Quick stats

Current Statistics:

Weeks: 38 weeks and 6 days

 Total weight gain: Okay. I'm just going to say it. A whopping 40lbs. Oy.

Cravings: Not much for food these days. I'm either nauseous, throwing up, or have little appetite. Although, I most recently have wanted my mom's spaghetti.
Pregnancy Symptoms: Back pain. Hip pain. Rib pain. Pelvic pain. Cramping. Contractions. Slight Swelling. Sigh. Almost. There.
Stretch Marks: Nothing I'm worried about.
Miss Anything: a nice cool glass of white wine (or several)

Progesterone Levels: Well, I have been off all progesterone since 37 weeks, at that point they had risen to a good level. Not that it matters now.

 General Mood: I've become a little weepy. Not crying just because, but...Example A: I cried while watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother (a sitcom) the other day. An episode I had already seen at least 3 times. Example B: I cried when watching the Olympic swim trials on tv tonight when a 17 year old made the Olympic team. In my defense, it was a very touching moment!
Looking Forward to: Hello!!!!! Meeting my baby girl!!!
But Not Looking Forward to: Labor!!! (I don't wanna)

Baby Statistics:

Weight: A healthy 7 lbs
Length: 20 inches

Highlights this week: As far as I know, baby is still sunny side up. I continue to do exercises to encourage her to turn around, but there is only so much this mama can do for a stubborn little girl! Now, for those who know me, keep those "like mother, like daughter" comments to yourself :)

Sleep Update

Night #2 in new memory foam bed: Success!

I decided against taking my Unisom last night, as the night before it turned me into a total zombie the next morning! I will admit I was a little weary on how the night would go, but I rubbed some BioFreeze on my back and hit the sack. Next thing I know, it's 5 in the morning, and I am in very little pain! I get up to eat some cereal, say goodbye to Chris who is just on his way to work, and notice that my hip pain had significantly decreased. The little movement I did while I was awake seemed to be enough to work out any kinks, but I stretched a little anyways and put an ice pack on my back (which was still pretty achey) and away to bed I went. 10 o'clock rolls around (quite quickly) and I can actually lay there while I am awake without feeling absolutely sore and horrible! Talk about a relief!!! I really think the combination of swimming, chiropractor appointments, and the new bed has done wonders for my body!!

And here's my soapbox moment. Word to the pregnancy wise - please, please do everything you can do for your body while you can! You do not want to get to a point where I was where I was in so much pain that I was practically immobile. Now, granted, I wasn't able to do as much throughout my pregnancy like I had wanted to (due to all the minor complications), but don't wait until it's too late. Don't underestimated the effects of pregnancy on one's body, even if you're fit and healthy enough to deal with it. Of course every women's pregnancy is different. My next pregnancy may be completely different from this one (let's hope!), but at least do what you can to help yourself. It's even possible you do all that you can do, and still have a miserable and painful pregnancy, but at least you're doing your best to do something about it. Be proactive and help yourself! Okay. Lecture done. Class resumes tomorrow 12pm sharp.

the Lord is my Shepard

So, for Bean's nursery, I decided to go with a sheep theme, based loosely on Psalm 23. Now, I'm not usually one for themes, so I was very nervous about going over board. There's still items I am planning on adding, but I think the baby room is off to a good start.

 

ZzzzZzzzzzz

As I sit here at almost midnight, I am dreading the very thought of crawling into bed and the long night I have ahead of me. For the past couple of weeks (who am I kidding, months), a good night sleep has turned from a close friend, to a rarely seen visitor. Yes, the joke of "it's natures way of preparing you for your newborn baby" is very funny. Ha. Ha. Ha. (Note: I'm not laughing. It's not cute or funny. So please, stop telling it.) Now, I could probably be okay with the occasional ups and many restroom breaks, if that were my only problem. Oh no, no, no. As many other pregnant (or once pregnant) women can agree with, hip pain may be one of the biggest annoyances of all the 9 months. Well, it is for me anyways, especially at night when I'm trying to sleep. These past few weeks, the pain has progressively gotten worse. My current sleep schedule goes something like this:

