Now The Work Begins

I had my 6 week post partum check up yesterday. Everything has healed correctly and looks good so I am cleared to do more exercise than just walking. Woohoo! I am actually very excited for this. Over the course of the pregnancy I put on 60 lbs. After the baby was born I just kind of lost 25 lbs in those first two weeks and then kind of steadied out. So now I have 35 lbs to lose to get to pre-pregnancy weight and that is my first goal. Then I think I will like to lose 5 or 10 more pounds after that, but I will worry about that when I get to my first goal. I am hoping to start getting back into the gym today. We can't utilize the on-site daycare the gym has until Milton turns 3 months old. So I have to try to convince Mike to stay home for an hour or so so I can go up there. I don't think he is a fan of us going separately for now but that is what has to be done. I've actually been trying to get up there for the last couple weeks just to walk but he always has something come up that he has to do so I can't go. It has been pretty frustrating actually. I will just keep trying I guess. I am uncomfortable at this weight and am not going to buy any new clothes, I want to fit into the clothes I already have!! I will get there!

Feeding Time

So right now I am locked in our bedroom typing this. Yes, I put myself in here. My husband is currently feeding our son with a bottle. Since he was born I have breastfed him exclusively. There has been frustration and tears on both ends but in the last few weeks we have seemed to get it down to a science. Occasionally Milt will still kind of goof around and wiggle all over the place before getting down to business but this has turned into our special little time. Mike will get up in the middle of the night to sit next to me and help with burping and once in awhile during the day he will sit with us also. But its still special bonding time for us. At Milt's two week appointment, the pediatrician said to introduce a bottle around 4-5 weeks so the baby will be more apt to take it when Mom is away or back to work. When we left the appointment that day Mike proclaimed how excited he was to get to be able to feed the baby. That was the point I realized how special feeding the baby was and have cherished it ever since. Well now that summer is upon us, there are graduation parties and festivals to be had and it would be nice to be able to have the flexibility of bringing some pumped milk and a bottle and be able to be out for more than 3 hours at a time, without having to find a private place to park and feed in the backseat of the Murano. So we decided that Mike would try feeding Milt with the bottle. So that time is now. I started crying! I didn't think I would have this reaction at all! Mike offered to not feed him with the bottle today but I told him that we should probably just see how it goes. So they are sitting out in the living room and I am in here typing this. I think more than anything I am worried that Milton will take to the bottle because it might be less work and then refuse the breast. Then our special little time will be gone. The only reason I say the bottle might be less work is because it might remind him of the nipple shield the hospital gave me the first day I was in there. Number one, it was way too big for his little mouth and number two, I came to find out I didn't even need it. It made him a lazy eater. . .he would let the milk puddle up in the shield and then it would trickle into his mouth until there was enough to swallow and then he would do that. Very little suckling went on when I was using the shield, but lots of swallowing. Hopefully the bottle's nipple does not do damage to the feeding we have already established! I know I should consider myself lucky that I have been able to exclusively breastfeed up until this point with little problem because I know a lot of women for whatever reason or another, cannot do so. Or they have to pump every 2-3 hours to keep their supply up. At least my baby is getting the breast milk, whether its au natural or via bottle. That's the important thing. Well, they just came in here to report the feeding went well and Milton is very sleepy. . .we will see what happens at the next feeding when we go back to me feeding. . .

I'm a Mom!

