32

Made it to 32!

Monday's OB appointment was.. surprising.
My OB was overjoyed at being at 31.5 weeks. You really can tell she's shocked, but in a great way. She actually said I may go full term. She did say it with some skepticism, but just the fact that she dares to hope was nice to hear.

We talked about Dr. Bitchy's desire for an amnio. She wanted to know how I felt about it. I said that I understood it, but was a bit confused since I thought it had already been decided that it didn't matter. My plan is to talk with my favorite peri at my next check there (next Monday.) She was fine with that but warned me that he is typically more conservative as well, so he's probably more likely to also want the amnio. If he does, that's fine, but I trust his opinion more than the others, so I'd like to hear his thoughts.

We discussed the all important timing of the C-section. And this is where it got interesting. I said that I wished we could go to 38 weeks, but I understood that we had to be conservative with my uterus. She actually shrugged and said "Well, you know.. if you're like you are now, we might be able to do that."

I almost fell off the exam table. I said "REALLY? How far can we push my uterus?" And she basically gave me the Very Serious Tone and said "IF you aren't contracting, we MIGHT be able to schedule you for exactly 38 weeks." I got that she was giving me the "don't get your hopes up" speech, but I think she really wants to give me what I want if it's safe. I seriously almost cried.

I know it's early, but so far I've only felt one contraction and that was in the hospital last week when I was dehydrated. Not unexpected. Now, of course, this would require a good deal of luck on my part and if there's anything we've established, I'm not really the luckiest procreator in the world, but even the possibility is pretty darned exciting to me.

It wasn't all sunshine and roses. She did kinda catch me off-guard at one point. We were discussing timing of appointments and how I had been comfortable not having an NST this week (they left it up to me) because of how things had been going and how closely I had been watching my blood pressures at home. She said "yeah, that's the only reason you're not in the hospital. Anyone else, you'd have been there. I trust you to keep a close eye on things and call if anything is wrong." That was sobering. I knew she meant it as a compliment -"what a great patient you are!" but it was a very real reminder that things are not As They Should Be.

However, in other good news of the week was that this week's labs were downright great for me. My protein was actually down in the 280s. It hasn' been under 300 in 6 weeks, so that was cool. My ALT was down in the 60s which is still kinda cruddy, but probably still a little below what I've come to think of as "Trish normal." And my AST was 28, which is actually REAL normal. I guess last week's crappy labs can officially be deemed a symptom of the plague and dehydration.

While my body isn't exactly performing fantastically, it's trying pretty hard. I'll give it credit. We're at 32 weeks. When the doctor is giving you steroid shots at 26 weeks, you really don't expect to see this milestone. Or at least, I didn't. I'm pretty thrilled.

Outside of the medical stuff, I'm doing pretty good. I've definitely hit the uncomfortable stage. Sometimes the baby is on my lungs and I can barely breathe. I pretty much feel like I have to pee 24/7. And I'm fairly certain the floor is getting further away because it sure seems like a long way to pick up a sock these days. It's still mostly amusing to me. I'm down about 8 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight, so I'm not any fatter, but everything is definitely rearranged and making moving around more difficult. I'm sure bed rest is only making that worse since my muscles are probably atrophying as I type this.

I also seem to have insomnia. I think it's ironic that I spend so much time laying down and so little time sleeping. I'm sure it's a combination of hormones and just the fact that all this laying around doing nothing screws with a body's rhythm. I'm trying to think of it as practice for a newborn, but I know there's no such thing. Fortunately all this doing nothing doesn't require a lot of energy, so for now I'm getting by. All in all, I think I'm doing pretty well for an 8 month pregnant woman with cranky body organs. Every day is an answer to prayers.

Bring on 33.

Trish