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.