I finally have some time to write! :) Milton Percy Swanson was born on May 1st at 2:20 P.M. He weighed 6 lbs (take that gestational diabetes, that they decided I didn't really have) and was 19 inches long. He is perfect! On my due date, April 30th, I felt like I still had weeks to go, even tho my Dr had said he wouldn't let me go much beyond April 30th. I actually had an appointment scheduled for May 3rd to have an ultrasound to check the amniotic fluid level and then have a fetal stress test done, and then from there we were going to make a plan for inducing me. Dr. Hirt was absolutely certain that we would not need that appointment, that I would have the baby over the weekend. So that Thursday, the 29th, I was still at 4 cm and he stripped the membranes again and said I was pretty much ready to go, we were just wating on baby. Mike and I decided we would make some plans for that weekend, the 30th was a Friday, and plan on having that baby the first week of May. So that Friday night we did something we haven't done in a long time, went out on a Friday night dinner date. And I'm talking the whole shebang, where we decided to go out to dinner at 7:00 and got to the Cheesecake Factory at 7:30 and were told the wait would be 50 minutes. Our usual 'going out to eat' is getting a Papa Murphy's pizza to bring home so this was a big deal. Dinner was fantastic and we stuffed ourselves and got home and to bed by 11:00. The plan for Saturday, May 1st, was to help Bachmann's celebrate their 125th year anniversary and go get in line for a free tomato plant that they were going to give out to the first 500 people at each location and then go try a McDonald's Mocha Frappe (which I still haven't tried now that I think about it!) and then clear out the gardens the rest of the weekend and get them ready for veggies and flowers. Well the baby foiled that plan! I woke up at 6 AM on Saturday with what I thought was a stomach ache. I went to the bathroom thinking that would relieve the pressure I was feeling and it didn't. I went to the bathroom 2 more times between 6 and 6:30 and nothing changed. I was feeling some pressure and a big stomach ache, but it wasn't a stomach ache. It would be present and then every few minutes it would intensify for a minute or so and then level off. I started timing the intense moments on the stopwatch on my phone and they were about 30-45 seconds. I was having contractions!!!! Finally I could feel them! So I woke Mike up and said there is going to be a baby today. At 7:00 I decided I better hurry up and take a shower and get my hair straightened. To hell with make up but I wanted my hair straight so I could I get it up in a pony if I needed to. The contractions started intensifying. Mike looked like he didn't know what to do. He kept rubbing my back and asking if there was anything else he could do but that was enough, that really helped. Herbie came and sat by me and I could tell that he could tell something was not right, what a sweet doggie. Mike started timing the contractions and they were 2-3 minutes apart and about 30 seconds in length. We probably could have called the Dr at 8:00 but we waited until 8:30. . .we wanted to be sure that once we got the green light to go to the hospital, that we would be able to stay there. We got the OK to go to the hospital and that 15 minute car ride was the most uncomfortable, second only to when my gallbladder attacked and we had a 5 minute car ride from Baja Sol to Dad's to wait for the ambulance, and longest feeling ride. Mike had to use the wheel chair and wheel me into the hospital. It was 9:00 when the nurse in triage checked me and I was at a 5 with a "bulging water sack" and when we walked from the triage to my room, I felt something start to trickle down my leg. They had me use the bathroom and my water broke right into the toilet when I sat down. When I came out and got set up on the bed, I told the nurses and they checked the pad and there was some brown. . .the baby had passed his first bowel movement inside the womb. . .meconium. I felt horrible. I had been worried about meconium most of the pregnancy because I had been quite stressed at certain points, especially at the end. They assured me it would be no big deal, the only thing was that they would do everything in their power NOT to let the baby cry when he came out so they would have a chance to get tubing into him in order to suck out the meconium before he swallowed any of it. By 10:00 I had received my epidural and it was wonderful. The pain of the contractions completely went away. I was pretty much just laying in the hospital bed talking to the nurses and Mike. Mike and I had made a plan long before I even got to the hospital that we would not tell anyone we were at the hospital until after the baby was born. Neither one of us wanted the extra stress of a lot of extra people waiting around for the baby. We did call Emily because she is the Godmother and if I couldn't have my Mom there, Emily was the next best thing. She's been thru a lot with me and I wanted her there. So at 10:30 they checked my cervix again and I was already between a 7 and an 8. This baby was not wasting any time! At 1:05 I started pushing and the baby was born at 2:20 p.m. The whole labor and pushing experience was nothing like I thought it was going to be. I'd been bulking up on episodes of "Teen Mom" and all of those girls made labor/pushing look unberable. The nurses kept telling me that I was having a really fast labor and that I was a strong pusher so maybe that was the difference for me. The whole time from 6 AM to 2:20 PM when he arrived went by so fast. It was surreal when he was finally out and they placed him on my chest for a minute while Mike cut the cord. I have my own baby! Then it was a little nerve racking while they were sucking the meconium out and then when they were finished, the baby did not make a sound. I couldn't see him but I could here one of the nurses going "Come on buddy!" and the look on Emily's face was of sheer worry and then Mike turned around and he was smiling as big as could be so I decided I could not gauge what was going on from those two totally different looks. Later Mike said he could see the baby moving his arms all over so he knew he was OK and from her vantage point, Emily could not. So that explained those looks. After what seemed like forever, this tiny little shriek came out and he was crying! The sound made me cry, it was so small and cute. After we got all done with delivery and got up to our recovery room we started making the phone calls. We just had two visitors on Saturday night which was nice and then we were bombarded on Sunday, and practically everyone showed up all at once. I was exhausted come Monday. The first week home was really rough, I had a really bad case of the baby blues so I couldn't really enjoy anything. I was just really sad and/or irritable. Mike was great and super supportive during that time which really helped. The second week home, Mike was laid off and reduced to on call, commission only work. Which was really bad timing and really good timing all at once. It has been really nice having him home with me and helping me out with things and just giving the three of us a lot of time to bond. These last couple weeks we have been working really hard on establishing a routine and Milton is finally starting to wake himself up during the day when he wants to eat so that is really nice. He still will sleep thru the night, for 8 hours if I let him, but since he's still pretty small (only in the 2nd percentile for weight) I have to wake him up in the middle of the night to eat. Mike usually gets up to help change diapers and burp between breasts so that really helps and makes me feel like I'm not doing it all myself. Hopefully now I will be able to write more often!!!

