Week 37: "Swiss Chard" (full term)

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, her lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz. (http://www.babycenter.com/)

==============================

I'm officially full term!!! Here is my 37 week belly pic.

Well, today was a long and scary day. I went to see the midwife at 11:45 for my scheduled 37 week appointment. My blood pressure was high again (144/88) and I still had a little more than .2 protein in my urine (my understanding is that anything over .3 is Preclampsia). My midwife was concerned and unfortunately my 24-hour urine results weren't in yet. She soon discovered that my urine never got sent to the lab, it was still sitting in office lab's refrigerator. My midwife was not happy and gave the lab person a piece of her mind. She was needing those results to determine how to proceed with my medical care. She had them put a rush on it, but wanted me to go to Labor and Delivery in the meantime for them to monitor my blood pressure and wait for the results. She said if my blood pressure went down, she would probably send me home on bedrest, but if it didn't they would deliver me today. Scary!

Teirney wasn't with me and I was a bit emotional. I called Teirney to let him know what was going on and he had his friend, Dave, give him a ride to the hospital. By the time Teirney got there, I was all set up on the monitor in a birthing suite. The machine they hooked me up to monitor's the baby's heartrate, utero activity (contractions), and it took my blood pressure every 10 minutes. For the first hour my blood pressure was continuously high, so the midwife had me turn on my left side to see if that would make a difference. It did! All of the readings when I was on my side were quite a bit lower -- first in the 120s and then in the low 100s. I think one of my final readings was 102/66, so it made a significant difference. The nurse came in at one point and said that my blood work came back okay and my 24-hour urine was not over the .3, so that was good news.

They monitored me for about 2 hours and for the latter portion of that time my blood pressure stayed low as long as I was on my left side, so the nurse came in and said I could go home. But they put me on strict bedrest. I must stay in bed or on the couch at all times. I can only get up to go to the bathroom, eat meals, and take 1 shower a day. I was so relieved they did not induce me today, but a little bummed that I was put on bedrest, especially "strict bedrest." As long as I can keep Bebita in her warm cocoon until the first week of March, I'll be happy.

I have to go back on Friday for a NST and to see my midwife again. Of course, Teirney has been so sweet to me through all of this, taking such good care of me (as always). I'm not sure I'll be able to handle 3 weeks of bedrest, but some women have endured much more. We'll just have to take one day at a time.

My parents were planning on coming down next week for a meeting my dad has, so the timing couldn't be better. My mom even mentioned she might stay with me until the baby comes, which would be wonderful.

I will post again on Friday to give everyone an update. Stay cookin', Bebita! We love you!