36 Week Update

Today I'm 36 weeks and 5 days so it's not right on the mark but meh.

So nothing much different. Still annoyed with the GD diet and all. Though I'm not as strict as I was in the beginning. And thanks to last week's birthing class and then my mom's hubby being gone from Thursday until Monday evening, there was a lot of food eaten that wasn't made at home.

Let's see there was twice I had a personal pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut thanks to my oldest sister sending me and awesome $30 gift certificate. There was an Asian bowl meal from the grocery store deli and a little bit of regular soda. There was Taco Bell, more pizza hut, and I think the last Thursday in September my mom and I went to a Thai place for lunch.

So it's not surprising that my weight today at the OB clinic was up 5lbs from two weeks ago. It's no big deal to me. I know about a pound of that is all baby and some of it is water weight and I'm glad to not have lost anything. I was stuck at having only gained 12lbs for 4 weeks because I was losing weight but my baby was gaining it.

Yeah there was birthing class last week. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 6pm-8:30pm. Though every single class ended at 10pm. -_-' I learned a lot about what the hospital in town here does and so I'm not bothered by giving birth there anymore. They want the women to give birth on their own and by that I mean they prefer to not do inductions or c-sections unless medically necessary. They will put the monitors on you and whatnot but they have monitors for if you want to walk around the hall, so if you don't get an epidural, or until you get an epidural, you aren't stuck in your bed.

My mom realized even more so that I would need a doula at my delivery. We had to have our partners in the class try out some of the back labor relief stuff on us and it requires some strength that my mom just barely has and wouldn't be able to use it for more than a few seconds.

I got in contact with one doula yesterday and she said she couldn't take me on because she was 37 weeks pregnant but she did want my permission to send my e-mail I sent her to her friend who is a doula and has the same amount of experience. I said sure and I've already been contacted by her, just need to reply. So with luck I'll have a doula soon and that's good since I've got just over 3 weeks to go until my due date.

Today I had my 36 week appointment with the nurse midwife- and dang I forgot to get him to give me the rhogam shot! Oh well, next week. Anyway since it's 36 weeks I got the lovely group B strep swab.

So any of you who have not looked into what important tests are done during your third trimester, ooooh you need to go look. No one tells you these things! But I will! Still, go look. The group B strep swab is to check to see if you are negative or positive for group B strep. This isn't something that will harm you. It's something to do with an overabundance of the bacteria down there or something.

To get the culture, your vagina and your anus have to be swabbed. That's right, it's bad enough someone's gotta see your hoo-ha but now they get to look especially at your butt! For me it was super awkward cause I've really gotta spread my legs since I've got some thighs or else whatever professional needs to get there has to deal with moving lips aside down there and it's not fun for me.

But, I will tell you I would rather deal with the awkwardness from that every single week than deal with getting my cervix checked. Holy cow did that hurt! Well I mean it was super uncomfortable with a pinching sensation and then you've got the whole awkward factor of the person sticking their fingers right up in you. You don't have to deal with that during paps. They may have to stick them in a little while they do that thing where they feel around on the outside of your as well, but a cervical check means fingers all the way in.

This is why I don't care for male professionals in that area. It just adds to the awkwardness. *shudder*

Well as I already figured, the NMW said that the baby seems pretty in there and most likely won't be coming out too soon. I'm only 1cm dilated but most women are by this time in the pregnancy. My cervix ripened weeks ago so it's not a surprise. Oh, did I tell you about the cervix ripening? Yet another thing they don't tell you and I wish they did. I'll get to it in a bit.

NMW also said he liked where my blood sugars have been at after meals and he gave me a quick ultrasound. There aren't any more good pictures because baby is just so big there's not enough room to really see much. But you can make out all the stuff. So I got a lovely little picture of my baby's super chubby cheeks and his hand in front of his nose. If I had been able to find my DVD for this, I could have gotten the shot of the baby's hair. Yup! Despite not having really any heartburn, my baby's going to have a nice amount of hair. It was really cute cause it was standing on end haha!

So it's all pretty normal. Only a few more weeks and my baby will be in my arms and I can't wait! My mom says the women in our family tend to give birth within a few days of the due date so my little one should be right about on time.

Now, as for the cervical ripening. I had never heard of this until some of the women in the forum I go to were talking about their cervix being checked and whatnot. And I realized I hadn't felt mine in ages. If you're a woman and have never felt your cervix, you should try, it's interesting. Someone said it's got the give in it like the soft spot between the thumb and index finger and I don't know what they were talking about. It's harder than that, almost like your gums but it does have a little give.

Well I figured I'd just check it, see if maybe it had shortened any, though that's hard to tell because sitting different ways can make it easier to get to or harder. The next time I went to the bathroom, after I cleaned up and all, I checked and was incredibly grossed out. Where my nice smooth, hard cervix should was was this very squishy, kind of wrinkly feeling thing. The best word to describe it would be soggy. It felt soggy. Bleh!

I could tell it was my cervix cause it was in the right place and then I could feel the place where the hole is. Yeah, I was super grossed out and a little freaked because no one told me this would happen. Of course the women on the board were no help. I put up a thread asking about it and the only person to reply was someone from another due date club and only after I resorted to Google and already found out.

So, ladies, I'm not sure when it's supposed to happen, I think it's different for each woman, but near or in your third trimester, your cervix will ripen. It will become super soft so it's easier for it to dilate. It's really gross feeling, at least in my opinion anyway. But it's normal. So if you feel the need to try feeling for your cervix during the end of pregnancy, don't be surprised at what's there.