34 Weeks

Your baby's crown-to-rump length this week is approximately 12.8 inches and the total length is around 19.8 inches at this time. Your baby now weighs almost 5 pounds.

Braxton-Hicks contractions are going to get stronger and more frequent within the next few weeks. Braxton-Hicks contractions feel like a tightening at the top of your uterus that spreads down and then relaxes. Many women mistake Braxton-Hicks contractions for true labor contractions, but this is rarely the case. Braxton-Hicks contractions will diminish if you get up and walk around and they should not be painful.

Your baby's hair continues to get longer and thicker. Your baby's hair color probably is not going to be the same color from birth onwards, so you should expect it to change in color. Your baby is shedding most of lanugo, but the amount of vernix caseosa is increasing. Your baby is taking calcium from you to lay down lots of bone. Continue to take your prenatal vitamins and drink milk to ensure that you receive enough calcium.

If you were to deliver your baby now, it would probably be called a pre-term infant instead of premature. The only difference is in the maturity, particularly lung maturity. A pre-term baby is less likely to need intensive care because its lungs have developed.

The baby now rests on your uterus and is no longer floating.

Fingernails now reach over the finger tips and the baby can scratch itself.

Upcoming baby events:
Friday- Maternity photos
Saturday - 1st Child birth prep class
Sunday- BABY SHOWER!!!
Wednesday- WORK BABY SHOWER!
Next Friday- meet with possible peditrition & a prenatal check up-the start of weekly check ups!!
Next Saturday- 2nd child birth prep class
May 15th - Hospital Tour

In between all that we will be doing some MAJOR shopping to get all the odds and ends that we will need. Almost ready!

How far along?: 34 Weeks
Total weight gain: 32 pounds - not to shabby if I do say so myself
How much does baby weigh?: around 5 pounds
Maternity clothes?: Yes- I caved and bought two more shirts
Stretch marks?: Still none on the tummy- just my boobs
Sleep?: huh?? What???
Best moment this week?: my awesome pedicure as a treat from Erin- felt sooo good
Movement?: yes- yesterday I watched her move from the middle of my belly to the right side and I took a picture. That was the most lop-sided I have ever seen it
Food cravings?: sweets....sweets....and more sweets. Its the only thing that sounds good.
Labor signs?: nope- I still don't know what braxtion hicks contractions feel like
Belly button in or out?: in
What I miss: sleep but its ok. I manage
What I'm looking forward to: Maternity photos & my baby showers!!!
Milestone: 34 weeks is a pretty good one considering that both Joey and I were born 6.5/7 weeks early.

33 weeks

Your baby weighs about 4.4 pounds at this point. The crown-to-rump length of your baby is approximately 12 inches and the total length is around 19.4 inches. Measuring from the top of your uterus to your bellybutton is 5.2 inches.

With the exception of crying, your baby is capable of doing everything that a newborn baby will do. Your baby is restricted now inside of the uterus, but still can kick and move. Your baby sleeps a lot of the time, just as newborn babies do. Your baby's eyes move in the manner of REM sleep and researchers believe that babies can dream vividly in uterus. When your baby is awake, she is listening, feeling and learning. There are billions of neurons in the brain that make trillions of connections. Your baby will probably have settled into the birth position by now and your caregiver can most likely tell which way your baby is presenting. If your baby were to be born now, the lungs would probably be strong enough to function properly, but your baby may still need extra care from specially trained doctors and nurses.

Your baby's eyes open during alert times and close during sleep. The eye color is usually blue, regardless of the permanent color as pigmentation is not fully developed. The final formation of eye pigmentation requires exposure to light and usually happens a few weeks after birth.

Only 7 weeks left and both Joey and I are getting pretty anxious but know that she needs to stay and bake for at least 4 more weeks. But we are slowly getting things ready.

