Week 32

Your Baby:

• Is about three pounds, 11 ounces and 16 inches long.
• Is starting to get pretty crowded in there, so you may feel more subtle, rolling-type movements instead of sharp pointy kicks.

You:

• May notice a slight change in your belly shape over the next few weeks — kind of…downward sloping. Not so much of a nice shelf for your bowl of ice cream as you’ve had in the past.
• This change also might signal the retirement of some of your maternity clothes and you’ll need longer shirts instead of just roomy shirts. I can pretty much guarantee that the shirts that no longer fit will be the cutest ones, dammit.
• STAY HYDRATED. KEEP YOUR FEET ELEVATED WHENEVER POSSIBLE. DON’T MAKE ME STOP THIS BLOG AND COME BACK THERE.

So! We had our first emergency visit to Labor & Delivery this week! Hooray! So glad I was able to check that one off of my to-do list.

I’m now officially 0-for-2 when it comes to Unnecessary Freaking Out Over Nothing Hospital Trips, since I went to Labor & Delivery at 23-ish weeks during my first pregnancy because I was convinced that I was leaking amniotic fluid. Which I was not. Was it mucus? Urine? I don’t know. I don’t really feel like I need to know. You know?

This time, it was blood and a lot of tenderness in my lower back. And in my head, I knew it was a urinary tract infection. (Pale pink, watery, only present after peeing.) I knew I could most likely wait until my doctor’s office opened the next morning and everything would be fine. I had the doppler, I heard the heartbeat, I knew this baby occasionally has a quiet day with no real movement or kicking.

I also knew that if I didn’t go to the hospital to get everything checked out, I would be wide awake all night, wracked with worry and fear and guilt and eventually I would probably work myself into a Total Freaking State sometime around 4 am and insist that we go to the hospital Right That Minute, so…in the grand scheme of things it seemed like going to the hospital at 9 pm instead was the SENSIBLE CHOICE.

And you know what? That’s always the sensible choice. Don’t ever, ever feel silly or foolish for calling your doctor after hours. Don’t ever feel like you’re inconveniencing anyone when you have even the slightest reason to worry that everything is not okay. I don’t care if it’s just a hunch or a “bad feeling.” That baby is in YOUR BODY and you know best, even if you’re just a terrified first-timer who mistakes gas for contractions. Call. Go. Get checked out.

Don’t ever, ever feel silly or foolish for calling your doctor after hours. Don’t ever feel like you’re inconveniencing anyone…

I’m sure the doctors and nurses at L&D have seen it all — every possible harmless symptom of neurotic paranoia…but also what happens when a mother DOES wait too long to get checked out. Guess which scenario they prefer.

In fact, one of the symptoms on the “Call Your Doctor Immediately, Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200” list the hospital discharged me with was, no lie, Complaint of “not feeling well.” Well, that’s certainly…specific.

And yet…clearly the only way the hospital is able to classify the mysterious yet invaluable diagnostic tool known as “mother’s intuition.” Yep, you’ve already got it, mama. Don’t ever ignore it.

Oh Yeah, THIS: You know, I’ve had a lot of UTIs in my day. Dozens. Hundreds. Dozens of hundreds! And yet I’ve experienced blood in my urine exactly twice. While pregnant, both times. That seems distinctly not-cool to me. Don’t I have enough to worry about going on down there?

New This Time Around: Thank God for AZO cranberry tablets and AZO at-home Urinary Tract Infection Test Strips. The tablets are easier to remember AND choke down than gallon after gallon of cranberry juice, and the test strips at least give me an indication of how my body is fighting off the infection. (Currently: white blood cell count is still SLIGHTLY elevated, indicating things are still a tad inflamed, but the nitrate test is negative for bacteria.) (I’m sorry, did you not WANT to hear about my pee, or something?)

Note from Alpha Mom: I urge you to read the comments attached to this weekly pregnancy calendar entry. In particular the one from a former Labor & Delivery nurse, Lauren. Of the thousands of articles that we have published, this one continues to help families immeasurably. I am beyond proud of Amalah and this community. – Isabel

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