38 & 39 Weeks!
I guess it makes sense that towards the verrrry end of pregnancy that the appointments start stacking up! I've had three over the past two weeks, plus a surprise visit to triage at Baylor Hospital (more on that later!).
At my 38 week appointment I was basically not dilated at all & the rest of the appointment was SOP: normal heartbeat for baby, normal blood pressure levels for mom, and baby E measuring right on track.
My 39 week appointment the following week was going to be the last time I saw my OB since he is going out of the country on vacation, but I stupidly scheduled it for late in the afternoon on the 5th of July (which I then realized I couldn't actually do since I had to pick the kids up a bit early from daycare) and so I needed to move the appt up a little earlier in the day. I called the office and they told me he was all booked and couldn't do that but finally managed to get me squeezed in earlier in the week, on Tuesday the 2nd, so that I could definitely see my own doc one last time before he left. So on Tuesday I had a 38.5 week appointment and found out I was up to about 3cm dilated, which was the first bit of progress on getting closer to labor! After chatting with my OB, we decided that I would come in one more time before he left to try to get labor going - we basically wanted to try anything we could, minus actually being admitted and induced, to get labor going so that he had a chance to be the one to deliver Evelyn. Somehow they miraculously fit me in Friday morning (yes, the same Friday I had originally had been scheduled for, just earlier in the day)...
So my actual 39 week appointment involved all the regular stuff after the doc did a membrane sweep. Membrane sweep....had it done with Turner and it didn't do much at all. The way my OB explained it is that if your body is ready, this will kick-start things, but if your body isn't ready, it's not going to do much. In any case, you're supposed to start seeing results (ie contractions/going into labor) within 24-48 hours after it's done. Right after the sweep, my OB was listening to Evelyn's heart-rate and he paused for a moment and kind of tilted his head. He then very calmly (he's always as cool as a cucumber) told me that her heart-rate was a little slower than he'd like, and that I should go over to Baylor Hospital and go to triage and be monitored for a little bit (like 10-15 minutes). At first I laughed, not realizing he was serious (because mind you, I walked into this appointment not anywhere close to being in labor and thinking everything was just fine with E), but then realized he was serious. So I left the office, called Taylor, and went to pick him up before heading to the hospital - side note: I'm so thankful we decided to go with Baylor again like we did with the other two kids. Besides the benefit of just being familiar with the facility (ie knowing where to park, where to go in, etc.), it's literally 5 minutes from my OB, Taylor's office, and my office.
Taylor and I parked and walked in, found triage and signed in. At this point I was actually starting to have contractions (thanks to the sweep), so it felt a little weird just to be there to be checked. In any case, they got us into a room and the nurses hooked me up to be monitored (which really just involves a band around my belly, hooked up to a machine that monitors the baby's heart rate and my contractions). After the 15 minutes or so, the nurse told us everything seemed just fine with Evelyn (thank you, Jesus!). However, she did ask if I'd been feeling the contractions - I told her yes, probably about 2-3 since we'd been in the room, and she told me I'd had more like 5! In any case, we were eventually discharged since everything was fine with baby E, and we went about our day, which involved a fabulous lunch at Hatties in Bishop Arts with our friend, Fran. The funny story (and actually part of why we had scheduled lunch originally!) is that we had lunch with Fran on the day Turner was born and while we were at lunch is when I started having real contractions! It was funny that I was starting to have contractions at this lunch too, but to spoil the ending...we still don't have a baby so I didn't actually go into labor over lunch this time!
Another spoiler: as much as we were hoping that I would go into labor that weekend, and that my OB would be able to be the one to deliver Evelyn...I didn't. And he won't. He's out of town until the first of August, on a fabulous family vacation and I'm still incredibly bummed that the timing didn't work out better. It's so hard because I specifically chose this doctor because his thoughts on birth are so similar to mine and he's been so great for the past 9 months and you just spend all that time getting to know someone and so it's a bummer that he won't be here. He was really convinced that she would come early and I just had my hopes up pretty high that he was right...but I feel like in the back of my mind I just knew this baby would be late, like the other two.