We have scheduled a consultation with a possible pediatrician which came highly recommended by my sister. So I am pretty sure that is a done deal. Unless when we meet her and I totally hate her, which is highly unlikely. Joey really wanted to take maternity photos and I finally gave in. At first I didn't really want to. I am very self conscious about how chubby my face is getting. BUT I have come around to the idea. He really wants a photo of him kissing my belly so why not do a whole photo shoot, right? We also have scheduled child birth preperation classes. They are two saturday classes from 9-1pm. And we also have an appt for the hospital tour. And then I have my friends/family baby shower coming up and then a work shower. All of these things are scheduled for the 1st half of May. And so I plan on taking the last half of May to go to work then come home and RELAX. Not that I can do much else. I am pretty in mobile these days. Which is fine. I need my rest and I definatly don't want to over do it.

The nursery is almost finished. The glider is put together and in its place. Its not exactly what I wanted but it will do. Just gotta find some shelves and get some little things and we are almost set. People have been very generous already so Audrey has tons of clothes already. I just need to get a few odds and ends and that dept is almost set as well. We have 7 weeks. Well, Joey thinks that I won't go the full 40 weeks (he is a very anxious daddy to be). I think I will go the full lenth. I am hoping she wants to stay in until 37 weeks. Then after that its game on. Anything can happen.

32 Weeks

By week 32, your baby weighs nearly 4 pounds! The crown-to-rump length of your baby is approximately 11.7 inches and the total length is about 18.9 inches.

Sleeping girl. The baby sleeps 90-95% of the day, and sometimes experiences REM sleep, an indication of dreaming.

Now that your baby has grown so long and your uterus is higher, you might notice a new discomfort. Your baby is probably head-down and may occasionally stretch out and kick you in the ribs. The pressure on your rib cage can make you sore, especially if one of your baby's feet becomes caught. You can prevent this by sitting up straight as much as possible. Because your baby's demands for vitamins and minerals are higher than ever right now, you should continue to take your parental vitamins for the entire pregnancy.

This week your baby's movements will peak. You should continue to monitor the fetal movements daily and address any concerns with your caregiver. The wrinkles in your baby's face are disappearing and fat is still being deposited throughout the baby's body.

The body growth slows down from now on.

Because of the lack of space in the uterus, the legs are drawn up in what is known as the fetal position.

Only 8 more weeks (ish) until we get to meet our daughter. We have the car seat/stroller and we have ordered the glider to go in the nursery so that should be here soon. This next weekend we will try to pick out some shelving and start getting some essentials just in case.

My scare from going into labor and delivery turned into nothing. I don't have Cholestasis and my rash has cleared up so my doctor just chalked my episode up to fighting off an infection of some sort. PHEW!!!! I have been trying to relax and take it easy more and more these days. I don't need to come down with anything else for the next 8 weeks.

How far along?: 32 weeks
Total weight gain: 30 lbs
How much does baby weigh?: around 4 lbs
Maternity clothes?: Yes- i have a very limited clothes rotation
Stretch marks?: ok...ok. I will admit I have them- but they aren't on my tummy. I have a couple on my boobs. I'm ok with it
Sleep?: i wake up every 2-3 hrs. Im pretty much used to it at this point
Best moment this week?: finding out that I don't not have cholestatis that that both baby and I are healthy
Movement?: Yes- she has started to aim for my ribs- it hurts sometimes
Food cravings?: not really
Labor signs?: nope
Belly button in or out?: in- for now
What I miss: People minding their own business. I really dislike getting unsolicited advise and when people give thier two sense when its not needed and I didn't ask for it. Do I have the word "dumb" written on my forehead??? While I know people are only trying to help, Joey and I are smart people and we will figure things out like every new parent does and will make the decisions that are best for us and our child. I don't need to know what other people did or did not do or what other people think is best for MY child- If I need advise or help - I'll ask for it. ok vent over.
What I'm looking forward to: My baby shower on may 2nd and my work baby shower on may 5th AND of course meeting our little one in 8 weeks or so
Milestone: making it this far without any major complications- knock on wood.

