39 Weeks and Waiting

After spending a few weeks on bed rest, I got to resume normal activity at 36 weeks at which time I had my baby shower. My mom hosted a lovely open house shower at my apartment with an impressive spread of food and desserts. We had a nice time even though we had a terrible turnout. Baby showers have a way of showing you who your true friends are.

So, I have been spending my time since then waiting for the baby to be born. I celebrated when I made it to full-term, then celebrated again when I made it all the way to May (the month of her due date), but now that I'm 39 weeks I am done celebrating and ready to have this baby! Keira was born at 39 weeks, so I don't expect to go past my due date, but apparently Clovis Community Hospital is so busy that they set an appointment for your induction just in case you need one. So I have an appointment for the 17th, if for some reason I don't go into labor on my own by my due date which is the 15th. So far the most consistent contractions I have had were 6 minutes apart for 3 hours, but then they went away. It was just enough to keep me up all night and on edge wondering if I should grab my hospital bag and call my mom in the middle of the night.

My mood has varied over the past few weeks, starting with a week-long burst of energy around 37 weeks, then back to exhaustion and irritability at 38 weeks, now at 39 weeks I am still exhausted but trying to make an effort to keep my house in order knowing that any day I could be leaving and coming back home with a newborn baby. Physically, I am having a tough time. Could be worse, but I am definitely having a hard time getting around. My feet and hands are super swollen. It seriously looks like my feet have a good half inch of playdough underneath the skin. You can push on them and indent them like playdough. It feels like I'm walking on someone else's feet and even my loosest flip-flops leave indentations across the top of my feet. It's been all I can do to keep up with Keira, so I am glad that I did all of the baby preparations in my second trimester.

Me at 38 weeks and my Sister-in-Law Sophia at 34 weeks.

Baby girl cousins in the making.

I had a checkup with my doctor on Tuesday at which time he checked my cervix and at first had trouble "finding it" then after a series of "Wow.... oh wow.... wow"s he told me that my cervix was REALLY soft, which is a good thing. Not very dilated at just over a centimeter, but soft is good, and definitely effacing. He doesn't expect me to have a long labor, and I am hoping he is right since I plan to not have an epidural and probably not stadol either since when I had Keira the stadol made me throw up and the epidural both didn't work and stopped my labor. I think I would have easily had her out in 4 hours instead of 7.5. The thought of having a baby without the pain relief is frightening, but I feel like the benefits are lesser than the ill effects they caused when I had Keira.

Keira was born on a Sunday morning and I had a constant stream of visitors in and out of my room from about 2 hours after she was born. I didn't get any time to rest, and was having a difficult time getting Keira to breastfeed which was further hindered by the constant guests coming and wanting to hold her. Then after we got home from the hospital, they called us back to put her on light therapy for 24 hours because she was jaundiced. So, I really didn't get to hold her for the first 3 days of her life and I feel like that seriously delayed our bonding and contributed to some postpartum depression. I decided back then that when I have another baby I am going to make the hospital experience totally different than it was, so I made the decision to only allow my mom and Art's mom to visit at the hospital- mostly for my support. Then after I get home from the hospital, I will allow other family members to start visiting as I feel comfortable, though I will not be passing around the baby to be held. Art, Keira, Art's mom, my mom, and I will be doing the holding. This is certainly nothing personal against any of my friends and family, but Art and I both feel like we need to take a little more time for our family to bond quietly and for me to recover from giving birth. Most of my friends and family have been supportive of my decision, which I have been very grateful for, but some people are less than thrilled about the idea. To them, I would just say IF YOU LOVE ME- SUPPORT ME. You will get to see my precious baby, just not the moment she emerges from my womb.

Well, I better get back to what I was doing... waiting. It's hard work, you know?

