15 Aug 2014
today was the first time I’ve been displeased with my dr. generally, I really like him. he’s got a great bedside manner, is very patient with questions, and was just all around wonderful with all of the fertility drama. today, however, he took it upon himself to strip my membranes without asking first. i would have declined such an offer. especially since we had just had the conversation about how i have no interest whatsoever in inducing labor (unless it becomes medically necessary, of course). i just didn’t understand what was going through his head and there was no reason for it. I’m not even due for another week. he seems sure that i’ll go into labor this weekend now. i have no such confidence and, frankly, if it’s because of artificial stimulation i really hope not. i just don’t think that’s really healthy. and next week i will definitely make sure to state ahead of time that i do not want my membranes stripped.
anyhow, petty venting aside… today’s visit was all good. 138 heart rate, 2cm, 95% effaced, -1 station. so no real progress other than another cm of dilation but we’re still healthy and nothing else matters to me.
it’s funny that i’ll probably end up in better shape after this pregnancy than i was before. the pregnancy started with months of sloth due to vacations and holidays and a general affinity for couch-potatoism. as soon as i saw that positive, however, i immediately started dragging myself out and into a routine. for about five months, i walked about twenty miles a week. then there were 6-8 weeks of crazy travel and sickness and the sloth crept back in for a while but the last couple of months I’ve been good about getting back at it. I’ve been doing an hour on the elliptical 3-4 days a week plus the bridge run (walk) most weeks. i never thought i could be this close to the end of my pregnancy and still be this active. and really, after a lifetime of natural sloth and lethargy, who would have thought i would even find the motivation for it? i guess this kid is already working on making me a better person because all I’ve wanted to do is keep him as healthy as i possibly can. if that means i have to get out and work up a sweat when i really would rather eat Cheetos and take a nap… i won’t even give it a second thought.
multi-tasking - elliptical, Netflix, and talking to my daddy on the phone
probably tmi but, really, there’s no modesty/shame when you’re pregnant. lost the mucous plug last night. the significance of this seems to be practically nil. theoretically, it should indicate that dilation is progressing but as far as the onset of labor… could be hours, days, or weeks. what a useless sign. however, progress is progress and since I’m still feeling good and not screaming to GET THEE OUT OF ME, I’m not rushing him in any way. the turkey has been very subdued the last couple of days. still moving plenty but the movements are (mostly) more gentle and subtle.
8 Aug 2014
nothing much new in today’s dr visit… still 1 cm, 95% effaced, -1 station. heart rate 137. the nurse seemed to be less experienced with the Doppler and the fundal measurements than the other nurse that’s been taking care of us. she had a heck of a time finding the heartbeat, whereas the other nurse goes straight to it every time. she was way short on the fundal measurement which caused the dr to come in congratulating us on dropping… uh, nope, no dropping here. he re-measured and declared us right where we were. I did tell him that I’ve been having an increase in Braxton hicks contractions which he seemed excited about. the ones that I almost can’t feel that tighten my entire belly and leave me short of breath and lightheaded are almost constant now. it doesn’t matter how much water I drink or if I’m laying on my side or doing the elliptical, they are always there. within the last few days, I’ve started having more menstrual crampy contractions. the first few days they were pretty light and the last couple of days, I could definitely feel them but they’re also very sporadic. anyhow, more wait and see. there’s nothing really to indicate that he’s not going to hang in there until the due date and, thankfully, I’m still feeling good enough that I’m perfectly happy with that. I’m not waddling yet, you can clearly tell the difference between my ankles and my calves, I’m still able to do an hour at a time on the elliptical… I’m doing pretty darned good for an 8.5+ months pregnant woman 🙂 the acid reflux and carpal tunnel are not fun but I never expected it to all be sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns.
1 Aug 2014
today’s dr visit was more of the same. heart rate around 140. fundal measurement on track. 1cm dilated; 95% effaced; -1 station. our dr was much more non-committal about making guesses than the dr last week. he said that he’s seen women who get to 100% and immediately start dilating and he’s seen women who walk around at 100% for weeks without further progress. he said a lot of it depends on if the baby drops more. if he drops down below the pelvic bone, the weight on the thinned out cervix would start dilation. it’s all just wait and see. his only comment on the matter was on his way out of the office when he said he’ll see us next Friday, if not sooner 🙂
pregnancy is still good. the belly button would probably be a total outie if if weren’t for the laparoscopy scar holding the bottom half in. still have achy thumbs but I’ve gotten used to it. I’ve been needing more back-rubs the last few days. the acid reflux is back with a fiery vengeance after finishing the 14 day course of Prilosec – i guess it’s only a miracle cure while you’re actually taking it. if that’s all i have to complain about, i figure I’ve got it made. but still, as far as the minor annoyances of pregnancy, I’d call that the biggie. i would definitely rank it way worse than the nausea at the beginning (if i had actually been vomiting, I’m sure it would be a different story).
