34 Weeks Dr's Appointment

Yesterday Chris and I went to our 34 week appointment to have a check up and find out what to expect with all of this preterm labor business. Yesterday was 34 weeks and we hit a crucial milestone in her development, so that is great! At the beginning of the visit we recapped our hospital visit and the Doctor, not my normal Dr.- Dr. J, said that if I had her tomorrow she would be just fine. She may have to spend a few days in the NICU and may be a bit small but babies born at this time generally do very well. He also gave us very little hope of reaching 40 weeks and said we could "hopefully squeak out a few more weeks!" With me contracting the way that I am, it could be tomorrow or it could be a few weeks from now so get ready all!!!=)

Of course, none of us get to make a decision about when she comes but as long as she is healthy, that is all that matters to us! He said that even if I started having very regular, more intense contractions today that they probably wouldn't do much to stop things. He said it was better, however, if she could bake a bit longer though and we agree!!! That is what we want!! They really have no idea why this is happening to us, which isn't a great comfort... I would like to know why my 40 weeks has turned into 30-some-odd weeks.... but oh well! Once again, I'm not the one making the decisions, so I am going to roll with it and just get ready for her arrival!!!

When we left the hospital they put me on a medicine to stop the contractions, but it had some ugly side effects. I had a headache, was super jittery, my heart rate was sky high, and worst of all- I COULD.NOT.BREATHE! I had already told Chris that I was not taking the medicine again unless I was at the hospital so I could get some oxygen... I felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest! After telling the Dr. this he said not to take it anymore, it was probably doing more harm than good! This was music to my ears! If I had any more serious bouts with contractions I would have a) dealt with it and taken the medicine or b) gone straight to the hospital, but I seriously couldn't take the medicine anymore and I am glad that I don't have to!

Overall, Dr. J. said that the baby was measuring just fine and said we would do an ultrasound at the next appointment, 36 weeks, to check on her position again. If she is still breech we will schedule a c-section. If we go in to labor-labor again and go to the hospital we will do an ultrasound then and decide where to go from there. She is still flipping around in there and mostly goes from breech(head up) to transverse(side-to-side) and this little one loves to move!

So there is really nothing we can do at this point but prepare! I am a planner and all of my little "lists" that everyone laughs at me for are proving very useful! My mother is coming to town later this afternoon and we are going to do some packing and finish up a few things. I still need to go pick up a few "having a baby" essentials so I'm glad I won't have to go shopping alone, since the contractions really slow me down sometimes;-) Hopefully by the time that Mom leaves on Sunday I will have everything done that I needed to get done... and that will be such a relief!!!

When I was laying in the hospital on Friday night and they couldn't stop the contractions I thought, "what if this is it?? I am not ready and we only get one shot at bringing her into this world and making all of those first precious memories!!" (I was also thinking, Dear Lord just please help her to be ok;-)- just so there is no confusion!!!) So I am going to try to get everything as ready as possible! Most importantly, I need to get the camera ready!!!;-) You know this poor child is going to have a ton of pictures taken of her during her first few days and I cannot wait to share with everyone!

But, hopefully not for another 3-6 weeks:-)