38 weeks, 3 days

Had another ultrasound and doctor's appointment today. All looks good!

Baby girl is head down, face to my back (just how we want her!) so hopefully no back labor for me. The tech commented twice how low her head is (woo hoo!). She also mentioned she's pretty cramped up in there and her feet are right up in my ribs (I honestly rarely feel it, another woo hoo!). She gave us some prints from the ultrasound but I'm not even going to post them-they look like nothing because she's getting to big to fit anything in a screen shot. Her amniotic fluid level was 11.7 and we were shooting for over 10. Also, she got an 8/8 on the other checks they did. Edit: During the ultrasound the tech showed me where my gall bladder and liver are.  I'm not an expert at organ placement in general, especially not when things get moved around during pregnancy, but it was quite strange to see.  I just kept thinking "my liver is way up there?!" 

We then headed to the clinic for our appointment which included another non-stress test. When we got there they said, "you didn't get a call? Dr. Carlson isn't in this afternoon because she was on call this weekend." Um... They did some checking and apparently under the circumstances (we drive an hour and needed this follow up info on time or there was mention of inducing) we got to keep our appointment, just with another doctor. So, my blood pressure is still good and I'm up to 163.5 pounds, still within the target range for weight gain (up about 34 pounds). The non-stress test went great. The goal is to see that her heart rate can increase and decrease which shows she's getting enough oxygen. This was a follow up to last week's all because of a tiny bit below "ideal" amniotic fluid level (that is now back on track). Then they told us our fill in doctor got called to a delivery so we had to wait some more. When she got there she said the ultrasound and non-stress test looked great. She checked me and said I'm dilated to "wiggly 3cm" and called my cervix "favorable." We can't remember the word she used, but said something about baby's head position and we took it to mean she's a little more settled in for labor than she was last week. She also made sure to point out that because we live 45-60 minutes from the hospital, I'm already 3cm dilated and my cervix is "favorable" we shouldn't wait too long to come in once labor starts, especially if I want an epidural. I asked about visitors at the hospital because of all this flu craziness and she said only our immediate family can come which is fine. It would be nice to be able to have the option for more, but they have the rule for a good reason so no big deal.

For the record, we have had WAY more ultrasounds than the average pregnancy. I don't want people reading this to get the wrong idea. At our clinic, one typically gets an ultrasound at her first visit (8-12 weeks) to check initial growth/due date and an anatomy scan (18-20 weeks). We had both of those plus another because she was moving too much in the anatomy scan, another to check on some cysts that appeared on her brain (common and went away as expected), another to check on growth (I was measuring a week behind-Dr. figured it was because baby dropped but wanted to be sure, measured right on but amniotic fluid was a tiny bit below ideal), and one more today to check on the amniotic fluid (all looked good!). So, don't expect that many! Some clinics don't even do that initial ultrasound at 8-12 weeks.

That's all! I finally finished packing my hospital bag and the car seat is good to go! I'll be doing a post about packing a bag for the hospital after baby is here to share what I was glad to have/didn't need/wish I had.

Hopefully a baby intro post soon! :)