Another glucose test

Well, I have to do another glucose test tomorrow. This time I have to fast starting at midnight, the drink has twice the glucose in it (same volume, same five minute time limit), and I have to stick around the office three hours for three blood tests. Yuck.

Otherwise our 28-week appointment went well. The baby is 28 centimeters, a growth of four since last visit, and I’ve gained three pounds. The midwife can tell how the baby is positioned just from feeling around — today she was head down, back along my left side. The midwife also said I have one of the best hemoglobin levels she’s seen. An unusual compliment, but I’ll take it.

We also took advantage of the office library — Mark found a book written especially for dads, and I borrowed one the midwife recommended.

Oh, and now we’re on a two-week schedule for appointments, instead of once a month — it’s getting closer!

Two more things:

Mark was going to start assembling the crib, and realized it’s missing some hardware and the directions are for an older model. Fortunately, the company is going to send us the missing stuff and the current directions, so we don’t have to drive all the way to Syracuse to return / exchange the whole thing.

The recliner Barb loaned us was getting stuck with the footrest extended part of the way. It’s challenging to get in and out of an extended recliner even without being seven months pregnant…! Mark figured out what was going on, and was able to get the footrest back down. And if / when it gets stuck again, we know what to do to fix it.

Today’s breakfast

Started well. There was a nice glass of orange juice before feeding the kitty and taking a shower.

Next, there was oatmeal cooked in skim milk, with a touch of butter, maple syrup, and cinnamon just to be indulgent.

Before the oatmeal was all gone, it was time to down the lovely fruit punch glucose intolerance test I had to take an hour before our appointment today, to see if I have gestational diabetes. (It’s a test all pregnant women take around 26-28 weeks.)

I was really surprised that it wasn’t sickly sweet — the first half went down just fine, and while the second half was slower, I did manage to finish it in the allotted five minutes.

Now, though?

I’m hot, a bit head-ache-y, short of breath, and just generally uncomfortable. And I couldn’t finish the oatmeal.

I hope the test goes well.

23 Weeks Prenatal Visit

We had another prenatal visit today.

I’m still on the low end as far as weight gain goes, but they’re not worried. Everything else — size of the uterus, baby’s heartbeat, etc — is fine. The midwife we saw even reassured me that I can lie on my back if I want — if it obstructs blood flow for me, I’ll feel uncomfortable and move automatically, even in my sleep, and I don’t have any of the issues that would make them worry about it obstructing blood flow for the baby.

I asked about childbirth classes — What to Expect says some classes start about now so I figured it was time to ask. I was hoping to get a handout with a list of all the classes available in the area and which ones, if any, were recommended by this practice. She just said one of their members teaches a class and the hospital offers some, and there are also others in the area. Guess I’ll have to make some phone calls.

Anyway, the midwife gave us two items to take home.

One is a notebook with information about the hospital stay and some basics about newborn care. I was a little surprised to find that phone service costs extra! Humph. There’s other good information in there, though. Sounds like they have a nice maternity program at the hospital — all sorts of options labor and delivery positions, including a Jacuzzi; Mark can stay overnight; one nurse is in charge of both me and the baby…

The other thing the midwife gave us is a gestational diabetes test beverage. Mmmm… nothing like a nice tall glass of cold fruit-punch-flavored sugar syrup to drink within five minutes. I’ll have to do that an hour before our next visit.

By the way, for a few weeks now there’s been lots of movement going on. Still inconsistent, which is not surprising since she’s still quite little, and because even babies have moods.

It’s (going to be) a girl!

We had the sonogram today, and the tech (who’s been doing this for 28 years) says it’s a girl — she also says her accuracy rate is about 97%.

Most of what she was looking at didn’t make much sense to me — lots of cross sections of this and that, and she measured all sorts of things, and confirmed that we are indeed about nineteen and a half weeks. After all the technical stuff, she took these two pictures which are a little easier to see.

Then we went to check up with one of the midwives. I’ve gained another five pounds, still have good blood pressure, and the other measurements she took are also good for as far along as we are.

Prenatal Visit: 15 weeks

Today was our third prenatal visit.

We go to Ithaca Ob-Gyn Associates, which has a handful of doctors and a handful of certified nurse midwives. We will deliver with the help of a midwife assuming things continue normally. If anything goes wrong, a doctor is on call. Only one midwife is on call at any given time, so it makes sense for us to see a different one each visit to get to know them all a little. So far we’ve seen Graham and Kristin.

Today we saw one of the doctors — probably the only time we’ll see one as long as things stay normal.

The baby’s heart is still beating, although it took a good long time to find it.

I’ve gained the right amount of weight so far.

And next time we’ll have a sonogram!