Thursday, August 29, 2013

Pregnancy Update


  • Apparently, all I can manage are bulletpoints - hope you will bear with me!
  • Had an OB appointment this morning. Everything seems to be on track
  • The kiddo's head is down and he will probably stay that way for the rest of the pregnancy (yay!)
  • They did an ultrasound and he's so big that I couldn't really see anything (or much of anything). I saw his head (and BRAINS!), and I saw his heartbeat. His hands were near his face and I'm just so sure that he's going to suck his fingers or thumb when he arrives (both Alex and I did). 
  • The bad news: his feet are right under my ribs. According to the OB, I am "short waisted" (what does that mean?) so I will feel all the "discomforts" of pregnancy sooner than someone "long waisted"? The kid is actually separating the cartilage between my ribs, which is what is causing me so much pain in my side. The only thing they can do? Wait until I deliver. Or give me Percocet (I'm sorry, what? opiates during pregnancy? no thanks, crazy doctors!)
  • The good news is that I can continue doing all the things I have been doing. I was kinda concerned with a pain in my ribs that if I move too much I could really hurt myself. But the doc says I can't really hurt myself or the baby from continuing yoga and swimming, so at least that's good news. 
  • I also have low red blood cell count. This means I am borderline anemic. I kinda thought this might happen since I have very little desire to eat meat (and my stomach is getting smaller and smaller). I eat vegetarian most days, so I guess that's gonna have to change. Eggs for breakfast from now on, methinks. And more red meat (blech!). Luckily, I have enough time between now and delivery to boost my RBCs. The thought of losing 40-50% of my volume of blood is motivating me to overcome my dislike of red meat. 
  • My blood pressure is normal (119/70 - awesome!) and I've gained about 15 pounds total (give or take), which seems pretty reasonable to me. I've got about 8 weeks left, so we will see how much more weight I gain. 
  • The doc told me something neat today. Every time I go in, they measure from the top of my public bone to the top of my baby bump - apparently, that measurement (in cm) should equal how many weeks along you are. Right now, I'm almost 33 weeks, and the size was 33cm! She said I would get to 40cm at delivery, so only 7cm (about 3 inches) more to go. Crazy. 
  • This weekend starts the first of our baby classes. We have an "Infant Safety Class" on Saturday, and then a Newborn Care class next weekend. Then, it's all the childbirth prep classes. Should be a great time!
  • I had my maternity leave meeting with my benefits people. Most of the things I have to do to get disability and benefits are pretty reasonable. They even gave me an estimate of how much I'll be getting paid, which is really nice. Although, it's not likely to be enough, considering that we live in the most expensive place on earth. Good lord.

1 comment:

  1. Make sure to look into CA State leave as well. I was able to keep my same salary with Casey for all three months of leave because my work didn't provide maternity leave pay.

    ReplyDelete