Bed Rest

Things were getting kind of dull around here, so I decided to spice things up with a trip to the hospital on Friday. When I got home from work that day, I had cramps really low in my abdomen and I had noticed that I was having a lot of contractions. I started timing them and they were a little too regular for my comfort- every 10 minutes and creeping closer. So, I put in a call to my doctor and headed to the hospital to get checked out in Labor and Delivery. Sure enough, by the time they got me checked in, disrobed, and on the monitors, I was having contractions every 2-6 minutes and was starting to dilate. They gave me a shot to stop the contractions and did some other tests to check for infections and they told me that my urine sample was "a little dirty" so they prescribed me an antibiotic and decided to do a urine culture. They discharged me after about 8 hours with strict bed rest instructions.

I spent the weekend doing absolutely nothing, depending strongly on the assistance of my mother and sister to take care of Keira and to keep up my house. This morning I called my doctor's office to check on the results of my urine culture- which was negative for infection. At first I was surprised, until I remembered that when I was about 26 weeks pregnant with Keira, I had a similar trip to Labor and Delivery. When I gave them that urine sample it looked more like fruit punch than pee, but when the culture came back it was also negative for infection. Apparently, during my pregnancies I am notorious for having unexplained blood in my urine with no infection.

I'm not really sure if the mystery bladder ailment is what is causing my issue with preterm labor. I also think I had been on my feet doing WAY too much physical activity in the couple days leading up to my recent hospital visit. Or it could be a combination of the two factors... either way I'd rather not have this baby at only 33 weeks! I have a checkup on Wednesday morning at which time I will be talking to my doctor about his ideas for my future bed rest/activity level. I have a feeling I won't be going back to work, since I have a physical job, but I hope to be able to at least function around home. All I know right now is that I am seriously glad that I did all of the baby preparations in my second trimester. It's going to be all I do to get through the next 7 weeks.

UPDATE 3-28-12

I saw my doctor this morning and he prescribed me some medication to keep my contractions under control and has put me on modified bed rest for the duration of my pregnancy, which means no more work until after my maternity leave.

Neutral

Dialogue between Art and I today...

Art: Do you ever think about how when you have the baby it's going to suck?

Me: What do you mean it's going to suck?

Art: Like, it's going to hurt a lot.

Me: Yeah, I think about that every day. But, what you have to understand is it's like the worst experience of your life followed by the best reward you could possibly get.

Art: So, you should want to have more kids, right?

Me: No... they cancel each other out. lol

Art: So... you're neutral then.

Me: Yup. :)

30 Weeks

I am 30 weeks pregnant today! I haven't owned a scale for quite some time, but I checked my weight on my boss' scale today and I was shocked to learn that I am about 130 lbs. At my last checkup 3 weeks ago I was like 122, so I definitely didn't estimate that I had gained any 8 pounds in that amount of time! Apparently, my appetite is quite healthy, but I'm thinking maybe it's time to cut back on the chocolate whole milk, fruit salads smothered in whipped cream and marshmallows, and maybe even the brownies. Not that 130 pounds is bad, but at this rate I'm going to end up a little heavier than I want to be.

Yesterday, I went to my mom's house for dinner and talked my sister-in-law, Vivian, into taking a picture of me in my pregnant glory out in one of the orchards. I love the scenery, because it looks like snow, but it's 75 degrees and I'm surrounded by blossoms.

After my next checkup on the 14th, I will be seeing the doctor every 2 weeks until delivery. I can't believe there are only 10 weeks left until my due date- and only 8 more weeks of work (16 work days) at the most. This pregnancy definitely seems to be going by quickly, despite being more physically challenging than my pregnancy with Keira. My lower back has been giving me daily grief and I have also had a lot of pelvic floor pain/pressure this time around. These things combined make it pretty hard to make it through my work day, even though it's only 3 hours, and makes it tough to keep up with Keira. I just picked up a back support belt a few days ago and that seems to be helping a little.

I'm definitely glad that I did all of the baby preparations early on so that I don't have to do much from now until delivery. I have my travel crib bassinet set up in my room with my new changing table all stocked, and another bassinet set up and ready in the living room. All this in addition to the closet full of clothes ready to go, and the car seat and other necessities located and ready. I literally only have a couple small things to buy, a couple things to borrow from a friend. Then after I have my diapers, wipes, and formula shower I should be SET. We just can't wait until "Sister" comes!

