I am 35 weeks and 5 days along and here are the latest stats from today’s OB visit.

08/25/08 Stats:
Blood Pressure: 82/44
Weight gain so far: 12 pounds (I lost 1 lb. since my last visit on 08/08/08)
Cervix Dilation: None

I asked her about the blood pressure, since it is unusually low — even for me. She said that pregnancy causes a woman’s circulatory system to expand rapidly, which in turn causes blood pressure to be lower than normal. She said that it’s not uncommon to see blood pressure dipping to 70’s/30’s in young, healthy pregnant women. In fact, it’s not a matter for concern at all unless I wasn’t feeling well, experiencing symptoms such as dizziness. (Which I am not.) And, the remedy for that is to lie down on your left side to promote better blood flow to your heart.

She was also pleased to see that I am keeping my weight in check, even with my gestational diabetes. I thought that she might be concerned about my weight loss (lost 4 pounds in 3 weeks), since according to the books I’ve been reading I’m supposed to be gaining a pound a week in my last trimester as the baby experiences growth up to 1/2 pound per week.

Thankfully, though, the baby is growing and noticeably so. My stomach has really popped in the last few weeks and I’ve been feeling her moving a lot more in recent days — and for longer stretches of time. I always thank God when I feel her moving. It’s reassurance that she’s doing well.

In addition to the usual stuff: weight, blood pressure, listening to the fetal heartbeat on the Doppler monitor, fundal height measurement, and urine test, the doctor has started performing pelvic exams to check for dilation of the cervix. Not the most pleasant thing, but a good indication of how soon baby may be making an appearance. According to the doc, my cervix is completely closed and the baby is still sitting high and hasn’t dropped yet. It’s probably just that baby is getting bigger, so I’m carrying a little differently than a few weeks ago — so people (including myself) thought I had dropped a little. Good news that she’s hanging in there and isn’t trying to stage an early entrance. We’re so not ready yet!

I asked the OB about whether she had any guesses about how big Baby Champuru would be. She happened a guess at 6 – 6.5 lbs. Let’s see how accurate she is! Anyone else care to try and guess?