Size of baby: She weighs about 3 pounds and is about 15.7 inches long. She's getting bigger!
Total weight gain: I just had my 30-week doctor's visit tonight, and I have officially gained 27 pounds.
Maternity clothes: Dresses, dresses, dresses. That is all I want to wear to work and church. They're so much easier than pants. And I've concluded that I can only do full-panel jeans. I had 2 different pairs of maternity jeans on Friday, and both were the kind that have the band that hits right at the belly button. Well, let's just say they're very uncomfortable these days. On Friday night, I was at the Chicago Bandits game with Carl, Ashley, my parents, and Carl's parents. And everyone kept asking if Audrey was kicking. The big joke was that Audrey had no room to move in there because of my jeans! :) I bought a pair of full-panel jeans from Target today. I haven't tried them on yet, but I'm hoping that I really like them! Also, I was asking my doctor about the pressure I felt in my lower pelvis/pubic bone after our walk yesterday. She told me that it's normal, it's just the weight of the baby on my pelvis. She has been telling me for a long time to get a support belt, and I'm going to have to give in this week!
Gender: Girl
Movement: She's still moving a lot! I feel like she moves like crazy when I'm laying on my right side. I feel her on the left side of my belly like crazy when I'm in that position. Sometimes, I feel like I can even make out a limb, like I can grab her foot or leg through my belly. It's so cool. Carl's still amazed!
Sleep: Still been sleeping well! I still feel very tired, even with my extra iron supplements.
What I miss: Diet Coke. Yummmmm.
Cravings: Mac/Shells 'n Cheese. I made Shells 'n Cheese for lunch on Saturday. So good!!
Symptoms: I haven't had heartburn yet this week... yet. Hopefully I don't get it this week. I was reading that the reason heartburn is so common during pregnancy is because a lot of the body's ligaments and joints really loosen up. In addition, the flap between the stomach and the esophagus becomes a little lax and stomach acid is able to creep up into the esophagus. That's heartburn! I've also been experiencing some Braxton Hicks contractions I think. I asked the doctor about these this week and she said I'm okay as long as there's less than 4 per hour. And it's definitely been less than that, and not every day either. She said it could feel tight just in one area because the baby is curled up in a ball and pushing against just one part of my belly.
Best moment this week: My parents stayed the night on Friday night which is always so fun. Mom and Carl installed the curtains on Saturday morning. They're beautiful! Also, on Saturday, after I got my Rhogam shot (see more details below), Carl and I bought a video camera at Best Buy. It's a Flip Video UltraHD (3rd Generation) Black/Silver Camcorder with 2 Hour/8GB internal memory. One of my friends at work has this camera and loves it. It's so small (the size of a small digital camera) so I can keep it in my purse (or the diaper bag soon) and have it on hand at all times. And the videos look to be pretty good. You can just plug the camera into a USB port right on the computer and play videos from there. Since I've shown interest in the camera, my friend has been keeping an eye on when it goes on sale. And it was on super sale at Best Buy, so we went ahead and bought it. We've taken 1 video so far... it's Chief on the couch staring at Carl/the camera while Carl tries to get him to speak. Chief wasn't having it. So funny!
Best husband quote of the week: He had several really good ones this week. He's been making me laugh a lot... maybe I need to keep a journal to keep track because I always forget the really good ones when I come to this question on my update. Here's one that sticks out from this past week... One night last week, I was cutting up onions for fajitas. I was telling Carl that the onions must have been good and ripe because they made me cry. He said, "Must be the pregnancy hormones." It may not sound that funny in writing, but we cracked up laughing.
I want to make a new category this week for Unnecessary drama this week or Least favorite part of this week. This revolves around this darn Rhogam shot I had to get this week. Well, I was supposed to get it taken when I was 28 weeks, but my schedule just didn't allow, so I got it at the very end of my 29th week. I usually don't mind shots, but I was pretty high-strung about this. Here's the story:
At my 28 week doctor appointment, my doctor handed me a piece of paper (or maybe she handed it straight to Carl, I can't remember). Either way, there was no discussion about this piece of paper at all. And I didn't look at it until we left the doctor's office. It was an order to get a Rhogam shot at this hospital that's about 45 minutes from our house, Little Company of Mary, between the hours of 8-2 M-F and 9-12 Sat. I called the doctor's office a couple days later to find out the timeframe for when I need to get the shot and to see if I could get it done at Silver Cross Hospital or another hospital closer to our house. They told me I had to get it that week and that it had to be at Little Company of Mary. I talked to a number of nurses over that week and couldn't get a straight answer for why it had to be done at that hospital and details about the shot and what's involved in the process. Carl even called for me one time to see if he could get answers that I couldn't. I felt like the nurse at the doctor's office as BS-ing me and she couldn't tell me the benefits of getting the shot. It made me nervous and anxious about getting the shot. I just wanted to know what was going on... Who is benefiting from the shot, me or the baby? What does the process look like? Little Company of Mary told me it was a 2-hour process. I also called to make an appointment at Little Company of Mary and I got passed around to about 10 different departments and then back again. It's like no one has every heard of this freaking shot. And to top it all off, I know of someone who died giving childbirth at that hospital. I was really uneasy. I felt like I couldn't get answers from my doctor's office or from the hospital. I ended up calling Blue Cross Blue Shield to see if they could clear some things up for me. I am enrolled in the "Special Beginnings Program", which is just for pregnant women. They have RN's on staff and available 24 hours a day if I ever have any questions... perfect opportunity to use this resource! So I found out from Cindy, the RN I spoke to, a lot of details:
My blood type is A- (negative). The negative part is what deems it necessary that I get the Rhogam shot. Cindy told me that this is fairly common and she's administered Rhogam shots over her career working in a hospital. It does not affect Audrey or anything to do with this pregnancy at all. The shot helps my body build up antibodies so that if Audrey's Rh factor is positive and there is some spillover into my blood during delivery, my body doesn't try and fight it off because it's a foreign substance. If that were to happen, I could become severely anemic after delivery, which is not good (actually, the nurse at Little Company of Mary told me that part). Additionally, for my future pregnancies, my body would fight off the fetus and I would continue to miscarry if these antibodies weren't built up. So I get this shot around 28 weeks and then if Audrey's blood type is positive, another shot right after delivery.
I had very low expectations of Little Company of Mary hospital, and I'm happy to say they exceeded my low expectations. :) When I registered, I had to sign an additional waiver "because this procedure requires more care than normal". What the heck does that mean?? I told the woman, "Just take care of me and the baby, ok?" I went up to the lab to get my blood drawn. The phlebotomist took my blood and told me that she had to get this Rhogam shot when she had her child 18 years ago. She told me they gave her the shot in her bum, and she really didn't talk about it like it was a good experience. Great... Next, they put a hospital ID bracelet on me and she took my blood. Here's a pic of my bracelet:
And then I asked where to go next after she was done. She didn't really know what happened next, just that I had to go to Outpatient Services. But she didn't even know where that was. Really? We went down to the service desk by the entrance and they directed us to Outpatient Services. once there, the experience got so much better. They explained that we just had to wait about 30 minutes while the blood work was being processed. Then, she would call me back and she would give me the shot. We waited in the lobby and I read Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix on my Kindle while Carl did some work on his laptop. Sure enough, about 30 minutes later, the nurse called me back. She was really nice and warm and friendly. She made me feel very comfortable. Because of that nurse, I left with a good experience. And we were only there for 1 hour total. Nice!
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