Thirty-two Weeks

I saw my OB on Friday, and we agreed that my back pain would not be helped by returning to work. Therefore, my leave has been extended to April 18th and will be extended again after that. I am relieved.

We talked about how big Michaela is measuring. Between Monday's ultrasound and the measurement of the fundus yesterday, she is about two weeks ahead. I expressed to Dr. S that I do not want a nine or ten pound baby, and I asked her if we could keep that in mind as we get closer. She said yes, and that she would check with Dr. I (her partner) and the hospital to make sure that it would be okay to induce before Michaela grew to be nine pounds or more.

In two weeks, I will need to start going to the hospital every three or four days for Fetal Non-Stress Tests (NST). This is something the perinatalogist had mentioned to me on Monday. A NST is:

The test involves attaching one belt to the mother’s abdomen to measure fetal heart rate and another belt to measure contractions. Movement, heart rate and “reactivity” of heart rate to movement is measured for 20-30 minutes. If the baby does not move, it does not necessarily indicate that there is a problem; the baby could just be asleep. A nurse may use a small “buzzer” to wake the baby for the remainder of the test. (from americanpregnancy dot org)

The reason for this is due to my "advanced maternal age". Whatever, I don't care. I just want everything to be all right with the baby and I don't see how this type of monitoring could hurt.

I have begun to pack my hospital bag.

Packages have been arriving from friends and family for the baby.

My first baby shower is tomorrow.

So it really does feel like I'm in the home stretch now, but there's still a lot to do in the nursery. Somehow it will all come together...