Busy Week

It's been a very busy week in the Poppet household. I have ceased researching 'stenosis of the pulmonary valve' and feel much better because of it! (Surprise, surprise). Last week's scan looked good, aside form the stenosis, and this morning, at the crack of dawn (7am!) I had this week's scan. Baby girl is very, very low making it difficult to see her sweet face, and she was also lying in a funny position which made it difficult for the sonographer to get a good picture of her heart. That said, again she looked great - passing her biophysical in just a minute or so. She's right at the 50th percentile mark for estimated weight (6 pounds 12oz), with a big tummy and and very normal sized everything else.

I've also seen Deb twice now, and both times things have looked good. Blood pressure is great, weight gain is fine, and so forth. Mind you, I did have to take both boys to Portland with me on Friday as Raf's spring break began and our nanny is out of town (terrible timing all around!).  So up we went, the boys with their Dr's kits and lots of trains, and they were actually really good boys. This past Friday my fundal height has decreased quite significantly (measuring 34 weeks rather than 37) so I was a little concerned. Deb called me that evening to say that I should monitor any potential amniotic fluid leak, just in case that was why I was measuring so small. I felt quite good and didn't worry too much about it.

Saturday, however, I think I must have overdone it because contractions were very intense, and on top of some of other symptoms things felt very off. I called the on call Dr. and they directed me to the labour and delivery ward where they monitored me for a few hours - into the wee hours of Sunday morning. She seemed fine, though, and I got home to Charlie who was ordering Rich out of the bed back into Raf's bunk bed.

It's great to be considered full term - albeit early term, but I am hoping, hoping that she stays put until at least her due date. I really do need to get through the semester. I've almost marked 120 long essays this past two weeks, I've just written my final, and the class have presentations next week (the final week of classes). I need to get my grades submitted and then she's free to arrive! If she comes sooner I'll still have to get everything finished, as I really don't want to impose more work on my long suffering colleagues who covered my classes for 3 weeks.

I went back last week and it was good to see my students, though honestly utterly exhausting and stressful contending with a few problems that arose because of my abscence. I have horrible, horrible pregnancy insomnia so, last night for example, was up with a sad Charlie until 10:30, slept between 11-2:30, but getting up 4-5 times to pee (no exaggeration) and then couldn't get back to sleep after my loo break at 2:30am. I started to doze off right as I needed to get up to get ready to head to Portland for my ultrasound before teaching. I did head home immediately after class to work on papers and my final, but I'm supposed to be going back in this evening to an awards' ceremony both to see my students and because I've been nominated for teacher of the year, which of course I won't win - but it's nice to show up as it's quite an honour to be considered.

All in all, though I haven't mentioned the disastrous state of our house(!), we're slowly getting ready. Raf, especially, is beyond excited to meet his sister, and even the lukewarm Charlie is seemingly happier about having a sister....! That said, he's all very into 'mummy', right now, so we'll see how this all pans out.

Not long to go! This week I'll be 38 weeks and when I spoke to Deb she said she'd prefer for me to have the baby closer to 40 weeks as opposed to 41-42, so we'll see how that goes. I'll be very happy to hit 40 weeks! Poor Rich is looking at the trifecta - my birthday, mother's day, and the birth of baby girl!!!