Week 40 update (long)

This one will be long so I hope you are prepared to sit and read for a few minutes. I’ve been remiss in updating but you will understand once you read the events of the past week.

Nope, baby is not here yet. Today is the “due date” but he doesn’t seem ready to grace the world with his presence. From here on out, the phone calls (as in my answering them) stop. I will let you know if there is any progress or if he has arrived. Yes, I have had a bad day/week and I’m really tired of answering “Is there any progress? Is the baby here yet?” I will call or post updates here when there is news to be had. We sincerely appreciate all the offers to help but there is not anything that anyone can do at this point. We will let you know when/if help is needed.

Wednesday’s appointment was actually well timed. I had woken up at 3 in the morning not feeling very well, blaming it on dinner the night before at Chuy’s. I had finally moved to the couch at 4 to get some sleep and allow Paul some time to sleep as well. I was having a hard time determining if it was contractions or just gas but knew I felt like I had been run over. Get to the doctor’s office and they knew something was up. My normal, cheery self was nowhere to be found. BP was high (normal) however, I had finally dilated to 1 cm. Progress… My doctor decides to go ahead and hook me up to the fetal monitor just to see what was up. Baby’s heartbeat was up and down (makes them happy to see it speed up and slow down) and I was having contractions 1 to 3 minutes apart. Paul asked if I was feeling all of them and I said that I was not. I was only able to feel every other or third one. After about 20 minutes on the monitor, they send me along my way with a comment from my doctor saying that she expected to see me again later that evening. She was actually on call Wednesday night so it was good timing on all of our parts. She also strongly suggested that I get some sleep and gave me a prescription for some Ambien. I was a little hesitant at first but after having a partial emotional breakdown in the exam room, gave it a second thought and headed to the pharmacy.

After a decent nap Wednesday afternoon, and after having called various family to give them a potential “heads up”, my contractions finally got to the point of being regular enough to be timed. Got all the way to consistent contractions, 5-7 minutes apart, that stopped at midnight. It was like the baby turned into a pumpkin. Twenty-one hours of false labor later, I head off to bed, since it seemed like I was done for the night.

I woke up at 5 am Thursday with a horrible backache, to the point that any little movement with my left leg almost (and sometimes did) bring me to tears. I moved to the couch again thinking that I would be able to find a better position to sleep in. WRONG!!! After hours of fighting it and surviving on Tylenol and a heating pad, I finally gave in and called the doctors office. At that point, my doctor was gone for the day and her nurse had already finished returning calls for the day. I had a chat with the after hours nurse with pretty much the recommendation of 2 Tylenol every 4 hours and alternate hot and cold on my back.

I slept sitting up on the couch in the study Thursday night as that was the only place and position that was comfortable. My staying there also allowed Paul to get a good night’s sleep since I was not in the bed groaning and thrashing about from the pain. He has been very understanding about my level of discomfort at this point and is doing what he can to make me a happier camper. I will admit that I have not been the greatest person to be around the past few weeks and he has been an absolute trooper.

Friday morning, I get a somewhat frantic call from the nurse asking how I was doing and could I come in later that morning. We were off to the doctor’s office again so she could take a look at my back. She seemed genuinely surprised that she did not hear from us Wednesday night (that makes several of us). We come to the conclusion that I was dealing with back spasms probably due to the number of hours I was in false labor on Wednesday. She gave me a prescription for Vicodin to get through the pain and allow me to be more comfortable. One pill makes me sleepy and makes baby hyper, which meant I was trying to take a nap and he was having a party.

She checked to see if I had dilated any more and the answer was no. Her comment was that had I been around 3 cm dilated, she would have seriously considered inducing labor at that point but since I was still at 1, the risk of a c-section was not worth putting me through induction at that point.

That being said, we now have an expiration and/or induction date set. If he doesn’t decide to grace the world with his presence by April 6th, then I get to go to the hospital on April 7th to be induced. We now have a definite end date but I think we are all hoping we don’t get to that point. The joke from the doctor’s office is that if they setup an induction date, that works some voodoo magic and baby decides to come out on their own. Let’s hope this is the case.

My back is still giving me some problems but I don’t think I will be done with the issues I am having until he is out and not being the cause of the strain. Contractions come and go and don’t seem to be very willing to set up any kind of pattern for longer than an hour or two. I did get a massage yesterday (Saturday) and that seemed to relieve a lot of the pain I was feeling in my hips and lower back. I may need to repeat that in a few days if little one has not arrived yet

My next appointment is set for Friday and we are also set up for what they call a biophysical profile which will include an ultrasound to make sure all is going well in his little world. I would take great pleasure in being able to cancel that one.

Week 38 - The Journey continues...

So I'm beginning to feel a little like a really run down Energizer bunny these days. I have to keep going and going but the batteries are starting to run really low.

Today's doctor's visit was more of a pep talk from the doctor to me, reminding me that I am less than 2 weeks away from my due date and that she understands that I am ready to be done. When I walked in the exam room, it was very obvious that I was tired and that I have not been sleeping good at night. I have started taking naps on a daily basis and that seems to help get me through the day.

Baby's heartbeat was strong and easy to hear. There was a student nurse following my nurse around today so I was used a little like a guinea pig for her to be able to get some experience in an OB office. No big deal, just more people in the room.

Since my blood pressure has been consistent with its ups and downs during a visit, the doctor decided to go ahead and do some blood work just to make sure there is no preeclampsia lurking around and just do a baseline check on all of my levels.

