Third Trimester: Ready or Not

Today I enter week 28, the third trimester. In 12 weeks, give or take, our little girl is expected to arrive.

The day started off well with my return OB appointment. My blood work came back well, so we can officially cross gestational diabetes off the list! My blood pressure was super low at the appointment and he was satisfied with the fluctuations from our monitoring over the past week. Current concerns of preeclampsia are also on hold and, overall, he was very pleased and relieved with my current health. I spent the rest of day convincing myself to also be relieved and get over my worked-up state I had put myself in over the past week.

My weight is up 22 pounds based on the official office weight, which is actually pretty consistent with my weights at home. This is more than I would have liked, but not too excessive so I'm mostly just accepting it. My hands, feet, and ankles are swollen according to my standards, but not enough to be medically concerned. My back and neck still ache at times, but last night I actually slept entirely through the night! Previously I had been waking up 3-4 times out of discomfort. The heartburn is mostly controlled with daily medication, but I do still get occasional breakthrough heartburn episodes. I still get tired more often, but it's not unbearable. The heart palpitations are currently my biggest issue, although my doctor said that occasional palpitations were normal and not concerning.

Baby "Beuhla", as we have officially nick-named her, is quite active these days. It is still rare for me to feel her from the outside, and I haven't felt her for long enough to get C involved, but I feel her internally at least several times per day. Personally, it seems like every time I put my hand on my abdomen to feel her, she stops moving. C told me that she's probably stubborn like her mother.

C officially graduated from nursing school last week and I couldn't be more proud of him. And also more relieved. It was a rough road. He's now in limbo while the state processes his background checks and applications so that he can eventually sign up to take the licensure exam. It it said to take up to 8-10 weeks at times, and my fingers are crossed that he'll be able to take the exam before Beuhla arrives. The thought of him trying to study and take the test with an infant who's awake every two hours does not sound like a good idea!

I have been having daily conversations with patients about my maternity plans and how this will affect them. I have several lists that I'm generating: discharged, "on-hold" during my leave, or transferred to a colleague. There are still a lot of patients between specific lists at the point, waiting to see how they do with the transition back to school. As long as the timing stays relatively on track, I'm hopeful that I will be able to have solid plans for all of the patients.

We still have not bought anything else for the baby, but have procured a jogging stroller and Boppy from his sister, so there is currently a pile of baby gear in the office. I may have had a minor freak-out last week about the fact that the nursery is still very much an office and that it needs to be painted and emptied by the shower date so that we can start filling it back up with baby stuff. Since then, we've begun to empty out some of the office stuff and have worked on figuring out exactly what colors we wanted to paint the room. We're settling on gray and yellow - gray walls with yellow accents. I think the first thing I might actually buy for the baby is paint! Writing this out loud sounds a little ridiculous. Oh well.

On the one hand, twelve weeks does not sound like very much time at all. I have a feeling it is going to fly by with everything that I want/need to get done. On the other hand, bringing home a baby still feels like and incredibly surreal idea. It was a muggy 80 degrees out today and November seems a far ways off. At least at this point, I am feeling optimistic about my health and our ability to get everything in order in time.  Ready or not, here we go!