33 Weeks and another preterm scare

How far along? 33 Weeks 4 Days

Total weight gain: +22 lbs

Maternity clothes? lots of yoga pants and big ole tshirts this lazy week

Stretch marks? On my belly :( 

Sleep: Sleep has not been great this week

Best moment this week: Listening to K's heartbeat for hours while monitoring

Miss Anything? everything - I am officially at the "uncomfortable" stage, out of breath often & I am really missing being able to put on socks/pants without huffing & puffing

Movement: ALL the time. She's bruising my ribs :(

Food cravings: Nothing. I've lost my appetite.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really.

Gender: Girl

Labor Signs: LOTS of contractions this week, dilated to a 1.

Symptoms: bruised ribs from tiny feet

Belly Button in or out? Still in!

Wedding rings on or off? Real set off, fake set on.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Just really tired...

Looking forward to: Meeting our precious girl soon!!

So over the weekend I was contracting A LOT. Like timeable, belly tightening, low back aching, thigh throbbing contractions. They got pretty bad Friday night, but slowed as I fell asleep. Same thing Saturday. Sunday I woke up just feeling yucky. Something wasn't right. By 5pm Saturday I was timing them ever 5.5ish minutes apart. I took a warm bath, drank some water, and laid down on my left side. They never slowed. By 8pm I was hurting and Josh was worried so he had me call my on-call OB. I called and she asked if I had been dilated at my last appointment. I wasn't, so she advised me to drink lots of water, lay down and wait an hour. By 10pm I fell asleep and the contractions had slowed again. 

When I woke up Monday morning I was still contracting, but not regularly. I called my OB anyway to see what she wanted me to do. They wanted to me to come into the office for monitoring. So we went into the office at 3 Monday afternoon. 

By the time we got to Fayetteville I was regularly contracting again. They hooked me up to the monitor in the office for about 10 minutes. K was NOT happy about that. She was kicking, punching, doing anything she could to get away from the fetal monitor. After about 10 minutes the nurse came back in to check the monitor. She looked at it and said, "Hmm! You sure are having contractions!!" I'm thinking, no joke lady...

Dr. Collins came in and said the contractions were about 2 mintues apart. She checked my cervix and sure enough I was dilated to a 1, but no thinning (thank God!).  She said my blood pressure was pretty high for me, but it was most likely because I was hurting. So she sent me up to L&D and said she wanted to hydrate me with IV fluids, slow the contractions, keep an eye on the BP, and IF the contractions slowed she would send me home with Procardia for the contractions until 35 weeks. 

We went upstairs to L&D and got hooked up to the monitor there. After about a half hour they got my IV started. Then about a half hour later they got the meds in my IV to slow contractions. An hour after the first does the contractions hadn't slowed any. So they nurse said they could try one more dose, wait an hour, and if that didn't do anything she'd have to call the OB and see what to do next. After the second dose I was completely woozy and falling asleep. But every contraction would wake me up. Nurse came in about an hour later and said the contractions had slowed to about 10-12 minutes apart so they could send me home. 

After I got discharged it was about 9pm and we went to get my Procardia prescription filled so I could start it right away. I took the first dose Monday night and woke up with the WORST headache, but no regular contractions. :)

I haven't had any regular contractions since Monday night. But I'm experiencing some pretty intense rib cage pain, both in the front and back of my ribs. I was pretty sure I was dying Wednesday night ;) 

Anyway, K is nice and healthy, contractions are at bay for now, and we are holding out for AT LEAST a 37 weeker!!

32 Weeks-Kendall was showered with love

 Sweet decor from the baby shower this past weekend :)

 The most thoughtful gift. A blanket with fabric squares made from the bridesmaid dress KayCee wore in our wedding. I LOVE it!

 My sister at 27 weeks pregnant, proud momma, and me at 32 weeks!

