After an exhausting holiday weekend (for me), Elise and I headed out the door this morning for my routine check-up.  I was not feeling well yesterday, probably due to all the extra activity and little sleep, but today have felt a lot better.  I am still looking forward to a nap this afternoon though.

As for the doctor appointment, it was fairly routine.  When I sat down in the doctor’s office I realized I hadn’t felt the baby move all morning, at least not that I had noticed.  This made me a little nervous, but as I began visiting with the doctor, the baby made his/her presence known.  The heart beat was quite strong and the rate was 135.

I’ve been noticing quite a bit of swelling in my hands and feet, a symptom I’ve been blessed to not experience to a great extent in my last two pregnancies.  My blood pressure was good at the doctor’s though, so they were not worried about the swelling, saying it was basically an uncomfortable, but normal part of pregnancy.  Yesterday my hands were so swollen I could not remove my rings, so when the swelling finally went down I removed my rings last night and have not put them back on.  I’m not swollen all the time, but it is annoying to me to not be able to remove my rings when I am.

I have also been waking up with carpal tunnel syndrome pain in one of my hands and wrist.  This is again an unwelcome symptom of pregnancy, but means nothing in particular.  It is related to swelling and because I am waking up with it, means I am probably sleeping on my hands in a position that is aggravating it.  The pain usually leaves after I get up and start using my hand, unless I am doing something like crochet, which makes it return.  The doctor said to try putting ice on my wrists before going to bed and/or wearing splints to bed if it is really bothering me.  If it gets debilitating, they have injections they can give me, but it is nowhere near that bad yet.

I checked with the doctor about the red raspberry leaf tea that I have begun drinking.  It is supposed to prepare your body for labor and seems to also relieve some of my hip pain.  He said he was fine with me drinking it now.  He said the only problems he sees with herbal remedies is if you have other complications or are taking other medication that have unknown drug interactions.  He does not recommend me continuing to drink the tea after delivery because I will be going on anti-depressants for post-partum depression and he doesn’t want to risk any interactions between the two.

We will discuss my birth plan at 36 weeks and will probably also discuss then our plan for going on anti-depressants in an attempt to avoid or lessen my postpartum depression symptoms.  He mentioned the fact that he still wants to discuss this with me and so I am glad it is still on his mind.  We also discussed my hospital choice-Willow Creek, rather than Siloam.  I explained that I had been to visit someone at Siloam recently and it was hard as there were a lot of memories there.  He said in my situation, Willow Creek is a good choice for me.  I toured Willow Creek last week and was quite impressed with their facilities.

My next appointment is at 34 weeks.  At that time I will be 6 weeks from my due date, and for some reason that seems lots closer than the 8 weeks I am from it now.  Thanks for your continued prayers for us and for the baby.  I am dealing with extra emotions lately, including some nervousness at the thought of possibly going through post partum depression again.  I have began to put this matter before God in prayer, and would appreciate any other prayers concerning this as well.  My desire would be to have no dealings with depression again, but I know that it would most likely require an act of God to rearrange my physical/hormonal condition in order for that to happen after delivery.