Pregnancy Update Week 38

Last week when I went to the doctor, my blood pressure had jumped to 136/85. This was the highest my blood pressure has ever been. Typically it hangs out around 116/60. Yesterday I went in for my appointment at 38 weeks and was very pleased to see that it had dropped down to 122/80. I presume that the sudden spike in my BP was because I was 37 weeks pregnant on my feet a lot working with Vacation Bible School, and the weather for the week was 100 + degrees. The drop in my BP was certainly a relief to me.

Another item from my checkup is that it appears this baby is going to take it's time coming. Tomorrow is the 10 day early mark (at which all three of my other children were born). However, at this point in time I have only dilated 1 cm, and am no where close to going into labor. Now I realize that things can change quickly and I only have three previous births with which to compare. I have resigned myself to the fact that this baby is perfectly content to stay put a little bit longer than Kara, Lydia, and Andy were.

My weight gain is up to 20 pounds -- so much for trying to keep it below 15. However, I must admit that my intense cravings for chocolate over the past three weeks is certainly the cause of my extra five pound weight gain.

Kara is currently very eager to meet her new baby brother or sister. Lydia has recently been talking about Sammy more frequently, and Andy remains clueless other than pointing to my tummy and saying Belly. JA and I are also very eager to meet our newest child, so I can guarantee that my typically loving and caring husband is going to be walking me all over creation this next week in order to try to get Sammy to come.

Well, that is it for the update. My next Dr. Appointment is next Wednesday and at this point the Dr. says he won't even talk about induction until after my due date. So I guess all I can do now is wait -- and grin and bear it as JA wears me out walking :)

Pregnancy Update Week 34

I am now entering week 34 of my pregnancy. That means if this baby is like my other three, I only have four more weeks until I get to meet him/her. So far, everything is going smoothly with the pregnancy. I've gained a total of 15 pounds thus far. My goal was to not gain more than 15 pounds, so we'll see if I can keep from gaining any more. My blood pressure is good and stable at 116/64. No other problems have shown themselves, and the doctor is confident in saying that there is no evidence of a cleft in this baby.

I can already tell that Baby Sammy is going to be quiet active and strong. I am sure that if you were to turn my stomach inside out every thing would be black and blue from the strength of the kicks. Activity is slowing down a little bit; but when the baby gets moving, it can be painful. While I experienced quite a bit of heartburn early on in the pregnancy I have not had to suffer any lately. So, if the wives tales are true maybe I'll finally have a bald baby :) For those of you who don't know, Lydia was born with her hair already past her shoulders. And Kara and Andy both had a decent amount of hair when they were born also.

My next Doctor's appointment will be Wednesday. This appointment begins my weekly visits and I get to enjoy the wonderful Strep Test :P (said quiet sarcastically).

As far as preparations for the baby go, we still have a lot to do. While we have a couple of options on baby names we have not yet decided on a name. I really want the baby to have a good strong Bible name, but I don't like names that are very common (like david, daniel, mary, sarah). If you have any ideas for either a boys name or a girls name, I would love to here them.

I would also like to know whether or not you think we are having a boy or a girl. Below are a couple of pictures so you can see how I'm carrying the baby.

Prayer Request: We have Vacation Bible School in three weeks. Please pray that baby decides to wait until VBS is over before meeting the outside world.

Week 22 Update

Okay, I just had my doctor's appointment yesterday and am excited to say that everything is going well. Sammy's heartbeat was at 160. My blood pressure is normal, and total weight gain to date is 3.5 pounds.

Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. Hopefully I will be able to get some good pictures of the kids soon and update the blog.

18 Weeek Pregnancy Update

Friday marked the start of week 18 for me and Baby. Wednesday we had a doctor appointment and the baby's heartbeat is 160. My blood pressure was normal, and I am certainly feeling lots of movement now (and the doctor finally believes me that I was feeling Sammy a few weeks ago. Everything seems to be going well.

Now, you've noticed the baby currently has a name. Let me explain that. A few weeks ago, Kara wanted to know the baby's name. I told her that since we didn't know if the baby was a boy or a girl the baby didn't have a name, but if she wanted to give it a name until it was born she could. Her first choice was Baby Jesus (obviously not going to work). Her second choice was Baby Samuel (sorry Uncle Sam, I think it was her Sunday School influence :) ). So we settled on calling the baby Sammy. JA and I will be renaming the baby when Sammy is born, but until then it really seems to help Kara talk to and love the baby.

Question for you: What did you call your baby while you were pregnant? and did you let your kids share any part of naming the baby?

Pregnancy Update #1

Baby #4 is well on its way. This week I entered my 13 week of pregnancy. Monday afternoon I had a doctor's appointment and the opportunity to hear Baby Hall's heartbeat for the 1st time. Baby's heart beat was 150. So far everything in the pregnancy is going well. I've gain only two pounds so far (I'm hoping to keep my weight gain below 15 pounds for this pregnancy).

My doctor did order an ultrasound this week, so Kara and I went to the hospital on Wednesday to go see the baby. Kara was quite bored with the experience, but she is really excited about the baby and was glad to see it. The heart beat on Wednesday was 160. Baby looks great -- it has two arms, two legs, a torso and a head :) This ultrasound was done mostly to verify baby's due date which is currently set for August 25. The ultrasound would push it back to August 30, but all of my ultrasounds moved the due dates back a week and each kid was born 10 days before the original due date. So I doubt my due date will change.

Not much else is happening with the pregnancy -- I believe I may have felt the baby move a couple of times (although my doctor highly doubts it). Morning Sickness is still raising it's ugly head (especially when around bad smells, so we are burning lots of candles until we can open windows and air out the house).

That's about all I have for an update now. I can feel my skirts beginning to get tight around my waist, so I think another week or two I'll be pulling out the maternity clothes.

Question for You? How far along were you before you had to start wearing the maternity clothes?