taken at the dr office today... calm is my mantra
when my MIL was about eight months pregnant with hubby, they came to the beach for vacation and FIL took her picture sitting in the monkey paw at the goofy golf place down the road. it’s always been the family story that this was hubby’s first trip to the beach and the reason he always wanted to live here.
MIL 8 months pregnant with hubby
this picture meant enough that, just before his 39th birthday, we did a beach vacation with his family and he and his mom posed with the monkey again.
mother, son, monkey - 39 years later
so it was always just an unstated understanding that, if we ever got pregnant, we would be paying a visit to the goofy golf monkey to celebrate the 8th month.
me 8 months pregnant with our son
the full monkey - i don't know if it had the evil red glowing eyes when MIL was pregnant
we three and the monkey
to me, this is probably one of the most special moments of my pregnancy. i love that we were able to recreate this memory that he and his mom shared and i hope that it means as much to her as it does to me.
capturing the moment, 48 years apart
25 Jul 2014
still loving being pregnant… haven’t reached that “when is this going to be over?!!” point. i was having some wicked heartburn that wasn’t all that fun but the Prilosec stuff seems to have licked that so woohoo for that! a couple weeks ago, my knuckles started hurting. a little in my fingers but mostly my thumbs… owie, owie thumbs. it started right after our marathon of furniture building so i figured at first that it must have been from the screwdriver i was using. since it has continued and gotten worse, I’m pretty sure it’s a late pregnancy symptom. it’s like an arthritic feeling. i looked online and a lot of people talked about it being a sign of swelling. i find it odd that it’s mostly confined to my thumb knuckles. my toes are perfectly fine (also should be noted that my ankles are still ankle-shaped, thankyouverymuch). so anyhow, that’s been interesting and achy. my hands have been going numb while laying down too, so that probably doesn’t help the joints. i also decided to measure my belly tonight, just out of curiosity… i have a 38 inch waist! good golly that’s a lot of belly!
in other news, some of our closest friends announced this week that they’re going to be grandparents. their daughter is about 8 weeks along and just moved back home with them. I’ve been bummed that we’re going to lose all of our friends because they won’t want to hang around with us and our crying baby but if they’re pulling grand-duty, it’ll be great. and this is hubby’s primary training partner so I’m sure they’re going to wear these kids out. good times on the horizon!
our dr is on vacation so today we saw one of the other drs in the group today. it was our first cervical exam and also the GBS swab day. everything is still looking good and healthy. heart rate was 147 bps; fundal measurement was right on track at 36 cm; 1/2 cm dilated; 80% effaced; -1 station. the dr said we don’t have long now. we told him that our due date is the 23rd and that we’re hoping for the 28th… he laughed and said we’ll never make it. he seems to think we’re looking at 2.5 weeks, 3 weeks tops. i know that it’s all guesswork and we won’t really know until it’s go-time but it did light a fire under us. we came home and installed the car seat in the car and then started packing our go-bags. things are getting real. i still would like for the turkey to stay put until he’s fully baked but at least i feel more prepared if he decides he’s too anxious to meet mommy and daddy. i’ll definitely be looking forward to getting our doc’s opinion on the way things are progressing next week.
last night was our last baby shower. our local friends got together and threw an awesome, tailgate-themed, coed shower for us. it was such a cute idea to make the men feel comfortable celebrating all things baby! i got all decked out in gator-wear and hubby donned some crimson tide gear and we celebrated bringing our baby into a house divided. instead of a cake, they had a froyo bar; instead of a guestbook, they had a football for people to sign; instead of games, they had diapers and bibs and onesies for people to decorate… so much fun.
go gators!
“our local friends put together an awesome tailgate baby shower! we had so much fun and seriously appreciate everything that has been done for us and given to us.”
From PCB Shower, posted by J’Lynn Holloway on 7/23/2014 (65 items)
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today was the big all-campus beach baptism. that means that roughly one year ago i was baptized and made new in Christ! thank God for saving a sinner like me and for all of the blessings in my life. i am so grateful that i can bring my baby boy into a family of faith and i pray that we are able to raise him to be a believer and follower of Jesus. i love baptism days!
