coax the idea of getting rid of the pacifier, but it really hasn't worked.  We have a present for her if she agrees to let the "Paci Fairy" take away her pacifier, but to no avail.  Every day she says "Oh popeyes are for babies," but then at night she can't give it up.  Yes, she calls her pacifier a "popeye." We'll keep trying.

The other super fun thing we've started doing is taking Charlotte to gymnastics.  She's in the "tumble-bunny" class for one and two-year-olds, and she absolutely loves it.  It's a parent participation class until the kids turn three, so Chris and I generally take turns wrangling Charlotte.  Charlotte's getting really good at being patient enough to wait her turn on the trampoline (even asking us "my turn now?"), and last week, she even climbed the mini rock wall all by herself.  Charlotte's somersaults have also vastly improved in just three weeks.  The one bad part? She asks if we're going to 'nastics every.single.day, and gets upset when we tell her that it's not Monday yet.  But it sure is fun.

This weekend? I'm hosting Saturday playgroup at our house and then we're hoping to head up to the berry farm on Sunday to do some berry picking.  I've been wanting to go forever, but we had a late spring/winter so the berries weren't even ripe until mid-summer. 

List-mania

First, you know you're pregnant when you're so hungry on the 30 minute drive home from work that you have to stop at a cupcake place and proceed to eat an entire cupcake in your car when it's 95 degrees out.  Seriously, I really need some healthy snacks tucked in strategic places around my car so that I can snack on the way home.

Once I got home yesterday, I demanded that we go out for pizza. I was still starving, despite my cupcake indulgence. But I think the cupcake ultimately was a bad decision because once I ate some salad, I started feeling really nauseated and could barely eat any pizza. Oh well, pizza leftovers for lunch today!

I'm eleven weeks pregnant today.  The past two weeks have resulted in some major stomach expansion. I tried on some pants that fit two weeks ago, only to find that I could barely zip them up.  Luckily, I saved all of my maternity clothes, so out came that trusty belly band.  Also? What am I going to wear to our friends' wedding next week?  I have a dress that fit, albeit tightly, a week ago, but will it still fit a week from now?

Here's a picture of my favorite girl, who, by the way, astounds me by the new words and things she learns every single day.

Little diva says "Cheese" every time we put a camera in front of her, which makes the beginning of videos sound pretty funny

So anyway, I feel like I have a lot to do to prepare for Baby Berry Part Deux to arrive. Here is my list:

• Transition Charlotte to a "Big Girl Bed" - we have the headboard, footboard, toddler rails, and sheets, we just need a twin mattress and comforter. I'm excited about this, but all nervous
• Get Charlotte potty-trained. Seriously. This girl sits on her little potty and exclaims "I did it!," but never actually goes in the potty. She also demands a "tissue pwees" and wipes herself, even though she never goes.  It's pretty cute, but I'm about to get super serious about this one, even if it means extended naked time.
• Get rid of that damn pacifier!  We haven't had any more tantrums about it, but she's still as addicted as ever. She's also addicted to her little baby "banket" but at least that one's not ruining her teeth.
• New furniture for the baby's new room. We were lucky to get all of my old furniture for Charlotte's room, but this means we need a new dresser and bookshelf for the nursery.
• Blackout curtains. The nursery, which is currently unoccupied, gets pretty bright in the morning. The plantation shutters just don't do the job.
• New closet shelving for the nursery. The existing shelving is all white wire and is really impractical. It's hard to hang up anything. Plus it's ugly.
• A lot of organization overall. We have all of our suitcases in the nursery closet, so we'll have to find somewhere for those to go.
• Research strollers that have those handy toddler seats in the back.
• Find a full-time preschool/daycare for Charlotte to start at when she turns 3, thereby opening up her spot for the new Berry at Miss D's.

I guess that's it for now, but it's a lot on the brain, particularly the potty training! 

Shh...

Shh... Come close. I have a secret to tell you.

Actually, I'll let Charlotte tell you.

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She's going to be a big sister!

