34 Weeks

I know, I look so full of joy in this picture. Yesterday was a long and tiring day, and I'm still recovering. At 9:00 Monday night the contractions started. After an hour I took a procardia, a medication prescribed to me with Catherine to stop my Braxton Hicks. They didn't stop. They finally slowed enough for me to sleep around midnight, but I woke up at 2:45 and they were back, just as strong and as frequent as before. They were anywhere from 2-5 minutes apart, and lasted about a minute, and finally at about 4:45 I woke up Jordan and told him he might want to pack a bag. I called my doctor and he agreed that I should probably get checked out.

I began to freak out after they started administering meds and nothing was stopping the contractions. I know that at 33 weeks 6 days my baby girl would be okay, but I also knew she may need a couple weeks in the NICU, which is not something I want to go through. The thought of not having my baby by my side or coming home with me right away made me very anxious and I kind of freaked out. I think everyone thought for a while that she would be born, and things were a little crazy.

It took 2 doses of brethine and two additional doses of procardia to "stop" the contractions. They continued, about every 20 minutes apart, the rest of the day. But since there was very little change in my cervix, and the fetal fibronectin test was negative, it is very unlikely that I will give birth until at least 35 1/2 weeks. Which is very comforting. She may even hold off until 39 weeks 2 days, when my c-section is scheduled. I was told to stay in bed the rest of the day until my appointment this morning, in case the ultrasound I had scheduled showed anything for concern. They sent me home, and we were all very relieved that we wouldn't be having a baby quite yet.

I was pretty miserable the rest of the day, though. Brethine caused my pulse to quicken, and made me feel horrible. A common side effect of the procardia (for me, anyway) is a headache and dizzyness. Combine that with the 2 hours of sleep and 17 hours of contractions and I was done. Today I am still recovering, hence the giant bags under my eyes in the above pictures.

I had an ultrasound scheduled for today to make sure the baby is growing correctly. My lack of weight gain had the doctors slightly concerned that maybe she isn't putting on enough weight. Then we saw this big fat face:

And the ultrasound tech asked how big my other babies were. Let's see, Catherine was 6lbs 11ozs at 37 1/2 weeks, and Evie was 6lbs 13ozs at just shy of 37 weeks. So a little on the big side. I asked if she was measuring okay and she said she was measuring a little big. Average size of babies at 34 weeks is between 4 1/2 and 5 pounds. Apparently Baby E is 6 pounds 5 ounces. I know that ultrasounds can be wrong a pound either way, but even if she's 5 1/2 pounds she's quite large. So... size is no longer a concern.

She looks a lot like Evie did when she was first born:

 

I did see some hair, but we didn't spend a lot of time looking at her head, so I didn't see much more than some fuzzy blurs around her head. So we will still have to see if she is as hairy as her biggest sister, or more of a baldy like her middle sister. Or maybe she will totally surprise us.

I feel like I am officially on baby watch. It could be as little as a week and half, or as much as 5 1/2 weeks. Either way, it is not far off, and I still have so much to get finished before her arrival. I am just so happy that she is healthy and chubby and will obviously be adorable.  And I'm also glad she wasn't born yesterday, because as much as I want to meet her, the world just isn't quite ready for her yet.