My sweet sister and I :)

How far along? 32 Weeks 4 Days

Total weight gain: 23 lbs
Maternity clothes? lots of maternity shirts,  jeans, and dresses
Stretch marks? On my belly :( 
Sleep: Sleep is great in the recliner!
Best moment this week: Our first baby shower. Kendall was showered with so much love!!
Miss Anything? everything - I am officially at the "uncomfortable" stage, out of breath often & I am really missing being able to put on socks/pants without huffing & puffing
Movement: more like rolling around instead of kicking ...but hiccups at least 3 times a day times a day, usually around 6 times a day!!
Food cravings: Homemade chocolate chip cookies!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really.
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: LOTS of contractions this week :-/
Symptoms: Heartburn, out of breath every now & then, sore ribs from tiny feet
Belly Button in or out? Still in!
Wedding rings on or off? My fake set is starting to fit better each week...guess I'm starting to swell some.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Pretty happy this week :)
Looking forward to: Meeting our sweet girl in 7 weeks or less!!

31 Weeks

How far along? 31 Weeks 6 Days

Total weight gain: 20 lbs
Maternity clothes? lots of maternity shirts jeans
Stretch marks? On my belly :( 
Sleep: Sleep is good in the recliner!
Best moment this week: When Josh got to feel Kendall hiccuping and rolling around.....HARD!
Miss Anything? everything - I am officially at the "uncomfortable" stage, out of breath often & I am really missing being able to put on socks/pants without huffing & puffing
Movement: more like rolling around instead of kicking ...but hiccups at least 3 times a day times a day, usually around 6 times a day!!
Food cravings: still craving sweets all the time! The Easter candy is killing me!
Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really.
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: Still contracting when I over do it
Symptoms: Heartburn, out of breath every now & then, sore ribs from tiny feet
Belly Button in or out? Still in!
Wedding rings on or off? My fake set is starting to fit better each week...guess I'm starting to swell some.
Happy or Moody most of the time: Stressed beyond belief this week.
Looking forward to: finishing the nursery and my first baby shower Saturday!!

30 Weeks

How far along? 30 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: I lost 3lbs this week, so I'm back down to +20lbs

Maternity clothes? Still wearing LOTS of yoga pants, same old jeans, and dresses.

Stretch marks? More and more on my belly :(

Sleep: Well you see...I have found a sweet little thing called the recliner! It's my best friend. I now sleep for 5-6 hours at night and ZERO hip pain. It's fabulous!

Best moment this week: Seeing our chubby girl again :) We had a growth scan since my belly is measuring ahead by 4 weeks. Kendall is nice and healthy :) She is measuring 2 weeks ahead at 32 weeks. Weighing in at 4lbs 3oz. My doctor doesn't think I'll make it to 40 weeks, but if I do I can expect a 9lb baby!!! Holy cow. I am still on bed rest until at least 35 weeks.

Movement: She's still all over the place. People say to expect her to calm down with movement as she gets bigger....well, she's getting bigger and not calming down any. haha! She gets hiccups anywhere from 2-6 times a day and she HATES them.

Food cravings: Chicken fried rice and Domino's pasta bowl.

Miss anything? Just sleeping on my belly.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope

Have you started to show yet: Oh yes.

Belly Button in or out? Still in.

Wedding rings on or off? My original set is too tight for comfort, but my cheapie is still too big...

Labor signs? Unfortunately, the contractions have come back this week. :-/ Had about 2 hours of intense and regular contractions with pain on Thursday...it freaked me out. But after about 3 glasses of water, laying down for an hour, and a nice warm bath they calmed down.

Happy or Moody most of the time: moody still.

Milestones: 10 weeks or less!

Here are her little feet crossed on top of eachother :)

Her chubby little face :)

29 Weeks Home Sweet Home :)

How far along? 29weeks 4days

Total weight gain/loss? +23

Maternity clothes? yoga pants are my best friend!

Stretch marks? Around my belly

Sleep? Who needs it? So overrated... You'd think being on bed rest I would be able to sleep all day. That doesn't happen.

Best moment this week: Moving into our new home

Miss anything? Being able to get up and do whatever whenever. Bed rest is hard.

Movement: Since Tuesday evening this kid has not stopped rolling around! She literally moves my entire belly!

Food cravings: Flamin' Hot Cheetos

Sypmtoms: heartburn, achey hips, exhaustion

Gender: Still a girl

Labor signs: Contractions

Belly button in or out? Still in

Wedding rings on or off? My set is too tight, but my fake set is still too big

Happy or moody most of the time? Happier these days :)

Looking forward to? Getting Kendall's furniture in so we can set up her nursery!!

