38 week checkup
Today Yenari crossed off another week on the calendar, reaching 38 weeks of pregnancy – only 2 weeks (or less, or more) left – eeek! Yenari has still been feeling good, but over the last week has had a big change in how she’s feeling – she’s been really tired and is a lot less comfortable moving around. It’s a good thing she finished working last week and has time to relax. Last weekend was really hot – temperatures ranging in the mid to high nineties…which resulted in some pretty nasty edema (swelling) in her hands and feet. She was definitely a little upset that her flip flops wouldn’t even fit!
We had our weekly doctor’s appointment today. This was the first week where our doctor did an internal exam to check out how the cervix is doing, whether its dialated, and other fun stuff. She said that the baby’s head is fully engaged in the pelvis – this wasn’t new news to Yenari as she’s been carrying the baby a lot lower and walking around has been a lot less comfortable, though on the positive side she can breathe better and eat more! The doctor said that the cervix is soft, and it’s opened at the bottom (mucous plus came out 2 weeks ago) but it is still closed at the top…though just about to open. She said she could do a cervix massage which has a very slight chance of inducing labor, but has the benefit of decreasing the chances of becoming overdue. Always a fan of massages, Yenari opted for it, but said that it was totally the worst massage she’s ever had. Not quite as fun as the prenatal massage she had a few months ago. My hand is still sore from her squeezing it so hard.
The crazy thing now is the suspense of wondering when Yenari will go into labor…in theory it could be anytime in the next 3 weeks or so. It is definitely a relief that she is full-term and that whenever the baby is born she should be in a good shape. Other baby related preparations have gone into higher gear recently – we have the car seat installed in the car, we’re washing the first set of baby clothes, we’ve got a beautiful bassinet from Sherry that we’ll share photos of later, and we have packages rolling in every few days with other baby gear. Tonight’s goal is to pack the bag for the hospital, and this weekend’s (long weekend, woo hoo) goal is to do a lot of cleaning in preparation for Yenari’s mom’s arrival on June 2nd…
1 Comment »
May 22nd, 2009 at 5:47 am
OH MY GOD THIS IS SO THRILLING!!!!
i can’t even imagine how painful a cervical massage would be. i got a “fundal massage” right after giving birth where they push down really hard on your lower belly to massage the uterus from the outside to get it to expel all that good stuff post-baby and IT HURT LIKE HELL. so if she has a choice on that one, just say no. it’s like, didn’t i just go through enough pain giving birth? and why do you call it a massage???