That's right, Baby Berry 2.0 is on his/her way!  She/he is due on March 9, 2012, so I'm about 9 1/2 weeks along right now.  It's still early, so we're not out of the woods yet, but I had my first prenatal appointment two weeks ago, during which I saw the baby and its strong and steady heartbeat.  They say the chance of miscarriage goes down once the baby's established a heartbeat, so I thought why not divulge it to my small readership?

(Oh and don't you love Charlotte's shirt? I ordered it from a seller on Etsy, purposely in a big size so that it will still fit when the baby comes.  And I can order a matching onesie. Yay! Those poor kids are going to hate being in matching clothes)

I've been feeling pretty good.  No morning sickness, just a crazy heightened sense of smell that has made me avoid the break room during lunch, and exhaustion that causes me to pass out in front of the TV at 8:30 or 9 each night. Seriously, Chris is annoyed that I can never make it through an episode of Mad Men without falling asleep, but I can't help it.  I'd say that apart from the sheer exhaustion, I feel  better even than last time, and I had a pretty easy first trimester the first go around.  The one difference is that I haven't been quite as hungry. Last time around if I didn't eat often enough I would get extremely queasy and shaky.  It's only just in the past couple of days that I've noticed that my appetite has considerably increased.

I still fit in all my clothes, which definitely was not the case when I was this far along with Charlotte. I guess it makes sense, since all my clothes I wear today were purchased post-Charlotte, and I'm down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Point is, I still have room to grow in my pants and shorts for at least a few more weeks.

As I mentioned above, I've had one prenatal appointment so far. It was pretty routine, until the doctor reviewed my information from the last pregnancy.  Because Charlotte was over 9 pounds at birth, I have to be monitored more closely for both regular diabetes and gestational diabetes.  I was so disappointed to learn that I'd have to do a one hour glucose test right away and then again at 28 weeks. So right after my appointment ended, I went down to the lab and drank the disgusting orange glucola drink.  The good news is that I passed it with flying colors, so no three hour test! What a relief.  Let's hope the trend continues at 28 weeks. Oh, and because of Charlotte's enormous birth weight, they're going to keep an eye on how large this baby is too.  It doesn't mean I'll have to be induced early (unless I have gestational diabetes), but it could play a role in how long they'll let me go after the due date passes.


I ask Charlotte every few days if she wants a baby sister or baby brother, and she pretty much consistently says baby sister.  When I ask her boy or girl, however, her response changes every time. Still, I think she's ready to have a baby to read books to.

Here she is reading a Strawberry Shortcake book about Strawberry Shortcake's little sister, Apple Dumpling.

Anyway, there's the exciting news that I've been wanting to share for a while. I just told my new boss today, and her reaction was much better than expected, so I figured there's no reason to keep it a secret. I am, however, going to hold off just a little while longer before posting on Facebook.

Coagulation Trepidation!

I did have a bit of a scare last week. As I mentioned in a previous post, last week was really tiring work-wise. Our organization had its annual lobby day at the State Capitol, and it happened to be over 90 degrees that day. Even though I only was assigned to accompany members on two legislative visits (some of my coworkers went to 10 or more), I was on my feet a lot more than usual. That combined with the 90 degree weather really did a number on my legs and feet.

By the time I got to the Newborn Care class, my feet were as puffy and swollen as I've ever seen them. When I woke up the next morning, my feet were just as swollen as before, and I had pain underneath the left side of my right knee, something I definitely hadn't experienced before. It got more painful as I was walking, particularly walking up and down stairs, or other movements that required me to bend my knee. So I called the doctor's office, explained my symptoms to an advice nurse, and they asked that I come in that afternoon.

The OB, a new one I've been assigned to, checked my leg for varicose veins and felt underneath the leg for blood clots. She didn't feel anything unusual, but asked that I get an ultrasound just to be sure. At the same time, she checked my measurement, and saw that I was measuring at 36 weeks (I was exactly 33 that day), so I may have to get an ultrasound after the next appointment to make sure that my baby isn't gigantic.

