No baby today… check back next week.

Went to this week’s dr’s appointment and nothing has changed in the last few weeks.  Still less than 1 cm dilated and nothing happening on the softening front 😦  ZERO progression.

So now we’re all set for an induction a week from today because she’s getting pretty big and they’re starting to get worried.  Plans are for me to head to the hospital at 8PM Thursday to get things started and most likely have the baby on Friday.   Of course, my body could have other plans and decide to have this baby on its own before then. 

My mom is REAAAAAAALLY hoping that I have her tomorrow because they’ll share the same birthday 🙂  My sister is hoping that she arrives before the 1st because she and her friends are taking her camper on its inaugural trip to the Kentucky Derby that day.

I’m planning to take time off from work Wednesday and Thursday to get stuff in order.  That will also give me an opportunity to relax and just take some time for me before my life gets changed forever.  I’m making Ben work Wednesday and Thursday so I can get stuff done and chill out.   He can have Friday off, I guess. 😉 

So that’s the latest news.  Just a reminder – keep one eye peeled on Twitter.  I can easily tweet when we’re headed to the hospital from my cell phone and can probably sneak in an update or two before it gets confiscated by the nurses.

Week 38 – Still no baby…

Well, I pulled a pretty Kristy-like move yesterday and tripped over some stuff in the garage necessitating a trip to the OSU Labor & Delivery facility since I’m at 38 weeks and didn’t feel the baby move for a while after falling.

No worries – baby is fine, I’m fine (minus a few pulled muscles and assorted bumps & bruises), and all is well.  I got to hear the baby’s heartbeat for a good 2+ hours and let me tell you, this kid can KICK when she’s being monitored. 

Good news is that it served as a dress rehearsal for the real thing – I’m all checked in and ready to go paperwork-wise when it’s show time.  Plus, I found out how quickly Mom and Jamie can get upstairs from the operating room.  I texted Jamie from the lobby of the hospital and she ended up riding on the same elevator as me.  Plus, Ben and I learned where to park, how to get into the L&D floor to visit, and all sorts of fun stuff.  We also learned where the ATM is because we’re idiots and don’t carry cash.

This was also a wakeup call for me that I need to slow down, take it easy, and let other people help me.  Yes, I know… read back a few weeks and I said the same things then but I really mean it this time.  Honest. 

This is my pledge to myself over the next 4 weeks or so:

1).  I will let Ben know when I need help with stuff around the house and actually ask him to do it.

2). I will take people up on their offers to help me even if it means swallowing my pride and letting them see I don’t keep a Martha Stewart house.

3). I will sit on my butt when necessary and not overdo things because I *have* to get them done.

4). I will keep my cell phone fully charged at all times and have emergency cash stuffed in my purse somewhere.  

5).  I’m sure Ben will have something to add here 🙂

So that’s it – still waiting for baby.  I hoped yesterday would be the day but nooooooo, it couldn’t be that easy.  Next Dr’s appt is on Thursday morning.

Stick a fork in me, I’m done.

Warning – this post could contain a dizzying amount of self-pity.  Read at your own risk.

 

32 weeks down, 8 or so left to go…

We’re definitely into the home stretch now… baby continues to move and grow.  I’ m finding it harder to move but am still growing 🙂

Here’s what’s going on with baby:

• Roughly 18 inches from heel to toe
• Approximately 4+ lbs
• She has toenails, fingernails, and peach fuzz hair (will it be dark brown or more blond-ish??)
• Lots of kicking and stretching – this should be close to the peak for movement as she starts to get a little more confined.
• She’s still practicing swallowing and sucking her thumb.
• Her legs are drawn up into the fetal position

What’s going on with me this week? 

