Christmas/NST and Ultrasound

Now that Christmas is officially over, I can really start to freak out about having the baby! My fears of the unknown tend to get to me, and this is no exception.

We had a very nice Christmas this year. Friday (Christmas Eve) Matt and I had hot spiced fruit for breakfast that had been cooking in the slow cooker all night (YUMMY!!) Then we cleaned it out and put in a beef roast and veggies to cook for dinner that night while we drove into Anchorage to go to ChangePoint's Christmas Eve service (almost 100 miles round trip....we really need to start looking for a church here in Wasilla or Palmer). We got home and ate dinner, and opened our gifts from each other. We both already knew what we were getting, we went shopping together. Hard to hide things when you are sharing a cart :P

Christmas day we went to my parent's house in Eagle River bright and early for brunch and gifts. Then on to my grandparents' house in Chugiak for our annual family gift auction. After that was said and done we went back home and had a relaxing rest of our weekend. Next year is going to be so much different! For one thing we shouldn't have the "Card Wall" because I should be able to remember next year to get a card holder for all our Christmas cards!

My parents bought a bunch for the baby to go along with everything else they have gotten for her. She got more gifts overall than Matt and I did :) 

Everything was much appreciated and things we really did still need. The bigger things they gave us were a baby bath tub, a bouncer seat and a frog humidifier for the babies room. My parents and sister have been a huge help with baby stuff from the beginning. My sister, Jody, has given us quite a bit from when her daughter was smaller (now almost 5 years old) and that has been a big help. On top of the things Jody has given us, she got Matt a small video camera for Christmas. We are so happy about that because we have wanted to get one for when the baby is here. My parents are helping out with pretty much everything else that hasn't been given to us already. Matt and I have only bought maybe a handful of things for the baby/nursery. Here are some pictures:

 

Bath Tub (it's inflatable and collapsible!)

Bath tub w/ the newborn sponge

Bouncy Seat

Matt's Aunt Jenny made a fabric art for the baby for Christmas. Here is a picture of that:

Matt's sister Liz bought a couple of plain white onsies for my niece Ashlynn to decorate for the baby. Ashlynn decorated them and the baby got them for Christmas:

My mom is also in the process of making curtains for the nursery. When Matt and I were in Oregon this past fall, we picked out some fabric for Matt's mother to send to us later for the curtains. We received the fabric last week and I got it to my mom. Talking with her today, she said she is done with them. We plan to pick them up on Saturday while we are over at my parents' house for New Years. I can't wait to see them!!!

So I had my "big" doctor appointment today. They did the NST (non stress test) again and AGAIN the baby was not cooperative. We were in the room for almost the whole hour. The only thing that saved us was that the doctor was going to be doing an ultrasound after and they were done with the NST so she would be seeing the movement. Once I got unhooked from the machine, they did the ultrasound to determine if the baby is growing too fast and how everything was looking. The doctor said that the baby is growing fine, not too big. She is measuring around 6 lbs 10 oz. The only thing the doctor is a LITTLE concerned about is the amount of amniotic fluid surrounding the baby. She said it's at level 11, which is just fine for a "normal" pregnant woman. Since I have gestational diabetes I should have around a level 14 or 15. The baby should be practically swimming in fluid. Gestational diabetes causes the placenta to fail sooner than it should. One of the signs that the placenta is failing is when I start losing fluid. So they scheduled me for another ultrasound Monday morning to check my fluid after another NST. If the fluid drops, too much, they may induce me just to be safe. We will find out more on Monday. I'm hoping to not get an induction because it can cause some difficulties during labor. Harsher contractions for one. EEK! I don't think I need them worse than they will already be.

Matt and I are still working on getting everything together for the hospital. I still need to make lists, and things need to be printed. Other than that we are pretty much set. We had a little "scare" the other night. I was having crazy braxton hicks (false) contractions every 8 minutes. I ate some carbs and drank some water and they went away eventually. Ever since then we have been trying to do baby/labor stuff every day to get ready. With luck we will be ready when the time really comes.

That's it for the Alaskan Schneiders' this week. We want to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year!

Until next year....

Weekly Appointments and Votes

A quick reminder that you only have three days left to vote on the final name poll!!


Today I had my weekly NST and OB appointment. The nurse had a heck of a time finding the baby's heartbeat to track! For about 15 minutes she searched all over my belly and every time she would find the heartbeat, the baby would move. So after she got another nurse to try (and found it for good) Matt had to sit there and hold/press the monitor onto my belly to keep the heartbeat. Geez! So we only had to sit like that for about a half hour because after finding the heartbeat, she was moving like crazy and responding very well. 
My midwife got a copy of my blood glucose numbers for the week and consulted with one of the MD's in the office. My after dinner numbers (and some after lunch numbers) are getting too high. Because when I have an unusually high number, I tend to write down what I ate that probably caused it, they determined that I'm not allowed to eat any rice. So disappointing! We don't even eat white rice, we eat brown! My body has no problem with whole grain pasta, but apparently brown rice isn't working. I have to start trying to eat protein in my lunches. I really don't want to use up our chicken breasts for my lunches! I don't know, we'll see. Next week I'll be meeting with the one person I haven't met with yet for my growth ultrasound and she is also an MD. I'm supposed to discuss my numbers with her and find out about medication. After weeks of trying to not get put on medication for the gestational diabetes, I'm looking forward to getting on them! I have been hungry since starting this diet, because I haven't been able to eat much.
So I had my Group B Strep test done today too. I won't go into details on how they do that, but it's nothing super serious. It's a bacteria that lots of people carry, and it doesn't bother them, but it could harm the baby if I'm not treated. If I test positive, at the hospital they will give me antibiotics while I'm in labor so it crosses the placenta and the baby won't be affected by the Group B Strep. My midwife also checked my cervix and it's softening (meaning it's getting ready for delivery). I'm not dilating yet (that's a very good thing since I'm just 36 weeks, and she won't be considered full term until 37 weeks) and the baby is FOR SURE head down. I'm so happy to hear that she is head down because one of the reasons I would have to have a C-section would be to deliver a breech baby. Now I just hope she stays head down and ready to go!


Matt and I made a collage tonight of Christmas post cards he had gotten. It looks pretty cool! I thought I would share pictures:

Also, we moved the pack n' play into our bedroom and got it all set up and ready to go. It should be good until we get a crib.




I think that's it for this week. I'll be blogging again next week after the growth ultrasound to give an update of the baby's size and what the MD says. I hope everyone has a great Christmas!!