34 weeks

Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I am getting so close.  It seems almost surreal that I am 34 weeks already.  Well, yesterday I had another ultrasound and me and baby are doing well.  Baby isn’t quite so huge as before, about 55th percentile, or 5.5 lbs (this is a good thing).  Although I have been having some contractions, my cervix hasn’t opened at all.  In fact, the doctor is hoping that it starts shortening/opening soon, so she thinks the contractions are a good thing, even if uncomfy.  She did an exam to rule out other problems that might cause pain like contractions (placenta issues or uterus problems).  She agreed with my decision to up my prednisone to 8 mg (which I did 3 days ago) and if that doesn’t work, after 5 days I will go a bit higher.  I am also going to start meet with a diabetes consultant about managing my blood sugar because it has been a little more difficult and they might have some insights (first appointment Friday).  I still don’t need any drug therapy though, since I am doing so well at controlling with diet.

Today I am feeling a little better than I have for a week or so.  I love these days because I feel like 10 minutes of a good day can wipe out the exhaustion from a whole bad day.  I feel really recharged and rejuvenated.  I think maybe the 8 mg of prednisone is working and it seems to make everything better (stomach, arthritis, blood sugar, contraction pain).  I also can sit back and enjoy the pregnancy on days like today.  My days are numbered of being able to feel my baby all the time.  In many ways that is good, but I am sure I will miss it too, so I am enjoying the time I have now!

Yesterday our favorite gingerbread elves (Meghan Wright and Mo Diehl) came over to bake the gingerbread for the party.  We are SOOOO grateful for their help.  We baked over 80 pieces of gingerbread, enough for 12 houses (with some spare pieces for breakage).  It would have taken Charles and me forever (especially because I need to rest from time to time).  It was good fun and really helpful.  We also got the first part of our new living room furniture set (coffee and end tables) yesterday.  It looks beautiful and we can’t wait to get the rest! 

This week is still going to be a bit busy.  We need to get the house ready, buy some more candy, assemble the dresser, and decorate our own gingerbread house before Saturday at 3.  We have recruited some more help to make this possible, so I think we are all set and Charles and I are taking Friday off, which should help. 

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers from everyone.  Although it was a rough week, I think I am through the worst of it and if nothing else, will get to charge my emotional and spiritual battery this week between feeling better and our favorite Christmas party!

Attaching a picture of me tonight.  I still haven't really popped out too much (although my belly is bigger than it looks if you move the boobs).  Thanks to Charles for taking the photo; no thanks for not telling me my pants were tucked into my socks :P.

33.5 weeks

Well it has been a pretty exhausting last week.  It has been a busy last week of pushing myself probably a bit too much to get ready for the impending holiday season as well as other events like the baby class and going to work.  I then got my first migraine this pregnancy on Sunday and just noticed I was getting a bit more tired each day.  Then on Wednesday night, after going out to dinner, we went to make our pies and I started noticing that on top of being SUPER tired and drained, I was feeling some pain on the surface of my stomach that felt like it could be contractions.  It wasn’t super uncomfortable, but it felt weird.  I had had a few Braxton-hicks practice contractions where my stomach felt tight, but nothing where it actually had any pain involved.  It was definitely pain rather than tightness.  After reclining on the couch for a bit and then ultimately getting into bed, we notice no improvement (despite no activity for an hour). 

So, we called the on call doctor and described the symptoms to her and she said we should go to the hospital and get checked out.  Of course it was like 9:30 or 10 pm at this point, everyone’s favorite time to go to the hospital.  Luckily the labor and delivery triage is not at all associated with the ER (and therefore, more peaceful) and the on-call doctor had called ahead so they were expecting us and got us in and settled immediately.  They then hooked me up to the machines to watch baby’s heart rate and check for contractions.  They saw about 3 contractions, then nothing for 20 minutes, then as soon as they called the dr to say not much had happened I had another 3 or 4 contractions.  The hospitalist on duty was very nice and came in and we talked a while about what was going on.  Since I was contracting, she also checked my cervix and saw that it was championship level long (4 cm) and completely closed.  We also talked about my increased activity as well as things like my blood sugar being a little off and the migraine.  She hypothesized that my hormones were changing at this point, causing all these changes, and either causing or contributing to the contractions.  They also confirmed that I still had blood in my urine (I had restarted antibiotics the day before) which meant my uti/bladder infection as still present.  She said to rest/relax and basically put myself on bed rest to see if it would help calm the contractions down.  She recommended we not do anything for thanksgiving and just totally take it easy.  However, she also reassured us that also I might be having pre-term contractions, that is different than pre-term labor (where the cervix is actually changing).  If it switched and got more intense, my cervix was long enough that we’d have plenty of notice to take action.

