Today's Appointment and Pictures!

Today was my 36 week appointment. Boy was it fun! I had my first internal exam, to learn if I was dilated or effaced, and I didn't even get to see my own doctor! My doctor is on vacation - again! I figure since she has taken 2 weeks of vacation this summer that she should certainly be in town when Sadie actually decides to make her grand entrance. Right?

Anyways, I have lots of good news. I've been concerned that my blood pressure was up. I had problems with my pressure being high pre-pregnancy and was even on medication for it. However, since getting pregnant my blood pressure has maintained itself at a nice low level. I think this is partly aided by the fact that since I am not working this summer I have a lot less stress as well. But, I was beginning to get a little worried that my pressure was up. I've had a few headaches over the last couple of days and I've been very swollen. These are typically signs of higher blood pressure, so I was preparing for the worst. But, this pregnancy has been kind to me and my pressure was actually 120/80 which is considered normal. Yeah! I explained to the doctor that I wasn't sure if the headaches were allergy related or blood pressure related and since they haven't been a constant problem, she said not to be too concerned. She also said that because of the incredible heat and the mere fact that I am, after all, 36 weeks pregnant, that the swelling wasn't anything to be overly concerned about either. Fantastic news!

The doctor measured me and even though I have a giant baby growing inside of me, I'm actually not measuring big. I, personally, think this is largely due to the fact that I am not a small person by nature and that even though it's not feeling that way to me, I do have the capacity to carry this giant child to term. The doctor did squeeze my belly rather hard to make sure that Sadie was still head down. Sadie is still head down, but she did not seem to appreciate having her head squeezed. Ever since then she's been all kinds of squiggly and seems generally discontent with her surroundings. The doctor said that she was fairly high up still, but I said that I thought that that really depended on the moment because at times I can definitely feel her pushing down lower. She agreed that that is possible and said it wasn't too concerning at this point anyways. The doctor also revealed that I am 50% effaced. This basically means that my cervix is half-way thinned out. (Look back through previous posts for more specifics on effacing and dilating.) This is VERY good news because it's very hard to dilate when you are not at all effaced. I am not dilated at all yet, but this is ok with me since I have to make it at least another 10 days with Sadie as an internal passenger! I have another appointment in a week, so hopefully I will have started to dilate by then and things can begin moving along. I just have to start using the Think Method again! :)

Finally, to the second part of this post ... maternity pictures! As I mentioned in my last post, Adam and I went to JC Penney's on Saturday and had some family shots taken. We were told it would be 10 business days before the pictures would be available for viewing on-line, but I got my e-mail tonight saying that they were up and ready to go! Yeah! I did go ahead and change the picture that shows up on our blog "faceplate", but I wanted to share the link and information with all of you so that you can see all of our pictures too. I was really quite pleased with how they all turned out. Here are a few of my favorites:







Here is how you can see the rest:

Go to: http://www.smilesbywire.com

and enter the following:

Customer Name: Krysten Smith
Access Code: LTPP0741117018JCP

Enjoy!