Oh Baby! (30 weeks)

I'm 30 weeks along - AKA 3/4 of the way there! In one way it feels so close, and in another I feel like I still have a long way to go. I feel bad too because with Owen I loved being pregnant. I thought it was so great and had very few complaints. I remember thinking that I didn't care if he came a week late because pregnancy was so great and I wanted to enjoy every minute of it and let him grow as long as he needed. This one is SO different. There are still a lot of joys I get out of being pregnant, but I have a lot of miseries too that I can't wait for them to end. The worst (as I've mentioned before) is the carpal tunnel. It just keeps getting worse. I rarely sleep through the night well (even on my Unisom) because I wake up with numb and tingling fingers and hands. And now it has become a regular occurrence during the day. The middle finger on my right hand is almost always tingly/numb down to the second knuckle. It gets far worse when my hand is at an angle above my forearm. I'm also swelling quite a bit and feel like my fingers and toes are so puffy. Oh, and my sciatica bothers me most nights when I sleep on both sides. The best way for me to sleep is on my back. I know...scandalous - I'm not supposed to sleep on my back. But I asked the doctor at this appointment and she said if I can breathe ok, then it's fine.


So of course the first thing Dr. Savage asks me is, "How are you feeling?" I responded with, "Do you ever feel like pregnant women just come in here and complain all the time?" She laughed. (Code for, "Yes. All the time. They won't shut up.") After going through my complaints she said, "I wish I could say you've just got a couple weeks left and hang in there, but...." So basically, time to buck up and deal with it.


Since I've been attending my HypnoBirthing classes, I had some questions to ask her about my labor and delivery (Can I have no monitoring or at least intermittent monitoring? Do I have to have a hep-lock IV? etc.) She said I have to have intermittent monitoring every 20 minutes. She also said the hep-lock IV is determined by the doctor and she would prefer I have one. She said that if for some reason they have to get the baby out quickly, it's better not to deal with getting an IV on top of everything else. I attempted to counter this by saying that people get IVs done quickly all the time in life and death situations. She said I might be able to convince her to not have one by the time the baby comes. Then she remembered that earlier on I had tested positive for Group B strep. So she said, "Never mind. I would want you to have one because you'll need antibiotics." I then countered by saying I didn't have to have them (since a friend of mine opted out of them). At this point she got super feisty and said, "If your baby gets Group B strep, she could get pneumonia, meningitis, and possibly die. I think it would be very foolish not to get them." Honestly, I've never seen her really care that much about something. She obviously feels strongly about this. I hadn't really made a decision about it, but I was just wanting to talk through the options with her. While she said it was still my decision, I could tell she would strongly disagree with me if I didn't choose to get them. So I let it drop. After doing some research, I think the actual chances of something happening to my baby are so low, but at the same time, I don't know that I want to take the gamble.


Anyway, everything else looks good and Owen and I got to hear baby girl's heartbeat again - always a good thing to hear. The exciting part is that now I switch to appointments every 2 weeks! I'll do that a few times then be down to weekly appointments. I think this will also start making it feel as though the time is flying by! I had a woman ask me if I am ready to be done or still trying to get things ready for the baby. I told her both. I really do feel conflicted in my emotions. I'm so excited, but at the same time I know it will totally change our lives and our nice little schedule we have going for us. But change doesn't have to be bad - just different. And I can't wait to meet this little girl!