Peeper Update: 33 Weeks 6 Days

Update 9:00 pm: Photos added

We had a fairly uneventful series of appointments this morning, the upshot of which is that Peeper seems to be doing very well.

She behaved (more or less) for the non-stress test, with few or no variable decelerations. She did take a little nap for the second half of it, but she was probably exhausted from all her activity over the past few days.

(She's been moving around almost non-stop all weekend.)

I actually saw Dr. B (my real OB) today, and she says everything is looking good, with both of us.

She was pleased with my blood sugar levels, and didn't even fuss at me for only checking them once or twice daily. 

In fact, she said that, as good as they've been, she would tell me to drop back to only two tests per day, anyway.

I told her that Dr. Y (whom I saw a couple of weeks ago) had fussed at me, and told me that I "need to be more compliant about testing."

She said, "Well, Dr. Y just finished her residency, so she's kind of a stickler for the 'rules.' Once you've been doing this a while, you know when you can let things slide."

(Oops, I just thought I was tattling on myself, not on the doc!)

The biggest news of the day is that Dr. B is filling out my Aflac paperwork, saying that I need to cut back on my work hours, which will qualify me for short-term disability benefits. Woo hoo!

She said, "We don't write a note for just anybody, but (gesturing at my chart) there's a lot of stuff written here, so this will be fine."

And, I found out that local hospital can handle deliveries as early as thirty-five weeks, so as long as Peeper stays in for another eight days, we're good to go without being shipped off elsewhere. 

The perinatologist (Dr. Not-Peri again) was also pleased with everything he saw, and commented on how much more active Peeper was today than last week. 

If I'd only heard that, I would've thought she was lethargic last week, but last week they talked 

about her doing a lot of moving, too, so she must really be going to town in there. 

She was practice breathing when we first looked at her, so we didn't have to wait around on that, and other than wiggling out of position every time the sonographer tried to measure the bloodflow in this one cranial artery that they always look at, she did great. 

(The sonographer did comment that, "I hope she's better behaved after she's born." So do we!)

They did a full growth scan today (that's every three weeks) and they are now estimating her weight at 4 lbs 4 oz, which is in the 20th percentile. 

Dr. Not-Peri said that they want to see babies this age gain at least 100 grams/week, and she's put on 500 grams in the last three weeks, so he's very happy with that. 

If she continues to grow at this rate, he's estimating that she'll weigh around 6 pounds by forty weeks. 

At first, he seemed a bit concerned about the length (or lack thereof) of her legs, but after asking Shrike how tall she is, he said, "Oh, well that's why." 

Which, of course, we'd already been all through with Dr. Peri.

More appointments next Monday and, of course, another update then.