We were home by midnight (after a quick stop for steamed egg nog for Katie for being such a good sport!).  Unfortunately though, I had a terrible night of sleep and probably only got about 5 hours, if that.  I woke up several times still contracting and was also contracting in the morning.  I called my dad to let him know we’d miss thanksgiving but he could come get the pies we baked for everyone.  He came up and kept me company while Charles was at the gym, which worked perfectly.  It was nice to see some family on thanksgiving, even if it didn’t go exactly as I planned. 

The day was rough with contractions all day and no improvement despite resting all day (plus an upset stomach and irritated bladder).  We called the on-call doctor at about 4 (of course while another pie was in the oven) and he said that I shouldn’t still be having contractions so I should go back in.  So Charles drove me to the hospital to be hooked up to monitors and then went to rescue our pie before coming back to join me.  This time, no contractions came up on the monitor despite some similar pains on my part.  The doctor at the time suggested that I was probably having bowel contractions instead since my stomach had been off all day.  Either way, the baby wasn’t going anywhere, which was reassuring.  We got to leave pretty quickly.

We then had some lovely pumpkin sausage pasta with Bobby Flay’s Brussels sprouts recipe (a new part of our thanksgiving spread).  And of course PIE!  It was nice to not be worried about the “contractions” any more and just relax and enjoy my dinner with Charles.  As much as thanksgiving is supposed to be about big family stuff, it was nice to finally just sit down and enjoy a few minutes with Charles and relax.  I then slept a million times better last night and as the Inverso’s would say “thanks-a-god” because I really needed it.

Today has been much improved.  Most of the day I felt almost perfect, but in the last hour or two have had some increased discomfort, but nothing major (probably just my body getting a little tired).  I had a regularly scheduled Non-stress Test (NST) today, which is the same baby heart rate and contraction monitoring.  I am going to be doing them bi-weekly for the rest of the pregnancy.  It was nice to see that I still wasn’t contracting and the added bonus today was that my doctor (Dr. Kline) was in the hospital so we asked them to page her and she came to chat for a few minutes.  Her take was that I may be having uterine contractions, or maybe bladder, or maybe bowel, hard to say.  She thinks if the monitor picked it up the first night, that there probably is some type of uterine contracting going on, but clearly not large enough ones to open a cervix or be picked up by the monitor always.  This means that even if annoying, there is no worry of pre-term labor.  She said ultimately it seems like my body was having a bad day yesterday (and night before) and has potentially righted itself (technical diagnosis of caddywompus-ness!).  She said to listen to my body and relax, but if I am worried, to call because she would be on call all weekend.  This is such a relief to have her available to us, and she was so nice to not only commend us for calling the last few days because it is always better to check, but encourage us to keep calling if we are worried.  We are in SUCH good hands!  It is hard enough to be first time parents, but to add all of my stomach/bladder/arthritis and other issues to it makes it all the more complicated and confusing, and with such high stakes!

We are now looking forward to doing nothing.  We have our Christmas party (Gingerbread rock) next weekend, but hopefully we can depend on friends to help pull that off without too much work on my part.  I also will just take work one day at a time and rest as much as I can.  Tomorrow we are planning to stay home and NOT go to the hospital!  I am going to keep resting as much as I can and try to catch up my energy meter!  Thanks for all the love and support and I promise we will keep this bun in the oven until he is ready!

p.s. I apologize for typos, not doing as much proofing as usual today…

32.5 weeks

It has been a pretty stable and good last two weeks.  We made some progress on the baby room and in general I feel much less whiny about pregnancy than last time.  A lot of my little problems have been solved (support hose and belly strap really do help!) and I am enjoying that I am not too big and uncomfortable yet.  My arthritis and stomach stuff has been a little worse the last four days, but I hope it is temporary.  I have also been able to get some really good work done (with some breaks), which allows me to feel really good about myself.  I also received my annual review from last year – an outstanding – which helps ease fears of performing well despite complications and missing work.
 
I’ve had two more ultrasounds since my last post.  My mom and dad came to the last one, which was great.  I think I have begun to take for granted how cool it is to get to see my baby weekly and watch him move and practice breathe and watch his little heart beat.  It is quite reassuring.  My parents really enjoyed all the new technological advances and how much they could see of their grandson!
Last week he was rocking out on the way to the ultrasound appointment to Metallica and I think I tired him out so he was totally conked out during the ultrasound and made it take a little longer (they like to count a certain number of kicks).  Back in true form, this week, he enjoyed kicking me and the ultrasound wand throughout the ultrasound.  He still enjoys switching from having both head and feet down (yes it gets quite crowded for my bladder) and having one or both legs up so he can kick me in the ribs.  For once, this week, his body was facing my right side instead of my left, which was interesting.  He unfortunately had his face toward my back so we don’t have any cute pictures. 

