37 Week Survey & A Trip To Labor & Delivery

How far along? 37 weeks 2 days

Total weight gain/loss: Up 1 pound this week, not bad considering we had 2 Thanksgivings and several dinners out with family.

Sleep: I finally found a good way to sleep without having back pain- yahoo!!! I've slept pretty well this past week, just a few one hour stints awake, but not bad overall.

Food cravings: Nothing really- although I was darn glad to get some oriental salad at Thanksgiving this past week.

Best moment this week: Best & Worst all came yesterday. We had our regular 37 week appointment yesterday and when the nurse checked the heartbeat of the baby it was 190 (her normal is about 140-150). She said it must have been something I ate, and she would have the midwife recheck it when she came in. I got measured, and checked, and then she said she wasn't going to recheck it by hand, she wanted me to be hooked up to the machine that measures the heartbeat and contractions for 20 minutes. About 5-10 minutes into being "watched" she came back in, looked at the graph of the baby's heartbeat and said she wanted us to get an ultrasound right away, and then we needed to get checked into labor and delivery at the hospital. This would be where the worst moment of the week came in. I started to get really worried that somethign was wrong, she said it's not healthy for the baby to have an elevated heartrate for an extended period of time, so we needed to see what was going on. The ultrasound was by far the best moment of the week, especially since we haven't been able to see her for 4 months. She was just moving away on the screen, and her little heart was still beating super fast. The tech guessed that she weighs 6lbs 2oz, but it can be off a pound either way. It was so great to get to see our babe again! Anyway, long story short, her heartbeat continued to be high for a while, and then eventually dropped back down to 140 and stayed there for quite some time. They ran tests to make sure I didn't have an infection, gave me some fluids, and sent me home. Baby girl is now called the "wild girl" by our midwife, but everything appears to be fine.

Movement: Moving like crazy!

Gender: All girl (which we got to re-check yesterday, still looking like a girl- whew!)

Labor Signs: Apparently I am having some mild contractions, but don't really feel them, but they were big enough to show up on the monitors yesterday.

Belly Button in or out? In

What I miss: Nothing.

What I am looking forward to: Going into labor!!!

Weekly Wisdom: She will come when she's ready.

Milestones:I'm officially dilated to 4cm & 80% effaced!!! The midwife is certain that she will come early, I'm still hoping for next week!