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01-12-2008 - 34 weeks/belly pics

My mood while writing this blog: Itchy

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You are 34 weeks pregnant. 1-3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Born & Birth stories

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. From your bellybutton, it is about 5.6 inches to the top of your uterus. Measurements of your uterus vary from woman to woman. You should not worry if you do not measure the exact same as your pregnancy friends or family members as long as you are growing appropriately. When your uterus grows and gets larger at an appropriate rate, it shows that your baby is growing well inside of your uterus.

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. Doctors can test lung maturity with an amniocentesis that checks levels of surfactant.

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.

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Well I had my 33 week appointment last Monday. The hospital hadn’t sent anything other from my visit the previous Tuesday so my midwife didn’t have any information about what went on. So I had to tell her all about it.. and then she said that because she hadn’t seen the ultrasound report she wasn’t going to change my due date from the end of January.. I guess she just didn’t believe that Joel could measure 31 weeks 4 days while I was measuring 28 weeks (at the hospital). *SIGH* why is it so unbelievable that I can be smaller and he is growing just fine? I measured almost 30 weeks on Monday.. yay getting bigger lol! So she wrote me as 30 weeks and Joel as 28. It annoys me so much that she doesn’t listen to me.. I can’t believe it! Also, at the hospital they measured me with the little measuring tape.. at my midwife’s office they measure with their hands. So I believe that she could be off and just not want to admit that she could be wrong. Anyways I’m up 24 pounds (yikes) and the belly is def. getting bigger! He is all on the right side.. sitting in a “L” shape with his head down to the left of my belly, his bum poking out on my right side and his feet straight up in my ribs (fun fun). At least he is mostly head down now!

Oh and another thing.. Joel has been getting hiccups 4-6 times a day now- they feel SO funny. But when I mentioned it to my midwife she said “oh he can’t be getting hiccups already? it just must be gas you are feeling’. Honestly where is this woman’s head? She needs to pull it out of her nether region!! Based on his ultrasound he is 33.4 weeks today. He is def. old enough to be getting hiccups. But I guess for her thinking that he is only 28 weeks he shouldn’t be getting hiccups. Oh well :) when he comes around the end of the first week of January or so she will see that he’s full term.

I’ve been getting Braxton hicks a lot lately too. Tons at night when I’m trying to go to sleep. When I was at the hospital I asked if they were supposed to hurt and the dr said that the only difference between an actual contraction and a Braxton hick contraction is that an actual contraction will cause you to dilate and a BH contraction will not. So yes they can be painful.. so don’t believe it when you read on here that BH should not be painful.. they can actually be AS painful as a labor contraction. So now how am I supposed to tell if it’s a labor contraction or a BH? Because my BH are pretty painful at times… The BH are normally about 10 minutes apart so I suppose if they get any closer or my water breaks that means labor lol.

I have read that you can check yourself for dilations but I don’t think I would want to do that.. I started bleeding at the hospital when they checked me so I don’t want to bleed again :(

Also, this was how far along my mom was when she had me. Well almost, she was a couple days away from 35 weeks. That fact along with the fact that my cervix was soft at the hospital kinda makes me nervous. Although I do feel better because he has been getting the hiccups so much which supposedly means he is practice breathing in there so if he does come early he should do all right.

OOO and I am trying to get an appointment with the doctor that they refer to at a different hospital. I was going to deliver at Winnie Palmer Hospital but they don't have a refering dr there so I would just get a resident dr.. and if the resident dr in the triage was any indication of who I was going to get while in labor... I've changed my mind about that hospital lol! Dr. Edwards delivers at an older hospital (while winnie palmer is brand new) but at least I would know who was going to deliver me.

Oh and I have a rash.. it almost looks like a heat rash. It's on my belly, arms, and my back. You can't see it unless you look close but it itches like crazy!!

I've also been working on his nursery :) I'll put some new pics in my nursery blog in a minute!

I'm having a hard time describing this.. lol.. um weird looking from the front? And I don't have love handles hehe for some reason my belly creates this shadow on my hips.. I don't think it looks normal?

Looks little more normal from the side

It's so "lumpy" it's almost like it's two seperate bumps lol! One above the belly button and one bump below!