35 weeks....

I am so close to seeing you Taylor that I can hardly stand it! I am trying to enjoy these last few weeks because I know I will miss being pregnant, but it's so hard! The anticipation of your birth, who you will look like, and holding you for the first time is so overwhelming! But most of all I just pray that your arrive healthy :)

This weeks doctor appointment went fairly well! Grandma watched your brother's so that daddy could actually be there, he has not been to an appointment since we found out you were our little girl. Really I wanted him to come just to keep me company during the NST!

This time during the ultrasound they did all the measurements and not just a fluid checked. She said you are around 6 1/2 lbs and everything looked great! We were even able to get some really awesome 3D picture's this time. Daddy said you were showing off because he was there ;)




The NST went smoothly and you were as happy as ever! It was nice to have someone to talk to for that half hour instead of just staring at the wall!

Then we seen the doctor. She said that you and I are doing great and everything seems to be chugging along down the right path. I asked her about the cyst because it has been bothering me and causing some discomfort, so she asked if I would want her to go ahead and just try to drain it. Of course I did. So that's what happened, she used a needle to drain it and sent off all kinds of tests on it, just to cover all bases. She even at one point said it was a little bizarre, which makes daddy and mommy a little nervous. So were just hoping that all the tests come back fine. She opted out of checking me to see if I dilated anymore for risk of introducing an infection to you. She did say that there is a chance that the cyst could fill back and then we would have to drain it again. I am praying it doesn't because it was extremely painful to have it drained.

Today we had a little party (get together) for Timothy for his birthday. One of mommy's good friends Kelly bought you the cutest little outfit I just have to share! Another reason why I can't wait for you to be here, so I can put all these adorable outfits on you!


I actually have a busy week coming up. We have a baby shower and our weekly doctor's appointment! So until then we will keep chugging forward!

34 weeks

Well I actually had a pretty eventful week! I started not feeling very well early in the week. Very tired, a little nauseous,headaches, sore, extreme pelvic pressure, abdominal pain, I had it all! Well I just took it day by day knowing I had a doctor's appointment on Monday. To me it felt like you had dropped, so I figured that's why I was feeling different especially the pressure.

SO on Monday I had my appointment, the ultrasound and NST went well. I still had plenty of fluid and you looked great. She said we will measure to see how big you are next week...I'm really excited to see how much you have grown! We were even lucky enough to get a few 3D pictures of your face, which we haven't been able to get before because of how squished you are and your position. My blood pressure was 134/92 which is a little high, but not too bad.




I then met with the doctor and talked with her about the pressure and such and she decided to do a pelvic exam to see what was going on. And boy am I glad I had that done because I was not expecting to hear what she was about to say. While doing the exam she did say I was indeed 1 cm which isn't uncommon in a third pregnancy...with Mason I was a 3 for about a month before I was induced. But that was not the shocking news....she also found a cyst in my vagina. She said it is pretty large, like the size of a grape. Now I know cysts are pretty common and usually are nothing to worry about, but I couldn't help worrying. I had never had any of these kinds of problems. She did look it over and tried to determine what it was attached to and such (sorry if TMI) and it was really sore to the touch. She said she could just put a needle in it and drain it and then I would be good to go, but because of all the extra blood flow down there when your pregnant there were a lot of blood vessels in it. She was afraid to pop it because of the bleeding. She she had me look at it with a mirror and touch it so I knew how big it was ( I know..again TMI) so that I would be able to tell if it grew. So now I have to monitor it and make sure that between now and my next doctor's appointment it doesn't grow otherwise I have to go in and have it drained. UGH..as if I didn't have enough to stress over.

The doctor did say that this could be part of the pressure I am feeling since it was large, it may cause some of my discomfort. Ever since then I have done nothing but worry about this darn cyst, but good news I actually think it's getting smaller. I may have popped it a little on my own by just walking. Daddy is a little grossed out by all of this LOL!

I am still having Braxton Hicks contractions, and they actually started to get pretty uncomfortable on Tuesday. I was staring to get a little worried that maybe the pelvic exam jump started labor or something. Just really crampy and uncomfortable. The pain was going all the way to my lower back. I made it to bed and decided to see if these "contractions" would keep me up, if they did I would go in and be checked again. But I woke up the next morning and was actually feeling better. So hopefully they were just practice.

Lets take it easy baby girl...we only have around 3 weeks until full term and 5 weeks at the most until you are probably here.

Here is some humor at my expense to lighten things up. I am at the point now where I fit into nothing...not even my maternity clothes fit. This is odd to me since at the doctor I have not really been gaining any weight, hmm figure that one out. It must all be baby ;) Well the other day I was in a hurry to get ready and grabbed a pair of jeans out of the dryer, ran to the bedroom and began to put them on...to my surprise I could barely get them up much less buttoned and zipped up. These were the one pair of jeans that I thought actually fit. Well turns out they were not mine at all but Tim's...yes you read that right I could not even get daddy's jeans on. Not that I'm calling him fat or anything, but he is bigger than me..or so I thought! Oh well it actually made me chuckle a little!

Yep you guessed it.....33 weeks!

I'm beginning to feel like a broken record when I say that I don't have much to report on this week and that nothing real exciting happened. Although I guess that's kind of a good thing, we don't want anything too exciting to happen HA!

I did have another doctor's appointment on Monday that went pretty routinely. I had the ultrasound first and all she was checking was the fluid level. She said they will not check your growth every week, but every 3 weeks. If they check every week it will look like you are not growing since, that slows down towards the end. Fluid looked great, you have plenty :) She quickly peeked at your organs and those looked great as well. So we got an A+ this week! She snapped me a few pictures to take home. I got two of your sweet little face, and one of your little foot and toes. Which by the way is pushed right up against my ribs, I can totally tell you are running out of room!


