Twenty-Eight Weeks

...and some change. I just got home from the doctor's office for my 28-week check-up and thought it was the perfect time for a Nathan update.

I'm measuring 29 weeks, which is perfect considering everyone other than my doctor says I should be 29 weeks. Either way, I'm somewhere in the 2-3 weeks range to have caught up to how far along I was when Patrick was born. Anything after that is uncharted territory for me! I'm down to doctor's visits every two weeks now. That more than anything reminds me that I am truly getting down to the wire in this pregnancy.

The doctor also checked me today, which isn't typical. Since my sore throat infection thing last week, I've been having a lot more Braxton-Hicks contractions*, and given my history, Matt and I were getting a bit worried about how frequent they were. The doctor was just concerned enough to verify that they weren't an indication of early labor or anything. They weren't, and I'm okay for now. Still, we need to be careful and stay away from too much activity and try not to do anything that brings them on. I like her cautious but not paranoid approach to them.

I am also a bit anemic, which Matt and I suspected was the case ever since before our last appointment when she assured us that was unlikely. Fortunately, that's pretty easy to fix with iron supplements. It's only worth mentioning because it's amusing that Matt and I were right yet again, even before the doctor could verify it.

You'll all be glad to know that I am gaining weight finally. I'm still not quite up to the normal weight gain range for as far along as I am, but each appointment I'm just a little closer to that mark. Nathan's love of chocolate and sugary foods is certainly helping in that department (don't you love how I can blame that on him?). I might just break into the low end of the normal weight gain range by the time he's born, if he can make it full-term.

Nathan makes a point to remind me regularly that he's doing fine. His arms and legs are getting quite strong, and he's that perfect size to be able to stretch across my belly and punch and kick at the same time. Even when it hurts, I love feeling it. Matt has gotten to feel actual kicks several times, and he's always astonished at how hard they are. If only he knew how mild those were compared to the really strong ones. By the way, Nathan's heartbeat was at 152 yet again today. It's been consistently right around 150 since the very beginning. There's something quite comforting about that consistency.

Barring anything unusual happening, I'll probably update again about Nathan in two weeks after my next appointment.

*If you haven't heard of them, Braxton-Hicks are practice contractions that the uterus has from pretty early in the pregnancy. They're completely normal and generally not painful, just a feeling that your belly gets tight for a few seconds.