However, before I could get an ultrasound scheduled, the ultrasound office required that I get a blood test that can rule out your risk for deep vein thrombosis or DVT (i.e. blood clots). I went down to the lab, had my arm stabbed for the fifteenth time this pregnancy, and off I went. As I've mentioned before, Kaiser has a great electronic health record where you get an email when a new test result has come in. The downside to that is that you find out the information (good or not) well before you get a call from your doctor. Needless to say, my blood test for blood clots came out positive. I found this out at about 9PM on Thursday night, just when I was about to watch The Office. Naturally, I panicked and started researching DVT immediately. I read that pregnant women are more susceptible to blood clots because their bodies coagulate their blood more to prevent (wisely) excessive hemorrhaging when they go into labor. If blood clots are found (via an ultrasound or MRI), pregnant women will receive injections of blood thinners to stop the blood clots. The real concern is if the blood clot moves up the leg and into the lung in the form of a pulmonary embolism.

So much of Friday morning, I was just waiting to hear from my doctor about getting an ultrasound scheduled. Finally, after all my meetings were over, I called Kaiser to demand to know what to do next (ignoring the fact that the pain in my leg had already gone away by this point). Long story short, I was connected to the radiology department, and was informed that I could come on in and get looked at between regularly scheduled appointments.

After waiting in the small ultrasound waiting room for over an hour (and having perused every issue of Southern Decor magazine), I finally had my legs examined. Unlike the ultrasound for the baby, the ultrasound for my legs was PAINFUL! The technician (who happened to be the same curt, no-nonsense tech that did the ultrasound for me at 20 weeks) had to press hard all along the vein in my inner thigh and it boy, did it HURT. Once it was over, the tech had my go back to the waiting room while she consulted the doctor in the ultrasound room. Luckily, nothing showed up and I was told I could go home. My OB called me about an hour later and told me essentially the same thing and that if my leg was hurting, I could use a hot compress to ease the swelling.

Big relief. Of course, once I got home, I googled D-Dimer testing (this is the blood test I had) and pregnancy and realized why the OB hadn't wanted me to have the blood test in the first place and instead go straight to the u/s. If your body is already naturally making coagulation of your blood easier, it makes sense that there would be false positives from the blood test! So I probably worried myself needlessly just because the ultrasound department didn't want to see me until after I had a positive on the D-Dimer test.

Oh and yesterday, my feet came back briefly to say hi. I could actually see tendons and bones and some definition to my ankles! Chris exclaimed, once I pointed them out to him: "Wow, they almost look downright dainty right now!" I'm sad to report, however, that they've gone back in hiding for another 6+ weeks...

Goodbye 1, Goodbye 2, Hello Love*

So today I am officially 27 weeks pregnant and yesterday was exactly three months until my due date. You know what this means? Hello Third Trimester!

And to celebrate, my body has decided to grace me with new, horrible pregnancy symptom #503** -- raging, hellfire and brimstone heartburn! Yesterday was particularly bad and was set off by, what else, my berry oatmeal. Uggh, my esophagus was en fuego almost all morning until it subsided at lunch, at which point I decided to eat Thai food and it started up again. Note to self, pack Tums to have on hand at work!

Anyway, here are my 27 week pictures. 13 weeks to go!

I'm wearing my prenatal yoga clothes, so please don't mind the odd get-up.


No, that is not some grotesque growth on my belly, simply my finger pointing to my belly button, which is halfway to being an outie.

On the good news front, we received my glider/recliner today! I can now watch TV without putting five pillows behind my back. The bad news is that the matching ottoman is out of stock, so I'm using an end table from Ikea to prop up my feet, which isn't very comfortable. Chris put the glider together, and the cats have been very curious. You can lock the glider in place, so it doesn't move, but I am so afraid the kittehs are going to trap their paws in it as it's gliding back and forth.




*This blog title is to the tune of some montage song in the musical Chorus Line, except that the real lyrics are "goodbye 12, goodbye 13, hello love." You get the idea.
**I made the number up, it's probably something small and boring like symptom #10. Still this may be the most annoying symptom yet!

Ah Honey ... Ah Sugar, Sugar ... You Are My Candy Girl...

It has been quite the eventful week for Baby Berry!

Stop Kicking - Your Grandma and I are Trying to Have a Conversation!