So Close

My due date is the day after tomorrow. I can't believe I can say that already. I really don't think that anything is going to be happening by that point. I think it is going to come and go uneventfully. Oh well, guess I will probably be a May mom. :) I finally got used to April and now I think its going to be May. I go to the Dr tomorrow for my weekly check up so we'll see what he has to say. I'm interested to see if I have progressed any more. . . I was 4 cm last Wednesday and not having any sorts of pains. . .just a little back pain here and there and some pain in my groin/thigh area but that has since subsided. The baby is still pretty active so he must be having a good ol time in my small cramped uterus. At least I imagine it is small and cramped being I am only 5 feet tall and rather smushed in the middle to begin with! :) I think my brother is pretty excited to be an Uncle. It stinks that he is over in Japan with all of this happening and can't just pop on over for the birth. He is planning on coming home for awhile in July so that will be good, I will be on maternity leave and the baby will be a couple months old. So he'll get some good time in with him. Aaron hasn't been home since we got married in October of 2008 so Mike and I and Dad of course are uber excited to see him. He is just so funny and quirky, I miss having that around all the time. Everyone loves the posts he puts on my Facebook because they are so dang funny. :) Only Aaron. Not much else is going on, my feet are SO swollen that I can't do much of anything when I get home in the evenings so the house is pretty much still a mess. Oh well. Mike and I have big plans to get a lot of stuff done when I will be home all day on leave and he will be still working part time and home in the early afternoon. I think that is why the urgency to get things done has kind of subsided. Hopefully we will both have a little more energy after he is here and we are on a schedule. Today we get to go to a consultation for Mike for a possible sleep study he might be doing. His snoring is out of control and he constantly feels tired, no matter how much sleep he gets. So I am kind of interested to see what they have say today and kind of hope he has to do the overnight sleep study just so we can see if he has borderline sleep apnea. I don't think he does but it is a possibility. So we'll see. Its kind of nice to have something else to be thinking about besides the baby, all either one of us thinks about is what the baby is doing in there and why he doesn't seem to want to come out. Sometimes I think the baby can read our minds and so he is purposefully staying put in there! :)

The Breaking Point

My due date is 3 days away and I finally blew thru all of the frustration I've been having around this pregnancy. Just being at the end and realizing that really any day now, this little baby will come into this world and change everything I have ever known is a little overwhelming and even a little scary at times. Being just a few days shy of 40 weeks pregnant is by no means comfortable. The baby has definitely dropped since the last time I wrote and feels like a beach ball at the bottom of my stomach. He's just hanging out probably super cramped in my small uterus but he's liking it because there are no signs of him coming out any time soon. For the most part I have not been excessively complaining about being pregnant, it is such a gift to be pregnant, much less have a healthy fetus growing, so complaining about being uncomfortable is really pointless for the most part. Anyone who has been pregnant knows what it feels like at this point and anyone who has not, men included, can certainly show some empathy towards those of us in this situation. Being a first time mom I think adds another layer to all of these feelings. In addition to being uncomfortable and just plain wanting to be done and meet my little baby, I am worried about actually caring for this baby, what do I do with this baby?? I have little baby experience and have been told your "mother's instinct" will just kick right in, but there is still some trepidation around that for me. Its a whole new world and it is scary. Am I going to be a good Mom? Will I really know what to do? How will my baby turn out because of what I teach him? And then there is the whole issue of labor. I have no idea what to expect. I don't even know if I've felt a real contraction yet. . .when will my water break? Will it break on its own or at the hospital with assistance? How am I going to make it thru labor? Will the epidural really take the pain away? How bad will the pain even be?? When is this all going to get started?? So there are a LOT of questions running thru my mind right now and inching closer and closer to that due date with no baby is not helping. Certainly being told what I should try to do to induce labor also is not helping. At first it was fun to hear everyone's suggestions but now I have had enough. If the baby goes past the due date, he goes past. That is actually a very realistic option. . .more than half of all babies born go beyond their due date and first time moms especially are more likely to go past. So right there its safe to say I will probably go past. Probably even more so because the Dr was so concerned he would be so small and come so early because of the cord issue, this baby has to prove that wrong also! I've been hearing about how my husband's mother happened to eat White Castle and then go into labor shortly thereafter. I really don't care. I've been hearing about this for probably the last 3 weeks at least. I have politely told my husband's father that I will not be eating any White Castles. I think those things are so disgusting and I'm just not going to do that to myself. But he just keeps on and keeps on and then got Mike's mom to join in. No certain food causes someone to go into labor and its blatant stupidity and ignorance to think certain foods would cause labor. If that were really the case, then there would never be a "late" baby and there would be no need for medical inducement around the 40th week. Its just ridiculous illogical thinking. The baby will come when he is meant to come. No matter what I eat or try to do, I have no say on the matter. The only person that does is the Dr if he decides I need to be induced. Its been absolutely irritating to the nth degree listening about this White Castle garbage. I understand they are probably excited but just lay off. There comes a point where the "trying to help" is no longer helping and is more overwhelming and irritating than anything else. Which is where I am with it now. If you think you are excited, think of how I might feel. I have been growing this baby for 9 months and you don't hear me complaining and asking for every suggestion under the sun to get this guy out. I haven't even asked my Dr if I could be induced. I'd rather have him come out when he is good and ready and healthy rather than come out early and have something be wrong. I can't wait until he is here and the novelty of him wears off for certain people and they just go back to minding their own damn business. There's a reason you are where you are and this child isn't going to change that.

Drop That Head Baby!