I have been reading this hypnobirthing book and it talks about bonding with your baby.  I admit pregnancy and baby preparation is so hectic it is hard to remember to take time to enjoy him.  Today I sat down and played him some of my favorite songs (including some Handel’s Messiah, Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme from a Paganini, Taylor Swift, and Charles’ and my song).  I enjoyed petting my stomach while he kicked in response to the music!  I can’t wait for all the things we can share with this kid, but when I feel like I want to connect with him now, there is still plenty to do.  I also hope his fondness for music will continue when he is born and maybe he will enjoy band or choir like I did!

Saturday he was crazy active including moving all around last night.  As Charles and I sat on the couch, you could literally watch my stomach rippling and bouncing around.  It seemed like he either was trying to or was flipping back from facing my left to ride side.  I think his head is staying down but he likes to flip over which, given his large size, and my relatively small belly, is a tight squeeze.  Charles and I both feel and odd sense of pride watching our kid move around.  He is strong and active and I couldn’t be happier with that (even if it is uncomfy sometimes)!

The crib is up and looking fantastic and the room is all painted.  We also have the stroller (thanks Tina!) and Charles put that together as well.  It is cute to see him in his daddy-mode where despite being tired, he bucks up to go paint or assemble things.  I love that he is also a perfectionist and will take the 30 minutes to read online about painting tips or thoroughly read the stroller manual before he starts.  It is one of the things I really love about Charles (well that and about a million other things).  I am not sure if it is carrying his baby or the fact that I am always madly in love with him, but I have noticed since my pregnancy started that seeing him across a room or a grocery store will literally make my heart skip.  It is fun to have that crazy-head-over-heels-in-love-feeling magnified by the child we are bringing into this world together!

Saturday was also the all-day baby class at our hospital.  I had heard great things about it but since my arthritis was pretty flared, I have to say I was not looking forward to going in the morning, but the class was worth it and I was able to stay comfortable enough.  Also it was only 6 hours instead of 7 and we were able to take a quick nap in the afternoon before heading to a friend’s pre-thanksgiving party.  The class was well done and I felt like we both learned a lot.  If nothing else, it is good to spend some time thinking about and visualizing life after our son is born.  One lady’s water broke during one of the breakout sessions (not ours), so she’ll have to learn as she goes, haha!

Charles is taking all next week off so it will be nice to have him home.  I plan to still work all but Thursday, but I may take an hour or two off if Charles wants to go on a fieldtrip.  Hopefully we will get the last piece to the dresser early next week and we can put it together, but otherwise, I hope Charles can get some good relaxation time in since he has been working so hard at work and at home!  Once we have the dresser up I can start putting things together in the room and realize what we need and are missing.

30 weeks

Well the baby is a growing machine (or maybe I am the growing machine for the baby).  He is 4 lbs 1 oz, by ultrasound measurement (which is a notoriously bad estimator) but since it compares to other bad estimates, it can help us determine approximately how he compares to other kids.  He is in the 91^st percentile, so he is gigantic!  Everything is looking really good.  They measure resistance and blood flow in the placenta and umbilical cord and the placenta is still going very strong.  Baby is also still head down, although that doesn’t stop him from kicking me in the cervix and bladder (and punching at the same time).  He apparently likes to have everything hanging down with his butt up against the lower right of my rib cage.  He is already feeling pretty tight in there.  Hard to imagine him getting more than twice as big!

Speaking of size, of course the issue with him being a healthy big boy is that it may make delivery more complicated or more exacerbate any problems with a failing placenta.  If my placenta stops growing later in pregnancy (as has been found with some active auto-immune patients, although not all), then it may really struggle to keep up with the really big baby’s nutritional and oxygen needs.  My doctor is still tempted to induce me by 40 weeks at the latest because of this concern, but nothing set in stone yet.  We also talked about if he continues to grow faster and faster, we could end up needing a c-section.  Apparently the standard is that babies who are over 4000 g (8 lb 13 oz) are more likely to have should distocyia problems (head comes out, shoulders won’t = very bad for baby and mommy).  Since ultrasound is not an exact science, doctors raise this to 4500 g estimated weight (9 lb 14 oz).  At that point, they would induce if your cervix is super super ripe or if not, they would do a c-section.  They lean toward c-section as a safer option.  Apparently the best solution for dystocia problems is having the woman throw her legs up high over her head, which may be difficult for my body, which may make approaching this situation even more difficult. 

