Simply Amazing - baby update

Yesterday I had another doctors appointment. Justin and I decided that he'd just stay home because I'd be having my glucose test and there's nothing exciting about that.

When the nurse called me back, she told me that she pulled my chart today and couldn't believe that I was 29 1/2 weeks already. I had no idea. I haven't been keeping track this time I guess. It's funny how you just go with the flow when you have a 4 year old and an 16 month old to keep you busy.

I've gained 12 pounds so far which is good I guess. I'm eating a lot of sweets so that's bound to catch up with me sooner or later, but as of now it's 12. I've always been a sweets person, but this is nuts. I want it all the time. It's my crack! :)

Dr. Hassebroek came in and told me that they needed me to do another urine sample at the lab because I had quite a bit of protein in my urine. She said she didn't think it was probably that accurate because my blood pressure was fine, but she wanted to make sure. This happened when I was pregnant with Claire too. She also told me that she couldn't believe it when the nurse told her that I was 29 1/2 weeks pregnant. We talked about how Claire turned out at Mayo and the fact that I have a hard time breathing and such. I told her that I've had much stronger contraction type problems with this baby than I did with Claire. She said she was going to check my cervix today anyway. She asked how the baby was moving and I told her that he didn't move much. She got this concerned look on her face and I immediately thought 'Great - here we go!'. She said that if I haven't felt him in a while then I need to rest and do kick counts. **For those of you who aren't familiar with this, you drink some ice cold water and lay on your side and wait for 4 kicks in an hour.** I told her that he doesn't move 4 times in an hour. She said "Ok, if you think about it and you take the kids and work away and concentrate - would you get 4 kicks in an hour?" My answer was still no. She said she wanted me to have a non-stress test before I left to make sure everything was ok. Wonderful (sigh)! So she checked me and everything was good. The contractions aren't doing anything to my cervix which we both figured would be the case. My belly measured 31 cm which, again, is normal for me. The babies heartbeat was 130 bpm. She asked if I wanted to set up my appointments for the rest of my pregnancy and I said sure. I asked if it would still be ok for the baby to be born 10 days early and she said yes. I asked if I could schedule that as well and she agreed.

I got dressed and it was time for my blood draw. I handed my request for scheduling to the receptionist and told her I would be back after my blood draw. I went and had that done quick and I was back to schedule my appointments. We got that done and I had to talk to Dr. Hassebroek's head nurse to schedule the c-section.

While I was pregnant with Claire I got very acquainted with Dr. Hassebroek's head nurse, Rhonda. She's a very nice woman. She and I were very glad to see each other. She asked how the kids were doing and said that this pregnancy must be going well because we haven't had the chance to talk lately. Anyway, we went in her office to schedule the section and I told her that I thought I was supposed to be doing something before I left for the day. She called back to the other nurse and the other nurse said she thought maybe an ultrasound. I said "Oh - that too. I'm supposed to be having the same series of ultrasounds this time that I had with Nathan and Claire." However, that wasn't what I was missing. I told Rhonda that it had something to do with the baby not moving much and she knew immediately that it was the non-stress test. We also talked about the c-section and I asked about the 10th of November. I told her that the weekend works better for us because then Justin's mom is able to help out for a few days during the week. She looked and said that she'd have to ok it with Dr. Hassebroek before she put me in. She decided that she'd just go talk to her quick to get the skinny on the stress tests and now what to do about the ultrasounds.

She came back after speaking to the doctor and she had it all figured out. I would do an ultrasound before I left and they would measure fluid and watch the baby move instead of doing the non-stress test. That was fine with me. Dr. Hassebroek also okayed surgery for November 10th at 2pm. YEA!!!

Off I went to ultrasound. They got me in pretty quickly which I was thankful for. The girl that did the scan was very nice. She started doing a normal 2D when she realized that she could get some great 3D pictures. I was so excited - but also sad that Justin was going to miss this. So here is what I've always had in the past. Here is a picture of the baby with the 'normal' 2D scan.

Here is the 3D scan!

Isn't it amazing? In case you can't tell, the baby has his hand in his mouth. You can see the right side of his face. The left is turned away from the picture. Here's another:

Amazing - right? I can't believe you can actually tell what he looks like. It looks like he's got my nose too! The girls at work thought he looked like Nathan, but with that nose I see more Claire in him. His little mouth is even open. LOVE IT! Want another? OK!

Look at that perfect little hand! His other arm is crossed on top of it while his hands rest on his crossed legs. He's just in there chillin'. :) I just couldn't believe these images and couldn't wait to share them with all of you. I think they are just amazing.

Anyway, everything looked good with him. Of coarse he moved during the whole ultrasound, so that was nice. I also got a call from Rhonda last night saying that my second urine test was fine. So, as of now we'll have our baby November 10th. We're pretty excited to have a date to go on.