Bye bye lovenox!

Everything looked pretty good today. The baby was an estimated 2 lbs 6 oz, 62%ile, which is great for 26.5 weeks. All his measurements were about a week ahead this time.I know this because she gave me a printout for my doctor with them. At this time with Luke, he was more like a week and a half ahead. And Olivia, I was already almost 3 weeks postpartum. This pregnancy still seems so new so much of the time (although in some ways it feels like I've been pregnant FOREVER, like since 2009, which is almost true, this is my 4th year in a row that I've been pregnant.)  It's still hard for me to believe I'm already 3 weeks farther along then I made it with Olivia. What a short time we had with her.

My high risk doctor asked me today to compare movement between the three. That was easy- Olivia I never really felt much other than a twinge randomly- she only weighed 10.5 ounces-and I don't think she moved much either- or at least not as much. This baby seems less active than Luke, but it's hard to say, I have less time to overanalyze how many times an hour he's moved or if it's been an hour.He's moving just fine right now. Since he's clearly growing well, she's not too worried about it.

In fact, I am DONE jabbing needles in my stomach for this pregnancy. I stopped around 28 weeks with Luke and was more than happy to stop them now. I am still taking baby aspirin daily.  That was the best news of the appointment.

We talked about when we are evicting this baby officially, 36 weeks with an amnio or 37 weeks. An amnio at 36 weeks risks my water breaking- again- and then having to deliver a baby with immature lungs anyway (which is the point of the amnio, to check lung maturity.) Or worse, it could make me go into labor (after my water breaks), which could cause my uterus to rupture. 37 weeks is IT, period. They don't let me risk going any further (the whole labor-uterine rupture thing), though I suppose I could try to be difficult about it, 37 weeks is as far as I really wanna go anyway. The only risk of waiting 37 weeks is that in the week between 36 and 37, I could maybe go into labor which would again risk rupture, or the extra week could give more time for trouble to start. So really, the risks of waiting an extra week are probably not that much more than risking an amnio breaking my water and sending me into labor. If I start having a lot of contractions or things start going awry, they are going to deliver anyway. So I think I feel okay about 37 weeks. My MFM likes it. I asked if I could have steroid shots for his lungs to help just in case, because I'd rather not have a baby in the NICU at 36 OR 37 weeks, it might not be necessary but can't really hurt. She said absolutely, we can do them around 33 weeks, and she thinks they'll help. I feel a lot better getting them, than not. (Yay more shots!) So, October 26th it is. Maybe. So far we are 0 for 2 as far as babies coming on schedule (although Luke was only a few hours early). Just maybe, this baby, who has by FAR been the easiest pregnancy (at least mentally, and the physical difficulties have a lot more to do with my 27 pound 15 month old), will get the memo and stay put and drama free. We'll see. Considering I've already spent 4 days in the hospital this pregnancy, (not that I can blame the baby for my stupidity), but I'm not holding my breath.