 And here's a little photo of our house this week with the snow and ice :) 

I'll have photos of the inside once we are able to get to Kirkland's to fill the couple of empty spots we've got.

28 Weeks and a little too exciting for us ;)

The vast majority of our weekend has been and will be spent like this ^. But all is well, and we will be home soon! 

On Thursday morning I woke up with with what I assumed were UTI symptoms. This being my 5th UTI this pregnancy, I am not naive to its symptoms! I started getting the symptoms on Tuesday night, but I assume it was just our precious girl making room in there. When the symptoms increasingly got worse each day I knew I had to call my OB. So I called Thursday afternoon and they told me to get to the office or to my PCP to be evaluated as UTIs are not something to mess with in pregnancy. They can cause preterm labor quickly. I knew this, but as late in the afternoon as it was I really didn't want to drive to Fayetteville. So we went to the Promed walk-in clinic in VB. The usual doctor we see there wasn't there and we had to see an older doctor. He was very nice and very quick, but clearly didn't cross all his bridges. He took a urine sample and informed me that my urine was very clear and my test was negative for UTI. He said it was probably baby pressing on my bladder. So we went on our merry way. 

On Friday morning I woke up in excruciating pain. My entire pelvis and bladder area were throbbing, burning, and intense pressure felt in the whole area. I called my OB office and they wanted to me to come up to Fayetteville to see them immediately. I informed them I was in extreme pain, couldn't sit without being in intense discomfort, and couldn't void. They told me to be there as soon as I could, as this wasn't worth messing around with. When I got to my doctor's office I gave them a urine sample and waited. The doctor came in and measured by belly and listened to Kendall. My belly is only measuring 29cm now (which is only 2 weeks ahead) and Kendall's heart rate was a healthy 149bpm :) However, my urine was NOT clear and before even having it cultured she could tell I had a nasty UTI. She immediately prescribed me an antibiotic and pyridium for the pain. She told me to go get it filled now, take it, drink a bottle of water, wait an hour and if I haven't been able to void and the pain has not improved any to call her back and she was sending me to L&D to be monitored. After an hour of waiting I was in even more pain, my back was throbbing, my legs were aching and throbbing, and my entire stomach, pelvis, and bladder area were aching and throbbing. I was still unable to void after chugging 23oz of water. So I called her office, my nurse asked how much I had to drink, what time I drank it, had I voided yet, and how was the pain? After answering all her questions she immediately said go to L&D, we can't mess around with the not being able to void and the pain. 

I went on up to L&D where they got me situated on the fetal monitor and blood pressure monitor. At this point they had to use a catheter to obtain a urine sample as I was still unable to void. I was in extreme pain and the nurses were fantastic about getting everything they needed to get done quickly so they could get me comfortable. Once the urine sample was taken I was able to have some pain medicine. They told me I'd probably be knocked out in 15 minutes. They ultrasound tech came and got me to scan my kidneys and bladder. After scanning my both they sent me back to L&D where Josh was finally there waiting for me :) The pain med never knocked me out. It never even touched the pains.
After about 20 minutes of sitting around and waiting the nurse came in and informed me I was having contractions! Which was news to me! haha!! I just knew I was in a lot of pain and couldn't feel the contractions over the other pains. She said we needed to get them stopped before they became full blown. She also said I was pretty dehydrated so they started fluids through IV and gave me a cocktail of pain meds to relax me and my irratible uterus. They also wanted to perform a Fetal Fibronectin test. This test indicates whether or not you are at risk for delivering (preterm) within the next 2 weeks. Then they checked my cervix. After the test and cervix check my contractions finally seemed to slow. My cervix was still long and closed (praise the Lord!) so we assume the fFN test would come back negative. While we were waiting they told Josh to go ahead and get me something to eat, since I hadn't eaten anything all day at this point. 

Around 6:30pm the nurse came in and said, "Well your fFN was positive so you're not going anywhere." She also explained that this test is great when you test negative, but it gives quite a few false positives. Meaning I *could* deliver within 2 weeks, but I also *could* go full term. Unfortunately there's no way to tell 100% so they have to keep me for observation and to give Celestone, steroid shot to help mature K's lungs. The steroid must be given immediately and 24 hours later. 

