Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Pregnancy Update: Week 31

How far along: an amazing 31 weeks!!

How big are babies: They are measuring about 16 inches long and weigh about 3.3 pounds (about the weight of four navel oranges).  The babies are probably a bit bigger than this based on our ultrasound from last week.  In addition, we're apparently heading into a growth spurt!  Oh joy!!  :)

Survival chances: This is the same as the last three weeks: Babies born between 28 weeks to 31 weeks, 6 days have a 95% chance of survival. Severe or moderate disability among survivors has dropped to 12% while minor disability among survivors remains the same at 25%. (Gunter, The Preemie Primer, 2010)

Weight gain: We'll find out this coming Monday.

Cravings: We'll eat anything, no specific cravings.

Aversions: Nothing here either.  Hopefully I'm growing good eaters!

Belly button: Not much change.  Sticking out a bit but fairly flat overall.

Movement: Still feeling and seeing lots of movement.  It's getting fairly strong now too!

Leg cramps and other symptoms: No leg cramps recently, but the restlessness continues.  Heartburn has kind of settled down, I feel it late at night and occasionally take a couple Tums, but for the most part I haven't had to.  As long as I can get back to sleep I don't bother taking the Tums.  Back pain is starting to be an issue and I'm starting to wish that we had purchased a second-hand recliner after I got home from the hospital.  We had talked about it, but I didn't feel it was necessary at the time.  Now it doesn't seem worth it.  Though it is on my mind!

Sleeping: Wow, can this really get harder and harder?  I put the pregnancy pillow back into the bed.  Last week I said it was hard to reposition myself.  Yeah, well, somehow it got even harder.  Because my back hurts there is really only one position that's comfortable, but I just can't stay that way all night.  Yeah, that recliner idea is starting to sound better and better.

Ultrasound: I went to the hospital on Thursday last week for a fetal echo.  This is basically a very detailed ultrasound of the babies' hearts.  Some new research shows that heart issues may be a possibility for mono/di twins, plus there is a history of heart issues in my immediate family.  So this was a "just in case" kind of thing.  It was a long appointment, especially with having to be on my back the whole time!  Everything looked pretty good overall.  A few possible small issues on Baby A, but nothing that looked serious at this point.  So I go back again when I'm around 33 weeks for another look.  The next regular ultrasound is Monday April 25 just to look at dopplers (heart beats and umbilical cord blood flow).

Appointment: Next appointment is also Monday April 25.  Anyone local want to pick me up after these appointments, sometime in late morning?  My husband is dropping me off in the morning, just need a ride home around 10am or so.

Notable this week: It's been a slow week, not too much excitement around here.  We did get the rest of the nursery furniture and today we had the carpet on the whole second floor of the house cleaned.  So we (and by "we" I mean Hubby) will be putting all the furniture in the nursery and assembling it this weekend.  Maybe I'll have pictures for next week!

4 comments:

  1. Huge second on getting the recliner. IMO it's priceless AFTER babies too, including if you have a c-section. You can't beat it for nursing, holding sick kiddos, working out sciatica, etc, etc... Hurry! Get one! :)

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  2. I had a fetal echo when pregnant with my older son (almost 20 years ago)! In those days, before the 3D US, this was the coolest way to get a look at the baby. The tech explained on the screen as she went along. It was a really neat experience.

    Maybe someone you know has a recliner you could borrow?

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  3. Anonymous9:46 AM

    I agree with getting a recliner. I didn't have one the first few months with Kaitlyn, and eventually got one when she was about 3 months old. LOVED IT! It made feeding her much easier. This time around, I sat in it A LOT after my c-section. Makes things much more comfy. I highly suggest getting one!

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