our little man

10.12.2006

36 week appointment

i had my appointment this morning and got the green light for our trip this weekend. what a relief. obviously, being 9 months pregnant, we all knew it was possible that something weird could happen and i wouldn't be able to make it, but i never really entertained the idea that it could actually happen... but in the last week or so, i've been nervous about it - so it was good to hear that the doctor was fine with me travelling.

i saw dr. bitler this time (i think she's my favorite at the practice, although i still haven't met the new ob - i'll meet her next week). she started with a quick measure of my belly and a listen to the heartbeat (145 bpm). then she did a quick internal exam. i've dilated to 1 centimeter, but she said that the baby is still pretty high (he's low, believe me, but he hasn't actually dropped into my pelvis yet - which would mean i was probably a lot closer to delivery) and she doesn't anticipate me going into labor in the immediate future... so i should be just fine for the weekend trip. she did give me some of the same tips that dr. van gundy has talked about last week - frequent stops to get up and move during the driving and keeping well hydrated. otherwise, just try to relax as much as possible. she also said not to worry about getting a copy of my records; if for some reason i did end up in the hospital down there, all i need to do is call and they can access my records 24 hours a day and just have them faxed down. the less i have to worry about remembering and taking with me, the better - so that sounded good.

she also let me know that i tested negative for group b strep. dr. van gundy had done that test last week... it's just a simply swab for a culture, similar to a pap test, that checks for a common type of bacteria that many women have at some point in their lives. there's no risk for carrying it, but if the baby is exposed during birth, it can cause serious complications if they contract the infection. so, a simple test is given near the end of pregnancy and if the test comes back positive, they simply administer iv antibiotics during labor to protect the baby. it's not a big deal, but i'd certainly rather not need the iv and meds - so it was good to hear that the test was negative.

all else was fine - blood pressure still looking great and my weight is still on the right curve. i've certainly gained more than i had with sophie, but because of the restricted gd diet, i gained a lot less than a typical pregnancy with her - and so i fully expected to gain more this time. i'm about 25 pounds up from my pre-pregnancy weight right now, which is right in the normal range at this point. i was also told today to expect a bigger baby than sophie was. i've been expecting this already, since my uterus has measured on the bigger side all along and i can just tell that he's been bigger than sophie was - but she guessed that as of right now he's probably somewhere between 6 and 6 and a half pounds. sophie was only 6 pounds and 15 ounces when she was born, so he's certainly going to be bigger. but like i said, i already expected that.

i go back in a week for another appointment. it will be interesting to see how i've progressed by then. with sophie, i wasn't 1 centimeter until 38 weeks, and from that point i seemed to progress about a centimeter a week. we'll see...

posted at 12:46 PM by aimee // 0 comments