Week 36...

Today I am officially in my 9th month of pregnancy. It is amazing how quickly it has all gone by. Week 36 was very interesting....

Prior to my last 2 entries I talked about knowing the difference between Braxton Hicks and real contractions. After the evening of us wondering if we would need to go to the hospital or not, the Braxton Hick really never lessened in frequency. From that Wednesday night through the following Sunday (Day of Appleton Baby Shower), my braxton hicks were non-stop and as close together as 2 minutes apart. It was determined by Jason, my parents and myself that we need not worry since they weren't drastically increasing in intensity.

I had mentioned previously to my mom that when I wake up in the morning my face and hands feel swollen. Sunday morning of the shower (my parents spent the night) my mom said she agreed that my face was noticeably swollen. At the shower, Chris (Jason's mom) asked me several times if I was alright, that I had looked like I had been crying. I hadn't been crying, I was just that puffy. We continued to monitor everything...

Sunday night my face ached tremendously. I had a very hard time falling asleep (as a result of course so did Jason). The pain was most comparable to extreme sinus pressure but everywhere on my face except my sinuses. When I told my mom this on Monday after work, she convinced me to call the doctor's office, just in case they would want to see me before my Wednesday appointment.

I explained to the nurse about the pain and swelling. While I had her on the phone I explained how non-stop the braxton hicks were. She told me that she was most concerned about the possibility of high blood pressure and told me she wanted us to go get checked out at the Family Birthing Center. She said that there was no rush, just within the next hour to head to the hospital. She said that is best to be on the safe side.

Jason got home about 10 minutes after I got off the phone with the nurse. He asked "What's up?" I stated, "You need to take me to the hospital". Surprising to me, Jason remained calm which in turn helped me to stay calm. He asked if we should bring the suitcase and I said I didn't think we needed to bring it. So we headed off to the hospital.

At the hospital they hooked me up to 2 monitors. One monitored the baby's heartbeat and the other monitored my contractions. We were there for almost 2 hours. My blood pressure was 126/89, which is high for me, but nothing alarming for them. The contractions were consistently less than 10 minutes apart, but again weren't increasing in intensity. She checked me out and determined that I was "finger tip dilated", which I learned later is actually about 2 cm.

So needless to say the process has started. I went to my scheduled doctor's appointment on Wednesday, again with my list of questions. The baby's head is still down. He told me that I would need to come in every week from here on out. I asked how long the appointments would be at this point because I have stuff after work every night this week (trying to determine if I could come during the day during prep/lunch). He said no big deal, that he was comfortable with me coming in in 2 weeks if need be. So no appointment this week, the next one is early the following week.

We had our final LaMaze class. When I walked in and took off my coat the LaMaze teacher again stated that she thinks the baby has dropped even more...she implied that we'll be going early. Who knows! The baby will come when ready :).