Baby #4: 34 Weeks

 

Hello 34 Weeks!  We had a MFM (maternal fetal medicine) check up and ultrasound this week which gave us some great information on our growing babe!  Baby is coming in at 98th percentile, weighing about 6.5 lbs already.  My incision scar looks thick and great for surgery!  The doctor did suggest I do a few things these last 5 weeks.  The growth rate of baby is a little much and even though I passed my GDM test I could still have it.  So he wants me to definitely do a low carb/low sugar diet these last 5 weeks and either retest for GDM (no thanks) or take my blood sugars periodically to see if I need insulin or not.  I know the GDM blood sugar targets already, so I'm getting a glucometer today and we'll see where I stand.  Also I can definitely modifying my diet for the last 5 weeks.  The worry is when the baby is delivered their blood sugar will tank in postpartum and that unleashes a whole slew of issues we'd love to avoid.  So Mama can rein it back in for a month!

As for me, I'm feeling mostly pretty good!  The biggest symptom is FATIGUE!  It's a vicious cycle of not sleeping great at night by waking up to pee every 3-4 hours or waking up to roll over every 2 hours then staying up all day taking care of kiddos or chores then throw working night shift on top of that!  I can always use a nap.  Occasional round ligament pain at night, but not too bad.  I really don't have too much to complain about at this point!

These last few weeks have been so busy and we marked off a lot of big events we wanted to get through.  We celebrated Mother's Day after I woke up from working the night before.  A few days later we celebrated our oldest turning SEVEN and hosted a big party at our house, followed by surprising the grandma's with an ultrasound viewing of the baby afterwards, then strawberry picking at a local farm in town.  It was a BUSY day. I also was celebrated big time by my nurse coworkers at work with a lemon themed baby shower!  It was the sweetest and definitely made me tear up.  We have so much to be grateful for. 

Over the next two weeks we need to wash bottles and sort out what we still need in that department, pack our hospital bags, wash and install the infant car seat and I'd like to set up a little brunch for the bi sisters to celebrate them since we aren't having a family baby shower.  We got the changing station/dresser all stocked and even snagged a baby swing off faceboook. 

We are getting so excited to meet this baby!

Baby #4: 32 Weeks

 

32 weeks and growing right along!  Baby is the size of a care bear weighing around 4lbs and about 17 inches long. We are officially in the 8th month!  We feel hiccups almost every night, and it's the funniest thing.  This baby hiccups the most out of any of my other pregnancies!  I'm feeling all the kicks, jabs and rolls and sometimes it's even a little painful!  I think we have a strong baby growing for sure.

These last two weeks were a little rough for Mama.  I had a BAD bought of hemorrhoid's but luckily after 1.5 weeks of pain I figured out what was causing them and stopped doing it immediately!  No issues since. I was still doing squats and lunges with weights and apparently my pelvic floor is no longer strong enough for any of that, and that's ok!  So no more of that until postpartum.  Also sleeping is a struggle.  I wake up every time I need to roll over which is every 1.5-2 hours then add in a few episodes of insomnia from 1-4am....ugh.  It drains me for the day and makes it so difficult to think and be a patient Mama.  Just a few more weeks!

I'm still getting workouts in 3-4 times a week when I'm not working/day sleeping.  I'm mostly just walking with upper body light weights or hitting the YMCA's elliptical and stair climber with chest/back weight lifting there.  I've scaled back probably the most this pregnancy, but I still feel like I'm getting a good workout in and the blood flowing.  So far I've gained 25lbs and I'm very happy with that.

These last few weeks have been busy!  We hit the farmer's market a few times, visited May Fest and celebrated Mother's Day!  We moved Scarlett's dresser down to our room to use as a changing table and unboxed the old newborn clothes we have.  Hazel helped me load them into the dresser and she loved being a big helper.  I've been washing old burp clothes, swaddles and nursing pillows and started setting aside things for my hospital bag.  Kit and I even snuck in 36 hours over the weekend without the kids and got to deep clean and purge some giveaway items!  Of course we snuck in a date night too, but we were definitely in bed by 10pm.  We are getting close!

Date night!

Date Night!

Farmer's market

Give me all the pillows

MayFest

Mother's Day

Sweet note from Norah to baby

Sweet gift from a coworker, bow as back up!

Maxed out in the van

We also got to take our maternity pictures with Hazel and Haze Photography from Enid!  The day was super windy and I thought they'd have to get cancelled or postponed, but we made it work!  She's wonderful and worked her magic to capture this sweet time in our lives.