Pregnancy Update # 8

Today was my 24 week check up with the Midwife. It was just your basic check up! Everything looks great and the baby is growing on schedule! My blood pressure is fantastic at 118/60! My weight is the same as it was 4 weeks ago. My urine was negative for both Glucose and protein. My fundus height was 24 cm which is right on schedule for my gestational age of 24 weeks. And of course we listened to the baby's heart rate. He was sleeping so it was in the 130s which is normal. My Midwife also drew my blood again for a thyroid panel. My last blood draw was a month ago and the results were within the recommended limits. My Thyroid Dr did not make any changes to my medications.

My Midwife also received the U/S report. Everything looks great on the report. Baby is breech at this point, but at this early in the game he will most likely flip over and get into position in the next 1-2 months. The U/S report also moved my due date up by a week making me due Sept 29th instead of October 6th. Which of course is all relative since I think my due date is the 4th. First U/S put my due date at Oct 4th which agreed with my dates. The October 6th date is the one that the Midwife came up with using her little pregnancy wheel thing using my LMP (date of last period). But as we all know... Baby decides anyway! So they can put their little dates where ever they feel like it and somehow the baby just knows when he is ready to be born! I will most likely blow all 3 "due dates" and go to the 11th or something crazy like that anyway! My Midwife told me I slow cook my kids kinda like a crock pot, instead of a microwave.

We talked briefly about the birth plan. We are still planning a home birth and since the U/S report shows baby is healthy and my placenta is out of the way of my cervix, all is set for us to continue that plan. We are very excited! Kaleb has expressed interest in helping Tim cut the cord once our baby is born. The midwife is on board with making our birth the most family centered experience she can while keeping both the baby and myself safe. She did say that some kids say they want to help and then at the moment of birth get scared or nervous. It left me with something to think about and to also talk to Kaleb about so he knows he doesn't HAVE to do anything he doesn't want to do. Thankfully the cord cutting can be delayed for a bit after the birth, so he can get settled in and all before he has to "preform". We will just see how he feels on D day!

I have been feeling really good overall. Usually by 20-22 weeks in previous pregnancies I have had pelvic and pubic bone pain. Mostly my sciatica starts to act up and keep me in lots of pain. Thankfully this time around I am just now starting to feel little twinges of pan in my hips and my pubic bone. Sometimes if I am in one position for too long or am doing a repeating motion my pubic bone feels like it is on fire. It is such an odd sensation of burning and pain.

I mentioned this discomfort to my Midwife and she suggested Physical Therapy or seeing a Chiropractor. But of course getting that done requires a referral from my primary Dr. I plan to call tomorrow to get an appointment with my primary Dr. Sometimes I really hate Insurance company hoops. But I guess I should be happy to be insured!

So my next appointment is in 4 weeks. At this appointment I will have to decide if I want to do the glucose screening or not. I am still debating on whether I want to do it. 3 pregnancy so far and I have always passed with flying colors. I have a bit more research to do on it though, before I decide. I will also have my blood drawn for another Thyroid panel, a iron level, and to screen for RH antibodies. I believe I will also get my 28 week Rhogam injection.

After this 28 week appointment I go from seeing my midwife every 4 weeks to seeing her every 2! It is hard to believe I am almost to the 3rd trimester.

I have also started to gather all my supplies for my home birth. I have a few more things to get and I still need to organize it all for the birth, but I am marking things off my to do list! One of the things we needed to figure out before baby is born is where are we gonna store his baby clothes and things. So over the weekend we hit a few Garage sales and found a 6 drawer dresser for $20. It fit perfectly in Mason's room. So Mason will use it and the baby will use Mason's old dresser. All the kids so far have used the same dresser as infants and then as they got older they graduated to a new (or new to them ) dresser. The dresser they have all used is one my Grandma Jean gave to my Mom who gave it to me. I have painted it and added some prettier knobs to it over the years, but it is kinda cool to have the baby's first dresser come from my Grandma. I wish she was still with us so she could see and know my beautiful children. But her memory lives on in stories such as the one about the dresser.