It's amazing to look at the little baby ticker and see '8 days'. I am getting really anxious for this little guy to just be born already! I went to the Dr yesterday and at 38 weeks, 5 days, I was almost 4 cm. The Dr was very pleased. We talked about 'stripping the membranes' and he said I was a good candidate since my cervix was very soft so I said that is fine with me. So he did that. Its not a guarantee that active labor will start but can be just the little nudge that my body needs to get things going. After doing that he said all it will take is the baby to drop just a little bit more and put some good pressure on the cervix and things should really get going. Boy do I hope so!!! I have an appointment for next week, the 29th, the day before my due date, but he is still confident the baby will come before then. He said if for some reason he doesn't, then we will talk about having me induced in May. MAY! That sounds so horrible to me, I want him out before May! :) But the Dr did say he wouldn't wait for a whole week beyond my due date to induce so it sounds like it will be at the beginning of that week if we have to go that route. I just think this is all so funny for how concerned they all were that he would be born early in March and at a very small weight because of the two-vessel cord issue. He probably will stay in there until May just to prove everyone wrong. :P The Dr guesstimated that the baby is probably in the 7lb range right about now and is still gaining his little half pound each week. I am also still gaining, I wish that would stop anytime!!! 55 extra pounds on my 5 foot frame is about all the extra I really want to worry about! The only really uncomfortable things that I have to complain about are the massively swollen feet and legs and how absolutely difficult it is to get in and out of bed. Once I lay down, forget it. Other than that, I feel pretty OK. Sometimes tired but for the most part OK. Mike is getting pretty excited for this guy to come too. I'm really hoping once he is here and we are spending money on diapers and all baby necessities, that he will realize the need for a full time job. I know he loves his tow-truck job and the commission money is great when he is on call, but I think I would love it a little better if he was full time during the week, and I could keep my day time work hours. We'll see what happens, it was so hard for him to just find this job over the last almost year that we are grateful he has it. We are in for some definite changes once the baby is born.

Almost There

Well I am 38 weeks 3 days. My due date is next Friday. We are almost there. Last Wednesday at my weekly check up, I was dilated to 3 cm. My Dr was extremely happy. For the last three weeks I have dilated 1 cm up to where I was this last Wednesday. He said there was a very good possibility that if things kept progressing at the rate they were, I could have the baby within a week, and maybe even by the end of this weekend that just passed. Unfortunately he did not come by the end of the weekend. . .it is Monday and here I am, pregnant as ever. :) So we'll see where I am at this Wednesday. I bet I am still at a 3. I haven't had anything more than some lower back and groin pain, not even any Braxton Hicks. Mike does not want him to come on the 20th because that's the "Pot Smokers" day, not on the 21st so his Golden Birthday doesn't land on the 21st and I am opposed to the 22nd because that is Earth Day. LOL. So he needs to come tonight or wait until Friday, or better yet, just wait until next Monday because Mike is on call all this weekend and can make some good money, which we could use. Of course we have absolutely no say in when he will come. :) I've been hearing lots of things that I should try to do to get the contractions really going. Everything from getting a pedicure to eating White Castle to having sex. The more and more I think about it, the more I think that those are things people happened to do right before they went into labor and then make a correlation that because they did that, it caused the contractions. The only thing that makes any sense to me at all is the sex and that was because my OB nurse friend explained the hormone or whatever that is in the semen that can help rupture the membranes. I can't remember off hand what that hormone is but I also read about it in my book, and no it is not petocin. I think the only person that knows when he is coming is the baby himself and I just have to wait until he decides! I'm just ready to be done. I can't wait to see my Dr's reaction when he sees me on Wednesday, he was pretty positive he wouldn't be seeing me for this week's appointment, he didn't even tell me to make one, but I did just in case. ;) And there is still a chance that he could come before then, we shall see what he decides to do.

Its April!

So it is finally here. . .April. . .the month this little guy should make his debut into the world. I am 36 weeks 1 day today and at this point, I am ready to be done being pregnant. I'm tired of the acid reflux, the wild emotional swings, the fact my husband views my body as purely functional and not sexual, and most of all the swollen feet and cankles. And it would be nice to wear my own regular clothes again! I really don't mean to complain, I just want my baby here!!! I want to see who I have been growing these last 9 months! Had a regular check up on Wednesday and everything was fine. Fundal height was right on point, normal blood pressure, only gained 2 lbs since the last appointment two weeks ago. We talked about my diabetes and the Dr does not think that I have it. Which I also did not really think I had it but was not going to express that, but now I feel vindicated since he also thinks so. Basically he told me that there is such a gray area that they use as the cut off numbers that you could fail by one point one day and come back the next day and pass by two points. So apparently this three hour test is not very accurate. He said they of course err on the side of caution and will tell you have it before you don't just to make sure they do not overlook someone who really does have it. He said unless my diet was absolutely perfect, I would actually be preventing the diabetes. Well I still do McDonald's on a regular basis and eat ice cream as my bedtime snack. . .and my numbers are still within the range. He thinks I was so borderline that I just had an off day when I got tested. Which really stinks because now its part of my health history, I can't put on there they didn't think I really had it after the fact. :P So now I will be on weekly appointments until the baby comes. We have almost everything we need for him so that is exciting. There are some other projects that will not be getting done before he gets here I don't think, and I am trying to let go of that the best I can. It will get done when it gets done, whether that is before he comes or after. I'm interested to see how life changes for me, for my husband, for our relationship, for our dog. Things are already different between Mike and I and sometimes its really good and sometimes its really bad. We are just having a hard time meeting each other's needs right now for some reason. I hope we can resolve this now before the baby comes because its just going to be 100 times harder once that little guy is here. This has been quite a journey and I'm looking forward for this part to end so the next part can begin.