So, we’ll see.  I’d still love to have this kid naturally, so I am hoping that sometime around 38-39 weeks, he just decides to come out.  It might make the holidays more difficult but it sure beats an induction or c-section.  On why he is so big, it is hard to say.  My blood sugars have been really good, so probably not that, but possible that in the same way prednisone makes me gain more weight than I would normally, it might do the same for the baby.  Unfortunately, prednisone is also keeping me glued together and able to eat at all, so I guess if that means a healthy baby by c-section, then so be it.

As to my health, I am doing great.  No signs of pre-eclampsia and blood sugars have been super easy to control (thank god for peanut butter, why did I resist so long?).  I have gained about 30 lbs so far, which is more than I would like, but given the prednisone, it isn’t something I have a lot of control over.  I don’t feel like I am eating in excess, but I’ll continue to watch what I eat.  I have been having a little bit more arthritis and stomach discomfort the last week, even though I have held stable on my prednisone, so it may be that the hormones or just weight of pregnancy is causing stuff to get slightly worse.  I’d like to not increase my prednisone if I can, but 8 or 9 mg vs 7 won’t really matter if I am getting really sick, so we’ll see. 

The baby’s weight is definitely pushing down on my stomach and causing some discomfort, so the doctor suggested investing in a belly band for support.  I bought one today and so far I hate it, but I hate anything tight or squishy, I am going to wear it all night tonight and see if I am more comfy otherwise.  If not, I may set it aside and repeat again in a week until the discomfort of wearing it is outweighed by discomfort of baby pushing down.  Also, the doctor wants me to wear support hose as much as possible during the day because I am getting some broken blood vessels in my legs which aren’t ideal and I will probably end up with varicose veins. I bought a pair today, after driving around the fricking planet to find them at a place that would bill my insurance (they are $55 per pair) and so far they are pretty awful (they are squeezing all my tender joints, and resist movement) but my legs aren’t hurting as bad as they have been the last few days.  I guess I hadn’t really noticed how throbby they have been (although this morning it was killing me).  The good news is, the belly band is practically the most comfortable thing ever compared to the stockings, just not sure yet if it is having as much of a positive effect.   

I also need to invest in larger bras (I think mostly women read this blog, but sorry to the boys).  Apparently my breasts are growing exponentially, but finding them is getting trickier as no one sells my size.  I have ordered one new bra (that is also a nursing bra), so I am looking forward to testing that out when it comes and probably ordering some more.  It will be my first foyer into non-underwire since I was in 5^th grade or so, so it will be interesting. I hate buying bras online, especially in new sizes because you really don’t know how it will fit.  A lot of them are on back order online, and since my breasts might get bigger after my milk comes in, there may be a few weeks where I am making due.  Wish on top of everything else, that this wasn’t such a headache. 

Speaking of simple things like big boobs being an annoyance, it sometimes feels like the little uncomfy/annoying things with this pregnancy add up (peeing all the time, testing my blood sugar constantly, acid reflux, breast swelling and pain, pants not fitting, giant baby pushing down discomfort, varicose veins, difficulty bending over).  However, most of these are all normal things.  They are more annoying to me than my arthritis because I am less used to dealing with them, but they are all things normal people get.  They aren’t high risk issues, they aren’t hurting the baby, and they aren’t really hurting me.  It is good to step back from the momentary discomfort and realize it is all small potatoes and what I care about, and have always cared about is becoming and mom and having a healthy baby.  So far my body is growing a great baby!  It is amazing to look around at all the women who have chosen to have babies and realize the personal sacrifices they have made, not just for 9 months, but for their whole life (as a result of pregnancy)!  It is an amazing thing to have a baby and to give life to someone, but I don’t think society gives women enough credit for being will to do it!

In prepping-for-baby news, we go our new couch today, woot!  We are so excited.  It looks amazing.  We also flipped the direction of our living room, which I think is a good change.  Charles has been a really good sport taking everything apart (so we could clean the carpets and flip everything) and now putting it all back together.  It hasn’t been easy and he has spent a lot of time crouching on the floor.  Thanks honey!  Next we need to pick and order coffee and end tables and then we’ll be mostly done.  This weekend, we also hope to paint the baby room, but that somewhat depends on how long it takes to put the living room back together.

 

We also had a fun week of being social: Mo’s birthday parties and Carlo and Julie’s going away party along with dinner with my dad, and tomorrow dinner with one of my best friends from high school, Ryan Simpson.  Also this week, since all of our furniture was moved, Charles and I have been sort of camping (eating where we can find a surface and playing cards rather than watching tv or talking on the phone).  We probably played a good 30 games of Set, which we don’t do often enough and was very fun.  We also played some wordament on the cell so Charles could have his redemption (he wins 99.9% of the time in wordament and I win 99.9% of the time in Set).  Overall it has been a busy but productive and fun week.  I think we both need some vegging time though!