Pregnancy Notes

I don't think I have written too much about my pregnancy, so being as we are now about two weeks away from meeting this little babe, I should probably write some things down before I don't have time don't have any energy can't complete a whole thought forget. ;)

So where to begin? With a bunch of random notes and thoughts?

- Until about week 30, Baby was head up and kicking my pelvic floor like crazy. After week 30, Baby has since flipped and is head down but insists on somehow pushing his/her little shoulder or something into the right side of my pelvic bone. That can't be comfy, sweet one.
- The heartburn has held on and maintained a steady presence throughout this whole pregnancy, worsening, if possible, in these last several weeks. Several times I have bolted upright in bed to try and force some vomit/bile back down where it belongs. Gross. I recall taking a nightly heartburn pill with Charlie for several months, taking a heartburn pill sporadically with Alanna, and not taking too much at all with Molly, so if that means anything, then this baby might be a boy.
- No real cravings, except everything
- Some additional annoyances have accompanied this pregnancy, some of which are a bit too embarrassing to list here. My whole body has been a lot more itchy than I remember with my other pregnancies and no, it's not just dry skin.
- I had my first non-stress test the other day (just under 37 weeks) when I showed up a mere 75 minutes late to an appointment that I thought was on a different day. I ran in sweating and panting like I had just run a marathon and I was plenty upset with myself for not checking my schedule more closely. When the nurse took my blood pressure, it was high. Go figure! My blood pressure was 142 over something and apparently it's office protocol that anything over 140 requires a non-stress test. I was hooked up to the monitor for 25-30 minutes, and when the nurse came back to check my blood pressure, it was back to 110 over something. Normal for me has been 110-120 throughout my pregnancy, as well as the other pregnancies. I'm thankful that high blood pressure hasn't ever been an issue.
- Since week 30ish, my ankles and feet will get varying degrees of puffy by the end of the day depending on the day's activities. It has almost always gone down by the morning. Regardless, I still will not be wearing high heels anytime soon. Or ever. Not my style! :)
- Sleep has been a bit hard to come by for the past 6 weeks or so. I have spent several nights sleeping in the recliner which is helpful for my heartburn and gives me a good bit of distance so Matt can't hear me snoring. Combine that with the classic up-three-times-to-pee thing and I'm a regular circus act between the hours of 10pm and 6am. The ol' restless legs syndrome alternates between mild and severe every other night. Remember a few years ago when a hole mysteriously appeared in our brown fitted sheet? I'm certain it was because my (unshaven!) legs were acting as a flint and nearly starting those sheets on fire every night while I was pregnany with either Alanna or Molly. Seriously. I should start wearing a pedometer to bed. I'm probably doing at least a 2k every night.
- Up until a few weeks ago, if someone FORCED me to choose, I would have had to say that I was leaning toward feeling like the baby is a girl - but only like a 51% feeling. Nothing strong. In the last few weeks, I have started to lean the other way. Basically, I have no idea whether this peanut is a boy or girl!!
- I had a moment of panic around 23-26 weeks about finding the right girl name for the baby. I did a facebook poll where I got some helpful and ridiculous suggestions from friends and family. I won't list the names I thought were ridiculous in case someone is reading this that suggested the name in all seriousness. Our boy name has been set since the begining. The girl name was much harder, but I feel confident in our decision now. It just took us a long time to get there. I'm always amazed at the people who arrive at the hospital without a name picked out... whatcha been doing for the last nine months?! Especially those who know the gender ahead of time! That narrows down the name choices by 50% for crying out loud! That technique is not for us.
- Dr. Wonderly has been a good fit for me though he still doesn't hold a candle to my favorite OB/GYN ever Dr. Fuller-Eddins. He is knowledgeable and experienced and talks to me like a real person. He's also pretty no-fluff which is nice since it's not my first baby and I don't have all the accompanying first-timer questions that go with that. Up until school started, I was showing up to every appointment with three kiddos in tow, so in the name of efficiency and taking care of business, let's cut to the chase! Charlie has missed out on at least five appointments since he has been in school, lucky him. This is also my first time seeing a male doctor which I have found to have no real impact one way or the other. I'm not in the camp of 'my female doctor has to be a female'. I'm in the 'get it done' camp. :) Dr. Wonderly and I are a good match that way.