I'm still not dilated at all, however, as part of the pep talk my doctor tried to reassure me that with a lot of first time babies that there is no dilation until labor actually starts.

Final thought - it is a full moon on Friday. Place all the bets you want but I'm not convinced that the feisty one is anywhere near ready to make an appearance. Paul would like him to hold out over the weekend so we can get some more work done on the nursery. We shall see...

A little humor in honor of St. Patrick's Day

As soon as she had finished parochial school, a bright young girl named Lena shook the dust of Ireland off her shoes and made her way to New York where before long, she became a successful performer in show business.

Eventually she returned to her home town for a visit and on a Saturday night went to confession in the church which she had always attended as a child. In the confessional Father Sullivan recognized her and began asking her about her work. She explained that she was an acrobatic dancer, and he wanted to know what that meant.

She said she would be happy to show him the kind of thing she did on stage.

She stepped out of the confessional and within sight of Father Sullivan, she went into a series of cartwheels, leaping splits, handsprings and backflips. Kneeling near the confessional, waiting their turn, were two middle-aged ladies.

They witnessed Lena's acrobatics with wide eyes, and one said to the other: "Will you just look at the penance Father Sullivan is givin' out this night, and me without me bloomers on!"

Sleep... or the lack thereof

Sleep these days is quickly becoming a fleeting memory - or at least good sleep is. Being able to sleep, wake up, and move to a different position with little to no pain is something that just doesn't occur now. Not only is it painful to move positions but it takes a very slow and coordinated effort to do so. My hips now start to cramp up in the middle of the night from sleeping/laying on that particular side too long. So then it is the 10 minute changeover to laying on my other side with that hip cramping after about 1.5 - 2 hours of sleep.

I have to keep telling myself that it will all be over soon; however, I have the distinct feeling that I am just kidding myself into believing that and sleep as I once knew it is gone forever.

Since I am working from home from here on out, my alarm clock has officially been turned off. Now if I could just figure out how to turn off the dog's alarm clocks, I would be in great shape. They will both harass me (not Paul for some odd reason) until I get out of bed and then they go back to sleep. They have such an easy life...

Today's update

This one will be quick.

Checkup went well today. Since I was only seeing the nurse practitioner, there wasn't as much done and I was in and out of the office fairly quickly.

The feisty one's heartbeat was easily found today and came through very strong. You could hear it speed up and slow down while we were listening. Seems to be something they (OB) likes to hear. He is measuring on target again and the comment was made that he seemed to be in a tight ball. I'm not sure I agree with that comment because he seems to take every chance to see how far he can stretch out. My blood pressure kept up with its status quo of first measurement high then the second one in line.

No other checks were done so stay tuned for next week's update. Same Bat time, Same Bat station.

19 days and counting

So I've now reached the point that I am sick of being pregnant. Yes, I did say that. My morning routine is now interrupted fairly regularly with contractions, forcing me to go chill out for about 10 minutes before continuing on with my day. But like I said before, all these contractions, yet no progress. They do a great job of zapping my energy and killing my motivation for the day. Getting to be a little on the been there, done that side.

We are still working on thoughts regarding baby's room. We have been so consumed with other things (house plans/permitting, marathon training, etc.) that this has not really been a priority until now. Goal is to clean out the back (master) bathroom and make it the temporary baby's room. Since there is no plumbing or other things to work around (other than boxes of stuff) it should be fairly easy. (Should being the operative term there.)

As far as work now goes, I'm in the office today but I have a strong feeling that I am working from home for the remainder of the pregnancy. See note above about morning routine. I have to set up my voice mail today with the message of don't leave one or you may not get a call back until early August.

Tomorrow is yet another full day and does include a visit to the doctor's office. I will not be seeing my OB since she is taking vacation this week but will see one of the nurse practitioners to do a progress check. More news on that tomorrow. All I can say is GET OUT!!!

House Update

Tonight was the hearing with the RDCC on our request for a waiver to the McMansion ordinance.

The commissioners could not have been more cordial and complimentary of the fact that our application had 32 letters of support from neighbors. The request was a unanimous 8-0 vote in favor of approving the waiver.

Next steps are to work with an architect or structural engineer to get the plans stamped and made official for the permitting process. Then the final permit application can be made and the house as we know it starts changing dramatically.

Now the money starts flowing out the door.

Week 37 Update

After Monday's visit to the doctor's office due to a fast developing rash on my abdomen, all has calmed down on the baby front... sort of.

Today's checkup started out eventful with the nurse coming in to check the baby's heartbeat. She got to hear it for a second then it disappeared.... She tried for several minutes to find it again but to no avail. In comes the doctor with the ultrasound machine to see what he was up to. We were able to see his little heart pumping away and his chest moving in a breathing motion. Good news!

Since the norm for my blood pressure seems to be high when first checked then fine after they have had me lay down for a few minutes, they decided to then hook me up to the fetal monitor to see how fast his heart was beating and to see how my contractions were going. Little one was NOT happy about that fetal monitor. He did his best to kick and stretch to get rid of it, so since he couldn't get it to move, he got peeved enough to have a long (4 minute) bout of the hiccups.

Contractions are becoming a normal part of my morning routine now. I keep hoping they are helping me make some progress however, I'm still at 0 on the dilation scale. UGH!! I also got the lecture today that I am not resting enough so it will be interesting to see how I am able to move around my work schedule to accomodate some more rest during the day.

Oh, and the rash... Doing much better today after some benadryl and cortaid cream treatments however this is part of my new routine from here on out.