Struggling with Sacrifice

I understand that as women, we sacrifice an awful lot to have a baby. Giving up control of our own bodies, battling extreme fatigue, the weight gain and the problems associated with that such as swollen feet and cankles, a larger butt. . . Developing gestational diabetes and then having to follow a stricter diet, the one time in your life when you shouldn't have to worry about food. And that's just while you are pregnant. Don't get me wrong, there are many rewarding sides to pregnancy such as seeing the baby, feeling the baby move, feeling those little hiccups. . .and knowing you are assisting God in creating one of the most special miracles of all. . .life. But at this point in the pregnancy, with the baby to be here very soon, I can't help but feel bitter about the sacrifices I am making now and will be making when the baby is here. I think a lot of it has to do with seeing how weighted the sacrifices are on my side compared to my husband's side. There are virtually no sacrifices he is making, as it seems to me. He has been able to go along this pregnancy just as he normally does. If you ask the question "what are you sacrificing?" he will tell you that he is selling his truck. Which really shouldn't count at all. The plan was to sell that truck before I got pregnant. . .he is just now getting around to it. I really can't think of anything else that he is sacrificing for this baby. He gets to work a part time job that he enjoys and keep it with his sweet morning hours and I will be working 2-10 when I come back from maternity leave so we can avoid the cost of daycare, because obviously with a whole household and only one full time income coming in, we can't exactly afford daycare. I am not thrilled about working 2-10 but it is something I have to do at this point in my life. I am very greatful my employer was willing to work with me and find me a solution so I could still be full time there and avoid daycare. I'm just frustrated that my husband seems he is entitled to just having his one part time job because its the first time he found a job he really likes. Most people go thru their whole lives never loving their job. I think most people get a job that pays the bills. Not to mention he will have basically the whole afternoon and evening to play with the baby. Where I can see myself taking care of the baby in the mornings and doing most, if not all, of the household chores since we really have an issue with who does what chores right now as it is. I know I need to sacrifice some things in order to have this baby, and I am OK with that, it just is frustrating to me that at this point, it seems that this is all going unnoticed and unappreciated by the one person that it should matter to the most.

Pregnancy Feet & A Proud Dad to Be

Well it is official. I am pregnant. Which has been common knowledge for the last 8 or so months, but I feel like it is finally official. My belly button never "popped out" and I don't think it is going to, which I felt like was the badge of pregnancy. The other badge is the swollen feet and cankles. Which I know have. If this was the dead of summer I would quite literally be "barefoot and pregnant". I bought 4 new pairs of flats last weekend and on Tuesday I could not wear two of them. I was at DSW for 2 hours and tried on these 4 pairs of shoes multiple times in different sizes to make sure they would fit, and they did, and now two of them do not at all. Figures. I was starting to think that I would escape the swollen feet, but I shouldn't have thought I would be so lucky. So my feet and ankles just looked like giant puffy things at the end of my legs for three days this week. I did manage to get a foot rub out of the deal tho which wasn't half bad. :) With today being Saturday, and not having done much or gone anywhere, my feet feel pretty good today. One of my friends told me that the swollen and puffy feet are a sign that your body is getting ready for birth so she is convinced that I will deliver early, which I would have to say would be fine with me. :) Mike is currently on a mission. A room re-decorating project. When we found out we were having a boy, we figued my brother's old room would be the baby's room. (We live in the house I grew up in.) This was the perfect room, deep blue carpet and some plaid wallpaper on the bottom of the walls, cream colored paint above and a border with the continents on it. Not exactly baby but definitely boy. Well we started cleaning it out, it was serving as an office so to speak that we were rarely in, and we discovered the cat had used it as his personal pee pad. So the carpet was going to have to go. Ok no big deal, we began the hunt for a nuetral colored carpet so we could keep the walls in tact. Mike found the perfect carpet and we couldn't argue with the price. . .but it was light blue. . .not exactly what I had in mind being that the wallpaper had darker colors in it, but he was dead set on it, so we got it. Got it home and it was not going to look good. It took getting an outside opinion from one of our friends to make him see that. So the quest for new wallpaper began. This little boy better love sports is all I have to say. And with me and Mike's parents being so into the Vikings and even Mike himself now, that should not be hard to accomplish. :) We had already received a sports themed bedding set so needed some wallpaper to go along with that and after searching many stores, finally found it at Hirschfield's. I was a little leary because it was so expensive and neither one of us had ever done wallpaper before but Mike insisted, this was something he really wanted to do, so I said Ok. So Mike finished cleaning out the rest of the room this week, re-painted on Friday and started taking the old wallpaper down and ripped out the old carpet. When he took down the old wallpaper that my Mom had put up, he paid attention to how she had done it and then had no problems putting up the new stuff. It was kind of cool, it was like Mom taught him how do it without really being here to tell him. She is here in the house, there is no doubt, and she still continues to teach us both. It will be hard to leave this house when that time comes, but that is years away still. Anyway, he started and completed the wallpaper border today and it looks awesome. For the last few hours he has been working on the bottom half of the wall with the paper. I haven't been up there to see what it looks like, I'm sitting down here with the doggies. The border looks awesome, I sat in there and chatted with him while he did that. I think he wants to finish the wallpaper tonight and then put in the carpet tomorrow which would be awesome because then all the baby stuff we have accumulated in the living room could actually go into his room. I just want to get organized, we have a big to do list still and most of the list are tasks that I will not be able to do, much less help much with. I don't think he minds at all which is nice but I still feel bad I can't help. The last thing we need to do upstairs is paint our bedroom, shampoo the carpet and re-arrange and then we can work on the last section of the basement. This baby has really pushed us to do a lot of things that we have been putting off for some time. :)

