My belly is poking out from under my shirt now!

I’m feeling bigger every day. 

We just finished taking our childbirth classes. The last class was a “Baby Care” class that taught about changing diapers, swaddling and other such things. I thought it was useful but Nate said he won’t remember anything we learned by the time the baby comes. I do agree that you probably don’t really start learning til you’re actually doing it. 

I also went to a Breastfeeding class that Nate chose not to join in on (i was only one of 3 women whose significant others didn’t come). I told him it was fine but after going I think he actually would have gotten a lot out of it. Oh, but he also had an excuse since he was hospitalized last week…long story involving a seizure on our morning commute and a kidney stone. Thankfully he’s doing much better now! Probably the scariest moment of my life tho, and I’m so glad I was on the train with him. 

A couple weeks ago, I had my checkup and when I stood up at the end the doctor said “wow, your belly is very prominent!” You know if an ObyGyn says you’re big, you must be :( No wonder it’s getting so hard to move!

While I was there, my doc asked if I had any contractions. I told her that I get what I think are Braxton-Hicks contractions and she confirmed that that’s what it sounded like. She said they’re perfectly harmless unless you get more than 4 in an hour, in which case it could be a sign of pre-term labor.

Of course I noticed the contractions even more after she told me that and by the end of the day I was feeling them continuously, especially when I walked to meet Nate at the train. My doctor had told me that when I feel them I should chug water since it could be a sign of dehydration.

My belly is getting so big it’s going out of the photo box…

All through dinner I chugged water and a couple hours later I was still getting them every 5 min. I debated what to do since it was like 9:30pm by this point, but finally decided to call the doc. She told me to lay down and rest and keep drinking water, and if they didn’t ease up, to go to the hospital.

I rested and by 10:30 i felt like they were still coming although at this point I was confused what was a contraction and what wasn’t. I didn’t wanna deal with going to the hospital and being there til the early hours of the morning. but at the same time I was nervous to go to bed in case something was wrong. Finally I decided I’d just drive myself to the hospital since I wasn’t in pain, just uncomfortable.

I checked in and they monitored me for about an hour before the doc came in. I dozed on and off since it was way past my bedtime at this time. The doc there confirmed that I was having contractions so she did some tests to make sure it wasn’t pre-term labor…thankfully it wasn’t. After another couple hours of monitoring and making me drink about a quart of water, I was released. I got home at about 2am! In the end I was glad I went though. Better safe than sorry!

In the meantime, I’ve been drinking water religiously since then and I’m still getting contractions semi-regularly. I told my doc at my 33 wk appt and she said to just keep drinking water and resting. Luckily I’m going to start working from home this Friday, which she confirmed was a good idea since the contraction happen more often when I’m walking- my commute is really getting to me.

In nursery related news, I drew a few woodland animals and framed them to hang in the nursery. I decided to go with orange as an accent color so i made a mat with some scrapbook paper.

I’m feeling majorly behind on getting baby stuff and I’m starting to stress. I still have barely any clothes, no crib mattress or baby tub. Basically all I have is a crib and car seat (which I need to install soon!) :( I’ve been hitting up my mommy friends to figure out what I need but am feeling majorly overwhelmed. I can’t belive the baby could be here possibly in like a month….