32 Weeks, FINALLY!!!

This Thursday (yesterday) we officially hit the 32 week mark!!! I know for most pregnant women this is not a huge milestone but for us it's BIG for many different reasons! First of all, during my last hospital stay and month of bed-rest 32 weeks was the ultimate goal (originally it was 28 weeks but we blew past that one so 32 is the next big marker). The second real reason we (I) have been waiting for week 32 is that starting yesterday I have the official okay from my doctor to deliver at MY hospital! She told me that if I could make it to 32 weeks she would manage my labor at Northwest (barring any major unexpected complications). I know that this may seem minor but it is such a huge relief for me knowing that if anything happens, or I have complications, or questions, or go into labor I can call MY doctor, and be evaluated at MY hospital and not have to face the uncertainty of figuring out which doctor to call, which hospital to go to, and risk going to one hospital and then being transferred by ambulance (again) to a different hospital!

In all the uncertainty that we have been faced with lately it is so comforting to me to have one piece of the puzzle that feels like it is certain, something I can count on! As most of you know, this hospital is also the one that I work at; my unit, my co-workers, delivery rooms I've spent countless hours in, and doctors I work with on a daily basis. I know this is a luxury that most delivering mothers don't have, and they do just fine, but with everything we've gone through over the last few months you it is so nice to be able to take advantage of a perk of the job!!!

Okay, enough with my ranting and on to photo updates like I promised. A few weeks ago (at 29.1 Weeks) we had another ultrasound to monitor Asher's growth and he is HUGE! He is head down like a good boy but that made it difficult to get a good photo of him so I only have one (see below). But he looks like he is doing well. Overall he is measuring in the 98th percentile, most of the measurements they took put him at the size of a 32-33 week gestation infant. As far as his weight goes, he was supposed to be measuring at about 2 pounds 10 ounces (to be in the 50th percentile with most other infants his age) but they estimated his weight at 4 pounds 7 ounces!

Here's our 'little' man, sucking on his wrist!

The ultrasound tech was a little nervous and kept redoing the measurements, finally she told me that she was going to have to go get the doctor because Asher was measuring too big for his age and she just wanted to double check. I told her that he had always been big and she asked if they have ever given me a percentile for his growth and when I told her that last time he was in the 95th% she gave out a huge sigh of relief and said "Oh good, because I can't get his measurements to give me a percentile below 98% and it was making me think something was really wrong." Needless to say there is nothing majorly wrong with him, he is just very big, like always!

Two last photos I want to put up (mainly for my sister) are of my fetal monitor strips from the last two weeks. To avoid having to go in for Non-Stress Tests weekly my doctor has agreed to let me put myself on the monitor during my breaks at work and show them to her at my appointments (another nice perk that is saving us thousands of dollars). So below are my strips from week 30 and 31. The squiggly line on the top is Asher's heart-rate (he has been looking great) and the hill shaped mounded line on the bottom are monitoring my contractions. The dark red lines each mark 1 minute with 5 lighter lines in between each marking 10 seconds.

Week 30

Week 31

As you can see I'm still contracting pretty frequently (irregularly but frequently) usually when I'm at work the contractions come about every 3-5 minutes, in the 31 week strip above they were coming about every 2-3 minutes. This, as you can imagine, is super annoying but they are not doing anything (aka I'm not actually in labor) so there is nothing much the doctors can do about it. Needless to say we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of this little man. It has been a long journey for sure but he needs to cook a little bit longer so he can be our 12 lb Thanksgiving turkey like he's supposed to be! I will try to be patient (Charlie's doing better than I am most days) but am really looking forward to posting ACTUAL photos of him sometime in the next 5-6 weeks!

I hope you're all enjoying the fall weather. Charlie and I are going to try to make it to our church's All Church Retreat next weekend up in Camano Island at Fort Casey so I will hopefully be able to post some pictures of our time there when we get back next week!

-Cait

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