34 week update

This week I'm 34 weeks along...hard to believe the end is so close! Last week I began having very uncomfortable contractions that were irregular and inconsistent, but still painful enough to be a bit worrisome. I visited my regular ob/gyn doctor who checked me and determined that I was definitely contracting but not progressing otherwise (which is good). The same thing happened with Connor at 36 weeks so this one is just starting early I guess.

Later in the week I went for my weekly biophysical profile and I got another cute picture of the baby's face. I got to see her yawn while I was having the ultrasound (too cute!) and the sonographer also pointed out that the baby already has hair on her head! I love newborn baby hair; Connor had a head-full as well when he arrived. While I was hooked up to monitor the baby's heartrate and movements, the on-call doctor noticed that I was having contractions and began asking me about them. She wanted me to check in at the hospital to make sure I wasn't going into early labor, but I told her that I'd been having them all week. She later called my regular doctor who confirmed that I was okay as long as no other signs of labor developed. So thankfully, I was sent on my way.

Today was a different story. I went for my 34-week biophysical profile and again the doctor noticed contractions. This week the contractions are becoming more uncomfortable, so the doctor sent me across the street to the hospital for observation. I spent most of the day hooked up to the monitors, and the contractions are definitely present but not in a regular pattern. Since I'm not showing any other signs of labor, they released me and just told me some other symptoms to look out for. At this point, the doctors aren't going to stop the labor if it starts in earnest, but they aren't going to do anything to progress the labor either. So what that means is that I'm just going to have to live with the discomfort until Baby Girl decides she's ready to come on her own! I suspect she'll hold out until the very end, making the next several weeks very difficult for me! Of course, I'm thankful that she's staying put for now because she definitely needs to grow before making her debut. Below are some recent sonogram pics to share with you.

Here is a 3-dimensional image of the baby's face. Some spots are distorted but you can see that she has a nice plump face already!

Here is a shot from today looking up into the baby's nose.

Here's the baby's foot. It was all the way up right next to her head!

And here's the baby's profile at 34 weeks. It's amazing to me how all the pictures throughout the pregnancy look so different. In this shot, her profile really reminds me of Jeff!