1. Take one Unisom.

2. Stretch both legs, focusing on the hips.

3. Heat lower back with warm rice bag.

4. Place ear plugs in ears (I've found recently that this helps me focus on my breathing and has given me deeper sleeps)

5. Attempt to roll from one side to the other as each hip begins to numb, with a pillow in between my legs.

6. Awake one hour later in excruciating pain, as if my legs may break off straight from the hip joints.

7. Use bathroom.

8. Ice hips and back.

9. Attempt to fall back asleep.

10. Repeat steps 2-9 until morning when I can take it no more and my entire body aches for the remainder of the day.

Unfortunately I am not allowed to take any pain relieving medication, other than Tylenol, which has never really worked for me. I have recently been okay-ed to use BioFreeze, which has helped temporarily ease the lower back pain. In my attempts to help aide my pregnancy pains, last week I have started light swimming to get the joints moving and chiropractor care which has begun to help align all these moving bones and stretch those loose ligaments. Probably all these things I should of been doing months ago. And just when I thought I was going to be confined to the couch for the remainder of my pregnancy (our old bed just makes all these pains worse!), my dear sweet husband goes and buys us a new bed! Apparently he says he just couldn't stand me in any more pain and didn't want me sleeping on the couch. Now, if that isn't romantic, I don't know what is!

Now, we haven't quite got it into our bedroom yet, as we need to rearrange a few things, so it's hanging out on the nursery floor for now. But, last night was my first of many nights in the baby room and it wasn't a bad start. I only woke up once before morning (at 5 o'clock), iced my back, and was awake again by 9. Yes, I still woke with very achey hips and back, but it's far cry from the pain filled nights I've been dealing with.

Campin' out. Heck, maybe we'll just leave it like this for the next few weeks!

Thanks again, my love!!!! And only one more week to go of all this pregnancy stuff before I get induced! Let's just hope baby bean wants to make her debut on her own before that!

The almost Ultimate Happy Father's Day gift

Sunday was Chris' first unofficial Father's Day, but it could of been the best Father's Day he'd ever have, as we spent the whole day in the Labor and Delivery section of the hospital. Head's up - this post may be a long one with a few pregnancy details!

I woke up Saturday morning with the more than usual back and hip pain. I remember my abdomen feeling especially sore and tender, but nothing to write home about. I ate some cereal and went to lay back down. About an hour or two later, my back pain was so bad that it woke me up and I thought there was no way I was able to lay there any longer. As I got up and around, I noticed that the pain was starting to wrap it's way around to the front of my stomach and was becoming unbearable. Now, at this moment I am not thinking "labor" as I wasn't having any specific contractions, due to the unstoppable back pain which seemed to override any other feelings. It didn't take long before I was having difficulty walking and breathing through the pain. By now I am STILL not thinking labor as it was nothing like I had ever imagined labor to be. I tried stretching, doing some yoga's child's play, walking around the house, but nothing seemed to help. After a straight hour of this pain (along with the back and hip pain from the night before), I decided to call my doctor to see what I should do. After explaining all my symptoms and the long night I had, she told me to go to straight to the hospital and it sounded like I was definitely in labor. From pure shock and terror I instantly started crying when I told Chris it was time to go. From this point on I am very surprised at how calm we both were throughout this whole ordeal. We actually didn't leave the house until an hour later, after we had both showered and eaten. Once we made it to the hospital, I again had a moment of breakdown, not from the pain or excitement, but straight fear! I was soooo not ready for this moment! As much as I wanted to meet this child of mine, I was no where near ready for the uncertainty or pain that would unfold! At this point, we hesitated to contact anyone, still unsure on how this would all play out. Like my last doctor's appointment, I was no where near dilated yet, but the monitor read my contractions as consistent and strong. So, there was nothing to do, but wait.

