Friday, August 27, 2010

Gestating: Still Not Super Exciting

Nothing new here to report, really, just bored. I gotta tell you, I have read kind of an astonishing amount of fiction in the last nearly three weeks, and I would like to say that I am highly disappointed that I did NOT, as it turns out, take this opportunity to read all those great classics I always meant to get around to. It's always dismaying to be put in a character revealing type of situation and find out just what kind of person you really are. It turns out I'm the kind of person who has still never read Hamlet or A Tale of Two Cities or Moby Dick even when given literally sixteen hours a day of free time, but who HAS managed to read every single Anita Shreve book now, as well as the complete works of Elizabeth Berg. Great accomplishment there. I think I'd like that on my gravestone.

Well. What else. Stats from doctor's appointment Thursday are as follows: 2 cm. dilated, head in minus one station, cervix appeared longer on ultrasound than it had been two weeks ago, but upon examination the doctor pronounced it very thin and stretchy and said she wasn't really "buying" that it had gotten thicker. Baby looks good, though there was a week or so disparity in his abdominal measurements when compared to the head size and femur size. Which is supposedly something to keep an eye on? So they want me to have it rechecked in two weeks instead of four. But even the tech said his knees were so bunched on his chest that it was hard to get an accurate measurement, so I kind of think everything's probably fine and it was just a technical error of some kind.

Based on said (possibly incorrect) measurements, though, he weighs about four pounds, six ounces right now, which is right in the fiftieth percentile, so I'm happy about that. Though, I know weight estimates can often be wildly inaccurate by the third trimester, up to a pound off in either direction I think is what I was told.

Speaking of pounds, I ended up getting weighed twice, decided to slip off my sandals the second time, and discovered that my shoes alone weigh two pounds. Thrilling! Always take off your shoes when being weighed! Set down your purse! Remove all jewelry! These little things add up.

Oh, I also got my first progesterone shot yesterday, which hurt much less than I expected based on what I'd heard about it and on the formidable size of the needle itself. Luckily my um, FLANKS, let's call them, have plenty of padding, so I could probably be injected with something roughly the size of a knitting needle and barely feel it. The actual medicine did sting once it started entering my veins, though, but just briefly, and the bruising was very very minimal. So, no biggie. One less thing to dread. IV's are still far and away a worse experience, even if they don't involve mooning a nurse.

8 comments:

Marie Green said...

Wow, just catching up here... bed rest sucks so much that I cannot believe you can write such articulate and entertaining posts. Cheers, to that, at least, I guess, right?

Anonymous said...

Flank? Hehehehehe. Mine is well padded too.

If you can get them from the library, I recommend Sarah Addison Allen's books. There are three and you don't have to read them in any particular order. They are interesting, engaging but not mind hurty.

Tracy said...

did they say what the disparity was between the abdominal measurement and the femur? My kids all had short femur measurements in the womb, but all had "average" lengths when they were born.

Sarah said...

Tracy- his abdomen size was actually measuring a week or so behind his femur growth and head growth. I think what they're concerned about is some kind of intrauterine growth restriction, or problems gaining the right amount of weight for his bone size, esp. since I do have those funny spots on the placenta which have in some cases been linked with babies that sort of cease to thrive in the third trimester.

Jess said...

I don't know, sounds to me like things are moving along pretty well, all things considered, and that's pretty exciting as far as I'm concerned!

I have to have a RhoGAM shot at 28 weeks, and my understanding is that will involve the flank as well. Booo. But, like you, mine has plenty of padding!

Swistle said...

I have read a LOT of classics, and the thing is---and I'll say this quietly, just between you and me---I don't think they're necessary all that...you know...GOOD.

Kelsey said...

Anita Shreve - really enjoy her writing, almost always HATE her endings.

Okay, speaking as a librarian and an educator - read whatever the heck you want to read! :-) If you have a burning desire to read the classics, then go for it, otherwise, forget them. No one will ever look back and say, "Well she would have been a better person if she'd read more Dickens."

Hope that time speeds up for you!

d e v a n said...

Um, I still plan to send magazines. life has been ker-azy busy lately. Lame excuses... heh.

Anyway, glad the shot didn't hurt! AND that baby looks good!