**It became an even more stressful day when I learned that my insurance company denied me the in-network benefits that I had been seeking to allow my doctor to deliver my baby in just a few short weeks.... GRRRRRR.... So, now we are meeting with a new doctor tomorrow (Thursday) to "get to know him/her" before it's too late when we might have to introduce ourselves to each other in the labor and delivery room!
**Yesterday (Tuesday), my mom, David and I celebrated after spending a week to completely clean our apartment and set up the baby room. It is nearly finished, and we got rid of a lot of junk sitting around in our apartment since I first moved in during the summer of 2010. We went out for dinner at the Twin Peaks restaurant, the "classier Hooters" restaurant that actually has delicious food, and "really cold beers," according to David.
**We are VERY grateful to my mom for spending the last week and a half with us in Knoxville to really get our act together in setting up the baby room and having a squeaky clean apartment as long as we could before the baby comes.
**My mom was a master with the carpet cleaner that we rented from the local Kroger grocery store. Our carpet has not been cleaned in a few years, so I'm sure we soaked up plenty of unknown germs and dog hairs that had infested our carpet. It was a lot of work, but it feels good to be so clean and organized. I realize that we'll still have to vacuum daily as long as we live with Hank, but I KNOW that our place is a lot cleaner than it's ever been! Who knows when we'll find any extra time to have another massive cleaning session between both my and David's jobs and taking care of the baby girl and Hank?!
**After we finished dinner, I got a "rub" from one of the waitresses... She walked by our table and stopped like a deer in the headlights when she saw my bloated, pregnant belly poking out from the side of our booth. She asked to rub my belly and I said, "Of course." I felt like I made her day when I let her rub my belly. It was only slightly weird, but made me happy that a stranger was just as excited as I was about the bump that stretched my golf shirt to the max. I need to thank my sister-in-law, Caroline, and father-in-law, Fred for my "maternity clothes" these last few weeks because the Nike golf shirts that these two golf coaches have given to me have really been comfortable and make me look a little classier than just wearing David's large-sized tee-shirts and athletic shorts that go past my knees out in public.
**Lastly, I finish writing this blog post on Thursday night after an interesting doctor's appointment this morning. David came with me, and it was another BPP appointment = non-stress test (belts wrapped around my waist to measure fetal heart beat and contraction patterns) plus an ultrasound. In the ultrasound, the sonographer said that the baby girl looked healthy. I asked if she knew the baby's size this week, but she said that they only measure that only every 3 weeks. It seemed liked it was so easy for my other doctor to measure the estimated weight quickly with her ultrasound machine at the other clinic, so I'm not sure why this sonographer couldn't tell me the weight today, but it was no big deal. The baby weighed 5 pounds, 8 ounces last week, so I'm guessing she's 6 pounds now?
**The INTERESTING part of today's appointment was when my doctor examined the strips with results from my non-stress test and was a little concerned about the fetal heart beat and contraction patterns. He, again, saw a part of the strip that did not look good to him. He said he was "not worried" but "just annoyed" about the abnormality of the non-stress results and still felt the need to be cautious.
**Next, he measured my cervix and I was dilated at 1 cm. Now, I thought that 1 cm was considered no big change, considering that I still have 9 cm to go until the magic number 10 when the baby is ready to pop out. However, he said that since I measured 1/2 cm dilated yesterday, and today I was at 1 cm, that is a significant change in 24 hours. The rate of the dilation along with the frequent and more uncomfortable contractions that I felt in the 30 minutes when I was on the monitor with straps around my belly are both indications to him that I will deliver the baby in no more than 2 weeks from now. In fact, the doctor's words were: "You will likely be UNPREGNANT in a week... The baby will come as soon as this upcoming weekend and probably no later than next week." YIKES!
**After David and I got home, he started half-anxiously doing a few chores around the apartment that we had wanted to finish before "go time," and I drove straight to school so that I could clean my classroom and get it set for my long-term subs if I would not get the chance to return until my maternity leave finishes in October......
**I was hoping to get a prenatal massage this week, but that's not going to happen! I'm too scared that the masseuse will rub me the wrong way, and the baby girl will slither out onto the massage table!
**We're hoping to learn a lot more at our appointment tomorrow with our 3rd (and final!) doctor about what our schedule is shaping up to be in the next week!
**Finally, I want to wish a "bon voyage" and "buen viaje" some of my close friends and colleagues from school that leave for the school-chaperoned trip with students to France and Spain tomorrow! I had originally planned to go on this awesome trip, and it would've been my first time back to France since I studied abroad in Paris back in 2005-06, but clearly an important milestone in my life came up this summer. I am eager to hear about how much they enjoy their experience in Europe!
Holy cow. What exciting news for all of you?! I can not wait to see little baby girl Haase. Much love and good thoughts and prayers to all of you. -- Julie
ReplyDeleteThanks! We'll see what happens!
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