Kelly and I are 37 weeks today! We have finally made it to full term.
This past weekend, Kelly had one of his high school buddies down for the weekend. It was going to be a pretty uneventful weekend, but we ended up doing a lot of different things!! While the guys played golf on Saturday, I headed to my Infant CPR & breastfeeding class at Northside Hospital. Both classes were very informative and I am glad I participated in both! After Dustin left on Sunday, Kelly and I headed to church and then went for the membership class. As you noticed in my previous post, we're officially members of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church now!! We have prayed & talked about becoming members since around March of this year. We are blessed to have such a wonderful church family and an amazing place of worship!! It'll definitely be a great place and atmosphere for our children to grow and learn.
Since my hospital visit last week, I have had several increasing episodes. Sunday evening I was in a lot of lower abdominal pain - felt like horrible menstrual cramps. I curled up on the couch, couldn't move, and all I wanted to do was cry. So - I laid there and just let the tears flow. Kelly had no idea what was going on nor did either of us know what to do. He kept asking me a lot of questions, but I didn't have any answers. Finally after a few minutes of being in agonizing pain, he grabbed my phone and we called my OBGYN practice. The doctor that was on call - not my regular OB - called back within 5 minutes. She talked me through the pains, told me to take some Tylenol, drink a big glass of ice water and to call back if the pain didn't ease off or if it did and came back. After getting off the phone, Kelly got me into a warm bath to soak for a while - the bath, Tylenol & water seemed to ease the pain. Thankfully the rest of the evening I just had normal, mild contractions unlike what I had experienced earlier that evening. However, with the contractions I also was experiencing a lot of dizziness and nausea. Thankfully I never actually "got sick," but even feeling like you are isn't much fun! I got into bed and tried to get some rest - not much was accomplished Sunday evening sleep-wise.
I ended up calling my doctor on Monday afternoon just to inform her about what went on Sunday evening. Since she wasn't the doctor I spoke with, I thought it was worth the call after the amount of pain I was in. It turned out to be a good idea that I called - they told me any pain like that they definitely need to be aware of. I'm supposed to monitor my contractions throughout this week until my appointment on Thursday - if things get bad again like Sunday evening or if my contractions come closer together than 12 minutes a part, they told me to call them. It definitely eased my mind to talk with them and to know what to look for so I know when to call if that's needed.
Unfortunately the same scenario happened Tuesday evening and last night. Last night also included a burning sensation which was horribly uncomfortable. However, through each episode and evening I thought I couldn't manage to get through, my wonderful husband was by my side helping me the entire way. The pain felt unbearable at times, but he calmed my nerves & fears of the unknown and worked through it with me.
Speaking of doctor appointments - we had our 37 week check-up this morning at 9:00am. Here are some updates for you from our appointment!
BP: 109/71
Weight: no gain = still at 23 lbs. total
Heart rate: 156 BPM
Fundal Height: 36cm.
Dilation: 1cm
We're finally making progress!!
Extras:
Because of everything going on this week, Dr. Walters not only checked for dilation, but she hooked me up to the monitors again. I was hooked to the monitors for about 30-40 minutes because Kaitlynn decided to sleep. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but I am having steady contractions, 2-3 every 5 minutes. They are not increasing in strength or length, but they are quite uncomfortable at this point. Because of the amount of contractions, Dr. Walters wanted to make sure Kaitlynn wasn't in stress. When a baby moves, that means they're happy. Well, I just explained that Kaitlynn is a late sleeper :) Dr. Walters decided to push around on my abdomen - which is not comfortable when you're having contractions & cramping - to get her to start moving, which thankfully she finally did!
At this point, because I was having 2-3 contractions every 5 minutes and only dilated to 1cm, Dr. Walters asked us about 6 times if we wanted to go to Northside for fluids & pain medicine. I told her each time "no" - that I did not want to go to Northside again until I was there to stay & meet my baby girl. She told me to continue drinking plenty of water and take Tylenol every 4-6 hours to help ease the pain of my contractions.
She did tell me that I was "one of the lucky ones" to experience these types of contractions for a couple weeks before labor. They have been going on for about 10 days now. That made me so excited! HAHA - definitely not!
As a side note - I can continue going about my day as normal - no bed rest needed. The more active I stay during the day = the more intense contractions I have at night when I slow down. So, pacing myself is a good idea because the contractions are not going anywhere until Kaitlynn is born.
Our next scheduled appointment is next Thursday, August 20th at 9:00am.