 Now let me tell you, there is absolutely hands down nothing worse than back labor. A first time mom can only imagine what labor will feel like, and can pretend to know the level of pain that would be involved. I knew that the pain would be excruciating (hence I'm all for an epidural!), but in no way was I prepared for those next 7 hours!!! The unfortunate thing with back labor, is that is never stops. There is no break in between contractions. Chris would have to tell me when I was having a contraction and when it stopped because I didn't even know the difference. My level of pain varied from a 7 all the way to a 10. An absolute 10. But after 7 hours of this continuous back labor, walking the hallways, and still zero dilation, the doctors had no choice but to send me home with some pain killers in my system. Unfortunately, the hospital policy is that they can not assist in my labor (by meds or breaking my water) until I am 39 weeks or it's an emergency. Come to find out through ultrasound and my contraction patterns, our baby is head down but "sunny side up" meaning she is facing my stomach instead of my back. The 'preferred' position for delivery is anterior. The posterior position puts the back of my baby's head against my back (which creates horrific back labor) and her head not placed directly on my cervix (which is why I wasn't dilating). Here is a lovely visual aide for your convenience.You're welcome.

Posterior babies are known to cause a very long labor process that could take days or even weeks, especially if our little one doesn't turn around! So, for now, I sit at home with consistent contractions (although a little more tolerable) and all I can do is put a heating pad on my back and bounce on a yoga ball (which it suppose to help her face the other way). The only glimmer of hope I have is that my doctor said we could induce at 39 weeks if it doesn't happen naturally - so only a week and half to go (or sooner)! Thank the Lord!

 All in all Chris did not get the ultimate Father's Day he was hoping for, but he did have a great day of watching sports on cable in our hospital room and had a gift of daddy goodies (for his man diaper bag) waiting for him when we got home. Chris was amazing through the whole experience - calm and collected, all while cheering me on during those most painful contractions (he even wanted to fist bump me after one. I opted out). I am so proud of the man I married and the father he is about to be!

It's Go Time

I am 37.3 weeks pregnant today and officially OFF bed rest. I am off all medications and progesterone. These last few weeks have been long, boring, and uneventful. Lately I've been spending most of my days watching marathons of Law and Order: SVU and have started to learn how to crochet. Right now I'm pretty good at pot holders!!!

My 36 week appointment came and went and I was left disappointed when I found out that my body was no where near ready to have this baby. Baby girl has not dropped and my cervix was not even remotely dilated (t.m.i). For a brief few days the doctor even thought our baby was breech! But, after an ultrasound check we were thankfully relieved to find out she was not breech and is still resting in the head down position. Whew! I was so excited to have another ultrasound because our last one was at 26 weeks and we weren't able to get a good look at her face:( This time around, baby girl is in the exact same place she was last time, head still nestled into the placenta - which means little opportunity to see her precious little face! Ugh! So sad. But, she looks very healthy and is doing a great job at practicing her breathing (so cool to see those lungs working and ribs expanding)! At 36.4 weeks our little girl was 6.5 lbs and 19.5 inches long, putting her in the 51 percentile. Good numbers! Since babies are roughly putting on an ounce a day, if we make it to 40 weeks, our little girl will only be around 8 lbs. I can't tell you what a relief it was to hear that! Now no Debbie Downers to tell me that she may be bigger and no stories about how your ultrasound lady was off in the numbers. In this case, ignorance is bliss (I'm obviously well aware that she could come out at any size!).

 baby foot - and all 5 toes!

we have one pouty baby!!! check out those lips!

not the greatest shot, but we'll take it!!

So, right now Chris and I are in full "natural induce" mode. I have spent the last 37 weeks keeping our baby in there, now I'll be spending the last 3 weeks on getting her out!! Now, I know a lot of methods don't actually work and if I have to hear that 'the baby will come when it's ready' one more time I may start to pull my hair out! I'd like to think of myself as a very rational and realistic thinking person. Sometimes I say things in a joking manner (like the above statement) and start to get flooded with advice on how I shouldn't 'expect the baby at any time' or 'don't stress your body out'. I do not intend to put my body in any place of stress and I definitely do not have any false expectations about how this pregnancy may end up. But that doesn't mean I can't remain hopeful and try to keep a sense of humor about the whole thing. So please, don't take me so seriously :)