Our 36 Week Appointment
My 36-week appointment is the first of my weekly appointments. From here on out I’ll be seeing my doctor every single week until I have my little one in my arms. I actually really enjoy seeing my doctor, she is the absolute sweetest and offers fantastic advice for us since Conor is in medical school. Work has been absolutely wonderful in allowing me to use flex time for my appointments. Basically, all I need to do is just make up the hours later so I just normally come in super early those days and stay late. This week I got an update on my Holter monitor which was a relief. There was an anomaly throughout the 24 hour time period, apparently, I’ve been having heart palpitations which just means I’ve been having extra heartbeats and it feels like a fluttering. Well, it was a little more than a fluttering, I actually felt like I was having panic attacks without all the extra issues. I was told to start really focusing on destressing myself from now until I have our baby because it could make all of this much worse and put unneeded stress on the baby.
I honestly don’t know how to destress and right now work is positively nuts. Giving Tuesday is thankfully over but now we are closing out my monthly donor member campaign, starting year end giving and working on winter/end of year stewardship for our donors. There are so many deadlines coming up and final pushes, everyone is putting in crazy hours. This week I did officially decide to remove my work email from my cell phone. This has been a source of a lot of stress which was silly anyway because no one expects me to answer emails while out of the office. The first week of doing this stressed me out so much but this week I’ve been feeling better about it. I do feel guilty and like I’m not working enough but that’s completely nutty for me to think. The reality is that I need to focus on myself and my baby and although work is extremely important to me, I need to separate work from home.
Everything else went well this week. I had my cervix checked and our baby has moved down a bit and I’m slightly effaced but it doesn’t seem like she’s coming any time soon which is a relief. We’re hoping she comes right on time. My doctor and I discussed my birth plan and I’ve decided to not make one. I trust my doctor completely and we’re doing all vaccinations and shots so I don’t quite feel the need to write anything down. The hospital I’m delivering at already encourages a lot of the things I wanted to do so it’s not even a concern. The hospital basically makes you do skin to skin immediately following birth before they clean up baby and do the full exam, they encourage breastfeeding, using yoga balls during labor and a lot more. This week I did start putting together my hospital bag and we took our Christmas card photo.
The basics:
How far along?
36 weeks 5 Days
Due date:
January 8th, 2019
All about baby:
Size of baby
Our baby is the size of a papaya! Probably around 18.7 inches and even though my apps keep saying baby is around 5.8lbs, I think our baby is closer to 6lbs since she’s been measuring ahead.
What’s going on in there?
Baby is making its way to the finish line in development. Our little one should have functioning liver and kidneys and their circulatory and immune system should be ready to go. Finally, our little one’s skin is getting smoother and softer this week.
Have you decided on a name?
We have figured out the name! We have also figured out the middle name!
All about momma:
Weight Gain:
I’ve given up checking.
How are you feeling?
I’m still having problems with my heart racing but we now know that it’s a non-issue. My heartburn has officially gotten out of control, it’s to the point that I’m puking after meals and staying upright doesn’t help. Today I noticed that my blood pressure was a little high but again it’s probably just all my stress.
How are you sleeping?
I’m still not sleeping well. Between the bathroom runs and not being able to sleep comfortably, I just give up on getting any real sleep for the next 20 years.
Maternity Favorites
I am still loving my TOMS. I’m also loving my fitbit because it’s really helping me keep track of my heartrate, my steps and there’s the deep breathing exercise which has been fantastic.
What are you excited about?
I’m still having anxiety but I am excited to go through all the clothes this weekend. I’ll be washing them and organizing them by size. It’s really the only thing that’s left to do in the nursery before baby comes. I was trying to organize things but I realized that things are going to change once baby is here and we create some kind of routine.
Catch up on my other bumpdates:
Our Announcement: Surprise! We’re Pregnant
Week 18
Week 21
Week 24
Week 28
Weeks 30 & 32
Week 34
