Weeks 35-37

written at 37 weeks, 5 days along. Barrett is 3 years old

We are in the home stretch! I haven't had any real changes since my last update but wanted to document the many more doctor appointments. At 36 weeks, I began my twice weekly visits. Mondays are set for ultrasounds and NSTs while Thursdays are set for NSTs.

My first Monday appt, I had a biprofile ultrasound. This is pretty basic where they check her breathing and heartbeat as well as measure the fluid. At this point, I was on bed rest with Barrett for low fluid but her check up went great! I was measuring at a 22 which is wonderful. Barrett was at a 6-8 at this point. The ultrasound took less than 10 minutes total. I got back out to the waiting room before being called to the NST room and texted Joe that she is kicking her brothers butt in the cooperation category. Barrett was always a bit of a pain to get some measurements but she passes them with flying colors. Let's hope that cooperation continues in real life because lord knows her brother is not one I would call cooperative.

All was well with the NST and then I went to an exam room to meet with Dr Bennett. Nothing exciting to report here. I did my strep B test (which later came back negative) and did get my first internal. Barely 1 cm and still pretty thick which was no real surprise.

My next NST a few days later was pretty standard as well. I had to bring Barrett with me which was pretty stressful but mostly in my head. It's not that often that I have to contain him while being strapped to a machine and covered in wires. I thought for sure he would need to go potty or want to run out of the room or mess with the machines but he sat in the chair with me and read books and played on my phone. He was so well behaved and I was extremely thankful for that. I really talked up that mommy and sister needed a checkup and that he need to be my special helper. The appt itself went quick and she passed again with no problems. Doc even came into the NST to chat quickly rather than going to a separate room. I really appreciated that!

Then we reach Week 37 and I have another ultrasound but this time it was to check on growth. I don't believe I've mentioned yet that I did get put on a low dose of insulin at dinner so I was a little leery about where she would be growth wise. Statistically, insulin babies are bigger babies but she is measuring perfect! 6 lbs, 11 oz which is 52%. Nice and average! And the best part is that she was 51% at our growth 3 weeks prior so she is staying in her curve. I was really happy with that. They also checked fluid again and I'm staying steady at 22. She is kicking butt! which means my labor and delivery is sure to suck.

Thursdays appointment was for another NST and again I had to bring Barrett. He was pretty squirrely in the waiting room but my emergency stash of suckers helped. We were called back and I did my usual urine sample and met up with Nurse Brittney to get some measurements before hooking up the NST. My weight has been fluctuating by a pound for the last two weeks but I'm officially up 14 lbs total. BP and urine and all that jazz is still great. No swelling yet either. My rings even still fit. They were off pretty early with B but summer baby makes a big difference in the way my fingers swell. It's been nice to get to keep wearing them. I got hooked up again to the machine and had no problems here either. My little nightmare came true when about halfway through Barrett got up and went to leave the room saying he had to pee. He got the door open and I told him he would have to go with Brittney and that stopped him in his tracks pretty quickly. "Nope" he said and back to sitting with me, he went. I was so proud of him because he managed to hold it until we were done. He is getting to be such a big kid, it's crazy.

Back to an exam room where I was sure Dr Bennett would want to check me but she walked in and right away asked what I thought of an induction date of March 23 (39 weeks exactly). YES! I could have kissed her! No way was I going to argue with that. I'm totally jinxing it by agreeing with it at this point, I'm sure but it helps my anxiety so much by knowing an end date and being able to figure our childcare. Would it be wonderful if she comes on her own before then? Heck yes but if not, the end is near. She said that she wouldn't check me today but that we would check both on Monday and Thursday next week and then that will determine induction time. If I'm still only 1 cm by next Thursday, then we are to go in on Sunday evening (March 22) for cervidil which is exactly how it went with B. If I'm dilating more and showing some progress than I go in on Monday evening (March 23). So it appears Sister's birthday will either be March 23 or March 24. I can handle that!

That's about it really for updates. This whole time period, I've officially began my role as stay at home mom which is tough being full time caregiver while being this far along. Barrett is with me every second of his awake time and darn near every second of mine as well. It's almost 11pm as I'm writing this and that is the only time I can sit down with a computer enough to think. He is going to be a handful for our sitters when I'm in the hospital, for sure. A month straight with hardly leaving his mother's side will make for a difficult goodbye but it's only a few days.

That is where I will leave off. 10 days and counting! I should do one more update in a week to recap how my last week goes and then I plan to do another live blog of the birth so stay tuned.