Pregnancy: Week 32 – The Growth Spurt

I’m starting to have anxiety about delivering a larger than Moanna baby. I was pretty sure that I was going to have another petite peanut. I had been measuring consistently two weeks smaller than my due date for quite some time. That was until this last midwife appointment…

I was expecting the midwife to windup her little tape measure and announce “You’re measuring right at 30 weeks.” It had become tradition for my uterus to be two weeks behind the times. However, she wound up that tape measured and said, “You’re measuring right on schedule – 32 weeks.” WHAT!?!? In the past two weeks my uterus grew four centimeters which means that Deuce has been packing it on in the past two weeks. If Deuce stays on schedule from here on out, I’ll be totally cool (that’s a lie – we all have anxiety about children emerging from our loins regardless of how big or small they are), but if this kiddo continues this growth spurt, HELP ME! I don’t feel like I’ve gotten huge in the past two weeks. I didn’t gain any weight in the past two weeks. I was actually thinking I was looking tiny for 32 weeks. Looks like I was wrong. For the record, Steve has mentioned many times that my belly is getting huge recently. I thought he was just giving me a hard time, apparently my pregnant brain has a distorted perspective of my circumference.

During our visit, the midwife was having trouble getting a good heartbeat on Deuce. She tried for a good while with the fetoscope with little luck. She could hear it, but it was really faint and Deuce was moving around making it more difficult. She said it sounded like the placenta was between Deuce and my uterus wall. She got out the doppler to get a good listen. Deuce did NOT like that at all. As soon as she put it against my belly, Deuce started pounding away at me right where the doppler was setting. I had heard that babies don’t like those things much, but I didn’t necessarily buy into it until now. That kid was trying his or her best to knock that puppy off of me. All of Deuce’s protest also made it hard for the midwife to count the little heartbeat, but she finally got it. Deuce’s heart rate was 152 which is higher than usual. I was a little concerned at first because Deuce had been at 140 for almost every visit. The midwife assured me that it was a perfectly healthy heart rate and that variation is a good thing. She also said that the doppler was causing some anxiety which increased the heart rate some. I was fascinated and amused by the whole thing.

For those of you keeping tabs on my pee, I passed again with flying colors. I’ve been taking all of my vitamins and doing my best to eat and drink the right things. I still probably eat more spaghetti, cheeseburgers and ice cream than I should. Thankfully they aren’t showing themselves in my drug test.

I changed my vitamin C supplement from a straight up vitamin C to one with bioflavinoids. Even though I’ve been taking a ton of vitamin C, my gums still bleed when I brush my teeth. We’re thinking that means my body isn’t absorbing it properly, so adding the bioflavinoids to the mix should help that. If not, then it’s most likely a dental issue and has nothing to do with vitamin C. We want to be sure that I’m getting plenty of vitamin C because my water broke before labor began with Moanna (and she was probably a bit early) and vitamin C gives you a stronger sack.

In other pregnancy news, this past weekend we did maternity pictures. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed playing model for the day. We played around with several different locations, styles, moods, outfits and such. I don’t think I’ll ever make it big in the modeling industry because I had to think about smiling before I could actually make myself smile. Either way, it was a great day and I’m excited to share some of those pictures with you when they’re ready, so stay tuned…

Weeks 29, 30 and 31
Week 28
Weeks 25, 26 and 27
Week 23 and 24
Weeks 21 and 22
Weeks 19 and 20
Weeks 17 and 18
Week 16
Months 3 and 4
Month 2
Month 1
We’re Having a Baby!

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