On Wednesday I had a "growth" ultrasound so they could see how the baby has progressed since last month. He is now just a week behind my gestational age. He still has long legs and his head circumference and his abdomen grew enough to put him into the 33rd percentile for growth, which the Dr was very happy about, considering where he was the last time we saw him. They estimate that he weighs about 3 lbs 10 oz right now. Still just a little guy in there. :) He is definitely running out of room in there, his little arm and hand were smashed up against his face. He is head down and in a good position and at the appointment was laying on his side, facing my right side. :) Its amazing how they can tell you all of that information. The Dr took a look at my blood sugar numbers and approved of those so that was really good for me to know what I have been doing to take of the gestational diabetes is actually working without needing insulin. He said that as long as my numbers continue to look good, then he thinks we can go a few more weeks without needing another a growth check. And I have only gained 3 lbs since getting the GD almost a month ago. . .woot woot!!! So I asked him if he was still thinking about wanting to take him early because after the last growth check he was considering inducing me early, depending on how the growth does or does not progress. He said that as long as the baby is active and appears to be growing, even if it is at a slow and steady rate, then he is fine with leaving him in there until he decides its time to make his debut. So that is fine with me! I am excited and anxious to meet him, but we still have a lot of stuff to do around the house to get ready for him. :) I also talked to the Dr about a contraction that I experienced while Mike and I were walking on treadmills at the gym last week. All of a sudden my whole abdomen area got super tight and hard and there was a pressure pushing downwards, it lasted for most of the time we were walking. It was unlike anything else I have ever felt, worse than when the baby is pushing so hard you can feel his little feet. The Dr said that was probably a practice contraction and the next time it happens I need to stop what I am doing and rest and time it, if it lasts for an hour then I need to call the clinic so they can asses what needs to be done, which he said most of the time is nothing at this stage. So that was interesting to feel. I haven't been to the gym since. :) I go back in two weeks just for a quick check up and then I will be going back two weeks from then and then I'm on once a week appointments. . .so the time is really starting to go by fast. I think with the transition from winter to spring happening at this same time, it really makes the time seem like it is flying. I've been feeling pretty good overall. I tend to get acid reflux more often now, especially if I try to turn in a chair to look behind me or have to bend down to pick something up, its instantly there. Tums go everywhere with me. :) I'm feeling pretty big and clumsy and every time I see Dad he tells me that I am "getting pretty big". Which is fine, I know he doesn't mean anything bad by it. I'm still hanging in there, haven't really felt much of the 'I just want to be done with this' yet. . .but I still have a good 8 or so weeks to go!