31 weeks

Your baby is continuing to grow each week that you remain pregnant. Your baby's crown-to-rump length is nearly 11.2 inches and total length is approximately 18 inches. Your baby weighs approximately 3.5 pounds at this point. Your uterus is about 4.4 inches above your bellybutton and continues to get larger.

This week marks an incredible milestone in your baby's lung development. Before now, the air sacs and branches in your baby's lungs were present but not functional. The lungs were not able to inflate properly. However, now there is surfactant being produced in your baby's lungs. Surfactant prevents your baby's lungs from collapsing outside of the uterus and the baby is able to take in air and breathe properly. The fetal ear is almost completely developed both inside and out. Your baby can hear your voice and other familiar sounds that she will recognize after birth. Your baby is putting on white fat under the skin and the skin's color is pink instead of red at this point. Your baby's fingernails have grown to the end of her fingers and she may scratch herself while she is in the womb.

31 weeks and I made a special trip to Labor and Delivery at Providence on Friday. I never thought I would go there until she was ready to come. My body decided differently. It all started Thursday. I couln't catch my breath & my heart rate would not settle no matter what I did to rest. I call the doc they said that heart palpatations are normal and to monitor them. I woke up Friday with this terrible back pain and lower stomach cramps. I also had a rash starting on my stomach. But I went about my day because I chalked it up to being "normal" for pregnancy. Then through out the day my heart rate would play tricks on me and would rise and fall even if I was sitting down. I also couldn't catch my breath & had a slight chest pain and by at 4pm I started to get a fever. I also hadn't felt Audrey move all day. Nothing, not even a little tap from her. That and the fever was the trigger point. So I call the on call doc (who luckly was my doc that I talk to the prior day) and she said to head on in to Triage to get checked out. Soooo, scared out of my mind (and I find out later, Joey was too) we headed on in.

By about 4:45 I was all hooked up to the monitors. The baby's heart rate looked great and about 10 minutes later she started kicking. Go figure. I also was not contracting (thank god) so it was on to get some testing done. They did a pap exam (not exactly sure what they were looking for there) and a TON of bloodwork. All but two tests came back about an hr and half later negative. And I can't really list what all they were looking for but the doc said they tested for EVERYTHING. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I get sent home. My heart rate was down, still had a slight fever, still had a rash, and still had slight cramps. But felt a lot better. I think it was hearing that Audrey's heartbeat was good and I wasn't contracting calmed me down. I was ordered to bed rest & to basically drown myself with water & some OJ until Monday when I can go in for a follow up and get the rest of my test results. I did nothing but sit on the couch, watch movies, and read a book. I haven't relt that rested in a while. My fever was gone, my heart rate stayed down, I was able to catch my breathe easier if I got up to do something, and I only had slight lower belly cramps BUT my rash was getting worse and starting to itch.

On Monday I go into the doc and the other two tests had come back from the hospital negative. The doctor stated I was probably just fighting off some sort of bug and the bed rest while hydrating was the key to fighting it off before it got worse. BUT now that my rash is worse and very itcy AND ALL OVER MY BODY we did more blood work to see if I have Cholestasis . I am hoping and praying that I don't have this. I will definatly have to be monitored more and go to the hospital twice a week for baby stress tests and this condition can cause pre-term labor. SOOO pray for me that I don't have it. If this test comes back negative then I probalby just have PUPPPs which is a very common and non harmful pregnancy rash that will last the rest of the pregnancy (SAAAAWEEEEET). I would rather deal with that than Cholestasis. Either way I will do everything in my power to make sure that baby Audrey contintues to cook for as long as she needs to and that we both stay as healthy as possible.

And some good notes, we finally decided on a glider for Audrey's room. We just need to order it and that will be done this weekend. My dad said he would purchase the travel system for us as our baby gift so we got that ordered. We just need a few small things to purchase and we will be ready if she decides to come early. I am not saying we want her to come early but I guess its good to always be prepared.