Well, today marks 37 weeks. What an amazingly long time! But I'm truly amazed at how quickly the last couple of months have gone by. We had a very eventful October, with both baby showers and childbirth classes and me working so much. I remember in September worrying about how much we had left to prepare for Gracie's arrival, and now I'm so proud of how much we've done! Hospital bags are packed and ready to go, "nursery" is all ready, all of her clothes and bedding are washed, folded, and waiting... all that's left is her sweet face!
Been pretty uncomfortable lately. Having a lot of round ligament pain on the sides and underneath my belly, and my hips are continuing to pop out all the time. There's constant pressure "down there" and a lot of intense Braxton Hicks contractions, but nothing too crazy. I think she dropped considerably yesterday; I can all of a sudden breathe a lot better, and when looking at my belly, I can now see a portion of my rib cage above the top of my uterus. My center of gravity is totally shot, so I'm having to take the stairs MUCH slower than before so I don't fall again, hehe. I've also added a ridiculous "waddle" to my walk, due to all the pressure. So... all that said, I think we're getting much closer! I have a crazy feeling she'll come a little bit early, but I won't know more until I get an internal exam done to see how dilated I am. We will see...
At the 36 week appointment on Tuesday, she had flipped back to being head-down! Yay! Just pray pray pray that she stays there! My blood pressure was 110/60, which is perfect. Now, I gained 7 pounds (yikes!) since my last appointment two weeks before, but at that appt I had lost 2 pounds from a week earlier, so that technically puts me at only a 5 pound gain in 3 weeks, which is really good. (See how I try to make it sound better? Hehe) But still, my total weight gain for the pregnancy is about 25 lbs, which is perfect. They did not do an internal exam this time, saying they would like to wait until I'm 38 weeks. But if I am even more uncomfortable next Tuesday, they might go ahead and do it then, just to check me out. So we will see! Anyway...
We're having a bit of trouble with Dr. Greggs. At the very beginning, she told us that we had a choice of delivering at one of her three preferred hospitals: RHD, Medical City, and St. Paul. We chose Medical City, for a number of reasons, and have already pre-registered and completed our child birth classes there. She is just now saying that it's "just not convenient" for her to deliver the baby at Medical City, and that I need to deliver at RHD. She was extremely unprofessional and rude about telling us this, so I've decided to ignore her wishes and continue with the plans to deliver at Medical City (There is a lot more to this story that I just don't feel like rehashing on here, so please don't be too quick to admonish me for going against my doctor's wishes). The admissions staff at Medical City is totally behind me on this, and we're working together to get my records sent over there (Dr. Greggs is refusing to release them, so we're having to fight for them). I dont' understand why she couldn't just tell me that she has other things scheduled at RHD around my due date, and that I just need to understand that if I choose to deliver at Medical City, I will most likely be cared for by another doctor, which I'm perfectly fine with. I wasn't really expecting her to be there, anyway, so I don't see why this is such a big deal. Oh well, we are looking into transferring to another doctor, but with the birth emminent in the next three weeks, that might not be possible. I would say though, that I would not recommend this doctor to anyone in the future. In an amazing coincidence, my boss (at AT&T) and her sister are former patients of Dr. Greggs, and her sister delivered via C-Section at RHD last year, due to Dr. Greggs pushing her for RHD. So she has a history of pressuring patients. She also has an extremely high rate of scheduled inductions and C-sections, meaning she pushes her patients to schedule their births to make it more "convenient" for her. I want to avoid a c-section and induction if possible, but she does not seem willing to uphold my wishes on this. So due to a lack of trust, respect, and confidence in my doctor, I'm pursuing switching to another. My insurance will cover any doctor who delivers me at Medical City, so we'll just show up there when it's time; they already said they wouldn't turn me away and go ahead and admit me since I'm already registered. So that has been a huge stressor over the last few days, but I'm now just going to ignore it and continue with our plans. I think that's the best thing I can do right now, is not let Dr. Gregg's pressure get to me; at this late in my pregnancy, it's just not healthy to let it worry me so much. So on we go...
Well, I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend and Thanksgiving holiday! We'll keep you all up to date with the progress!
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