Moving Right Along

I had my five month OB appointment yesterday. All seems to be doing just fine with Miss Emma. She has been kicking up a storm lately, and kicked the doppler off of my belly yesterday when we were trying to get her heartbeat. I am measuring right on track (which is good, since we were a little concerned about her size a month ago) and so I am supposed to bring my daily calorie intake back to what it was before (buh-bye ice cream and Costco cinnamon rolls - which, seriously, you should try them if you haven't yet).

But as I am only up 8 pounds from pre-pregnancy weight, I am not going to be too concerned about that. I think I was about 11 pounds up at this point with Will and I ended up gaining 29 pounds altogether, so since I am about the same this time, I figure I will stay in a healthy weight range, so long as I don't go insane in these next few months. My appetite is much greater this time, but my good old friend heartburn has been rearing its ugly head these past few days. This really kept my food consumption down with Will, as eating too much after a certain time of day (5 PM) meant bad things (painful heartburn and choking on my own stomach acid, lovely).

I finally got my referral to an orthopedic surgeon, though my OB warned me that many tests and procedures would be off-limits while pregnant. I had kind of already figured that out, so I told him we could just wait on the referral until after she is born. Then, he said no, because the shoulder is a tricky joint and if it's as messed up as my PT thinks, it can cause all sorts of problems. He said that it's best to figure out what's wrong now and then put a plan together to fix it just as soon as Emma is born. It has been giving me more pain lately, so I am eager to at least find out what is wrong and know that it can be fixed, since that is the hardest part about pain to me. . . not knowing if it will end.

I was his last patient of the day again, so he gave me tons of time. We talked about my planned c-section again. I am still wavering a bit about doing that instead of trying for a VBAC. He asked what my concerns were and addressed all of them, one of the biggest being in the hospital for so long with Will at home (and currently, our hospital does not allow children under 12 to visit due to H1N1 risks). He told me that he has had patients released the day after their c-section if they are feeling well enough and request an early discharge. This is very good to know, though M felt that would be too soon. But as my doctor reminded me, a scheduled c-section is very different from an unplanned one as far as recovery. He said that based on how well I recovered last time, he thought I would be amazed how fast I recovered this time.

We reviewed her ultrasound pictures again. He told me that she is a "real cutie" which made me laugh. Of course, I agree, but I know he was just teasing! They all look like little aliens on those ultrasounds.

Who can even believe that I am just a week away from 24 weeks. . . viability. . . the Promise Land. Now, as I said to Will when he reached this very point, there is no need to test this whole viability thing and she needs to keep on baking. But it is still so exciting to be getting closer to the time when if she did come, she would be okay.