Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She's shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered her body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of her first bowel movement.
At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term. (Full-term is 37 to 42 weeks; babies born before 37 weeks are pre-term and those born after 42 are post-term.) Most likely she's in a head-down position. But if she isn't, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an "external cephalic version," which is a fancy way of saying she'll try to coax your baby into a head-down position by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.
I'm really not sure how many more of these I'll be posting after my visit yesterday. At 36 weeks, I was told that she's head down and ready, and I'm "really soft." They also said that if they wanted to push for labor now, I wouldn't have any problems having her. However, I'm only 36 weeks, she is doing fine, my blood pressure and everything is fine, and I'm not having any complications, so they are going to let me wait it out. I am having contractions, but they are sporadic and go away pretty easily. I was told that if I couldn't get them to go away or if my water breaks, call immediately. Otherwise, they'll see me at 37 weeks (next Thursday) and we'll probably schedule an induction. It's looking more and more like I'm going to have an October baby instead of a November baby!
About 2 weeks ago I ended up being admitted to the hospital, hence the reason no updates have been posted lately. That Monday I left work early because I was sick, and I hadn't been able to keep anything down since about 2:30 that afternoon. That lasted all night, I went to bed with a massive headache, and woke Tuesday morning still feeling awful. I arrived at the doctor's office, still not able to hold anything (including water) down, and they sent me over to the hospital to be admitted. Over the next 4 days they gave me 7 bags of fluids, plus I was seen by a neurologist, had a CT scan, an MRI and ultrasounds of my head and neck. They still aren't exactly sure what is causing the headaches (all the test came back normal), but their best guess is that it's a combination of the weather and hormones. I'm extremely grateful that it's nothing major, but it's frustrating to be told that the pain I have been dealing with since 27 weeks is all hormones and probably won't go away completely until she arrives.
I'm thinking some of it is still sinus, because the past few days I've been better. Also, Benadryl seems to help. I asked Kim, and she said it's fine to take, especially if it's helping. I'm still not sleeping much, and we have a birthday party for Cadence this weekend. Every time I start moving too much, contractions start, so I'm worried about how this weekend is going to go. At least I know that she's fine, and they are ok with her coming early.
I had an ultrasound last week, and was told that she's probably 6+ lbs already (which I know can be off by as much as a pound, but that's pretty close to Cadence's size at this age), she has long legs, and a head full of hair. I can't wait to meet her, and Cadence is even more anxious. I think she's expecting for her Daddy to have to get her every afternoon, and is almost disappointed when I show up and I'm still pregnant! Hopefully soon he can be getting her and taking her to the hospital to meet her new sister!
