The OB visit & 32 week update (long)

Hi Linda, good luck for the appointment today :-))
Give us your update, will ya? ;-)

Elly
28 weeks + 2 days
EDD October 6th

No update today, I got a call this morning and they had to reschedule my
appointment. I can't get in until next Thursday with my OB, so I'll be posting
an update then. Thanks for thinking of me though

Linda
Mommy to Sophie, 2 years
and girl #2, due Sept 7th

Shannon wrote in message
...
Well i hear you about the not sleeping. Im also at 32 weeks
and dont sleep well most of the time.

Sorry to hear you are having troubles too. The worst part for me is the
frustration of having only a few weeks left of not having to wake up
because of a hungry baby, yet waking up anyway. I want good sleep while
I still can!

I also feel huge at times and have a hard time with dishes. The
way i have to lean over just kills my back and i already have
back problems to begin with.

I've been noticing a backache too, when giving Julie a bath. Pretty
soon I'm going to have to get DH to do bedtime on her bath nights. She
does all right as long as he does the whole thing, but if we switch off
in the middle of her routine, it's meltdown time.

My belly has stopped getting bigger and i havent gained any
weight int he past 2-3 weeks but the baby continues to grow
and is around 3 pounds. I am told my baby will be about 8-9
pounds when born. i can handle the 8 i dont know about the 9.

I thought the baby usually gains about half a pound per week from here
on out, so if yours is 3 pounds now, he'd be about 7, eight weeks from
now. I'm not sure how much you can rely on the three pound estimate
though; I know at full term the weight estimates can be really far off
but I'm not sure about now.

Good luck with everything. Soon we will be capable of getting
to sleep easily yet we will not get much still. Im looking forward to
it

Me too. ;-)
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 3 mo.
And a boy, EDD 4.Sept

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

Elly wrote in message
...
Glad that all is going so well! I hope you will manage to fall
asleep more easily! Have you tried taking walks or doing some
yoga exercises before going to bed?

I walked yesterday evening but it didn't seem to help any with staying
asleep last night. I also finally took naps yesterday and today instead
of going around the house like a zombie finding things I "really should
do". I had been afraid that if I napped, I'd sleep even worse at night,
but that wasn't the case at all. I was still plenty tired at bedtime!

I usually practice my deep breathing for labour exercises before
going to bed, they put me straight to sleep!

I have started doing that too, when I think of it. It sounds like
you've got the relaxation thing down! ;-)

I know why you feel comical trying to wash dishes - I feel comical
when I'm sitting down and feeling this big *bag* in my lap ;-)

Oh, yes - it's also really funny now trying to have Julie sitting in my
lap. It's a very precarious perch for her now.

Thank you for posting your Q & A, it's very educational - I must ask
some of the questions myself!

I'm glad it was helpful to you! _The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better
Birth_, by Henci Goer, is a really useful book, if you don't have it
already.
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 3 mo.
And a boy, EDD 4.Sept

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

Karen wrote in message
...
I'm so sorry that you are getting so little sleep but I am glad
to hear everything else is going quite well.

Thanks, Karen.

Good to know that
at least one of the back-up OB's is ok. More than likely the
rest are also, since like doc's tend to practice together although
that certainly isn't set in stone.

I hope so! I'm also hoping it's a good sign that they include midwives
in the practice, since that seems to be very unusual around here. No
one I know (outside of the natural-birth advocacy organization I belong
to, that is) has had a midwife, and I often have to explain what one is!

I've been doing OK on sleep but doing a lot of it. I napped in
the car every day on the way out West. Sometimes sleeping 4
or 5 hours in a couple stretches. I'm taking naps almost everyday
now and am absolutely EXHAUSTED when I don't. God Bless
my niece who is staying with us until the end of August.

I think I am going to have to start taking a nap every day too. I have
felt more cheerful in the evening yesterday and today, though still
tired. There is no way I can stay awake in a car for any length of time
even not pregnant (unless driving of course!) - I wouldn't last half an
hour now.

I haven't seen my midwife since June 23. I see her again
on Monday. I'm anxious to see if bubs is breech or vertex.
I'm not sure, I *think* he's vertex. He finally turned
from transverse though and my right hip bone is
grateful as he was using it to brace his feet against.

I'm glad he's shifted to a more comfortable position for you, and I hope
that it is the vertex position as well!

The heat here is quite bearable. We're not going above the
low 80's for at least the next week. I hate the heat so this is
just perfect for me. I'd be totally content if it never got any
hotter than this.

