37 weeks, 3 days

Got my first steroid injection today and OMG it hurt!!! Once I was given it in my right butt cheek my leg went numb for a couple of minutes. Thankfully the pain as eased and you can barely see a mark, but I am so not looking forward to tomorrows injection.

I also had a CTG today and it was the worst one I have had. There was no fluctuations or movement for 40 minutes and I was rolled on to my side to see if that would help. It didn't. The machine started alarming as it couldn't find a heart beat, but I think once I had my injection it must have given her my adrenalin rush through the cord and made her get a bit excited.

So tomorrow is my second steroid injection and the CTG Sunday.

37 weeks, 2 days

We are so close to having our baby girl...it is so exciting!!

Tuesday (28/08) I had my appointment with Dr D. We discussed the date of my c-section (which is a surprise!) and discussed what we needed to do leading up to that date. 
In the next week I need to:
29/08 - CTG and Appointment with Hematologist
31/08 - CTG and to have my first steroid injection
01/02 - 2nd Steroid injection
02/09 - CTG
03/09 - Appointment with Dr D
04/09 - CTG

So it is a busy week ahead. 

The Steroid injections that I will be having on the 31/08 and 01/09 are to help baby's lungs as she is still reading small and Dr D does not want her to have problems breathing when she is delivered. I am a bit overwhelmed with it all as I know the date of her birth is coming closer and we are still having the CTGs and we are doing preventive measures to help her when she arrives. 

Speaking of the CTGs I was told by the midwife that the one I had on the 29/08 was the best one I have had thus far, maybe bubba girl has calmed knowing that she is coming out soon lol. 

My appointment with my Hematologist on Wednesday (29/08) we got some good news as all my results have checked out perfectly and I am able to have a spinal!!! Which is such awesome news as it means that I can be awake for the birth of our bubba girl.

I am sorry if I seem to be rambling a bit but today I don't feel focused, I guess I have a lot on my mind at the moment. 

36 weeks, 6 days

Today I got some FAB news from a friend of mine. She has been trying to become pregnant for 2 years and today she got her BFP! It was a great way to start the day as I got the news right before I got up! I really can't wait to see her second line become darker.

Today I also had another CTG. I can defiantly say this one stressed me out the most. Bubs heart beat at first did not budge from 125 beats so they rolled me to my left side in hope to get a better trace, but that really didn't work and they kept losing the trace. I was really unhappy with the midwife that looked after me today as I knew what was going on and she said it was a good trace. I just had to get out of there as I was upset and I am so over doing all this. I just want my baby girl here already do I can forget about this and move on.

Tomorrow I am seeing Dr Davis so hopefully I can see what is happening this week.

36 weeks, 2 days

Had another CTG this morning and the trace was good. At one stage the cleaner vacuumed outside the room I was in and sent bubba girls heart rate skye rocketing in the hug 160s. I was so amazed to see (and feel) that she could be scared of something in the outside world. To calm her down I told her everything was ok and she was safe and that no one would hurt her, which seemed to help as she went back down to her resting heart rated of 130s.

Towards the end of the CTG she got hiccups which was really cute but didn't help with the trace as every time she hiccuped we lost the trace which didn't help but as we managed to get some good trace it didn't matter too much.

My next CTG will be on Saturday which is also when I am having a girls lunch with my MIL, and 2 SILs.

36 weeks

Bubba girl can bake for a big longer!!

Had my CTG yesterday which was perfect and bubba girl was giving us lots of kicks which was very comforting seen as though on Sunday (19/08) she was really lethargic, then we headed to my OBs.

I was so nervous to see him as I wasn't sure that bubba girl had done enough to keep baking. She had put on a bit more weight and her CTGs were good so all I kept thinking before going into my appointment was please let me keep her safe for a bit longer.

We went in pretty much straight away and no sooner did we sit down Dr D said that things had improved but still weren't ideal. He told us that he would love me to get to 38 weeks but my placenta was still deteriorating, so we are going to monitor it with continued CTGs and I may have another ultrasound next week.

It is still weighting on my mind that at any moment she may need to come out due to being in distress because she isn't thriving anymore, it also doesn't help that at the moment she doesn't way much more then a 31 weeker.

I just need to focus on the positives. She gets to keep baking and that while it isn't the ideal situation she is safer in my belly then in the world at the moment.

My next CTG is Thursday (23/08).

35 weeks, 6 days

Ultrasound day!! And bubba girl has put on some weight!!!

Oh it was just the news I wanted to hear today. I was so nervous and a bit scared as I wasn't sure of what to expect today as the possibility of having her earlier had me really worried and DH was worried as well. But hearing the great news that she has put on some weight has given us some more hope.

Tomorrow is another CTG and OB appointment where we will get more info.

35 weeks, 5 days

This morning I had a CTG and at first this weren't going so well.

I started it off by having my apple as that always seems to get her moving, and as we were planning on having brunch with my family I didn't want to hang around the hospital all morning. But unfortunately the apple had no effect on her. As soon as the monitoring equipment went on all we had was a sleep heart rate and no movement. I wasn't too concerned at this stage as I have been told by one of the midwifes before that they can sleep up to 40 minutes at a time, so DH and I turned on the TV and settled in.

As 20 minutes past and there had been and there was still no movement the midwife came in and checked on me. As there wasn't much variation in the heart rate she was slightly concerned she went and got me some apple juice to see if that would wake her up a bit.

