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!