Week 36

Blake is still growing like a weed from what I can tell since my belly is moving and wobbling all over the place while I'm sitting still. You can actually see it from across the room which freaks some of my coworkers out. You can also start to see the movement from hiccups these days as well. The hiccups are getting much stronger and they keep me up at night when I move from sleeping on one side to the other. He still has lots of big movements which constantly remind me that he is in there and will be ready to come out soon. It is getting more difficult to move around and get off the couch with this big ol' belly and I'm getting quite anxious to meet this little boy!

The only other strange thing I've noticed this week other than the standard swelling, frequent bathroom trips, and heartburn is a small itchy patch just under my belly button that I have to keep lotioned up or it drives me crazy. I've read that it is more common with boy babies since it is thought to be caused by the hormones that are present with boys.

We finally got the car seat installed this week. It was much more complicated than I thought it would be. After reading through the carseat manual as well as the manual for my Rav and trying to figure out the best place to hook everything up, we finally got the base in there nice and snug. Good thing because....

This week's doctors visit did not go as planned. I have been feeling pretty much fine so I was shocked to find out that my blood pressure was 140/90 which is apparently the magic number that causes doctors to get concerned about preeclampsia (which is basically high blood pressure caused by pregnancy). If this is confirmed, the only way to treat this is to deliver the baby. The doc put me on the monitor again to see how the baby was doing, and thankfully he was doing well like he normally does. I think I only had one contraction but it lasted a long time so it doesn't look like my body is ready to go into labor... at least for today.

After being on the monitor for 30 mins or so, I had my blood pressure checked again and it was still high. So the next course of action to determine if I have preeclampsia is to have a urinalysis test done where I collect urine for 24 hours to test for a certain protein. I have 2 big jugs that will collect all the urine and I get to store them in the fridge... oh boy. The other big news is that I now have to be on bed rest until we determine the outcome of the urine test... and then if it's positive, until I deliver. If it is determined that I do have preeclampsia, the doctor said we will deliver the baby at 37 weeks, which will be next Saturday.

My weight gain seems to be on track and I'm up to 28 lbs gained this week. If things go the way the doc expects, I'll be in the hospital this time next week working on bringing this baby into the world. Stay tuned!