In case you missed the update about this pregnancy being considered high risk, you can read it here – What I haven’t said about my pregnancy. I’m going back to where I left off and doing bump progress shots, with more information about what we’ve learned along the way about our baby girl and her medical issue. All of these updates are written in the past tense because I ended up not catching up in time for our baby’s arrival! I want a record for myself, for my little girl and to help anyone else who may find themselves in a similar situation.
March 27th – April 2nd
How big is baby?
Baby is the size of a durian, and I remember this designation from Ezra’s pregnancy…because I had never even heard of a durian before. I don’t even know where I would buy a durian, except maybe at this local international market that has all kinds of crazy foods. Anyway, the size estimates for this week are – 17.2-18.7″ long and 4.2-5.8 pounds.
How I’m feeling?
After what had happened the previous week, when I was sent home with the increased dosage of procardia, I was also placed on modified bedrest. This meant that for every hour I was up doing something, I had to spend an hour relaxing. And it also meant I couldn’t lift more than 10 pounds, and I couldn’t do things like vacuum, vigorous cleaning, pull clothes out of the washer/dryer, etc. This was really frustrating to me, because I’m a bit of a clean freak. My mother-in-law ended up coming up several times over the rest of the pregnancy to clean the house, which I so appreciated.
I had more non-stress tests this week and my fluid continued to increase. I was starting to get really uncomfortable, especially at night and couldn’t sleep for more than a few hours at a time. One plus side? My belly became a very good shelf –
This was at the hospital for an NST and amniotic fluid measurement. By the end of this pregnancy, I had almost been conditioned to crave ice water every time I laid down for one of these tests! Not pictured? The bands I got to keep for the contraction and doppler monitors. They give you your own bands to bring back to each appointment to cut down on waste, and I just kept them even after I gave birth because they were such a part of our life for the last 8 weeks of pregnancy.
One thing that’s kind of funny about the bands is that I was given three, because the baby had quite a reputation for being wild on the monitors and impossible to track down – because I had so much fluid, she just kind of swam around as she pleased! She got the nickname of “Wildcat” by the nurses and I wish I had taken a video in order to get the audio of her movement on the monitor. It was so loud and crazy sounding, like the sound of someone scratching the needle across a record. And even though I know it was sometimes frustrating for the nurses because the baby was always slipping off the monitor (and thus “failing” quite a few of her NSTs because they couldn’t get a consistent reading…which then meant we had to do a biophysical profile – aka, an ultrasound where they look for specific movements/markers), I secretly loved it because it meant she was a fighter and she would need a lot of spirit for what was to come.
Any cravings or weird dreams?
That would be a no and a no.
Any other details?
Speaking of the biophysical profiles, by the end of the pregnancy, we had so many ultrasound images – because not only did we have a BP from time to time, but every amniotic fluid measurement (AFI) was an ultrasound. For an AFI, they measure pockets of fluid in four different quadrants of your belly, so you get a centimeter measurement. I don’t know how this converts to any kind of liquid measurement, but I do know that 19-21cm is normal and anything above 21cm is considered excessive. By this week, my measurement was in the 40s, and it seemed like each week I was increasing by 6cm. Most nights when I would change into my pajamas, I would look at my belly and wonder just how much bigger it could grow and how much more my skin could stretch. It really made me appreciate mamas who carry multiples, that’s for sure.
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