28 Weeks (3rd trimester! Hip-Hip-Hooray!)

12 weeks left.  That's it.  It's starting to fly by.  For the longest time, things seemed to just be...going.  I felt like it would never end.  Then I realized this is the home stretch...the last 3 months...I could have this baby in 9 (NINE!!!) weeks because I'll be full term.  Not that I will...at all...haha.  But it's just weird that it COULD happen if it wanted to.  Ahhh!!!

So today I started my every-other-week appointments.  A month and a half of these and then it's on to every week!  Oh my gosh. 

So in regards to today's appointment, I got some interesting news and advice and what not.  First of all, I've officially gained 2 pounds.  Yep.  2.  Who knew the best diet would be having a baby?!?!  My blood pressure was 110/60.  Baby's heartrate was 156 (still pretty high!). 

Then I found out my results of my glucose screening blood test/iron blood test.  The good news is I passed the glucose screen!  Yay!!!  I was SOOOO nervous about that.  If you fail, you have to go back for a 3-hour tolerance test.  And I did NOT do well with this blood test.  I about blacked out (I started seeing stars and hyperventilating).  They had to try both arms because they weren't getting any blood out of my right arm.  Blech.  It was a terrifying experience.  One that I did NOT want to have to go through again!

The bad news is my iron levels were low, so I'm slightly anemic.  Fortunately, it isn't a big deal because all I have to do is take an iron supplement everyday to get my iron levels back up.  She said this probably has a LOT to do with how overly-tired I've been lately.  Taking the supplements, I should see a big increase in my energy levels.  She did warn me that it will not CURE my sleepiness because I'm a little over 6 months pregnant and I supposed to be tired.  But hopefully it will help me out and not make staying awake for more than 30 minutes a challenge.

I also talked to her about how sad I've been lately.  i cry a lot and feel very upset and helpless and hopeless.  I overanalyze things quickly and get very down.  She said with my history of depression, I need to get back on antidepressants ASAP.  I suffered from depression for a while, but things got better about a year or so ago.  When I got pregnant, it completely went away....and that was while taking no meds!  But when she asked if I ever thought about hurting myself and I answered affirmatively, she went to talk to Dr. Foulk right away to make sure it was safe to take what I have taken in the past.  Fortunately, it's one of the approved meds to take during pregnancy.  So now I have a presription  for that.  With my history, she said my chances of getting postpartum depression are MUCH higher and if we don't try to nip this in the bud now, I will fall into deep PPD, which can lead to postpartum psychosis - something that scares her and is VERY serious.  PPP includes "loss of reality, hallucinations, and/or delusions."  (Thank you "What to Expect...." pg. 461 for informing me what PPP is!)  It talks more about it, and it's very scary.  I'm scared to death and will do anything necessary to avoid that.  She also highly suggested I resume counseling/therapy to take every precaution we can.

SOOOOOO....at least I got some answers and should be feeling better soon. 

Ok, now for how little one is progressing!  :)  My favorite part.  He's in his last week of the "eggplant" stage.  Wait until you see what he is next week!  This week he's about 2.5 pounds (THAT'S where that 2 pound gain came from! :P) and 16 inches long.  He can now blink his eyes!  He's started getting REM sleep time, which is hard to believe with how active this child is.  Good grief.  He kicks HARD sometimes!  Enough to make me jump and be totally interrupted in whatever I'm doing.  His lungs are almost completely mature now, which means he can do a lot of breathing on his own now. 

That's about it for this post!  Sorry it's so long...goodness...

Until next week...