• Starting to get tiiiiiiiired more easily.  We went to the Home & Garden show on Sunday and I had to sit and rest a few times.  I’m not my usual zippy self.  I even took a nap when we got home.
• Getting out of breath after one short flight of stairs.
• Starting to get some weird lumps that we can identify as body parts (dupa, elbow, knee).
• I’m continuing to experience constant breakouts on my face, chest, and back due to the double blast of hormones from me and baby.
• Not just pants are getting smaller… I’m starting to bust out of my shirts now.  I wore a dress on Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary dinner and felt like I was flashing everyone. Stupid cleavage.
• I’m really looking forward to the day that I’m no longer pregnant… my sights are set for 37 weeks – April 6th. 
• No Braxton Hicks contractions yet that I know of.  Maybe I’m having them and just don’t know it. 

I head to my next dr’s appointment on Thursday afternoon so we’ll see how things are doing then.  I don’t know if I like having appointments spaced every 2 weeks or find them an inconvenience.  I’m sure I won’t mind when they’re every week and I get closer to delivering, that’s for sure.

Look forward to a mid-week update… ~k

Baby Blahs?

Warning – this post is super introspective, quite long, and possibly depressing.  Read at your own risk.

Week 29… Better Late Than Never, eh?

Pretty much these last few weeks (11 and counting!) are all about her gaining weight and getting ready for her grand entrance into the world. 

Here’s what’s happening with baby:

Your baby is almost 17 inches tall now (nearly as tall as she will be at birth), and close to three pounds (a weight that will likely more than double — and may even come close to tripling —  by delivery time).  TRIPLING?!?  Say it ain’t so! 

Her wrinkled skin is smoothing out as more fat is deposited under the skin surface.   Her muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and her head is growing bigger to make room for her developing brain.  Is that what I feel pressing against my bladder?

Space in your baby’s living quarters is now at a premium, so you’ll be feeling jabs and pokes from elbows and knees mostly. But those kicks will be more vigorous than before (and also less erratic) because your baby is stronger and excitedly responding to all sorts of stimuli — movement, sounds, light, and that candy bar you ate half an hour ago.  Or when Daddy says loud curse words when Mommy jacks up his Zune. 

What’s going on with me this week:

• None of my ‘normal’ pants or pre-pregnancy undwear fit now.  This sucks.
• I have an insane craving for anything with fake orange flavoring in it – the biggest culprits being Hi-C orange drink from McDonalds and orange creme slushies from Sonic.
• I think I’m developing pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel in my wrists.  I’m sleeping in some funky positions and wake up every morning with pain and swelling in my wrist and thumb joints. 
• It’s official – the ‘can’t-sleep-through-the-night-because-I-hafta-pee’ stage is here.
•  My nesting urge is increasing, especially as it relates to the nursery getting done – I now know how people with obsessive compulsive disorder feel.
• I’m spending 1/2 hour to an hour a night in the bathtub trying to get the achiness and pain out of my joints.  Stupid Relaxin!
• My registries are done (thanks for all your help!) and invites for the baby shower have gone out *whew*.

So yeah… enough about Week 29.  I move on to Week 30 on Monday and have all sorts of fun scheduled for next week including a dr’s appointment that I *think* includes my last u/s.  Maybe we’ll get confirmation that it’s really a girl 🙂

26 Weeks… What vegetable is baby now?

Here’s what’ going on with baby this week:

The network of nerves in your baby’s ears is better developed and more sensitive than before. She may now be able to hear both your voice and your partner’s as you chat with each other.   Note to self: stop dropping the F bomb now.  Ben yelled at the tv last night during the Steelers game and startled her.

She’s inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of her lungs. These so-called breathing movements are also good practice for when he’s born and takes that first gulp of air.  Air is good. 

And she’s continuing to put on baby fat. She now weighs about a pound and two-thirds and measures 14 inches (an English hothouse cucumber) from head to heel.  As she puts on fat, I do too.  I wonder if her gaining weight is tied to my wanting Big Macs all the time?   Still no ‘eating for two’ occurrences yet where I can’t stop eating, but I’m sure my time will come.

