Week 37

In terms of baby development, Lillian is considered full term this week; so if she is born now her lungs and other organs should be able to function on their own without needing time in the NICU. Although my due date is still 3 weeks away, she could come at anytime now; however, most babies stay in just gaining weight the final weeks.

I've had another period of contractions this past week; however, these were stronger and intensified more than previous times. They lasted about six hours and kept me awake; however, I had a lot of back labor and that seemed to keep me up more than the actual tightening of the contraction. It made it very difficult to time them and I realize I need to find out what to do in that situation; I didn't go in but rather just tried to keep laying down and they finally eased up about 4am. At my doctor's appointment this week she will be checking my cervix to see if I'm thinning or dilating. I'll provide an update on this post after the appointment.

UPDATE: Well I spent another 6 hrs in L&D for high blood pressure. My doctor has me taking my blood pressure at home and I'm supposed to go in if I have two abnormal readings of 140/90 in one day. After going in daily she upped it to 140/100. They took it three different times while I was there and it didn't really seem to go down until the last reading (still at 130/90; prior it was 147/107) When I go in for this they usually hook me up to the monitors for 20-30 min to check on the baby, continue to monitor my blood pressure and if it is still high run a urine sample to check for protein as it would mean I have pre-eclampsia (basically my kidneys begin to go into failure and spill protein in my body; so far the test always comes back negative but they only do random urine samples here. In the states they'd also do blood work and a 24hr urine collection) Anyway, I had had some pretty strong contractions earlier in the day but they seemed to have tapered off by the time I got to the hospital. I was surprised to see I was still contracting every 5 min while in L&D. They checked and I'm only 1cm dilated, I'm not thinned out so I'm assuming that means 0% effaced and she says baby's head is engaged. Engagement is measured in stations based on how far of the baby's head is in the pelvic bone as shown in the picture to the right; however, she didn't say what station I'm at. They said since they checked on the baby and did a pelvic exam now I don't need to go see my doctor on Wed.... I emailed her anyway confirming this. All in all, my experiences in L&D are not making me very confident in the staff that will be there while I labor....

UPDATE #2: I received an email from my doctor confirming she still wants me to go to my appointment on Wed. We will discuss the option of inducing since my blood pressure has consistently been high. It has been something I've had to push and I think it's because most Koreans don't have high blood pressure so I can't imagine my doctor sees too many cases in her international patients. I've been quite annoyed and haven't really felt listened to.... I feel like rather than dealing with the high blood pressure and seeing it as an issue she has just been concerned about it possibly turning into pre-eclampsia. Chronic hypertension is defined as a blood pressure of 140/90... my bottom number has consistently been around 90 since hitting the 3rd trimester. However, rather than dealing with that number she simply upped it to 100 before I need to go in. So I'm very relieved to hear we will discuss the possibility of inducing as I know having high blood pressure cannot be good for me or miss Lillian.

My pelvic bone has continued to separate, something I didn't realize is so painful! Hormones that are released during pregnancy help joins and ligaments become more flexible to allow the baby to pass through the pelvic bone. Turns out the ligament that joins the front of my pubic bone (the symphysis pubis in the picture) becomes overstretched and causes a misalignment of my bones. It has lead to painful popping while rolling over in bed and pain getting up from a sitting position. It usually flares up if I walk too long earlier in the day. Unfortunately there is nothing that can really be done, I just have to hope that it goes away after pregnancy. My belly has also started to disappear the last few days, it's been quite odd. I'm assuming it is just her changing positions and dropping further down; however, it's hard to tell if I'm feeling pain from her dropping or if it is from my bones separating. Although I think she's dropped I still feel feet in my ribs at night; I think now that she is lower it just gives her more room to stretch out!

According to babycenter.com, here is what is going on with Lillian this week:

How your baby's growing:

Your baby is now considered "full term," even though your due date is three weeks away. If you go into labor now, his lungs will likely be mature enough to fully adjust to life outside the womb. (Some babies need a bit more time, though. So if you're planning to have a repeat c-section, for example, your practitioner will schedule it for no earlier than 39 weeks unless there's a medical reason to intervene earlier.)

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.