37 Weeks

I had my 37 week appt. yesterday . . . good news and bad news! The good news is, I'm now in safe territory for a homebirth. The not-so-good news is that my b/p jumped this week, to 130/90. :( So please, please keep praying that I won't have it skyrocketing during labor. I'm definitely hoping to see it come back down before my next appt. or before I go into labor, whichever comes first. I don't recall the numbers, but I know that at my last one or two appts. before Sam was born, that my b/p had also increased. I just don't want a repeat of last time, and I'd definitely rather not have to transfer to a hospital. Sherry will definitely be keeping a very close eye on it during the whole labor, and I feel comfortable knowing that she is not one to take risks, and if I need to be in a hospital, she will transfer me. However, I'm just disappointed to have it go up at all . . . it had been staying so consistent, and to have it jump that much in a week kind of floored me. I'm working on upping the protein/fiber intake again, as well as drinking as much water as I can. The problem is, that lately the baby has really been pressing on my bladder, which makes me have to go all the time anyway . . . add a bunch of extra water, and it makes for uncomfortable days!!

Other than the b/p, everything looked great at my checkup. Baby has moved over a bit and is taking up more room in the center of my tummy, rather than being off to the side as it has been. It was funny; last week I was measuring at around 33 weeks due to baby's position, but now that it changed position, I'm measuring 36 weeks! Besides the bladder pressure, I've also had more heartburn again, due to the baby's bottom being squished up under my ribs. :) We went over a little childbirth refresher stuff with Sherry, and talked about pushing positions, etc. She sent us home with a couple birth videos, which I watched last night and today. It helped get me geared up for the birth in some ways, although a little more nervous at the thought of going through all that again, too!
One of the videos had footage of Brazilian women giving birth in a squatting position, which is really aided by gravity. It was interesting to watch, although definitely very graphic . . . and I decided after watching it that a lot of us American women are pretty wimpy about pain compared to the Brazilians! Or maybe I should not say wimpy, but they just handle it differently. They're just sitting there, hardly making any sound or even grimacing . . . whereas in the videos of American women, they often make a LOT of noise and scrunch their faces up tremendously! It will be interesting to see how I handle labor this time around. With Sam, I didn't make a whole lot of noise (not that I'm all stoic or anything--I just handled things better with grunting or something). I guess everyone handles pain in very different ways. For some women, it must be relieving to let out a yell. :)

Baby's heartbeat was in the high 160s this time; it sure has jumped around a lot! I'm definitely hoping to go into labor soon, but I'm trying not to get too impatient, knowing it could still be a while.

I've had fun reading all the guesses on my question of the week from last time. If anyone else wants to guess, go for it!

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How did you feel upon seeing your baby for the first time?

ETA: I'm finally getting around to putting a picture up . . . it was taken this evening, so I'm at 37 weeks, 3 days. I had to tape down my belly button because it has really popped a LOT now! I figured I'd better take a picture, because you never know . . . I may have the baby in a day or two. (She said hopefully . . . :)) I had a "false alarm" on Weds. and really thought that would be the day, but though I started out with contractions in the morning, they stopped within a few hours. So we are still waiting! I'm really hoping my water breaks--it was nice to have that happen with my first labor, because that way I knew it was the real thing! I also wanted to mention that I took my blood pressure at Walmart tonight, on the free b/p thingy by the pharmacy. I don't know how accurate it is, but my result was 143/87. Since the second number is the main one to be concerned about, I was very happy to see that it was down a bit since Monday. Looks like my dietary changes and water intake is helping. :)