Thursday, October 1, 2009

Pregnancy Week 28 Appointment

Just wanted to give an official update of how my last appointment with my OB went since it has completely slipped my mind as of recent. My last appointment was almost 2 weeks ago (@ 28 wks 3 days) then I have my next monthly appointment 2 weeks from this upcoming Tuesday which will put me right at 32 wks 3 days. After that, I will transition to seeing Dr. P every 2 weeks instead of once a month and I would imagine I will only do that a couple of times before changing again over to weekly appointments. (YIKES! It's getting closer!)

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Blood pressure was great....I didn't make note of what it was exactly, but I have consistently had spot-on BP for this pregnancy, so hopefully I can keep that up for the remaining 2 months or so that I have left.
  • Baby was measuring exactly as he should be (based on my belly measurement anyways)although I wish I knew for sure how big he really is right now.
  • He had a beautiful and healthy heartbeat of 152.
  • I had my 1 hour sugar glucose test this appointment and received word from the OB office later last week that my results came back good so I would not need to do the 3 hour test.
CONCERNS

  • Well, the OB didn't have any concerns for me during my appointment, but I had some concerns for her.....
  • Swelling --- I asked Dr. P about my recent incidents with extreme swelling in my ankles, feet and toesies and she was quite confident that all of the swelling I am experiencing is totally and completely normal pregnancy swelling. My BP has been perfect according to her, so she doesn't feel like the swelling is anything to be concerned about as of now. She said that it most likely is contributed by the following factors - warm weather, possible dehydration, normal water retention, possibly too high of sodium intake (which probably isn't the problem since I have been trying to be careful about this) and the fact that I sit at a desk all day long. Dr. P's suggestions to remedy my Stay-Puft Marshmallow man feet were to drink more water to increase my fluid intake to avoid any possible dehydration, to elevate my feet whenever possible, cut back on salty foods or too much caffeine, to take breaks during the day and walk around just to get up and about and to get a small stool to prop my feet up under my desk when working during the day. David actually bought me a small stepstool yesterday when he was out running errands, so today was the first day I used it at work and it *seemed* to maybe help a little, but not too much. I am hoping that the weather cools off more soon and that in itself helps keep the swelling at bay.
  • Weight Gain --- not a concern of my OB's, but I was disappointed that I had gained so much since my last appointment and went over the amount I had planned on gaining during that time frame. Dr. P isn't concerned in the least and thinks my weight gain is normal and totally within reason, but I am a bit worried that I will end up gaining quite a bit more than the 30 lb. goal I had in my mind for the entire pregnancy. So far, I am up 22 lbs. at this point, so if I gain 1 lb a week for the remainder of my pregnancy I will end up with around a 31 lb. total weight gain which is very close to my goal, but I am afraid I will end up somehow gaining way too much over the next 9 + weeks and blow that number outta the water, lol! Hopefully, my freakishly high weight gain this past 6 weeks or so was a fluke and it will be a bit lower and more consistent for the rest of the time I have left. Fingers crossed anyways!
  • Anemia - yep, apparently I am slightly anemic yet again....the nurse told me this when she called to report my excellent glucose test results, so I got great news, but also a bit of not-so-great news as well. She said it wasn't horrible, but that Dr. P would like for me to take an iron supplement to help bring my levels back up to normal. Problem is....I can't swallow pills, so yet again, I have a feeling that this will be a problem for me once I have my c-section and I will likely have to have a blood transfusion again since I had to have one with my previous c-section and also the D&C I had back in January. I am going to try to each more iron-enriched foods for the next two months, but I don't know if that will do much or not. I cannot for the life of me understand why in the world I would ever even have a problem with anemia since I eat lots of red meat and quite a bit of other iron-filled foods, but I guess I am not eating enough afterall!

That's about it for now....I am looking forward to my next appointment and then to seeing Dr. P every two weeks so that I can hear little boy's heartbeat more often and hopefully, she'll be doing another sonogram soon since I haven't seen him since back at our 18 week ultrasound which seems so, so long ago. I desperately want to see how big he looks and what he looks like now and of course, really can't wait to finally meet him in December, but just a little peek at my sweet baby boy would definitely suit me fine for now! :)

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