Your baby kind of looks like he's coated in a layer of cream cheese these days. The thick, white substance that protects his skin from pruning in the amniotic fluid is called vernix. When he's born you'll probably see some vernix lingering in his "hard-to-reach" places like under her arms, behind his ears and around his pee pee. Other news from the womb this week: The soft fur, lanugo, that covered your baby's body for much of his stay in the womb is now almost completely gone. Your baby begins to develop his own immune system, instead of relying solely on antibodies received through the placenta. This will come in handy when some grubby relative manhandles the baby without washing his hands first. This week, your baby measures about 17¾ inches, as almost as long as an American Girl Doll (!) and weighs almost 5 pounds, as heavy as a bag of sugar.
Too much excitement this weekend!! I took Friday off and Mike and I took some of our stuff over to his friend Matt's house that was having a garage sale....unfortunately, we didn't sell very much. Then, later in the day, relatives began to arrive in Columbus for the big event...the baby shower. The baby shower was on Saturday afternoon and was wonderful! Suzi and mom did a great job with the planning, food and decorations....everyone had a great time. My college roommate, Hope was there and I hadn't seen her in probably 10 years...it was great to see her! My cousin Becky came in from Chicago and I had the chance to spend some time with her.
I received some great presents and very grateful for all that we got for Eli. Here is a link to see the pics that my Becky took.
http://picasaweb.google.com/staceywfriedman/StaceyBabyShower?authkey=Gv1sRgCKjIoPb13_HYbA&feat=directlink
If you've read previous posts...you'll remember that I've been having Braxton Hicks contractions for the past few weeks. They've been pretty harmless up until this past weekend. During the day on Thursday, the contractions began to increase in frequency but I really didn't think much of it. Then, Friday night while at dinner with the family....I started to not feel well and the contractions began to become more frequent and lasting longer. After dinner, we came home and I decided to just relax and then go to sleep. I woke up on Saturday morning feeling good and excited about the shower. After I got home from the shower, the contractions started again but now were between 6-8 minutes apart and lasting 45-60 seconds. I decided to call the on-call doctor and she felt that I needed to go to the hospital to be monitored and to check to see if I was dilated. I was torn between going, since I've been on a monitor at the docs office and everything was fine. So, I waited a few hours and relaxed and the contractions slowed down. Well, at about 12:30 am, as I was getting ready for bed, they started again and were about 2-3 minutes apart and I was having some pain...which hadn't happened before. So, we decided to make that trip to the hospital.
At 1 am we arrived at Labor and Delivery and I was hooked up to a fetal monitor and my cervix was checked. They also did a test called Fetal Fibronectin. test predicts within 99.5% accuracy if you will have pre-term labor within the next 2 weeks. That test was negative and my cervix was still closed...more good signs. At about 5 am...they decided to give me a medication called Terbutaline which is given to stop contractions. It worked within 10 minutes and by 6 am we were headed home with instructions to take it easy for the next 24 hours.....exhausted but happy to be heading to our bed. Mike was great through this whole process...making sure that I was calm and relaxed and making jokes and making me laugh at other times.
On Sunday, I basically stayed on the couch the entire day and visited with everyone that came to the house. felt about 5-6 total contractions for the entire day. Monday, was back to work. All was going well in the morning...got dressed and headed to work with no contractions.....then, in the car ride to work....they started again. This time, I decided to write down the times that the contractions occurred and called the doctor's office. The nurse spoke with my doctor and he said that I had to come to the office if I have more than 6 contractions in an hour. Well, lo and behold....I have more than 6....so, in to the office I go and get hooked up to the monitor. I keep contracting and the doctor wants me to go back to the hospital for further observation.
I call Mike and he meets me at the hospital and back up to Labor & Delivery we go....and get put into the same room we were in the night before. We know the routine....undress, pee in the cup and get hooked up to the monitor. Luckily, we get a nurse that has a sense of humor...the last one was stoic....no personality at all! Today, we talk to the resident, I get examined and once again, my cervix is still closed. They now have to consult with my doctor to decide what to do. They come back and tell me that the doc wants an ultrasound to make sure that the baby is ok. The doc said that it may take up to 30 minutes to get the results. The ultrasound measured Eli's breathing, heart, amneotic fluid, and movement. Eli passed with flying colors!! Since the baby is healthy and I'm not dilating they decided to give me another shot of Terbaline and sent me home.
I went to work today and all was well.....only a few contractions and no problems. Tomorrow I go to the doctor for my weekly appointment and see what he says from here...Stay tuned....
Here are a few pics that Mike took today.
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