The McCormacks: Our 30 Week Appointment

We had our 30 week appointment this morning and everything looks great. Little Madeline is measuring right on target. Our Dr. - Pat - thinks that she has already turned and is head down - which is great! Let's just all say a prayer that she stays that way. Mommy does not want a c-section if we can avoid it.

About a week or so ago I realized that what I thought was little Madeline balling up in my tummy - making things very tight and uncomfortable - was not her at all. It was Braxton Hicks contractions. I think that I've been having them for quite some time - I just didn't realize what they were. There's no mistaking them now. Your stomach completely tenses up - I mean it gets rock solid hard and it stays that way for anywhere from 30 seconds to longer. And you know, once again, here's more thing that I lwould ike to talk with the author's of most baby books about. It's just one more "symptom" they describe as "mildly uncomfortable." I have to ask if any of these people have actually ever gone through a pregnancy. I'd like to see their credentials, because at this point I'm starting to think that all of the "clinical" books were written by men - who have absolutely NO idea what they are talking about when it comes to how each of these progressions in pregnancy FEEL. They started out as mildly uncomfortable, but now they simply hurt. Don't get me wrong I know that pain - in it's rarest form - is right around the corner, but let's not negate the build up that's going on here. If I'm sitting down, relaxing and a BH contraction hits - most of the time it's not that bad. But try getting caught walking down the hall at work and being hit with one - it will slow you down for sure. And let's just say that you're on your way to the little ladies room (with a sense of urgency) and you get hit with one - that's really not much fun at all. Yeah - that happened today and to top it off - my boss wanted to stop and talk. I have no idea what took place during that conversation. I'm hoping it wasn't too important. Anyway, it turns out that women with active babies in utero tend to have more Braxton Hicks contractions. So that explains it. I'm trying to limit my sugar intake but I don't really think that has much of an effect on her. She just likes to move. And I think she probably earned that naturally.

So from now on, instead of every four weeks, we start going to the Dr.'s every two weeks for check-ups. Then when we hit 36 weeks, we'll start going every week until she gets here.

This past Friday, we went back to Tiny Toes Imaging to try and get some better shots of little Madeline's face. We weren't very successful. The ultrasound technician said that about 5% of babies just don't cooperate. And our little Madeline falls into that 5%. She is one determined little girl. We tried every trick the technician suggested to get our little one to look towards the "camera" and with each she just balled up a little bit tighter, or put her hands and feet in front of her face. Once, she even touched her toes to her forehead - it was quite impressive. Towards the end she completely hid behind the placenta, with her hand on her forehead - as if to say "please tell my fans to leave me alone, I'm tired and need my beauty sleep." We did get to see her open and shut her eyes, and open and close her mouth. And we noticed that her cheeks have gotten much chubbier - which just makes me smile. It was really awesome to get to spend 30 minutes with her - getting a look inside of her world. It was quite surreal.

So without much further ado, our baby Madeline: