Progress...

This week I am 38 weeks pregnant, and had good news at my doctor's visit:  progress is being made!  I am now dilated 2 cm and 70% effaced, so all those patternless contractions I'm having are certainly productive.  I was relieved when the doctor mentioned the possibility of induction at 39 weeks so I didn't have to bring it up myself.  I would love to hold this guy in my arms now that he is fully developed and full term.  Not to mention be able to breathe without gasping for breath, drink a glass of water (WATER!) without getting heartburn, walk without stabbing pelvic pain, pee at more reasonable intervals than every 15-30 minutes, chase Emma around and play again.....you get the idea.

Again, to be continued....

Nursery

Little Man's nursery is all ready for him!  We stuck with the existing pale aqua blue wall color, just touching up spots that needed it, and repainting the trim and doors.  The primary color in the bedding is chocolate brown, with fun highlights of sage green, aqua blue, orange and red.  I love the clean, modern, yet still definitely baby look of it.  Its a room I think we will all be able to enjoy being in at all hours of the day once he joins our family on the outside!

Baby Shower

Sunday, April 3, my dear friends Tara and Katie hosted a beautiful baby shower to celebrate Baby Boy's impending arrival.  Feeling the love and excitement of those who are closest to Kurt and I for this yet to be born child filled my heart with unmeasurable gratitude.  We are a family who is truly blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives!

Alright, that's enough.

I am one of the world's worst and most cranky pregnant women.  I am highly intolerant of all the aches and pains that late pregnancy brings, and I freely admit this.  I'm at 37 weeks today, and I'm ready to be DONE with this pregnancy thing!  Emma was born on this day of gestation, so I find myself longing for this guy to follow in her footsteps.  I'm thinking that's not going to happen though.  I've been having periodic "real" contractions for a couple weeks now, although nothing regular.  Each time I have one I find myself growing excited, checking the clock for the time, then not having another one for several hours if not until the next day.  That's not going to produce a baby in the timeframe I have in mind.

Last Tuesday at my 36 week appointment my doctor checked me out to see if I've made any progress yet.  The good news is those periodic contractions have made some progress.  I was beginning to dilate, although a bit less than a centimeter at most, cervix 30% effaced, and baby dropped down just a bit to -3 station.  Its not a lot, but its something, so I'll take it.  Overall the doctor said she didn't foresee anything "exciting" happening with me for another 2-3 weeks.  Ugh. 

My 37 week appointment is tomorrow, so I'm hoping and praying for more, more, MORE progress!  In the meantime, maybe my water will just randomly break like it did with Emma??  To be continued...

Getting ready for Baby Brother!

Emma has been having a lot of fun preparing for Baby Brother's arrival.  Over the last week she's been such a big helper getting the nursery ready for him!



Feeding her baby in the glider - using the Boppy nonetheless!



"Helping" Dada hang shelves in Baby Brother's closet



32 weeks

Eight weeks more until our due date, five more until 37 weeks.  I admit I have two separate countdowns going on.  One for the due date, and another for when we reach the point where we have living proof a baby born then (37 weeks - THANK YOU Emma!) is ready to do just fine outside Mama!  And once again, if Little Fella decides he's like April 25 for a birthday rather than May 16ish, I would be the last one to try and talk him out of it!

Thankfully we haven't had any further extreme episodes with contractions since my last post.  I had my 32 week appointment with a different doctor than usual on Tuesday, since mine is on vacation this week.  I shared with her my extreme dismay at not receiving a call back in that situation, and she was visibly bothered by it as well.  Reasons she offered were that *occasionally* pages don't go through, however since I called multiple times that doesn't seem to hold up.  Another possibility is that the on-call doctor could have been in a delivery and overlooked their pages.  This still bugs me, and makes me wonder how on Earth they could miss three separate pages, but whatever.  I was assured it was a freak occurrence (better be!) and the doctor apologized profusely.

Overall, the doctor was concerned at the sheer number of contractions I had been having, and asked me a thousand questions about their frequency and number since that Saturday.  I was told IF in the future this same scenario plays out again (and I repeat:  it had better not!) that I should check myself in to Labor & Delivery to have them check my cervix to see if I am dilating, and if a little too much action is going on so prematurely there are steps that can be taken to slow things down, if not stop them altogether.  Apparently having my first baby at 37 weeks makes me a bit of a wild card as to whether or not I'm prone to premature delivery, even though 37 weeks is technically full term - to some doctors anyway.  I'm finding more and more that 38 weeks seems to be the new "full term."  Amazing how medical theories can change in just three years!

On the home front, I have been soaking up and fully enjoying a wonderful spring break this past week!  My goal was to fill the week with fun and special activities with Emma, and we've had a great time.  Monday we went to see Gnomeo & Juliet at the movie theater.  Em was absolutely priceless the entire outing - she was simply beaming from ear to ear from the moment we arrived at the theater to the moment we left.  The movie was adorable as well.  Tuesday we visited the Art Factory, where Emma got to explore her inner artist by painting, cutting, gluing, and glittering to her heart's content.  She is so proud of the artwork she brought home, and keeps saying to me "Mama, I love art!"  Hearing that just makes my heart sing.  Wednesday and Thursday she was mostly interested in staying home and playing with her toys, so I honored that - you don't have to twist my arm to kick it on the couch all day!  Today has been chocolate chip cookie day, where my little assistant chef and I made some pretty amazing cookies, if I do say so myself!

I have loved having this week to spend with my Emma.  These last few weeks of her days as an only child are moving so fast, and are so precious.  I know she will thrive as a big sister, and I also know in my heart that becoming a family of four will be every bit as fulfilling and beautiful as being our little family of three has been for the past three and a half years.  And of course Emma will always be my one and only little princess, and there are many, many mommy/daughter special experiences to come.  But the sentimental person I am, mixed in with the hormonal and overly-emotional pregnant woman, can't help but look at this time as the closing of one very special life chapter.  However, there is the logical me too, and I know that we are about to embark on the beginning of a whole new, exciting, and miraculous chapter in our lives as well.  And when push (no pun intended) comes to shove, I feel so lucky that this wonderful little family is on the brink of becoming one person bigger!

And now that I've made myself cry, I will sign off....

One frustrating weekend

This weekend has been very frustrating from a pregnancy standpoint.  Beginning yesterday at around 2pm, I began having frequent Braxton Hicks contractions, so I started drinking copious quantities of water and laid down on my left side in bed as is supposedly the trick to resolving them.  Yet no matter how much water I consumed or how long I laid still and focused on relaxing my body, the contractions persisted.  Completely painless, but contractions nevertheless. 

At around 5pm I decided it was time to start paying attention to their frequency and duration and found that in the next hour I had a total of 10 contractions, although spaced at irregular intervals and lasting 15-20 seconds each, all while still lying down.  Based on my doctor's warnings about BH contractions to call if ever I had more than 5 in an hour or they became regular in frequency, I thought this a good enough reason to contact the office's answering service to speak with the on-call doctor.  I was feeling a little unnerved being just on the verge of 31 weeks, having already given birth to one early baby (Emma), who depending on the pediatrician you talk to has sometimes been referred to as a premie born at 37 weeks.

I called the answering service at 6pm, and was told if I did not hear back from the on-call physician in 30 minutes to call back.  35 minutes passed, no phone call, so I called again.  Was told once again to call back in 30 if my phone stayed silent, and again 30 minutes later still nothing!  I called one last time, was essentially told by the calling service that I must have a block on my phone line for unknown callers no matter how much I insisted I do not (because we DON'T have any blocks placed on our phone line - we get enough unsolicited "unknown" callers to prove it!), and was told to call back again in 30 if I still heard nothing.  I'm sure you see where this is headed....

STILL NO PHONE CALL FROM A DOCTOR!!! 

At this point the contractions had tapered off a bit, so I gave up for the night.  Fortunately our good friends, Tasha, Matt, and little Sawyer came over for the evening, which helped me get my mind off of the afternoon.

This morning while in the shower the Braxton Hicks kicked in again, and were coming pretty rapidly, so I got out, dressed, chugged a pint of water, and laid down on my left side again.  This time they definitely tapered off while lying down to only 4 in an hour, so we'll see how the rest of the day goes.  Kurt is busily running around the house, taking care of child, baby nursery preparations, ant extermination, and a thousand other projects.  I really hate laying around feeling useless and unable to help, especially when there is SO much to do.  Yes, yes, I know, I know, I am growing a human and I'm not "useless" in that regard, but I'd really prefer to grow a human while going about my daily business.

One thing is for sure, my doctor's office is getting a phone call from me tomorrow morning to find out what in the hell their problem was this weekend.  I most certainly do not want to have my water break or go into full-blown labor 6-9 weeks from now on an evening or weekend and get no response from them.  Unacceptable!

30 weeks

Wow.  I am really doing quite a miserable job at keeping this blog up to date.  My apologies to the mighty few who check in with it periodically.  As this pregnancy progresses into the home stretch, my desire is to have it well documented to one day share with this baby boy who's about to enter our lives.  Therefore my new, fairly realistic goal is to begin updating once a week.  So here goes nothing!

Yesterday marked Little Guy's and my 30 week milestone together on this journey.  Officially a couple of weeks into my 3rd trimester, I find my energy supply is definitely beginning to slow down.  It is interesting doing this for the second time and noting the things that are the same and those that are different than my pregnancy with Emma.  For one thing, I had far more "morning" sickness troubles this time than with Emma.  During the second trimester with Em, I experienced a nearly full bounce-back to my pre-pregnancy energy levels.  Not so much with Little Guy.  That honeymoon trimester energy surge never really arrived with the same "oomph" this time around, although kicking the around the clock nausea was a much welcomed event.  I suspect the ongoing tiredness has a lot to do with having my first baby, now at a rambunctious age 3, to keep up with.  No rest for the weary with Emma in the house!

Now at week 30, I'm having a few of the same 'ol symptoms as before, but they are more mild thus far.  At this point with Emma I had a full-blown case of carpal tunnel syndrom, and already the makings of outrageous swelling of ALL extremities.  And while there is a faint tingling in my finger tips each morning and some puffed up feet and ankles in the evenings, it is nothing, NOTHING like it was at 30 weeks with Emma.  So I'm rolling with the punches for now.  10 weeks from my due date, yet only 7 weeks from the point at which Emma was born (37 weeks to the day), the time frame feels manageable.  Now ask me to repeat that 4-5 weeks from now and you may get a whole different response!  ha!

This week Kurt and I are busily selling off some of the furniture that has occupied the room that will in a very short time belong to a new member of the family.  Once all furniture is cleared out, the carpet will be cleaned and fresh paint will be applied where needed.  Fortunately the room is already the same pale aqua-blue I would choose to paint it for Little Guy if I were picking out paint colors today, so touch-ups to the walls and a fresh coat on the baseboards are all that will be needed for the most part.  After that we'll bring in Little Guy's crib, dresser, and glider rocking chair for those late night meals he'll need.  Extra shelving in the closet will be installed, diapers organized, and little outfits featuring dinosaurs and fire trucks will be washed and hung or folded, all ready for his arrival.

Some days I feel overwhelmed at all there is to do, and others, like tonight, I just have faith it will all get done one step at a time.  Just trying to keep that sense of balance between what must get done, and what would be nice to have done upon his arrival.  One thing is for sure, I can't wait to meet him.... in no less than 7-10 weeks of course!

New Year's 2011

For New Years 2011 we happily traveled to Black Butte for several days of absolute, total relaxation.  We are very fortunate that Kurt's uncle and aunt are so kind as to let us invade their home away from home there a couple times each year.  We always appreciate their generosity so very much, as Black Butte has become the Moke crew's favorite place on Earth, and this trip did not disappoint! 

We arrived late our first night as snow was beginning to fall on ground already covered in several inches of snow.  When we woke up the next morning we were THRILLED to see it had snowed all night long, providing nearly a foot of gorgeous, beautiful, perfect snow!  It continued to snow over the next 24 hours, leaving nearly 2 feet in which we enjoyed plenty of sledding, long walks, and playtime during our mini-vacation, in addition to lots of great food, hot chocolate, and warm, cozy fires. 

To make the trip even better, we were joined by our dear friends, Tasha, Matt, and Sawyer, for several days.  It was so much fun to relax and play together, not to mention watch Emma practicing her big sister skills with baby Sawyer.

Rewind: Christmas 2010

I am remembering now why I took a blogging hiatus from the old blog a year ago:  Because it is SO hard to keep up!  Between filling roles as mommy, wife, 5th grade teacher, friend, housekeeper, cook, personal shopper, recreation coordinator, and chauffer - all while growing a healthy new human being and preparing for his arrival - precious little time is left over for anything else.  I'm finding any spare time I am lucky to have is designated as much needed rest/sleep time, and that's only after properly researching preschools, investigating options for swimming lessons, and bargain hunting for the new baby gear we're going to need.  Needless to say, I am feeling stretched extremely thin lately!  Extremely.  Thin.

In spite of all that, this holiday season was too wonderful and too memorable not to share at least some little snippets of it.  We had our regular 3 days of Christmas, this year spending Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family, Christmas morning to ourselves at home while the afternoon was with Kurt's side of the family.  The day after Christmas my dad's whole side got together, so it worked out perfectly.

This was the very first Christmas where Emma fully understood everything, as she soaked up every moment of each holiday celebration with every family member.  It was such a joy to watch her take it all in, and absolutely magical to see Christmas through her innocent little eyes.