Week 34

I actually am 35 weeks now, but I'll post with the "happenings" of week 34.  I had another appt. with the "less desirable" specialist doctor on Monday.  He didn't seem to be checking for much that day because it was too soon to see if Baby has gained weight since my last appointment a week before.  They did do an ultrasound to check heart rate and movement though and she had a good heartbeat, but wasn't moving AT ALL!  They had to eventually bring out a little buzzer thing that kind of vibrated and buzzed loudly over my belly to see if that would make her move.  She did a little, but still not as much as they wanted.  When the doctor came in, he asked when I last ate and I told him I had eaten lunch around 12.  (I left school for my appt. at 2).  "THREE HOURS AGO?!  Three hours is TOO long for the baby to go without food.  I know that while you're teaching it's hard to take care of yourself, but you really need to be eating something every couple of hours."  OK... so there's another thing I am apparently doing wrong.  He decided to hook me up to a monitor for a fetal stress test after they gave me some juice to drink.  That supposedly showed that the baby is doing fine (although Sean and I really didn't know what was going on during the test).

On Thursday at work, I started having Braxton Hicks contractions that were long-lasting and a very steady 3 - 4 min. apart ALL day.  I waited until after lunch to call the doctor just to ask what I should do about it since sitting/standing/walking/etc. weren't changing anything.  When the nurse called back, they asked me to come in right away.  So yet another frantic afternoon making sure someone could cover my classroom (so glad for supportive staff members!) and a speed-demon drive all the way back out to the doctor... they checked and I'm still not dilated, but they hooked me up to monitor the contractions and sure enough I was having around 5-6 per hour (of course I was lying down while being monitored so they has slowed a little since earlier that day).  Since the contractions weren't causing any changes to the cervix, I was sent home with instructions to be "done as soon as the school day is done".  So I am supposed to leave work as soon as I can at the end of the day and stay off my feet once I get home at night.  On Friday, I had the same issue though of constant contractions all day long!

Friday after school, I had my staff baby shower which was awesome!  I got some great things for Baby and enjoyed visiting with co-workers outside of school.  This weekend, I washed all of her new stuff and put it away.  I also got to put some sheets on her bed and get the changing table set up since we got the changing pad and cover for it.  It's looking cute in there!  Now we just can't wait until we have a baby to put in there, too! 

Tomorrow I go back to the specialist to measure Baby again and see if she's gained enough weight.  I have been really loading up on protein like he suggested, so I hope she's gotten bigger!  I'll post later this week to tell how things go.  I don't have an appointment with the midwives again until next week, so hopefully I won't have any reason to go in and see them until that point!