34 Weeks

•How far along are you? 34 Weeks

•How big is baby?: At my sono yesterday they estimated he was exactly 6 lbs.  WHOA!  That's almost the size of Emily when she was born.  I really have no idea how he has gotten so big (or how he thinks he's going to get out :) )?  Maybe all the bed rest and all the stuff they have given me to stop me from going into labor??  The funny thing is my belly is measuring at exactly 34 weeks, so without the sono's we would have no idea he was so big.  He must be really scrunched in there. 

•Maternity clothes: All maternity clothes.

•Gender: BOY!! Evan Michael Baxter.

•Sleep?: Between getting up every 2-3 hours to pee and just being overall uncomfortable, I'm not sleeping well at all.  And my mind races at night.  All I can think about is when is he going to come.

•Best moment this week?: Getting to see Evan one last time on the sono and having a fun weekend with friends. 

•Movement?: Still lots of movement. The sono tech joked with me yesterday that she couldn't believe how active he still was.  She said for his size and the number of weeks he is, they usually start slowing down on their activity.  Not my boy!  He's still kicking his mama as hard as he can.  As long as he gets all his energy out now because I'm expecting a super easy baby once he arrives.  :)

•Food cravings?: Still fruit and popsicles

•Food aversions?: None really anymore.

•What I miss: At this point. . .not having to make weekly trips to the hospital.

•Symptoms: Not sleeping well, being uncomfortable, braxton hicks contractions, and awful heartburn (pepcid is taken daily now).

•Milestone: Making it another week with Evan safe and sound in my tummy. Also surviving my NINTH week of bedrest! Only 2 more weeks of bedrest . .please hurry!!!

I had an NST and sono appt on Monday afternoon.  I pretty much got bad news all around.  I'm not sure I've ever been so nervous before an appt.  Maybe I just knew I was going to get bad news.  I started with the NST and I had contractions all over the place.  I wasn't feeling most of them, but that didn't matter.  When the nurse came back after 20 minutes to look at the strip, she just said "woah, that's not good."  I felt like that alone was going to send me over to L&D.  But I still had the sono to go, so I was at least hoping for some good news there.  Well, I got even more bad news there.  They took measurements and my cervix only measured 1.8 cm. 2 weeks ago it was 2.4 cm.  In a normal pregnancy it should be between 3- 3.5 cm at this point.  I was very disappointed to see it get under 2.  That just means the contractions are actually causing changes.  Then they measured the fluid around the baby, it's still on the high side.  They really have no idea what this means, so hopefully it's nothing.  Oh and Evan is still head down (he has been for months - he wants out!) I met with the dr. after my sono and she did an exam and I'm now 1 cm dilated.  Just more confirmation that the contractions are indeed causing changes.  I knew my fate was pretty much sealed, but I was still hoping for a miracle and that she wouldn't send me to L&D.  I was wrong.  So off I went to get hooked up the monitors and get another terb shot to stop the contractions.  Thankfully I only needed 1 shot to get them to stop.  I dread these shots as they make me feel like my heart is about to come pounding out my chest, so I was glad to only need 1.  After about 4.5 hours of monitoring, I was finally released to come home (back on bed rest).  I couldn't have been more happy to be back at home.  I was worried I was going to be stuck in the hospital permanently after all the bad news I got.  I do have to go back for another NST appt on Thursday, so I'm really hoping for some good news.  The dr. wants me to make it 2 more weeks.  So right now that's my only goal.  I hope I can make it!  Oh and my dr. also suggested taking calcium and magnesium supplements to help with contractions (in addition to the procardia I'm already on).  She said it's not medically proven, but sometimes they have been shown to help.  At this point, I'm willing to try anything.  So I started on them tonight.  I figure what's a few more supplements to bulk this boy up.  :)