Weighing In

Today marks 38 weeks and 2 days into my pregnancy with our little "Maybe".  I went in for my weekly appointment this morning, counting on everything being just as routine as the past week's.  I gave my urine sample to test for protein (negative), weighed in (same as last week's weight, which was a relief to me since I'd gained 2 lbs. at the last check up), and went in for my examination.  Little Maybe's heartbeat was a bit high at the beginning of the exam, but she was also pretty active.  After a few minutes, it slowed back down to the 140s, which was good.  She was still up pretty high, I was still only dilated about 1cm, but effacement had increased to 40-50%, so some progress had been made since the last appointment.  However, the doctor expressed some concern that my belly was only measuring at 37 weeks (like it did last week) and I that I hadn't gained any weight.  She wanted me to have an ultrasound to ensure that Maybe still had adequate amniotic fluid and was still growing as she should.

I left the office to get Richard and Reagan, so I'd have support if anything was wrong with the baby and/or I needed to go straight to the hospital from my appointment.  Having a perfectly normal pregnancy with Reagan, I didn't know what to think, so I prayed that everything was okay and called my Mom and Gran to fill them in on what was going on.  When we got back to the office, we waited a while to go back for the ultrasound.

The ultrasound tech let us know that she was checking 4 different things (measurement, fluid levels, fetal breathing, and something else) to ensure that the baby wasn't under stress.  Like an Apgar test in the moments after birth, each criterion could be scored as a 0, 1, or 2, with a perfect score being 8/8.  She told me if Maybe was scored as a 2/8, I'd be going immediately to the hospital, where if it was a 6/8, it would just be up to the doctor.  I was thrilled to hear that our little lady got an 8/8 on her exam!  She also weighed in at 8 lbs., 8 oz. and I have about 1.5 weeks left till my due date!  The doctor looked over the information and said I was good to go.  We'll just continue waiting around for our little butterball of a baby to make her debut!  Let's see if she can top her big brother's starting weight of 8 lbs., 13 oz.!