34 Weeks; The End is Coming.

So here we are a week later and I realized I did not give an update from my 34 week appointment.  34 weeks.  Just a few months ago I felt like this time was never going to come.  But as we all know, time does move on and we are nearing the end of this totally awesome journey.  

Easter 2012.

I walked in feeling pretty confident in how my appointment was going to go.  I had been feeling relatively good, though some days exhausted just didn't adequately describe it.  The hardest part of the visit was stepping on the scale.  In just two simple weeks I gained 4 pounds.  I've been telling myself that it is all baby, but I know that is not totally true.  In my extremely fatigued state, my meal planning was sorely lacking though I really did try to keep it some what healthy.  I really can't complain too much though because my total weight gain is still very good.  Right now we are right around 13 pounds.  I'm okay with that.  

My blood pressure was beautiful.  The reading was 117/71 which is the lowest it has ever been.  The medication is working and I am grateful for that.  When Dr. V came in and asked me how I was doing my only response was, "I'm exhausted."  Some of this is due to the pregnancy, but some of it is also due to the medication.  However, now 1 week later, I believe my body has adjusted and I'm starting to feel human again.  I'm still tired, but not totally wiped out.   

We did not do any Strep B testing.  Why you say?  Well with all of my doctors they take the approach of, "Once positive, always treat as positive."  Does this bother me.  No not really.  I know there would be many who would go in with research in hand as to why it would be unnecessary to treat with antibiotics.  I may even get scolded for taking this stance, but that's okay.  I don't even remember if I even got any antibiotics with my last delivery because from water breaking to delivery was under 3 hours, so I don't know if they even got it in me.  

The PA who helped deliver our son.

I was able to bring up a couple items that my husband and I had discussed.  The first was forced pushing or "purple pushing" as some call it.  Dr V was totally on board with that one, but I knew he would be because he was the one during my last delivery telling the nurse to "back off" (not in those words, but you get the idea) because they could see the baby descending on his own.  The other item was delayed cord clamping.  I have to thank Peaceful Parenting, Mamas and Babies, and Birth Without Fear for this one.  After a good year of reading about this from posts from other moms and then finally doing my own research a few weeks ago, I brought this up with my husband and he agreed that it is something to broach with our doctors.  Now I didn't get a clear cut answer like, "Yes, I will do exactly like you request and wait until the cord stops pulsing before I cut it" but I was satisfied with his response in that he does like to wait a couple minutes before cutting.  I did request that he wait until it stops pulsing, so we will see what actually happens.  He did say it was a good question and I appreciated him taking the time to discuss the matter with me.  

I have my next appointment on May 10th for my 36 week visit.  I'm so excited to finally be at this stage.  The appointment is with Dr. O so I will have to bring up these two subjects with him too, but I'm sure his answers will be quite similar.  On a personal note, I'm hoping to convince my husband to come with me to this appointment.  I think the last visit he has come with me was back with our first child 10 years ago.