31 Weeks & Maternity Center Tour

Today Evan is about 16 inches long and weighs about 3.3 pounds! Here's what else BabyCenter has to say about him: "He can turn his head from side to side, and his arms, legs, and body are beginning to plump out as needed fat accumulates underneath his skin. He's probably moving a lot, too, so you may have trouble sleeping because your baby's kicks and somersaults keep you up. Take comfort: All this moving is a sign that your baby is active and healthy." And yep, it's true! This morning I could have slept later, but his thrashing around kept me up. :-) The past couple of days he's really taken it up a notch. He's moving more and it is much stronger. He's also taken a liking to my far right side, especially right up against or under my ribs. I have to say, sometimes I want him to stop kicking because it hurts. When I think about it though I'm really grateful that he's moving so much, I know how depressing it is when he doesn't move as often and I also know it means he's healthy. But my first instinct when he's kicking so hard is "make it stop!" Haha, there is no way to make him stop, but I've found that pressing lightly over the spot where he's kicking helps absorb the impact.

I think I may have felt Braxton Hicks contractions last night for the first time. I'm not 100% sure though. Right after I laid down to go to bed it felt like Evan was kicking my bladder or something deep inside me. But after a bit I realized it felt more like all of my insides, at least down low, were being squeezed. It wasn't really painful, just uncomfortable. It felt like if it lasted too much longer it would be painful, but just as it got to that point it would stop. It happened several times over 10-15 minutes, but I didn't start thinking it might be BH until the last 3 that happened. So I think I had about 6 over the entire time period, maybe 2 more if those "kicks" I felt at first were also BH. It'll be interesting to see if it happens again. And like I said, who knows if they were really BH or maybe Evan was just squishing things down there over and over?

The maternity center tour was great! I'm very excited about delivery now! I really liked the maternity center at our hospital better than the others I've been to before (which is a grand total of 2, one hospital where my friend delivered and then the one my SIL delivered at last year). It's a completely separate building, but it's connected to the back of the hospital by a single door. There's separate parking and the entire place has a very comfortable and homey feel. You wouldn't even know you were near a hospital once you're inside! Even the parking lot is nicer, it's removed from the hospital parking and away from all of the roads nearby. The family waiting room was very comfortable and nice. There are several kitchenettes that give away drinks and food to the families. The rooms are all private and you labor, deliver, and recover in them. They all either have patios or bay windows and they all have whirlpool tubs, refridgerators, flat screen TVs, and DVD players as well as fold out beds that come out of the wall for the hubbies to sleep in.

The hospital is very "family oriented," they want the babies to spend as little time in the nursery as possible although you can request that the nurse take them there if you need rest. As a matter of fact, the nursery was empty when we were there because the babies were all with their parents. They do everything in the room like bathing, weighing, tests, etc unless there are special medical needs that can't be provided in the room. They provide birthing balls and other than requiring you to be hooked up to a fetal monitor for 20 minutes when you first come in, you can go the rest of the time off monitors to walk around freely (unless there's a reason that you need to be continually monitored). All in all I am very pleased with it, especially the fact that it doesn't feel at all like a hospital, I was very comfortable in there. And I hate hospitals, the times I've been to visit my friend and SIL I was so uncomfortable and nervous. I figured I'd be that way when having my own baby too, but nope, I liked it there!