A Perfect Heart but a Small Baby

So its been awhile since I checked in. Oops. About a month ago we went to the Riverside campus over in St. Paul to have a fetal EKG done by a cardio specialist so they could rule out any signs of cardiac disease. In a normal pregnancy the risk of the fetus developing cardiac disease in the womb is zero percent. In a two vessel fetus that risk is elevated to one percent. That does not sound like a big deal but the Dr at MFM that is working with my OB Dr at the clinic said this is above the threshold and they want to rule it out. So we went to Riverside and had a normal ultrasound first where they looked at the baby and he was very active and they said there he looked fine. Then we got moved to another room and had another ultrasound done where they only looked at the heart. We had a special ultrasound tech trained in the heart doing it and then we had two medical students watching and learning. I thought that was pretty cool. So the tech took a bunch of ultrasound pictures for the cardiac specialist and then she came in and reviewed the pictures and told us the heart looked perfect, it had formed the way it was supposed to and had a good strong beat. So then she used the pictures to further teach the medical students which was pretty neat. I wish I had more interesting things to say about the heart ultrasound but I didn't even get to see it. They didn't put it up on the TV like they normally do for a regular ultrasound. Mike was able to see but said it didn't look like a heart or really anything. This ultrasound was so in depth they were going into each ventricle and seeing how the veins and arteries had formed. There was a lot of high tech medical language being tossed around. So from there we went to our regular clinic and had a growth check ultrasound. All that consists of is a 10 or so minutes ultrasound where they measure the length of the limbs and the circumference of the head and abdomen. After that, the Dr came in and went over that with us. The baby has grown since the 20 week ultrasound but was measuring about 2 weeks smaller than he should be for his gestational age, which at that appointment was 27 weeks 5 days. He does have long legs but the areas of greater concern, the head and abdomen were too small. The baby only weighed 2 lbs 2 oz! That just seems sooo tiny!!! So we had a discussion with the Dr about possible reasons for this. He said it could be due to the two vessel cord issue and this would be the beginnings of the placenta not fully supporting the baby. Or it could be the fact that since I am a small person that I could just be growing a small baby. Or he is just on the slow side of growing but could still be progressing just fine. He said at this point it was too early to tell what was contributing to the small size of the baby. I go this coming Wednesday for another growth check with him and I will be 31 weeks and 5 days so we will see where he is at. As long as he is showing some sort of progress, no matter how small, things should be OK. Its once he stops growing or even starts losing weight that we will become more concerned. So I asked my burning question. . .does this mean automatic C-Section if they determine he needs to come out early? And the answer right now is no. The Dr said he would much prefer to induce me than have me go thru the C-Section if at all possible. He said at this point there is no reason why I couldn't be induced. So I thought that was good news. When I had my gallbladder removed almost 2 years ago after it attacked me, I really struggled recovering from that. I was trying to do too much too soon and Mike has been very vocal about his concern that I would do that again with a C-Section recovery which is a little more major than the 4 little incisions they did all around my tummy to take the gallbladder. I agree, I know recovery times are different for everyone but I would not want to go thru another abdomen related recovery. I don't even want to think about it! So at that same appointment I got a RhoGam shot because my blood type is A- and this will present a problem in any future pregnancies. My blood would recognize the blood of a new fetus as an infection and try to kill it off. I am not sure why this doesn't happen with the first pregnancy but I guess subsequent pregnancies are prone to this problem. So that shot was gigantic and went in my ass. Which Mike got quite a kick out of. :P I will also require another shot of this at 72 hours after delivery and I now have to carry a medical card in my wallet stating that I have RhoGam in my system in case I ever need a blood transfusion they know they can't really mix any other blood types with me I guess. And if that wasn't enough, I also had my one hour glucose test at that appointment. I of course failed that so had to go back and do the three hour fasting test which I also failed, but not by very much. I passed the fasting and was one point over after the one hour which they said was my "freebie" and then I failed the second hour. The nurse told me that if I had passed the first hour and then failed the second hour, I probably would have passed the third hour and then been just fine. That one damn point!!! She said most people fail the second hour and then come right back down to where they should be in the last hour. Damn her for telling me that!!! I bawled after I failed that test and got out of the office. I really did not want gestational diabetes. I had to go to a diabetes education class with other moms that had just been diagnosed with it and it was interesting, we learned how to use our glucose meters and learned what our new diet would be. Which really isn't all that bad. I just have to be mindful of carbs at every meal and have a snack between every meal. I also have to get up at 2:30 every morning and have a glass of milk and a graham cracker or some cheese. And make sure I am getting daily exercise (which is always a good thing anyway). I don't really have to cut anything out, I can still have cookies and ice cream, and even McDonald's, I just have to watch the portion size and the carb count. I don't have nearly as much as I did before because when you are hungry for snack time 4 Girl Scout cookies isn't as satisfying as graham crackers or a protein bar. :) I haven't gained any weight since I have been doing the diabetic diet which is also a nice little plus. I have been very afraid of needing to go on insulin but thankfully I have not needed to, I have been able to keep my numbers within the range just by diet and exercise alone. So it has been pretty easy to manage overall. I just want to get thru this last couple months without needing insulin, which I should be able to do. So that is what has happened since I last checked in. I will have to write after we find out where he is growth wise on Wednesday. He moves around a lot and it is fun to see my stomach move when he gets pretty active. He also gets the hiccups almost every time I eat. :) So I'm thinking he's still doing OK in there. We are getting pretty excited now that we are in the home stretch!!

Under 100!!!!!

So I just noticed that I have under 100 days to go, according to my little ticker. How exciting!!!! I can't decide if this last amount of time is going to go by fast or slow. I have heard that it goes both ways. I find I am very preoccupied with labor and delivery these days. I think that is normal at this stage in the pregnancy for a first time mom to go thru, but it also doesn't help that the last two "baby" classes have focused solely on these two subjects. Complete with a stuffed animal pelvis and a new born sized baby crashing thru there. How about those visuals? :) Or put a ping pong ball into a balloon and then blow up the balloon. Then try to squeeze the ping pong ball out the end. . .yup, the simulates dialtion! :) LOL the classes have been great, but really have me thinking about labor. I can't decide if I would rather have a C-section or go thru labor. I suppose with a C-section you would feel all of the pain during recovery, where as with the labor it would be painful during but the recovery probably isn't as bad. I don't know anything about either so these classes have been interesting. They haven't talked about C-sections yet, other than to say that 25% of all births are done via C-section. . .the other 75% are natural labor. I know it's all up to my little guy to let me know what route we are going to take. . but it would be nice to know one way or the other a little ahead of time. :) I like to plan too much and am a little type-A but I think this kid is going to change all of that. Mike is excited for that. :) The baby LOVES when Mike talks to him. It's crazy. Last night Mike wanted to feel him moving around before bed and he was not doing anything. So Mike started talking to him and all of sudden, there he was popping around. Mike really gets a kick out of it when he responds to his voice like that. I think it's great. I haven't done much talking to him myself, it just feels kind of funny to me. But maybe I will try.

Sciatic Nerve. . .and a Name!