I feel like I've finally (thankfully!) hit a plateau in terms of weight-gain, and as we're nearing the end of this pregnancy, I'm happy with where I netted out during this pregnancy:
Weight gain at 38 weeks: 16.0 lbs total
Weight gain at 39 weeks: 15.5 lbs total
At my 38 week appointment I was basically not dilated at all & the rest of the appointment was SOP: normal heartbeat for baby, normal blood pressure levels for mom, and baby E measuring right on track.
My 39 week appointment the following week was going to be the last time I saw my OB since he is going out of the country on vacation, but I stupidly scheduled it for late in the afternoon on the 5th of July (which I then realized I couldn't actually do since I had to pick the kids up a bit early from daycare) and so I needed to move the appt up a little earlier in the day. I called the office and they told me he was all booked and couldn't do that but finally managed to get me squeezed in earlier in the week, on Tuesday the 2nd, so that I could definitely see my own doc one last time before he left. So on Tuesday I had a 38.5 week appointment and found out I was up to about 3cm dilated, which was the first bit of progress on getting closer to labor! After chatting with my OB, we decided that I would come in one more time before he left to try to get labor going - we basically wanted to try anything we could, minus actually being admitted and induced, to get labor going so that he had a chance to be the one to deliver Evelyn. Somehow they miraculously fit me in Friday morning (yes, the same Friday I had originally had been scheduled for, just earlier in the day)...
So my actual 39 week appointment involved all the regular stuff after the doc did a membrane sweep. Membrane sweep....had it done with Turner and it didn't do much at all. The way my OB explained it is that if your body is ready, this will kick-start things, but if your body isn't ready, it's not going to do much. In any case, you're supposed to start seeing results (ie contractions/going into labor) within 24-48 hours after it's done. Right after the sweep, my OB was listening to Evelyn's heart-rate and he paused for a moment and kind of tilted his head. He then very calmly (he's always as cool as a cucumber) told me that her heart-rate was a little slower than he'd like, and that I should go over to Baylor Hospital and go to triage and be monitored for a little bit (like 10-15 minutes). At first I laughed, not realizing he was serious (because mind you, I walked into this appointment not anywhere close to being in labor and thinking everything was just fine with E), but then realized he was serious. So I left the office, called Taylor, and went to pick him up before heading to the hospital - side note: I'm so thankful we decided to go with Baylor again like we did with the other two kids. Besides the benefit of just being familiar with the facility (ie knowing where to park, where to go in, etc.), it's literally 5 minutes from my OB, Taylor's office, and my office.
Taylor and I parked and walked in, found triage and signed in. At this point I was actually starting to have contractions (thanks to the sweep), so it felt a little weird just to be there to be checked. In any case, they got us into a room and the nurses hooked me up to be monitored (which really just involves a band around my belly, hooked up to a machine that monitors the baby's heart rate and my contractions). After the 15 minutes or so, the nurse told us everything seemed just fine with Evelyn (thank you, Jesus!). However, she did ask if I'd been feeling the contractions - I told her yes, probably about 2-3 since we'd been in the room, and she told me I'd had more like 5! In any case, we were eventually discharged since everything was fine with baby E, and we went about our day, which involved a fabulous lunch at Hatties in Bishop Arts with our friend, Fran. The funny story (and actually part of why we had scheduled lunch originally!) is that we had lunch with Fran on the day Turner was born and while we were at lunch is when I started having real contractions! It was funny that I was starting to have contractions at this lunch too, but to spoil the ending...we still don't have a baby so I didn't actually go into labor over lunch this time!
Another spoiler: as much as we were hoping that I would go into labor that weekend, and that my OB would be able to be the one to deliver Evelyn...I didn't. And he won't. He's out of town until the first of August, on a fabulous family vacation and I'm still incredibly bummed that the timing didn't work out better. It's so hard because I specifically chose this doctor because his thoughts on birth are so similar to mine and he's been so great for the past 9 months and you just spend all that time getting to know someone and so it's a bummer that he won't be here. He was really convinced that she would come early and I just had my hopes up pretty high that he was right...but I feel like in the back of my mind I just knew this baby would be late, like the other two.
I feel like I've finally (thankfully!) hit a plateau in terms of weight-gain, and as we're nearing the end of this pregnancy, I'm happy with where I netted out during this pregnancy:
Weight gain at 38 weeks: 16.0 lbs total
Weight gain at 39 weeks: 15.5 lbs total
Like with all the appointments, our "prepping for baby" has tremendously increased over the past few weeks as well.
