Today marks the 28th week of our pregnancy - 7 months! - and boy was it an interesting day!
I'll spare you all the details, but today at work, I experienced some complications that gave me quite a scare. Before I could even get downstairs and out of my building to call my doctor, Brian was already there to pick me up and take me. It's so nice having our doctor just 5 minutes away in case of emergencies. We were there before I could even get anyone on the phone! I definitely have to give my husband a lot of credit because he was so calm and collected as I became hysterical due to not being able to get anyone from the doctor's office on the phone!
Anyway, I had to be hooked up to a fetal monitor where we listened to Ella Grace's heartbeat for 20 minutes or so and also checked to make sure I wasn't having contractions. I also had to have some other tests/exams and everything looked great! A scary beginning had a happy ending! We're not sure what exactly caused the problems but think the move and me overdoing it probably had something to do with it.
Another positive outcome to this event was that we were able to meet with another doctor since ours wasn't there today. She was actually the doctor we originally tried to see but she was booked. So it was nice to see a high risk pregnancy doctor today and know that were in good hands if she happens to be the one who delivers our little girl.
On to the most important one, Ella Grace. Still the size of a growing eggplant, she weighs in at about two and a half pounds and stands — or rather lies — at almost 16 inches.
At 28 weeks pregnant, she may be dreaming. Brain wave activity measured in a developing fetus shows different sleep cycles, including the rapid eye movement phase, the stage when dreaming occurs.
By now, she has added blinking to her growing bag of tricks. Other impressive new talents being added to Ella's roster in the womb include coughing, more intense sucking, and, perhaps most important, better breathing.
The good news is that babies born this week, though premature, have an excellent prognosis because their lungs have reached the point (for the most part) of maturity — so you too can breathe a little easier now. Of course, it's still best if a baby doesn't check out of that uterine hotel just yet — there's still a lot of growing and maturing to do over the next 12 weeks.
Starting today, I'm going to start taking it A LOT easier. I'm just going to have to get over the fact that our house is not going to be completely clean and settled for awhile. All and all, everything is still going well. I'd rather not have these annoying backaches and shooting pains in my tail bone and down my legs, but just by reading up on those problems, I don't think they're going away anytime soon.
Ella is doing well - just kicking and moving around a lot. It was relieving to hear her steady heartbeat today and all of her movements. She was quite active during the scare!
I'll have Brian take a picture of the bump and post it later this week.
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