All in all, my pregnancy has been going fairly smoothly. As it is progressing, I am having more of a problem with sciatic nerve pain. At first it was just a dull throbbing pain in the back of my left thigh from time to time. If I had been standing, I would have to sit down and put my feet up and then it was pretty bearable. I asked my Dr about it and he said there is really nothing that can be done about it, but if it were to get worse, then he could refer to me to physical therapy. I think it finally got worse. On Saturday Mike and I were out shopping and had been doing so for a couple hours so my leg was starting to hurt. I was leaning on the shopping cart to try to take some pressure off of my leg. All of a sudden the pain shot down my right leg. It has been getting more and more intense in my left, but I have never had it in my right leg. So I had it in both legs so I had to sit down in the aisle in Menards right where I was. Then on Sunday I was walking thru the living room with a mirror in my hand and almost fell to the ground when the pain shot down my left leg. Mike had to run over and make sure I didn't fall and grab the mirror before I dropped it. The pain is very intense. I sat with a heating pad on it yesterday for awhile which helped until I stood up. So Sunday I was sidelined most of the day which was frustrating. I feel good otherwise and want to help get stuff done around the house and then have to just sit there. Mike has been absolutely wonderful at home, cooking all the meals, washing all the dishes, getting me whatever I need or doing things I ask him to do like vacuum, and always insisting I have a seat. He is going to be great father. So at my next appointment in Feb, I will be asking my Dr if he can refer me to physical therapy. On another note, we figured out the name!!! :) But we are not telling anyone until he is born. We decided to use family names, so one name from his side and one from my side. Mike got to pick the name from his side and I got to pick the name from my side. Mike had no problem picking his, but I have had a little more trouble. I think I finally decided on it so I am pretty excited. I do not refer to my belly as the name but its fun to say ". . .. . 's room" or ".. . .. .'s pack n play". It's just fun to think of him as an actual little person. There is just so much in a name that its a hard decision. And we are a Jennifer and Michael, two of the most common names. So we didn't want to pick another common name, nor did we want a name so uniquely spelled that he would have to constantly tell people how to spell or pronounce his name. I think what we came up with is great. Its still unique, but not crazy out there. :) Sorry, have to keep you in suspense for something these last few months! Next Dr appt is on Feb 3rd, which is a check up for me, a growth check ultrasound for him, and also the diabetes test for me. We also have the special fetal echo that morning where we go to Riverside to see his heart on a specialized ultrasound. I can't wait to see how much more developed he looks now, compared to the 20 week ultrasound. :)

23 Week Update & Baby Brain

Today we had our 23 week check up. Somehow I am always ahead one week in my appointments, but that is fine with me. :) My primary OB had not gotten the images and recommendations from the Maternal Fetal Medicine (MFM) Center regarding the two vessel cord. So he was a little upset. First he said he would have them fax them over and we would talk about it at the next 4 week appointment. Then I mentioned something about how the Dr at MFM recommended a fetal echo. So then my primary Dr got a little peeved and told us he would have that info faxed over right away because this is the time we would need to do the fetal echo. . .between 22 and 23 weeks. Well here I am! So what was supposed to be a simple check in appointment became a quite lengthy one but we were glad because the primary Dr does want to go ahead and have us go back to the MFM Center and have the fetal echo done. Which apparently is another more advanced ultrasound of the baby's heart. There is a small chance of cardiac problems for the baby due to the two vessel cord so they just want to take a look and make sure everything is OK. So he has to fax the referral back over to MFM and then I have to wait for them to call and then we will get in and get that appointment. The one nice thing about all of this is that we get a lot of extra ultrasounds. :) I will have another "growth check" ultrasound at my next 4 week appt in Feb. and also will be taking the diabetes test. I have now gained the 35lbs they recommend you gain in your whole pregnancy during my first 6 months. Boo. So we shall see how that pans out. :P The baby moves around all the time. It is quite an amazing feeling. I have been feeling a little bad for Mike because every time I get some pretty strong jabs or kicks, I have him rush over so he can try to feel it and the baby stops moving every time. Mike has tried to talk to him and poke and push on him to get him to move and he just won't do it when Mike has his hand on my belly. :) I think he is going to be a little stinker. So I just keep telling Mike that one of these times he will be able to feel him, we just have to keep trying. But the baby is quite active. My favorite is sitting a little forward in my chair at work at my desk and he moves all over the place. Its like I can smush him just right so I can feel every little movement. :) I still have not felt hiccups yet. Looking forward to that. The "baby brain" is getting really bad. Really bad. I just asked Mike to get me a pop out of the TV. He asked me what? And I said "get me a pop from where the pop comes from". LOL!!! The other night they showed the windchill in Faribault on the weather and I got up and pointed to the TV and said "Wow we have the same windchill as Farmington!!" and Mike asked me to point again to Farmington and I pointed right to Faribault and said "see we are close to Farmington". Sheesh!!! It is really bad. It makes us laugh but I know Mike misses my regular brain. The other night I told him this is what it would have been like had he married a ditz and he said "Well I wouldn't have known it could be any better. I know what you are like normal and I like that the best!" I thought that was kind of cute. We are pretty excited that the baby will be here in about 4 months. It seems like there are babies everywhere!!! I know two making their debut in January, mine in Aprilish, then another two in May, another two in July and I think that's it!! Seems like quite the baby boom for 2010!!