After a ton of searching on FB Marketplace & Craigslist, we found a new dresser for Turner's room at a local garage sale. It's technically probably a TV stand, but when we saw it for just $10, just down the street, we knew it'd be a good solution for now so we just went for it. Taylor loaded it up into the back of the van and drove it home with gate up (two blocks to our house). He put a new back on it (it had been cut open for TV cables), added a clothing rod on the inside, and gave it some updated hardware and now it's a totally perfect dresser. We'd really been torn on spending a lot right now because Turner is still in a crib so we really feel like his room is in flux and that we didn't want to invest in a piece of new furniture right now, not knowing what his room will look like when we move him into a real bed, so this was a fabulous solution.
Having the "new" dresser in Turner's room allowed us to move Turner's old dresser town to the nursery (which was the last piece of furniture we were waiting on to get going on the room), and that then let us spend some time rearranging all the furniture until we found to a setup we both liked. Once the furniture was in place, Taylor hung everything up on the walls (picture frames, cute signs, bookshelves, and of course, a big frame to display bows).
Taylor braved the attic and brought down all the boxes of baby stuff we've been holding onto. I sorted through all the boxes, dispersing things around the house: baby towels, wash cloths, & baby bathtub into the bathroom, sorted through swaddles and sleep-sacks and baby carriers & then washed everything and got it all folded and put away in the nursery.
I organized a little 3-tier stand near the glider in the nursery to make sure that baby necessities will be within arms reach when nursing:
-Burp cloths - Burt's Bees are my absolute favorite
-Pacifiers - we love Wubs, but also excited to try this non-animal kind
-My new salt rock lamp that I'm super excited about - it gives off a red glow that will be awesome since we'll be awake multiple times in the middle of the night
-And then other things like a box of tissues, made sure to leave room to set my water bottle and snacks, etc.
I also set up the changing table: opened up a box of NB-sized diapers (so tiny!), got out the recently-ordered butt paste, filled the fancy new OXO wipes box I ordered (why did we never use this with previous kiddos!? It has a really good seal so the wipes stay wet and it has a weight so you only pull out one wipe at a time - genius!), and put on Arden's old pink changing pad cover (also Burt's Bees - the terry material is my absolute favorite; highly reco!).
I worked on a little "postpartum basket" (if you will) for me for the bathroom - yep, that would be the totally unglamorous side of pregnancy/birth! Feel free to skip this paragraph! I know from experience of two previous kiddos that it helps to have the necessities like pads, a peri bottle (we usually do get one from the hospital but I'm trying out this new one from Fridababy this time too), perineal spray (I'm stocked up on the good 'ole dermoplast as well as trying this new herbal kind this time) organized, ready to go, and in an easily accessibly spot for when we get home from the hospital. The last thing I want is to get home and realize I'm out of something and have to send Taylor to Target to get it!
We also got our infant car seat out of the attic and I totally took it apart, washed the cover and wiped the whole thing down. Then we spent a bit of time rearranging the carseats in the van - Arden moved to the 3rd row & baby and Turner will be in the second row - and Taylor got the infant seat & mirror installed.
I spent a few evenings working on big sibling bags for Arden & Turner and also worked on baskets for the nurses at the hospital.
And lastly - way, way too late, I'll admit! - I got my hospital bag packed! There's a full post on that soon.
Nothing like finally jumping into go-mode, right!? I'd like to say that the sudden burst of productivity spurred on labor...but it didn't. I had contractions on and off that entire weekend but by Monday they had basically stopped.
WHAT THE FAM HAS BEEN UP TO
We've been pretty busy with non-baby stuff too!
Arden and I went to a pop-up library night at her future elementary school. We donated a book and got to take a new one home. She also got to decorate a bookmark and have a popsicle! I loved that we got to bump into a few neighbors, as well as meet some of the staff members at her school.
We tried a new pizza place in the neighborhood that just opened:
I snuck away to a moms church event nearby one evening:
We of course spent lots of time at the pool, visited the Farmers Market, and had a special ice cream treat one day!
Last but not least, we celebrated 4th of July! Full fun post on that, here.
Well we're officially in the final countdown!
Check out the difference 9 weeks makes!!
38 | 39 Weeks with Arden
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