It has been unusually comfortable here too, which I am so thankful for!
Highs have been right around 80 ever since a major thunderstorm came
through over July 4 weekend, and the 10 day forecast is the same. I
would also be happy if it never got any hotter, but then I don't like
anything under 50 either. Picky, picky. ;-)
--
Cheryl S.
Mom to Julie, 2 yr., 3 mo.
And a boy, EDD 4.Sept

Cleaning the house while your children are small is like
shoveling the sidewalk while it's still snowing.

"Cheryl S." ha scritto nel messaggio
...
I usually practice my deep breathing for labour exercises before
going to bed, they put me straight to sleep!

I have started doing that too, when I think of it. It sounds like
you've got the relaxation thing down! ;-)

Oh, yes ;-) If I REALLY want to practice the breathing technique, I have to
be lying down on the floor mat - bed is just too comfy and after the first
couple of breath-ins and outs my eyelids start to feel heavy and off I go...
;-)


Elly
28 weeks + 3 days
EDD October 6th

"Cheryl S." wrote in message

Hello, everyone. I feel like I haven't been posting much and apologize,
especially for the "congratulations" and "welcomes" I've failed to
extend lately. I've been sooooooo tired lately, because it's gotten so
hard to sleep. I've been mostly skimming the groups, often saving posts
to respond to later, then not getting around to it and losing them.

I do that too--save the posts to respond to later. What happens to me a lot
though, is that too many days pass & I feel like it is then too late to
answer.

Other than lots of trouble sleeping, though, I really can't complain.
I've got no physical problems ATM aside from feeling Enormous. My
"waist" is already 40 inches around, the same as it was when I went into
labor with Julie! Yet I've gained seven pounds less than I had at that
point (and two pounds less than I had at this point). I'm scared to see
how much bigger I can get, given another 8 weeks!

I guess your body knows how to expand efficiently now :-) I haven't measured
my waist at all during this pregnany, but this message prompted me to go do
it. Wow.

I feel comical trying
to wash the dishes because my belly almost prevents me from being able
to reach under the faucet to rinse.

I've noticed from looking at the belly pix in the belly gallery I like to
look at (http://pregnancy.about.com/library/b...bellyindex.htm) that
women who have had previous pregnancies look *much* more pregnant than their
first-time-mom counterparts up until about 30 weeks or so. By full term,
everyone looks just about the same (the more experienced ones just get there
quicker!).

The lack of good sleep is affecting
me emotionally though - it is increasingly hard for me to be patient
with Julie and I am often wincing at the tone of my voice as I speak to
her, even as I continue to do it. Deep breaths, deep breaths.

I've noticed that during this pregnancy, I seem to me more dramatically
affected by relatively small disruptions to my equilibirum--i.e. not getting
enough sleep, having a headache, getting too hot, getting hungry. All of
those make me much more snappish than they usually might (but if everything
is going well, I feel great and in a dandy mood). I'm lucky in that I
haven't had any real sleeping troubles though knock on wood other than
occasionally going to bed too late (darn that new Harry Potter book!!) and
still having to get up early to work the next day.

Yesterday was my visit with one of my midwife's back-up OBs, that I
posted about for help with questions to ask. Overall, I felt
comfortable with her. She is just one of six who could be on call when
I'm in labor and I (hopefully) won't be meeting any of the others.
First, my midwife had her baby a week ago and they are doing well. The
OB couldn't tell me yet when my midwife will be back though. At my last
appointment with my midwife, she had told me she'd be out six weeks
following her birth, which would make it August 18, in which case I'm
quite confident she'd be back before I have the baby.

I hope your regular midwife does get back before your birth!

Apparently all was fine with the boy and me, though I wasn't told my
fundal height or the baby's heartrate. I noticed little differences,
like that the doctor didn't tell me those numbers, or ask me about my
diet or exercise, and was already busy writing in my chart after taking
the baby's measurements so didn't help me to sit up (which was somewhat
difficult to do on my own!).

When I was seeing a regular OB I had *such* a huge sense of being on an
assembly line & just a face in the crowd (sounds like how this OB kind of
was to you as well). Pretty much total detachment from me as a person.

I did come up with quite a list of questions, from those suggested here,
and from reading the birth center pamphlet's list of reasons for risking
out together with _Thinking Woman's Guide_. She was happy to answer all
of them, and I didn't feel rushed at all.
snip

I'm glad you didn't feel rushed & that her answers seemed good for the most
part. I put your post into my saved items, so that if I end up having to
talk to a consulting physician during my pregnancy I'll have some good ideas
for what to ask about!

Glad things are looking good with you! Hope you start sleeping better & that
you can still reach the sink in August ;-)

--
Em
edd 9/23/03