A Granny Square for my Baby

In an attempt to satisfy my nesting instinct without injuring my back, I started working on a granny square afghan for baby Liana. I chose this pattern, because it reminds me of the "tv blankets" my Great Grandma Peters made for each of my siblings. I also liked that I could incorporate multiple colors from the girls' bedroom theme.

4 weeks later... the blanket is done, my ulnar nerve is angry, and I'm back to scrubbing, organizing, and moving furniture. As soon as my arm gets better, I am going to make a matching blanket for Keira.

Pirates Wear Panties

In my family, it is a well-known fact that Keira hates to wear panties- or anything else that covers her buns like pull-ups, PANTS, etc. In her idea a perfect world, she would get to run around in dresses with nothing underneath or even better- naked. I have been trying to crack down on her naked-bottomedness lately and enforce panty wearing as part of her new potty chart goal of earning a scooter.

This might sound like easy enough of a task, but you wouldn't think so if you have ever witnessed what it takes to get underwear or clothing on that girl. It requires either a strong and determined man, or up to 3 women. I swear, clothing her is what I imagine it would be like to clothe an octopus. Putting clothes and panties on is like torture to her very soul.

Keira really likes the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and recently started playing Lego Pirates on the PS3. One day in a fit of desperation, I shouted something like, "You have to wear panties!!! Even pirates wear panties!!!" I could almost see the thought sink into her brain, and suddenly she was ok with wearing panties. It was miraculous. My mom gets a kick out of the fact that I convinced Keira that pirates do indeed put on clean panties before they go raiding and pillaging. She has to keep from laughing out loud when she hears me remind Keira that pirates wear panties too.

Another huge struggle with Keira is brushing her teeth. Most of the time I have to literally sit on her to make it happen. A couple days ago, I asked Keira if she thinks pirates brush their teeth (thinking maybe she would take to that idea and get excited about it) but she said that they don't. Then this morning she came in my room and told me she wanted to play Pirates and I told her we have to eat breakfast first. She protested, so I told her even pirates eat breakfast to which she replied, "Pirates don't eat breakfast! They wear panties!" So, yes, pirates wear panties but pirates do not brush their teeth or eat breakfast. I guess I will have to find some other motivation for that. lol

Adventures in Naming

Art and I have been in baby name negotiations since we found out our baby's gender 4 weeks ago. I started out by making a "long list" of names and gave it to Art to cross out and add too. 2 weeks of nagging later, he looked at the list for 5 minutes and gave it back to me with EVERYTHING crossed out except Mia, Isabella, and Liana. All middle name options were crossed out.

I really only put Mia and Isabella on the list because I know he likes those names a lot, but I am opposed to any first name that is in the top 20 popular names. Mia is number 10 and Isabella is number 1. I told Art I would move Isabelle (instead of Isabella) to the middle name list, and consider Mia and Liana as first names. I made a middle name "long list." Art narrowed it down to 4.

I printed a list of all the name combinations, which was 8 in total. From there we narrowed it down to 6 names, but then both of us arrived at the conclusion that we're not sure if Mia or Liana are the right first name. So back to the books I went. After reading another 15,000 names or so, I made another "long list" of which Art only liked 2, which were the ones I wasn't really crazy about, but put them on the list anyway.

I'm not really sure what to do from here. I wish there were a couple names I was really crazy about so I could talk Art into them, but I am unsure at this point and relying on Art's opinion which differs greatly from mine. At this rate, I'm pretty sure we won't have a name picked out before the baby is born in 4 months. The obstacle of naming is exactly why Art and I could NEVER have a "surprise." There is no way we could come up with a boy name AND a girl name in time.

I asked Keira what she thinks Sister's name should be and she said her name is "Baby." I said, "I thought you are Baby." She said, "No, I'm Keira. Sister can be 'Baby' now." I thought that was cute. She is passing down the title to her sister, which is a big deal for her. And the adventures in naming continue... which is a big deal for me!