35 weeks

Well, little miss gave us quite a scare on Friday. Ben stayed home with a cough that he picked up in San Diego, so I drove into work by myself, feeling fine. Within a half hour, I was noticing some shortness of breath, blurred vision, dizziness, etc. I was in a meeting, trying to look down at my phone to text Ben about how I was feeling, and couldn't focus on the buttons - everything was spinning. I left the meeting to get a glass of ice water and leave a message with the nurse line, expecting them to give me the typical, "it's normal, drink water and rest," song and dance, but instead the nurse sounded concerned and asked me to come in. So, I grabbed my things, told my boss I'd probably be back within an hour or two, and headed to my appointment - still feeling pretty awful. The non-stress test revealed that baby was fine, but I had now progressed to vomiting from the pressure and headache from the dizziness, so the doctor felt like it was necessary for me to be checked out at the hospital. Ben met me there, and they quickly got me back into a bed, hooked up to fetal monitoring, contraction monitoring and blood pressure monitoring, gave me an IV and did some blood work. Dr. Segal was on-call, whom I love, and he started throwing around words like "pre-eclampsia" and "pulmonary embolism". As scary as it was, it was honestly reassuring to know he was being as thorough as possible and not just waving me off with normal pregnancy wear and tear. Needless to say, we were there for 13+ hours before finally being told that the culprit is most likely the baby putting pressure on my diaphragm and I'm probably just going to have to deal with these symptoms for the coming weeks. Awesome. But the silver lining was that the whole ordeal gave us a taste of what the hospital experience is going to be like, and it kicked us into gear to get things done to prepare for whenever she does come. And of course, the only thing that matters is that she is fine (heart rate never dipped below 150) and I am - seemingly - fine as well. No high blood pressure, my cervix isn't dilated, everything appears normal. I have a follow-up appointment this afternoon but I'm not sure how much they can actually tell me or do for me at this point.

Whew, that was long. Onto our 35 week recap!

1. How far along? 35 weeks today!
2. How big is baby? According to What to Expect, she's still the size of a large cantaloupe and still 19-22 inches long, but now weighs as much as 6lbs. These next few weeks, she'll be packing on the pounds - and it shows, my belly is getting huge! I have a feeling she's pretty long because Dr. Segal did a vaginal exam on Friday and could feel her head, while I'm still feeling feet pushing on my ribs (hence the shortness of breath). 

   

   luckily it's just one cantaloupe in my belly!

3. Weight gain? As of Friday, still 16 lbs. Judging by how my belly looks this week, I feel like that's going to go up today. The nurse did comment on some swelling in my legs (even though I can't tell by looking at them), so I've started taking my rings off at night just in case.
4. Stretch marks? None, but I did find a gross, dark spider vein on the back of my knee. The kind that fat people have. I'm officially fat.
5. Maternity clothes? Today is a regular-clothes kinda day - linen pants (with an elastic waist!) and a v-neck t-shirt from target. I even wore my favorite pre-pregnancy jeans on Friday - buttoned, zipped and comfortable. I know, I was as shocked as you are.
6. Sleep? Well, last night was terrible. I've been so blessed to still be able to sleep 5-6 hours at a time without having to get out of bed, but last night I had horrible heartburn, Ben was snoring, and I was tossing and turning until 4am, pleading with God to please, just let me rest and I promise not to ask for anything else this week. Lesson learned: no more chili cheese fries for me.
7. Best moment last week? I had such a sweet mother's day weekend, Ben really went overboard on spoiling me. He detailed my car and installed the car seat on Saturday, then Sunday I woke up to breakfast in bed and some pool-related gifts for me and the girl (did I mention we're joining a pool for the summer?! so excited!), and the sweetest hand-written card that made me cry. We had lunch with his family, and they brought over a huge bag of gifts - including news that our stroller has been ordered! I feel so great about having pretty much everything we need for her arrival. Ben & his dad installed a new ceiling fan and the Ben made dinner for me Sunday night - it was such a great weekend of being taken care of, I'm such a lucky gal.

   

   so weird to see this every time I look in my rear view mirror

8. Food cravings? Still wanting spicy, Indian food but I'm holding out until 37 weeks - I know it's an old wive's tale, but you never know!
9. Symptoms? Still lactating (so weird) but not enough to worry about during the day. Slight leg swelling / cramping at night. The past few days I've had some pretty rough butt, hip and lower back pain, which has been no fun. 
10. Exercise? Really looking forward to yoga this week, to hopefully help with the butt pain. Need to start walking in the evenings to get this little girl down and away from my ribs!
11. Movement? No real changes here.
12. Belly button? About the same. I'm still trying to wear tanks under everything so you can't see it through my shirt.
13. What I miss? Sleep, being comfortable, bending over, normal life.
14. Labor signs? I was having contractions Friday - ones that I could feel and showed up on the monitor! I panicked a little but Dr. Segal said it's nothing to worry about as long as they're not coming with any kind of regularity, which they weren't. The vaginal check revealed that her head is down, cervix is soft but still closed.
15. What I'm looking forward to? Hmm... we don't really have anything planned for the remaining weeks! Which is awesome, so hopefully I'm looking forward to sleep, resting with my feet up, etc. I painted the letters to hang above her crib, so I think this weekend I'm looking forward to hanging up those and some framed prints on her walls - getting the nursery to a point that I can post pictures for all of you :) Oh, and finishing packing all our bags and installing the other base in Ben's car. I'm not letting it be put in until his vehicle is clean as well - sorry Lucy, no more car rides for you, little lady.  Speaking of Lucy, I think she knows something is up. She has been getting on the furniture lately, which she's NEVER been allowed to do at our house. Not sure if it's just in follow-up to staying with Ashleigh and Scott for a few days, but it's driving us crazy. 

the scarf is misleading
the belly is now starting to stick straight out!