Week 29 – squarely in the 3rd Trimester and kiddo (on average) is about 3lbs and here are some size comparisons for this week:

Back to the High Risk Doctor for my now weekly appointment as a follow up to last Thursday’s first visit.

The thing about the High Risk office in town is that there are a handful of different doctors there, and like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. This time around, I took my Crew with me (my mom and Katrina my coach), so when we were all sitting in the waiting room for a while, it didn’t seem so scary.

I got checked in and (on a second round) came out with the exact same blood pressure reading as last week (131/83), which was seemed fine albeit a little high. I mean, you’re only at the High Risk Doctor to see if your kid is broken – you know, no stress. Of course it’s going to be a little high, people! 

When the tech came to do the ultrasound, she was very sweet and pointed out what she could, but mostly she was searching for fluid which isn’t a very fun ultrasound picture because she’s looking for totally empty space. 

But we did get this ultrasound photo of kiddo who seems to be looking more like a person and less like a turtle or alien.

Knowing a little more about the numbers than last time, it wasn’t looking good when she finished before the doctor came in. Katrina and my mom and I were having a huddle discussion comparing data before he came in. So when the doctor came in, I was bracing myself for what would come next – bed rest? Hospital stay? Early emergency delivery? IV fluids? 

It was a new doctor this week and he was really sweet. He looked at the ultrasound and said that he thought there was more fluid than the tech had found, so he went digging around and found a bunch of smaller pockets and brought my total number up to 8. For reference, Monday’s alarming number from last week was 5, and 5 was about all the tech had found today as well (if not a little less). 

He was very sweet and did a lot of explaining – maybe because my crew asked more questions than I did last week, who knows.

It turns out, 8 is a pretty reasonable number for fluid (AFI), and he was very positive. He said sometimes babies just hit a little bump in the road and then get back on track, and that it looked like she might be small but I didn’t need to be too worried this week – that it was good news. He said they wouldn’t estimate weight again until 3 weeks from now, but that he didn’t think I needed to be gaining too much (1 protein shake was recommended instead of 2) and to keep on with the water. With all this good news, I got hopeful and asked about exercise. He said “sure. I mean, what KIND of exercise?” I hesitated and said “I mean, I WAS doing…. A light version of CrossFit, but even just walking on the treadmill was outlawed last time.” He laughed and said that CrossFit was probably out for now, but that walking and other chill versions of exercise were fine – just to watch my balance on things like the treadmill. He said the umbilical cord looked like it might be attached to the placenta in a sort of off-center way, but that the blood flow through it looked good (they were having concern about that last time). 

We talked about the concept of bedrest and he said that for the most part in general bedrest was kinda lame and not terribly useful. So that was a welcome thing to hear because bedrest seems awful. 

So, the news this week is good. Although I’m hesitant to just assume Everything Is Fine, and I’ll keep on going twice weekly between the regular doctor and the high risk doctor between now and the end. But tonight I am excited not to have to worry as much.