Another 20 minutes had past and the apple juice still didn't kick in and we still weren't getting any kicks, so the midwife asked me to roll on to my left side which caused problems of its own as the monitoring equipment started to lose bubba girls heart rate and so it was sending the trace weird.

As the trace did show the right information on it as it was losing her heart rate when on my side so the midwife asked me to again roll to my back. Thankfully I think with me moving positions a number of times it must of woken her up a bit and she gave us somewhat lazy kicks to let us know that she wasn't happy that she was woken up.

Tomorrow I have my ultrasound to check on my fluid levels, my placenta and to also check if bubba girl has put on any weight. Then Tuesday I have another CTG and OB appointment.

I will report back on these too.

35 weeks, 3 days

It was a bright an early start for me this morning, needing to get myself and Lachlan up early so we could be out of the house by 6.45 to grandma and granddads (my parents) house the off to my CTG then off to my OB appointment.

The trace was good and there was no problems although at my OB appointment it was a different story. Dr D told me that my placenta isn't working as well as it should, hence why bubba girl is not putting on weight. He has asked me to continue the CTGs and I have to get an ultrasound on Monday, and depending on those results will depend on if bubba girl needs to come out sooner rather then later.

It is a bit scary and frustrating this situation. Frustrating that my body isn't doing what it is supposed to and scary that bubba girl could be her soon.

I will provide more updates as they come.

35 weeks, 2 days

Well it has been a weird couple of days. Yesterday my OB called me (and of course I miss his bloody call) and left me a voicemail message saying that he wanted to see me sooner and that he wants me to have more CTGs (enter major panic right here!!).

I automatically call DH letting him know what my OB had called me about, thankfully he had his level head on and told me that it is just probably a precaution and Dr D just probably wants to keep an eye on me until I have bub (God that he can so easily calm me down before I have a full blown panic attack).

So I try calling my OB back and the phone is engaged (typical), so I decided I would start making arrangements for Lachlan. I rang my parents and as usual they are fantastic and happy to drop everything to look after him. I also contact my sister as Lachlan and I were meant to have coffee with her and she is happy to come to the hospital with me. God I love my family.

I called my birthing suits and organise my CTG and they are more then happy for me to come in when ever I like.

When I finally call my OBs office he is off delivering a baby so I talk to his receptionist and she makes a sooner appointment for me and makes sure that I have organised a CTG at my birthing hospital.

When I am at the hospital the CTG trace was perfect and bub was perfectly happy, so I am slightly worried about what my OB is not telling me. He hasn't rung me back and I am thinking that he won't as I have an appointment with him tomorrow at 8.30am so which means I will have a CTG before that so it will be an early start for Lachlan and I tomorrow.

34 weeks, 4 days

It was so great to see our baby girl on Thursday afternoon, although we didn't get any pictures as her head was too deep in my pelvis and her face was facing my spine.

On a bad note she isn't growing as good as my OB would like. She is currently 1.5kg (at 34.3 weeks) and she should be more 2.3kg. At first the ultrasound lady thought it could be a placenta issue, but the blood flow was good, also my fluid levels were good as well so that was not an issue. She ended up calling Dr D and he sent me for a CTG on the Friday morning. I was so glad that my parents could look after Lachlan. The CTG was perfect and she was doing lots of kicks, had good heart rate fluctuations and had a active period and a rest period.

Dr D was happy with these CTG results as it means that she is not in any distress. At this stage they are hoping that they did the ultrasound before a growth spurt, so at 36 weeks I will have another ultrasound, as this will give her time to grow a bit and will give us some idea on what size you she will be at birth.

Fingers crossed that things improve.

34 weeks, 2 days

WE HAVE A DATE!!!

Yesterday I had my OB appointment and as you can tell from above I am really excited that I have been given my c-section date. At this stage we aren't telling any family or friends, other then my parents as they are looking after Lachlan when DH and I go to the hospital.

Now that I have the date I now realise that there isn't much time left and I need to get a wriggle on to organise some things. One frustrating part was that we were hoping that our TAX money would be here by now as we have some big ticket items we need to get. Oh well when the money comes in we will get it then :)

I have my ultrasound this afternoon, which I am really excited about as when we had our ultrasound with Lachlan we got some great 3D photos and they really did look like him when we saw him for the first time at the birth.

Anyway nearly time to get the monkey up for breakfast, so better go.

33 weeks, 5 days

Over the last week or so I think I have hit panic stations and my anxiety it starting to surface.

With Lachlan I remember that I had pretty much had his room ready and his clothes were in his draws and everything was basically ready. This time around I have washed most of bubba girls clothes but that is it! All her clothes are sitting in a basket, I have no cot sheets or blankets, I only have a couple of wraps and Lachlan's clothes are still in the draws as I haven't transferred them over to his new draws.

So after a bit of a panic to DH and we are going out this weekend to pick some stuff up for her and start to prepare her room. Which will hopefully ease my mind a bit.

Another thing that has been weighing on my mind is my c-section. We pretty much have a date (squeal excitement) but I just want to know what the plan is, but I don't think I am going to get that anytime soon as my hematologist hasnt approved me for a epidural/spinal. I have written a couple of questions for my OB which I hope he will be able to answer for me when I see him on Wednesday.

On another not I have my scan on Thursday :)