U.B. visits the doctor, 35 weeks
Yesterday I went for another prenatal checkup, my first in 6 weeks because of our long holiday in Indiana. This time I saw my "regular" nurse practitioner, who sucks significantly less than Dr. Suck v. 2.0. However, she, like he, made me wait 45 minutes to see her this time. This does not bode well for me starting a weekly-checkup schedule next week.
I simply don't think I can stand for waiting that long every time I go to the doctor, especially when I am always on time. I mean, come ON, losers. I have a toddler who requires babysitting while I am there. Luckily for us, Dada has the most flexible job in the universe and can serve as my babysitter, but obviously he is taking time off of work to do this. You may think I could try to take Isaac along with me to these things, but trapping him in a room behind a closed door while I wait forever for the practitioner to show up is so not cool with him. Watching me lie down on a table with a doctor-person leaning over me? Also not cool with him. In fact, the least destructive thing he did the one time I did take him with me was to pull out little (unused) canisters of Pap smear tests from a drawer and stack them. That was a little gross for me.
But back to his little brother. Going into this visit, I have to admit I was a little worried on two fronts.
Problem 1: We have all been sick since Wednesday with the Head Cold that Would Not Die. This has only enhanced my pregnancy-induced insomnia, and now that Isaac is also full of snot, he is waking up at ungodly hours to make sure I get no sleep whatsoever. Dada, bless his heart, is stepping up to help with the noctural Isaac situation like a trooper, but his lack of sleep also helps no one. I discovered in October that, when I sleep 3 hours or less, I start to have lots of contractions. Because of my not sleeping with this cold, contractions started up on Friday night and went all through the night and the next day with 2 or 3, and sometimes 4, every hour until Saturday night. These were clearly not contractions that were doing anything; they were all low and in front and completely non-painful. But this doesn't make them any less freaky. We are very close to U.B.'s scheduled arrival date, but coming this early would still make him premature, with inherent problems for him now and later. Again, Dada was very helpful and forced me to nap and lay around on the couch a lot, and I think this has done the trick to helping them die down. They have not vanished, but perhaps this late in the game it is time for some cervix-ripening activities anyway.
My practitioner's answer: Not to worry about them. If they get too frequent, I need to rest more and drink more water to help them calm down, but contractions like these are largely to be expected now.
Problem 2: According to the mish-mash of home scales I have weighed myself on, I didn't appear to have gained any weight since I had last been to the doctor. This is despite Christmas cookies/pies/cakes, abnormal quantities of Steak-n-Shake milkshakes in Indiana, home-cooked dinners, and enough McDonald's on the road to turn my life into "Super Size Me". Dada says (and I agree) that I am certainly getting bigger, but I was seriously concerned that I might be hurting the baby with my lack of weight gain.
My practitioner's answer: I actually had gained 4 pounds, but she would have preferred I gain 6 over the 6 weeks since my last visit. However, U.B. measured on the small side of normal for the first time since October (coincidence?), with my fundal height clocking in at 31 cm when it should be closer to 35. She said, while I need to start packing on the bacon, overall my measurements were still within normal operating parameters and that she was encouraged by the fact that I had gained 32 pounds overall so far.
Other statistics: U.B.'s heartbeat was about 145 bpm. My blood pressure was elevated as compared to previous readings (perhaps due to our head cold?), but not out of the range of normal. I also learned that, should U.B. go over his due date, they will induce me when he is one week late, unlike most other facilities where they will wait two weeks. Thinking that U.B. is coming in February no matter what seems like the best news I've heard in a long time.
I simply don't think I can stand for waiting that long every time I go to the doctor, especially when I am always on time. I mean, come ON, losers. I have a toddler who requires babysitting while I am there. Luckily for us, Dada has the most flexible job in the universe and can serve as my babysitter, but obviously he is taking time off of work to do this. You may think I could try to take Isaac along with me to these things, but trapping him in a room behind a closed door while I wait forever for the practitioner to show up is so not cool with him. Watching me lie down on a table with a doctor-person leaning over me? Also not cool with him. In fact, the least destructive thing he did the one time I did take him with me was to pull out little (unused) canisters of Pap smear tests from a drawer and stack them. That was a little gross for me.
But back to his little brother. Going into this visit, I have to admit I was a little worried on two fronts.
Problem 1: We have all been sick since Wednesday with the Head Cold that Would Not Die. This has only enhanced my pregnancy-induced insomnia, and now that Isaac is also full of snot, he is waking up at ungodly hours to make sure I get no sleep whatsoever. Dada, bless his heart, is stepping up to help with the noctural Isaac situation like a trooper, but his lack of sleep also helps no one. I discovered in October that, when I sleep 3 hours or less, I start to have lots of contractions. Because of my not sleeping with this cold, contractions started up on Friday night and went all through the night and the next day with 2 or 3, and sometimes 4, every hour until Saturday night. These were clearly not contractions that were doing anything; they were all low and in front and completely non-painful. But this doesn't make them any less freaky. We are very close to U.B.'s scheduled arrival date, but coming this early would still make him premature, with inherent problems for him now and later. Again, Dada was very helpful and forced me to nap and lay around on the couch a lot, and I think this has done the trick to helping them die down. They have not vanished, but perhaps this late in the game it is time for some cervix-ripening activities anyway.
My practitioner's answer: Not to worry about them. If they get too frequent, I need to rest more and drink more water to help them calm down, but contractions like these are largely to be expected now.
Problem 2: According to the mish-mash of home scales I have weighed myself on, I didn't appear to have gained any weight since I had last been to the doctor. This is despite Christmas cookies/pies/cakes, abnormal quantities of Steak-n-Shake milkshakes in Indiana, home-cooked dinners, and enough McDonald's on the road to turn my life into "Super Size Me". Dada says (and I agree) that I am certainly getting bigger, but I was seriously concerned that I might be hurting the baby with my lack of weight gain.
My practitioner's answer: I actually had gained 4 pounds, but she would have preferred I gain 6 over the 6 weeks since my last visit. However, U.B. measured on the small side of normal for the first time since October (coincidence?), with my fundal height clocking in at 31 cm when it should be closer to 35. She said, while I need to start packing on the bacon, overall my measurements were still within normal operating parameters and that she was encouraged by the fact that I had gained 32 pounds overall so far.
Other statistics: U.B.'s heartbeat was about 145 bpm. My blood pressure was elevated as compared to previous readings (perhaps due to our head cold?), but not out of the range of normal. I also learned that, should U.B. go over his due date, they will induce me when he is one week late, unlike most other facilities where they will wait two weeks. Thinking that U.B. is coming in February no matter what seems like the best news I've heard in a long time.
posted by Claire at 6:55 PM
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