This past weekend, Kelly had one of his high school buddies down for the weekend. It was going to be a pretty uneventful weekend, but we ended up doing a lot of different things!! While the guys played golf on Saturday, I headed to my Infant CPR & breastfeeding class at Northside Hospital. Both classes were very informative and I am glad I participated in both! After Dustin left on Sunday, Kelly and I headed to church and then went for the membership class. As you noticed in my previous post, we're officially members of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church now!! We have prayed & talked about becoming members since around March of this year. We are blessed to have such a wonderful church family and an amazing place of worship!! It'll definitely be a great place and atmosphere for our children to grow and learn.
Since my hospital visit last week, I have had several increasing episodes. Sunday evening I was in a lot of lower abdominal pain - felt like horrible menstrual cramps. I curled up on the couch, couldn't move, and all I wanted to do was cry. So - I laid there and just let the tears flow. Kelly had no idea what was going on nor did either of us know what to do. He kept asking me a lot of questions, but I didn't have any answers. Finally after a few minutes of being in agonizing pain, he grabbed my phone and we called my OBGYN practice. The doctor that was on call - not my regular OB - called back within 5 minutes. She talked me through the pains, told me to take some Tylenol, drink a big glass of ice water and to call back if the pain didn't ease off or if it did and came back. After getting off the phone, Kelly got me into a warm bath to soak for a while - the bath, Tylenol & water seemed to ease the pain. Thankfully the rest of the evening I just had normal, mild contractions unlike what I had experienced earlier that evening. However, with the contractions I also was experiencing a lot of dizziness and nausea. Thankfully I never actually "got sick," but even feeling like you are isn't much fun! I got into bed and tried to get some rest - not much was accomplished Sunday evening sleep-wise.
I ended up calling my doctor on Monday afternoon just to inform her about what went on Sunday evening. Since she wasn't the doctor I spoke with, I thought it was worth the call after the amount of pain I was in. It turned out to be a good idea that I called - they told me any pain like that they definitely need to be aware of. I'm supposed to monitor my contractions throughout this week until my appointment on Thursday - if things get bad again like Sunday evening or if my contractions come closer together than 12 minutes a part, they told me to call them. It definitely eased my mind to talk with them and to know what to look for so I know when to call if that's needed.
Unfortunately the same scenario happened Tuesday evening and last night. Last night also included a burning sensation which was horribly uncomfortable. However, through each episode and evening I thought I couldn't manage to get through, my wonderful husband was by my side helping me the entire way. The pain felt unbearable at times, but he calmed my nerves & fears of the unknown and worked through it with me.
Speaking of doctor appointments - we had our 37 week check-up this morning at 9:00am. Here are some updates for you from our appointment!
BP: 109/71
Weight: no gain = still at 23 lbs. total
Heart rate: 156 BPM
Fundal Height: 36cm.
Dilation: 1cm
We're finally making progress!!
Extras:
Because of everything going on this week, Dr. Walters not only checked for dilation, but she hooked me up to the monitors again. I was hooked to the monitors for about 30-40 minutes because Kaitlynn decided to sleep. This normally wouldn't be a big deal, but I am having steady contractions, 2-3 every 5 minutes. They are not increasing in strength or length, but they are quite uncomfortable at this point. Because of the amount of contractions, Dr. Walters wanted to make sure Kaitlynn wasn't in stress. When a baby moves, that means they're happy. Well, I just explained that Kaitlynn is a late sleeper :) Dr. Walters decided to push around on my abdomen - which is not comfortable when you're having contractions & cramping - to get her to start moving, which thankfully she finally did!
At this point, because I was having 2-3 contractions every 5 minutes and only dilated to 1cm, Dr. Walters asked us about 6 times if we wanted to go to Northside for fluids & pain medicine. I told her each time "no" - that I did not want to go to Northside again until I was there to stay & meet my baby girl. She told me to continue drinking plenty of water and take Tylenol every 4-6 hours to help ease the pain of my contractions.
She did tell me that I was "one of the lucky ones" to experience these types of contractions for a couple weeks before labor. They have been going on for about 10 days now. That made me so excited! HAHA - definitely not!
As a side note - I can continue going about my day as normal - no bed rest needed. The more active I stay during the day = the more intense contractions I have at night when I slow down. So, pacing myself is a good idea because the contractions are not going anywhere until Kaitlynn is born.
Our next scheduled appointment is next Thursday, August 20th at 9:00am.
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