10-11-2008 - 31 Weeks/belly pics

My mood while writing this blog: Irritable/Sick

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. An average weight gain at this point is between 21 and 27 pounds. The weight that you gain is made up of your baby, placenta, blood supply, uterus, breasts, fat, water storage and amniotic fluid.

Because the ligaments and muscles supporting the small of your back relax and loosen in order to get ready for childbirth, your back may be aching from now on. There is usually nothing that can be done to prevent backaches, only to make them more comfortable. Many women get heartburn during these last few weeks of pregnancy because the oversized uterus leaves less room for the stomach and the contents within the stomach. Eating smaller, more frequent meals can help relieve the discomforts of heartburn.

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.

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Wow beginning eight months this week! I told Bobby that and he was like “that’s not right.. you’re only pregnant for nine months!” yes but it’s nine FULL months lol they should just say pregnant for 10 months so poor husbands wouldn’t be confused!

Gosh is he really as big as the picture shows? I have an appointment this Tuesday so maybe I can get a weight estimation. I was going to be doing my glucose test tomorrow but I’m canceling it. I don’t feel like I need to take it and I’m way past the recommended weeks anyways.. and besides I’ve LOST weight these past two weeks so I highly doubt I have GD. I’m going to see if I can get another ultrasound to see where he is measurement wise because he just seems small to me! I felt his hand a couple days ago. It was shoved up right by my ribs and I could feel his boney little knuckles! As soon as I touched it though he yanked it back down :) he’s shy I believe. Also, yesterday when I woke up I could feel his heart beating on the outside of my stomach. He had his back pushed right up against my skin and was making my whole stomach pulse with his heartbeat. Was the COOLEST thing yet so far!

So I’ve been sick for a week and am really frustrated.. I went to urgent care last Tuesday to get some medicine because my midwife couldn’t see me (grr). And I got an antibiotic for a respiratory infection.. well I still have it and my anti biotic runs out tomorrow. All it did was upset my stomach and give me the runs.. lovely. So I’m still sick and highly doubt my midwife is going to want to do anything for me when she sees me tomorrow. Last time I needed medicine for something she told me to stick yogurt up there.. yeah sure that will work! Seeing how every other infection I get I usually need two rounds of strong antibiotic to get rid of it. Yes I am happy that she likes to do things the natural way but gosh.. doesn’t my medical history speak for itself? I normally need STRONG antibiotic to get rid of something when I catch it. Anyways I guess I am just frustrated with my midwife right now. I am going to try to get her to change my due date to the date I know it is (I know the conception date) so that she will see that me measuring behind needs to be monitored and Joel’s size needs to be monitored. Whenever I go in I see a different midwife for some reason.. I thought that I would be seeing Jenny or Robin throughout the pregnancy but I haven’t seen them since the beginning and I don’t like the ones that I have been seeing. Anyways they say I am 28 weeks right now and I know that I am 31 weeks (Jenny agreed with me about my dates at my first appointment). So when I measured 24 weeks the last time I had my appointment I was measuring 4 weeks behind. This concerned me but didn’t concern my midwife because she is convinced that I was 25 weeks at the time.. so being one week behind isn’t a big deal. I’ll see what I measure tomorrow though. I’ve gotten bigger but pretty sure I will measure behind again. Oh and at Joel’s last ultrasound (23 weeks) he measured with the date that I thought he was and not the date that the midwives thought. Maybe I will insist on getting another ultrasound to make sure he is doing alright. I wanted to get a consulting appointment with Jenny to just talk to her but they wouldn’t let me schedule one because they can’t guarantee she will be available.. I guess I just get upset when it seems like none of them are listening to me. If I wasn’t so far along I would try to find another doctor because I am just not happy with the midwives that I have been seeing. I’ll just see how it goes tomorrow.

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31 Week belly pics!

My bum has gotten big! lol!

From the front

My husband thinks it's the cutest thing

I feel like I've dropped a bit! Do breech babies 'drop'?

Oh and I got to check off another 'completed' on my trimester timeline on my profile! YAY!