Pregnancy Log: Week 37

Sunday, August 7:

My last doctor's appointment on Thursday showed that I'm still having problems with hypertension. After checking my blood pressure a couple of times, they hooked me up to equipment to monitor Daniel's heart rate. Fortunately, after twenty minutes of recording his "reactionary" phases, the doctor assured me that he was doing great and not in distress. I'm taking another 24 hour test and will see the doctor's again tomorrow to see if I'm spilling protein or platelettes. Depending on this result and my blood pressure, we're going to discuss inducing labor. I'll be at term next week, and since giving birth is the way to cure pregnancy onset hypertension, this will be the best bet. The good news from the appointment (besides confirming that Daniel is healthy) is that I'm 2 cm. dilated and Daniel is head down.
I've been trying to take it easy, though this weekend we've been quite busy. Faced with the reality that I could be giving birth in a week, we decided that it was a must to get all of the loose ends tied up. We have our bags packed, the mattress and sheet for the cradle, our birth plan and phone plan finalized and have cleaned our house. We still must get the car seat installed at the fire station and stock up on frozen/easy-to-cook meals. Also, we bought a camcorder/digital camera, which we've been wanting not only for the the birth but for baby pictures and home movies and I can of course use it for school. Tonight we're going to test it out at Addie's birthday party. I made her a scarf with Gryffindor colors (she's a big Harry Potter fan) and I think I'll use the left over yarn to make Daniel a hat and booties :-)

Monday, August 8:

Once again, the 24 hour test came back normal!!! It was a little annoying having to go into the doctor's twice today just to hear that the test didn't show anything, but I'm very relieved to know that we're both well. Induction wasn't even mentioned this visit, but it's good to know that we're ready. I finally got the perfect baby book today. It's called "My baby's first journal" and I like that it's not only beautiful but practical - it has tabbed dividers with pockets, the pages are matte (so you can actually write on them with a regular pen) and it's spiral bound with a canvas covered spine.
I also bought, despite many controversial feelings, a crib bumper and put it in. When I asked her during our last class about them, our childbirthing instructor didn't seem to think that there was any great danger to having bumpers as long as you removed them before the baby could stand. Also, I talked to Eva about it and she said that it doesn't completely prevent limbs from getting caught between the bars, but it helps when the little one starts rolling around. Plus, she said it gave her pyschological comfort. Looking at the crib now with the pads installed, it does look much safer/friendler than it did with the bare bars. Daniel's other sleeping quarters - the cradle by our bed- is also set up. I found the right sized mattress today and put a very plush, waterproof sheet on it. I put the safe sleeper (with foam pillows to keep the baby from rolling onto his stomach) that Eva gave us inside, so it looks all ready. She also gave us a Boppy pillow last night, so I have that covered for nursing.
I'll be taking pictures of us, the nursery and our apartment this week and uploading them, so there will finally be some visual content. Hurray!