18 Jul 2014
last week, i mentioned to the dr how horrible the heartburn has been lately. he advised me to go to sams and get the generic Prilosec otc and take that. oh! my! goodness! that stuff is made of pure magic! i haven’t had a lick of heartburn all week. it’s been fantastic. granted, heartburn is a very small price to pay for all of the joy I’ve derived from this pregnancy but it is so nice to be able to lay day at night without feeling like puking up fire. they don’t really tell you that the third trimester is like the first trimester on steroids… double the fatigue, double the heartburn, okay maybe not as much nausea but it’s still back. but, i also have this absolutely amazing alien moving around like crazy in my belly. i watch his elbows and feet jutting out at odd angles all over the place. i laugh at him when he gets a bit ouchy trying to pull my ribs loose. i am so awed by this itty bitty person!
yesterday was our childbirth and breastfeeding class. both classes were at the hospital where we’ll be delivering. the childbirth class went from 9-12, was taught by one of the labor/delivery nurses and she did a great job of answering questions and letting us know not only what to expect but also the way that they handle things at this hospital. I really don’t have a lot of concerns about labor/delivery… I’m sure it’s no walk in the park but I don’t see any point in worrying about something that I can’t control. all I can do is try to stay calm and concentrate on getting my son here as safely and healthy as possible. I prefer to go natural and I’ve been told I’m stupid and naïve for that but I’m going to try my best to not drug my baby on his way into the world… if something happens and I can’t handle it or have to have extraordinary measures taken to get him here, then so be it. I’m not going to let myself feel like a failure if things don’t go according to “my plan” but I’m not going to get all stressed and worried about it beforehand either. /tangent. anyhow, I was saying that birthing hasn’t really been a source of concern to me but it was good to get all the information that they had to offer and to know more about what to expect during the whole process. after the birthing class, we got to take a tour of the L/D floor of the hospital so we could see how the L/D rooms are set up, how close the operating rooms are in case of emergency, and what our post-partum room will be like. we also toured the NICU, which is a level III and is very nice and which we will hopefully never see again. after the tour, we headed back to the learning center where they served a lunch before the breastfeeding class. I was glad that I wasn’t the only woman there who was highly confused about the fact that they served lunchmeat to a room full of pregnant women who have been told for months that we are not allowed to eat lunchmeat. I ended up making a cheese sandwich and eating that with a bite of potato salad, a bag of chips, and too many brownies. the breastfeeding class was the one that really had my attention. all of my worries have revolved around breastfeeding… will he take to it? will he latch right? will my milk come in? the class really helped calm my fears and I left with more knowledge and less stress. definitely a good use of the day.
when we got home, we decided to go ahead and put together the rest of the nursery furniture which had been delivered earlier this week. we put the crib together Monday night but hubby was out of town for a couple of days on condo business so the changing table and dresser were put off. so we finished it up last night. it wasn’t bad… the crib took us about 1.5 hours, the changing table took 1:20, the dresser took 1:15. we definitely learned as we went 🙂 after getting everything assembled, it only made sense to stay up until 1 in the morning going through all the gifts we’ve received and putting things up where they belong. I felt good about the progress we made and the room just about looks like it’s ready for a baby.
today was our church campus’ beach blast. after the service, we had a big cookout on the beach behind the restaurant next door. it was a great afternoon of fellowship and we got to know people we see at church much better.
11 Jul 2014
today was our last ultrasound, to find out the baby’s size. they measured him up and estimated his weight to be 4 lbs 15 oz, which is right about on target according to the books I’ve been reading. the dr guesses he’ll be right around 7 lbs at birth. as for the ultrasound, our little turkey was quite the entertainer. he had his head pressed against the wall, facing us most of the time so we never got a good still pic. the creepy alien below is the best we got today (sadly our camera that we were trying to take video with failed us). what we did learn, however, was that our boy is a licker. we watched as he kept putting his hand up to his mouth but instead of sucking his thumb/fingers, he would stick his tongue out and lick them. and then, the part that really had us laughing like crazy, he stuck his long giraffe-like tongue way out and licked the wall of the womb! it was so cute and hilarious. the tech said she’d never seen a baby do that before. I kept thinking of my younger nephew when he went through his “I’m a doggie” phase as a little one and went around licking everyone and everything he came across. yep, our boy’s going to be one of those 🙂 I could’ve sat and watched him all day. other good news was that there’s plenty of amniotic fluid, the kidneys look good, and he’s exercising his lungs really well. all signs point to healthy!
take me to your leader
