Making Memories of Us: 32 & 33 Weeks...Starting twice a week doctors visits

July 18 & 25, 2013

Baby news: Our baby is 17.5 inches and 4.75 pounds!

How far along? 33 weeks- I can't believe we are in the single digit weeks countdown!

Total weight gain/loss: 15 pounds....I'm going to blame it on the Italian and Mexican food we ate in the same weekend. =)

Sleep: Still not sleeping great, but there are more good nights than bad. I started back to work last Monday, so I have been sleeping better since then. I think the early mornings and less rest during the day has lead to better sleeping at night. I feel asleep at 11pm a few nights this week, which hasn't happened in a few weeks.

Best moment this week: Last Tuesday, we had a baby shower at Christus St. John's Sports Med, where Eric works. His coworkers gave a wonderful shower for us and another girl he works with. They had lunch, games and spoiled us with wonderful gifts for Madison. We are so lucky that he works with such a great group of people!

Cravings: I still really don't get many cravings. We were watching The Bachelorette last week and one of the guys had a snow cone truck. As soon as it came on, Eric knew what was coming...I was on a snow cone kick this summer, but I haven't felt the need to get one since we watched the show.

Movement: Madison's movement has been a little worrisome the past 2 weeks. She seems to be behaving herself a little better during week 33 than week 32. More to come at the bottom....

Wedding rings/Swelling: Wedding rings are still on. I really hope I can keep wearing them...it feels very weird when I don't have them on. My feet have been a little swollen this week at the end of the day since going back to work. It has been kind of comical to look at them.

Mood: I started back at work last week, so I have definitely seen a difference in my energy level. It's always a little weird the first week back at school, trying to wrap your head around the new year. It was a productive week and I'm starting to feel like I'm in the swing of things.

My mood has been a little all over the place the past 2 weeks! I have started to see a little more ups and downs, crying and worry. Eric has been very kind dealing with the crazy lady!

Looking forward to: This weekend, Leslie, Georgina, Carol and Heather are throwing a baby shower for Madison and me! I can't wait to see everyone at the shower. We are also going to have Brandi, Drew and their little boy Tripp come stay with us this weekend. My Aunt Donna, Uncle Mike and MeMe are going to stay with my parents. Looking forward to seeing everyone and celebrating Miss Madison!

Anything Else?? This pregnancy has gotten a little exciting in the past 2 weeks! During the weekend of week 32, I felt really sick to my stomach for a few days. I ended up throwing up on Saturday, which has only happened one other time since i have been pregnant. It went away by Monday, but Tuesday I started to feel very lightheaded, weak and dizzy. I spent most of the day laying around the house and drinking lots of water. I started to notice that afternoon that I wasn't feeling nearly as much movement as I usually do, but still feeling regular movement at least every hour. Wednesday morning, I decided to call my doctor just to check in. They wanted to me come in that morning to get checked out and monitored for a little while. As soon as I got hooked up to the monitor, Madison went crazy and moved nonstop for 30 minutes! They let me go home and told me to just take it easy and call back if anything else happened.

Through Wednesday and Thursday, I felt regular, small movements but still not big movements at the usual times I was am used to. Thursday night we went to our prepared childbirth class and I began to feel sick to my stomach again that night. Around 11pm, I drank orange juice and laid on my left side for an hour, which is supposed to make the baby move. I felt some small movements after that, so I went to bed and feel asleep around 12:30. Eric had been waking up early the past couple days to watch the Brittish Open. I woke up around 4:30 and laid in the living room with him. I was really started to get worried about her not moving, so I drank some more orange juice and waited. Around 6, I was a wreck, crying and worried that something could be wrong and I was going to miss something. We decided to go to the hospital instead of waiting to call the dr at 9. I called the after hours number for the doctor, which ended up being very helpful. It turns out that UTMB has a nurse and doctor on call 24 hours a day to talk to. After talking to both and explaining the past week, they told me to try and sleep for an hour and then meet one of the doctors at the office.

I was actually able to fall asleep, which was very nice. We went to the doctor that morning and they hooked my up to the fetal monitor again. Madison started moving, her heart rate was good and I wasn't having any contractions. We saw the nurse practioner that day and she was very sweet. She made me feel better and asked lots of questions about what had been going on. One thing we talked about was my concern about the unbilical cord. We found out at our 18 week ultrasound that the umbilical cord had 1 artery and 1 vein instead of 2 arteries and 1 vein. Everything looked good with the heart at the ultrasound and Madison has been growing right on track, so there havent been any worries. I told the NP that I had been worried the past day or two wondering if for some reason this was why I had been noticing reduced movement. The NP left the room to go talk to my doctor and when she came back she said my doctor wanted me to start coming to the office twice a week.

So....long story short, I now go on Tuesdays for a doctor appointment and monitoring. I then go back later in the week for monitoring only. When I went during week 33, everything looked good. She was moving up a storm all week! It definitely makes me feel better to get monitored twice a week. My stress level has been much lower this week. =)

Here are a few pictures to end this post on a lighter note!