Here’s what’s happening with me this week:

Your uterus is about 2.5 inches above your bellybutton (check!) and you will continue to grow approximately 1 cm each week. If you have been eating a well-balanced diet, you probably have gained about 16-22 pounds so far.  Not even close!  Last doctor’s visit was 2 lbs… we’ll see what this month’s visit on Thursday brings us. 

There was a period of a few days where she wouldn’t *stop* moving… I was worried that it was an indicator of what to expect in the months to come.  The last few days she’s settled back down into more predictable patterns and I can’t see my shirt move as much.  I wonder if her legs were kicking towards the front of me before and now she’s turned so that she’s kicking INTO me instead.  I can feel her move but can’t see them as well.   Plus, I think she’s flipped so that she’s right side up – I feel her moving lower now.  It was all near /above my bellybutton before but now it’s more like lower belly.

I’ll get to hear her heartbeat on the Doppler again on Thursday.  Ben isn’t able to make the appointment so I invited Mom and Jamie to go.  They’ll love it 🙂  I’ll update on Thursday with results from the appt.

Ah, insomnia…

It’s 3:27 and I”m wide awake.  I’ve BEEN awake since about 2:43 and finally decided to get out of bed.  Typically when I wake up in the wee hours of the morning it’s because my brain is turning over something related to work or as soon as I wake up my mind starts racing about work-related stuff.  I’m at a loss this morning because it’s Saturday and my mind is pretty blank (no comments, please).

I’m torn between doing something useful (organizing or updating my Quicken) or something that just might let me drift back off to sleep (reading).  Turning on the TV is a definite no-no… a friend of a friend has blogged about the dangers of watching late night/early morning infomercials and I refuse to let myself be sucked in.  Ben is still upstairs peacefully sleeping while I’m relegated to the chilly confines of the living room.  He heard me get up, asked if I was okay, and started snoring again with his next breath – I wonder if he realizes how lucky he is?

Not sure if this insomnia is some fun new aspect of my pregnancy or just my body telling me that I’ve had too much sleep in the last few days.  After all, I *did* set a new record for falling asleep during a football game on Thursday night during the BCS Championship game – 5 minutes into the first quarter (around 8:20 or so) I was snoozing away sitting upright on the couch; I woke up Friday morning around 6:30 for a grand total of close to 10 hours of sleep. 

What does this mean for the future?  No idea… but I know that in the short term I will drift off to sleep today during one of the NFL Playoff games.  Want to take bets on whether it will be the 4:45PM game, the 8PM game, or both?

The Great Snoogle Experiment

I’ve been sleeping with the Snoogle for the past 2 nights and I’m still undecided.  There’s pretty much three sleeping configurations – curled up inside the C, backwards C, and freestyle.  Here’s a breakdown of the last few nights…

10:32PM – Inside C.  Aaaahh… finally, enough support for my head, a pillow between my knees that I don’t have to adjust every 10 seconds, and support for my back so that I’m not tempted to roll on it every night.  Drawbacks include that the hand supporting my head at the top of the C gets cold easily.

1:46AM – Backwards C.  I kinda like this position because you still have the head and knee support, but you can wrap your arms around the C part for more support in the front.  This is what I need because I have always been a stomach sleeper.

3:22AM – Freestyle.  Lying on my stomach, hand on the top part of the Snoogle and the rest of it is lying ON TOP OF ME.  How did this happen?  Readjust to Inside C position. 

Last night pretty much the same thing happened except that it became a Snoogle Prison!  I was trapped in the backwards C position.  Then, I attempted to roll over with both my body AND the Snoogle and it didn’t work very well.  Covers went everywhere, I got cold, and Ben started snoring.  Shortly after that I realized that while I had rolled over, the position was backwards – instead of Backwards C I was curled around the outside of the C.  Duh.

I’ll still keep sleeping with it… it may just take a little more getting used to.

Pregnancy Woes

Warning… this post may contain TMI for the faint hearted (read: male) reader.  Proceed at your own risk.