This sums up the end of my pregnancy.
I used this self-portrait in a post several years ago thinking that I was large. Boy, was that a misconception. I'm sure some women don't feel this way, but oh my lawd I was huge.
I am, of course, blogging this almost two months after little G was born. The last leg of my pregnancy was a whirlwind and as a new mom, I didn't have time for blogging.
So what happened during my last few weeks of pregnancy?
I continued to have braxton hicks every day on and off.
My legs and feet swelled to elephant-man proportions.
Walking was a true labor...no, not walking...waddling.
I went into pre-term labor at 34 weeks, but it wasn't very severe and it was able to be stopped with some injections that burned like you've never felt and made me shake for an hour. No early baby, so it was worth it.
I started to dilate and efface early and was told by the doctor to "take it easy and lay down a lot". If I went into labor again, they weren't going to stop it. Hard to take it easy and lay down when I worked 10 hour days with a two hour commute everyday, so at 37 weeks, I officially went on "bed-rest".
The last two weeks were spent worrying if baby G would try to come on her own. At our last ultrasound at 36 weeks, she was estimated at 10 pounds exactly. At our next doctor appointment at 38 weeks we had a big discussion. Our physician doesn't like to vaginally deliver babies over 10 pounds unless the mother is very adamant. I tried to be adamant that I wanted to do it "the right way". She informed me of all of the risks both for me, and for baby G, and it just wasn't worth it. I had to push all ideas of "the right way" out of my head...this baby was coming via cesarean.
We scheduled our c-section for 39 weeks 1 day, let our family know, and tried to enjoy our last few days before baby G arrived.