Speaking of feet in the ribs...I think you have moved slightly because I have not had any rib pain in a little over a week :) So if your foot was in my ribs, thanks for moving them!

OK back to the doctor appointment. I then had that pesky NST. You were actually not as active as last time, but I figured it was because this appointment was in the afternoon and last week it was early in the morning. You tend to be more active in the morning. But nonetheless you passed :) I have to return yet again next week for the same thing, so just keep it up!

The other day I did experience some severe pressure and pelvic pain which I haven't had too much of a problem with. I was actually having trouble walking, but I forced myself out of the house and actually felt better once I was up and moving around. Another reason why I'm pretty sure you are starting to move down or "drop" as they say!

I also finally got together with my friend Laura to discuss the music assisted childbirth. I actually had a great time, and she gave me some really great information that I think will really help me to achieve my natural birth. So now I just need to get my music together on the IPOD so we will be all ready to go. I am getting excited about this birth which is weird to me, I mean I am still a little nervous, but I feel so much more prepared for what my body will go through.

Dr. Day has already mentioned getting me to 39 weeks and then inducing, which I really do not want, but I have a feeling it will be inevitable with the blood pressure. I'm hoping next week I can discuss my plan for a natural childbirth and hopefully we are able to try other ways to induce labor besides the pitocin if it does come down to needing to induce! I think my only fear right now is that if I do need pitocin then the contractions will be so unbearable that I will give in the the epidural. It doesn't help that my labor with the boys were both induced with pitocin and the contractions were horrible.

For being so cramped in there I still feel you moving around so much. Mostly I feel it really low where your head and hands are. This feeling is one of the greatest things about pregnancy! The one thing I will truly miss when you are born. There is just something so amazing about feeling life move inside you, it brings a smile to my face :)

I will close for now. I can hardly wait to meet you Taylor! Keep growing!

Love,
Mommy

ultrasound, non-stress test, Dr. appointment, OH MY! (32 weeks)

Well the weekly ultrasounds and non stress tests started this week! They make for very long doctor appointments, NO FUN! Except the ultrasounds, I always enjoy those :) But I guess we should start at the beginning before my doctor's appointment.

I started having really bad rib pain this week. Like so bad it hurt to breath, cough, laugh, bend over, sometimes to walk. It really felt like a broken rib would but I was pretty sure It wasn't broken, but bruised most definitely. This would be because I was starting to bruise on the outside, yes you read that right, not a big dark bruise but one nonetheless. I did some research and found that this is actually common in pregnancy and could be because of your position and it may be foot stuck inside my ribs or just you pushing up against them!! I knew you were head down so I figured that must be the problem. At my doctors appointment I mentioned this problem although by this day, it actually was feeling better...go figure. She said she also believes it was the position and to just let her know if it occurs again. So for mommy's sake could you lay of the rib, literally ;)


Monday was my doctor's appointment. I was scheduled for the ultrasound at 9:30AM, then the NST immediately after that, and then finally to see the doctor. The ultrasound went very well, you are still measuring a week ahead which is where you have consistently been measuring so that's great! All the organs and heart rate looked great, and your fluid was good. She did try to peak at your gender just for a added peace of mind but you are so cramped in there already we could not see. But that's OK because I know you are a girl :) We did get a pretty good face shot and I could see hair, quite a bit too!! I am so excited. I was hoping you had a lot like your brothers so I could but bows and such on you. You are still head down, so just stay put!


The non-stress test went perfectly too. You are a very happy little girl and were all over the place. Actually had trouble keeping you on the monitor you were moving so much! I even got to hear you with the hiccups, which is always fun to feel, but even funnier to hear! So..you PASSED! Way to go baby girl!

I will go back next Monday for the same thing. So I guess until then behave yourself!

I LOVE you,
Mommy

31 weeks down....7-10 to go!

Time must be getting away from me, maybe its the pregnancy brain, either way I forgot to post last week so I will just combine it with this week! I'm sure not anything really important or interesting happened anyway ;)

I am still working on overcoming the exhaustion, but that's not that easy with your two brothers tearing the house apart! The doctor did say I was slightly anemic, but that she does not want me to take iron pills because then I will have a whole new list of problems to deal with. I think I will just try to rest as much as I can :)


I have always heard pregnant woman talk about pregnancy dreams and I never really paid much attention to my dreams when I was pregnant, but I have really noticed them lately! I almost always wake up and vividly remember my dream/nightmare, almost too much. You know the kind where you wake up and feel strange all day like things really happened that didn't. Always puts me in a funk.


I am going to be getting together with a friend of mine who is a music therapist and has training in music assisted childbirth to talk about how that can help me achieve my goal of a natural delivery! I am super excited! I am also going to be borrowing a book and CD on Hypnobirthing from another friend and I'm hoping I will be able to use some of those techniques as well!


Some of my friends and family have been teasing me about my natural childbirth and about my "birth plan" its kind of funny to see how times have changed! I don't take any of it person! My mom keeps reminding me about my previous 2 births and how I planned to go pain med free and how I begged for medicine once the pain started. I just keep saying "Yes mother, but hopefully this time I can do it" and I know I can but I am also not naive enough to think that I will not cave in and take the drugs. But once again the goal is to control my pain and not let it get out of hand. Eh we will see how that goes! I think I will be needing a sign like this for my door when I am in labor HA HA!!


That's it for now, I will update next week after my doctor appointment!

Love,
Mommy