So they moved us to a room and got us comfortable for the night. At this point my pains were beginning to get better and were more uncomfortable than anything. I was given the steroid shot and one last dose of pain meds before bed. 

When I woke up this morning I could immediately tell I was feeling much better. The pains were no longer there and mostly just dull aches, I was finally able to pee and feel relieved after almost 3 days! 

My contractions started back up this morning, but still not progressing the cervix or anything and they stayed very small, so no real worries there! Kendall is nice and active, happy and healthy and being quite obnoxious on the monitor ;) 

Doctor Smith came in this morning and asked how I was feeling. I told her much better! She said she could tell :) She said K and I were looking great today and as long as we stayed this same way all day we could go home after my last steroid shot tonight. She offered to keep me another night since the shot won't be until around 8pm, but we are so ready to get back to VB and in our own bed tonight! I was taken off continuous fetal monitoring and only monitoring every 4 hours now :) 

I will be on modified bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy, but at least our girl is healthy!! 

Now, I'm starving! Time for lunch :) 

27 Weeks :)

 How far along? 27 Weeks 3 days

Total weight gain/loss: 21+ lbs

Maternity clothes? Wearing lots of hand me downs that have been too big up until now :)

Stretch marks? around my belly 

Sleep: Pretty hit or miss these days. Some nights my hips throb all night, other nights I sleep well.

Best moment this week: Seeing her sweet little face in 3D!!

Miss Anything? Being able to sleep on my belly and eat a turkey sandwich from Subway!!

Movement: K is a mover and groover!! 

Food cravings: Lucky Charms and Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream

Anything making you queasy or sick: No sickness anymore :)

Symptoms: Heartburn, achey hips, exhaustion

Gender: Still a Girl

Labor Signs: None :)

Belly Button in or out? In for now

Wedding rings on or off? Getting snug, trying to switch over to my fake ring but it's still too big.

Happy or Moody most of the time: Pretty moody these days :-/

Looking forward to: Seing our sweet girl again in 3 more weeks!

I had my 27 week checkup and my glucose tolerance test this week! Everything checked out well. My belly (by fundal height) was measuring 4 weeks ahead at 31 centimeters or 31 weeks. I immediately assumed the worst and thought it was either because I have gestational diabetes or polyhydramnios. Both of which could be pretty serious. My doctor didn't seem too concerned at the time and said to come back in 3 weeks when I'll be 30 weeks and we will check K's measurements by ultrasound. So we left and I immediately started googling why my fundal height would be so far off...of course I started getting freaked out. Josh offered to take me to get an elective 3D ultrasound the next day for Valentine's Day, but it was really so she could check measurements and AFI and put my mind at ease because he knew how stressed out I was about it. So I called Brenda Shafer and she said she would absolutely get us in the next day and check our sweetie out. The next morning my OB/GYN office called and said I passed my GTT but I am anemic. Easy fix, just add an iron supplement. So that was great news and I could check one thing off the list! We went and took a few pictures with Drew Lacy, Josh's awesome cousin :) Here's one below. 

 After pictures we went and did a quick walk through of the house, which will be done and closed on in 10 days!!!!!!! Then we drove to Sallisaw to see our sweet girl :)

 So our ultrasound started out like this ^ Tiny girl has her head down, butt in my left upper abdomen just under my ribs, legs and feet going across to my right upper abdomen under my ribs. But, she likes to get all balled up with her feet in her face a lot. THAT, my friends, explains why my fundal height was so off. She gets balled up and pushes her butt up against my belly causing it to push out more than normal. 

 We got a few good shots of her cutie face :) She's precious. Has my nose, for sure!

 Her legs are measuring 2 weeks ahead! Girl is going to be tall!!

She is only measuring about 8 days ahead of her due date, as opposed to my belly measuring 4 weeks ahead! She is weighing about 3lbs 1oz already!! She'll be a healthy size lady when she's born! AFI was completely normal, so no ploy. She said my fluid levels were good, but not in excess. All her organs are still perfect. :)

One last photo showing that sweet tiny nose :) It looks just like mine! 

We are so smitten with this tiny girl and all her little features! 

I'll go back and see my doctor in 3 weeks for an ultrasound and to start my biweekly appointments. My prediction is they will move my due date up a week, which is fine by me ;)