Our Little Fuzzball

Today's appointment went very well. Even though he likes to drive me crazy throughout the week hiccuping here and there, he was again in an absolutely perfect position--head down, facing my spine. Thus far, he has proven to be quite obedient. ^.~ (We have many talks with him about positioning.)

We had a tiny bit of a scare before we got in to see the doctor. I took my blood pressure, and it was incredibly high--something like 143/85 (not those exact numbers, but close). I just knew it couldn't be right, though, so I sat down, fanned myself to cool off, drank some cold water and retested.

Final Results: 109/62 with a heart rate of 81bpm. Now that's more like it.

With this happening, I learned a very important lesson: do not drink hot tea right before taking your blood pressure.

As for my weight, it was almost 100% baby in gain. I came in at roughly 73.9kg (162.58 lbs), which was about a .75kg (1.65 lbs) increase. OK, well half of it was baby.

Our son now measures 2.5kg (5.5 lbs), which Hee Suk guessed exactly right before we were called in. Our doctor said, "Wow, you can be a doctor now!" It was cute. That puts him at a .4kg (.88 lbs) increase in the past two weeks. She was very happy with his progress, even saying he was big (but not in the way where doctors try to scare you into something). We had overheard a tidbit of the conversation she had with the couple before us, and it seems they were dealing with gestational diabetes and a baby that was measuring very small, so that might have contributed to her delight in seeing ours growing so well. (Definitely sending prayers that family's way.)

She also pointed out his hair to us. It seems like he's got a fuzzy head of short hair at this point. She mentioned how you can sometimes see the hair a baby with longer hair just flowing in the fluid, but his is just pretty fuzzy. I'll take whatever we can get!

Otherwise, I took the time to ask her a number of questions. She answered everything exactly as I had hoped. I had inquired about whether or not they do continual monitoring once you are admitted into L&D, and she, as she has said many times before, said that that was routine, but if I didn't want to, that was fine. She is very well aware of the differences between Korean people's preferred method of care versus foreigner's preferred method and completely respects it.

I asked when she planned to do a pelvic exam, and it looks like we'll just do it after 3 weeks at our 38-week appointment, which sounds great to me. It's usually either 37 or 38 weeks, but she said so long as there were no concerns, we could just do it at the 38-week one. I know some women are against having any done at all, but especially since this is our first child, I think it would be good to go ahead and do so.

The Group B Strep test is not routine here because Koreans have such a low rate of catching it, but when I asked, she said it would be better to be safe and just do it when we are doing the pelvic exam. Sounds good to me.

Apparently, chest x-rays are fairly common, though, since Korea has a higher rate of tuberculosis. She guessed correctly that I did not want to have it done, so we are not going to do that.

One of my last questions concerned the water here. Several expat parents do special treatments to their water, whether purifying or boiling it, before giving their baby a bath, so I asked her if this was really necessary. (Kudos to those who do it, but if we don't have to, I'd rather not.) Before our appointment, I said to Hee Suk, "My goodness, if I don't have any issues with it, I think it's fine." I loved how she responded with that she personally doesn't see a real need and that her philosophy is that being too clean is more harmful, which is what we also believe. We don't drink the tap water here, but we do obviously shower, wash our hands and brush our teeth with it. Unless he shows some skin irritations, we'll just be using our water at this point.

Anyway, even though I get anxious before each appointment, I always leave feeling very comfortable and motivated. We go again in two weeks and then every week thereafter. I can't believe how close we are. I truly can't believe it. Maybe after the crib is delivered next week, it will start to feel more real. We'll see!

Coming Up
-Free maternity photo shoot on Wednesday--will receive three free cuts.
-Crib coming next Monday.
-More free maternity photos next week Wednesday.
-Next appointment in just over two weeks--will have blood taken to reserve for an emergency and will also have a few final blood tests done.
-The appointment after (just over three weeks from now), I will have my pelvic exam and give the other half of the blood we will set aside.

Full Moon
The next full moon is November 2^nd, almost exactly one week before our due date. Some people believe that the full moon has a strange way of helping to onset labor, so we'll see! Remember, though: I told him no earlier than November 3^rd. ^.~

Thank You for such a wonderfully healthy child, my Lord. I pray for the family that was in before us, that the mother is able to eat well enough for the both of them and that their child continues to thrive. I also pray they find peace in You with the uncertainties that might be troubling them. You are so mighty, my King.