Contractions and appointments

I am now going to my OB appointments every two weeks. Yesterday's included an ultrasound scan for growth, and all looked well. Baby is 3 pounds, 8 ounces, and the technician said baby has very long feet. Baby's head is down and on top of my bladder, with the spine running up and along the right side, with one foot down at the head (!), and a hand behind baby's head. She printed off some scans for us (the one showing foot by head is above), and videotaped a few more minutes, including baby blinking the eyes! But baby wasn't in a photogenic position, unlike two weeks ago when I got to see baby on the small screen in the exam room. The doctor came in and did a check, too. He said there are no signs of heart failure, and baby's heart is beating rhythmically, at 133 BPM. There is plenty of amniotic fluid, too.

This has been a different kind of week for me. I have been having a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions. These are sometimes called "false" or "practice" contractions, since they usually aren't painful and don't cause dilation. They started Monday night, the night of the full moon. The uterus tightens up all over for about thirty seconds. I can feel them coming on. If you have more than five in an hour, you are supposed to call the OB, however. And that happened Tuesday morning. The remedy is to lie down and drink lots of water for an hour. So that helped. After that, I just got them about once or twice an hour. But Wednesday evening, as I was preparing to shower, I got about seven in ten minutes! After the shower, I lay down, but still got another six. The doctor on call wasn't too concerned after I described everything.

I find I get them if I go to stand up, if I'm sitting at the computer, or running a quick errand like picking up milk. So basically, any time! I don't feel too good though after I get a few of them, and I think it has curbed my appetite. But baby is still moving quite a bit.

So at the OB appointment yesterday, when the nurse examined me, she asked if I had been having any contractions. I said, surprised, "Oh, haven't you heard?" So she asked me if I would want an internal exam to set my mind at ease that I am not dilating. And I was grateful, I said yes. She was very gentle with it, first saying, "And this is your pelvis" as I could feel the pressure against one spot, "and now I'm feeling baby's head" which was amazing to hear, and finally "and this is your cervix." She said it was barely indented, so pretty closed, right where it should be at 30 weeks.

My weight hasn't changed in the past three weeks, so it was good to hear that baby was growing well and is in the 50th percentile which they felt was perfect (i.e. won't be too big). And they did say baby is very symmetrical, all body parts measuring in symmetry.

Today we have our second consultation with a pediatric cardiac surgeon. I will eventually post about the first consult, too, and the tour we had at Children's.