First, who spent over an hour in Labor & Delivery this past weekend and in San Diego, no less? This girl! I was in San Diego visiting my parents and my dear friend Kristen, who was in town escaping cold, wintry New England. On Saturday, I woke up with sharp, jabbing pains at the top of my uterus. I thought that it might go away after eating some breakfast, but it lingered. And lingered. After four hours of more or less constant pain, I decided I should call Kaiser and see what to do. The advice nurse transferred me to a L&D nurse, who listened to my symptoms and advised me to head to the nearest Kaiser L&D in San Diego. Of course, literally as soon as I got off the phone with her, the pain stopped. But Mom and I headed to L&D anyway. After registering, which took some time because I'm a Northern California patient and the medical record numbers aren't the same, the triage nurse stuck me in a room and placed the fetal monitoring device on me.

Well of course, as I mentioned, the pain had already gone away at this point, but Mom and I enjoyed hearing that baby girl's heartbeat and the static that would ensue every minute or so when she would kick the monitor. She's one active baby! The providers at L&D were all very understanding though and said it was a good thing I came in. The culprit? Round ligament pain! Apparently, the uterus is not yet done stretching out. The OB on call did a quick cervix check to make sure everything is good in that department and it is. She did annoy me by asking why I would ever have moved from San Diego to Sacramento. I love visiting San Diego, but Sacramento is home now. Plus, I'm not a doctor, so I don't have the luxury of essentially being able to choose where I want to live.

Pregnancy Fun Part Deux!

Last week, I went in to do my one hour glucose test. This involves drinking a sugary Orange Crush-type drink called Glucola, waiting an hour, and then having your blood drawn. It is the first check for gestational diabetes. For some reason, I failed. This then, required that I go back on Monday for the fun-tastic three hour glucose test!

The three hour test required that I fast for 8 to 10 hours the night before the test, come in and have my blood drawn no fewer than 4 times over 3 hours. My arms are nice and bruised from 4 needle sticks. Oh and drink twice the amount of the Orange Crush Drink of Death. As I was not allowed to leave the lab waiting room, I got to witness quite the parade of characters coming in -- from the lady with the six inch foam platform shoes that made her shuffle when she walked to the one year old who would not stop screaming before, during, and after his blood draw and whose mother did absolutely nothing to shut him up.

I was worried about how I would feel after so much sugar coursing through my system on an empty stomach, but it turned out not to be so bad. Baby Berry loved the sugar and spent a good portion of the three hours breakdancing on my bladder!

Kaiser has a wonderful electronic medical record, so as soon as the results were in, I got an email asking to check out my record on their website. Turns out I needn't have worried about the 3 hour test at all. After one hour, I should have had a blood sugar level of less than 180 mg -- mine was at 105, which is well below the level needed after three hours! So I'm in the clear. I don't have the diabeetus! I stole this delightful photo from this woman's hilarious blog I've been reading, so I'm sad to say I can't claim fame to the Wilford Brimley cat caricature.



So hurray! No risk of giant babies, I can still eat carbs and satisfy my insatiable sweet tooth that I've had most of this pregnancy. Bring on the cookies!

Not Hobbit Feet!

So I'm going to use this post to rant about pregnancy.

Overall, it's been a pretty easy pregnancy. I didn't have any morning sickness, I didn't mind going to bed at 8PM and sleeping for 10 hours, and I haven't had any heartburn. I consider myself pretty lucky, given that 75% of women report having had morning sickness.

However, things have started to change now that I'm halfway done. I have some pretty painful back pain, I'm not sleeping that well (I love sleeping on my stomach and I'm only supposed to sleep on my side), and then last night, I encountered the dreaded hobbit feet! Now, real hobbit feet would be hairy, so thankfully that's not the case, but they are huge. My ankles are totally swollen. Blerg.

Tonight I went to my first prenatal yoga class. It was great. Relaxing and good at working on that painful back pain. The women there are in various stages of pregnancy from 20 to 32 weeks, but I believe I'm the only one with swollen feet. They just look disgusting.

Okay, rant over. I know the prize for this is a healthy baby. I just wish my feet didn't have to suffer in the process.