35.5 Week Update

This week I am enormous! That is mostly from eating too many pretzels and swelling up from the salt. I really like salt. I am trying to introduce some moderation, mostly by putting the pretzels in little ziploc baggies and not eating them straight out of the bag. I'm also trying to drink plenty of water. Strangely that is the right thing to do when you are puffed up from too much salt. One night Helena even brought me some pretzels because I was out :) And don't worry, my blood pressure is quite fine.

We had a level 2 sonogram this week because my uterus continues to measure pretty behind. A level 2 sonogram is done by a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and it checks everything there is to check about the baby. It is very thorough. The MFM doctor was very nice and she said everything looks perfect. She could even check for things like cleft palate and all sorts of other birth defects and it all looked good. She also said her growth looks more than fine. She estimated her weight at 5lbs 10oz (+/- 10 %) last week, which is good-sized considering she is scheduled to gain another 1/2 pound per week until she's born. We could see her making lots of practice breathing movements by "breathing" in and out the amniotic fluid - that is also very healthy. I suspect it makes her hiccup.
The MFM specialist is not worried about my uterus measurements. She feels that in the presence of a baby measuring well, they are not very significant in the second half of the third trimester because the can be very affected by how low the baby is sitting, and this baby is sitting very low.

Next week we will probably install the car seat and put together her little co-sleeper, so we'll be ready for her whenever she wants to come!