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Feeling Bleh

A watermelon in my gut! No wonder it has felt like I’m carrying around a billion pounds lately. 
Feeling slightly discouraged at not having any signs of anything happening except for menstrual cramps. And no, there is no pattern. Just cramps that last for hours — just like regular cramps.
I don’t want to be in the hospital on Christmas :(, and I don’t want to sit on my couch all day on Christmas not being able to bend over and do anything. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I look forward to it all year. I love Christmas music, Christmas lights, and everything Christmas. I feel jipped of my Christmas experience this year. 
Thanks for letting me mope in this post. 

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Belly Picture – Week 39

We went to the doctor this past week (38 weeks and 4 days), and the doctor said things are looking good! Wonderful amniotic fluid, baby’s weight looks good (41st percentile; approx 7 pounds but the estimates usually run a little high), and everything looks great on the ultrasound.

The ultrasound technician at our doctor’s office absolutely loves her job, and you can tell. She gets so excited when she gets a good picture of the baby, and she prints it out right away for us. This week, the baby was already in the head-down position, so the technician was having a hard time getting a good 2-D shot. She seemed defeated, but then she pulled out the 4-D wand and gave us a few pics.

I always think the 4-D ultrasounds are really creepy, so I wasn’t quite prepared to see puffy little Peter lips on the giant, flat screen, 52″ ultrasound TV.

The 4-D ultrasounds have lots of amniotic fluid and blobs floating by, which make it even weirder as you are watching. I imagine she wasn’t too happy with the technician poking and prodding around for 20 minutes. We will see if she still looks grumpy after birth :). 

39 Weeks

During the physical part of the exam, the doctor said softening is starting but no dilation. Her prediction is a late baby, so we will just see what happens! She wants us to prove her wrong, but we are going to discuss a possible induction if we make it to the appointment this Thursday, the 20th. I would be happy with a December 20th or 21st baby, but she may end up being a late-comer. We’ll just wait and see!

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Hormones. Gah.

I have been pretty impressed with my emotional stability through the whole pregnancy. For the most part, I’ve only had maybe a day a month that has been sappy. That’s not too bad for a female. We always have 1 emotional day a month. I would even venture to say that society has made us think that pregnant women are always these emotionally unstable people who cannot have feelings without them being the result of pregnancy. This, for the most part, is simply not true. Not in my experience anyway.

But this past week, I am totally having a huge hormone shift — keep in mind that I have like 10 days left until my due date. This week there have been these random times when I get soooooo sad for no reason at all…other than crazy hormones. I will be sitting there watching a funny TV show, and then I will just feel so sad that I want to cry. My husband is a saint for putting up with me.

With all of that going on, I am very happy to say that I will be working from home next week! YAY! When I work from home, I sit at the dining room table. And guess what??? The bathroom is only 10 feet away!

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Baby’s Room

Since I haven’t felt a definitive “nesting” period, I am content with the level of preparedness for baby. I feel like we have all the “stuff”… That is as ready as we’re ever going to be able to get, since we have no idea what to expect.

I am not mentally ready for labor.

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Holiday Parties

This year the holidays are kind of a crapshoot. We’re not really sure what is going to happen, so we’ve been taking every opportunity to have holiday celebrations.

Since I am not sure if I will be pushing out a baby for Christmas, my mom and I took my grandmom out to holiday tea. I had to work Friday, so we squeezed a quick tea luncheon in. I had a delicious lobster bisque and egg salad sandwich. Yum!

Blurry but what a gut shot!
37 weeks and 5 days

This weekend Peter decided to invite some people over (very spontaneously) for a holiday party. I love Christmas parties so much. I seriously look forward to them all year long. I think it’s so fun to get to the end of the year and have something fun to dress up for, eat yummy food, and have a great time with people. Our work party falls the day before our due date though, so we pretty much are thinking it’s a “no.”

We had a good showing for a last minute get-together, played games, ate food, and laughed a bunch. Perfect! 
And today, Peter and my coworkers had a nice little surprise Christmas luncheon/baby shower for us. It was so nice and so unexpected! Everyone bought us a Christmas book and wrote a little message. Our child will be well-read :). Here are some of the awesome books we got:

Thanks to everyone! We had a great time over the past few days. This rest of this week is now all about getting work done at work, seeing what happens at the ultrasound & physical appointment on Thursday, and getting a new freezer, so we can stock up on easy-to-make food before the baby comes.

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37 Weeks and 4 Days

Well, sleep is getting difficult. Twice this week I woke up waaaay before my alarm went off and couldn’t get back to sleep at all. My mind just goes crazy with weird thoughts. I am not actively worrying or thinking about something, but as soon as I fall asleep, my mind decides to fixate on something. Anything really. If I watched it on TV before bed, I dream about it.

This week’s doctor appointment was pretty uneventful, which is a good thing, I guess. The baby’s heartbeat was 138 (normal). I didn’t gain any weight this week, but I honestly think it’s because my stomach feels more squished this week. The doctor asked me if I was having any symptoms or complaints this week, and I told her, “No, it’s been a pretty bland week for pregnancy.” She thought this was really funny. *shrug*

This week has been an abusive week for my hips though. It feels like she is pummeling me from the inside. I would swear sometimes she is trying to punch her way out.

I have also noticed an increase in my fatigue. I get exhausted sooo easily. If I get up and walk into another room, I feel like I carried a 200 pound man on my back. Needless to say, I have been spending an increasing amount of time on the couch. My heart beats a million beats a minute from just sitting. It’s crazy!

Hiccups are still happening daily. Also, I think my child is part golden retriever. Every so often I feel this spastic shaking inside my stomach, and it feels like the movement a dog makes when they scratch their ear really fast. Sometimes I think it’s the dog on the couch or on the bed, but then I realize it’s coming from inside my body. I have no idea what’s going on in there.

We got new carpet! It is so nice and soft…and hopefully not as much of a dog hair magnet as the crappy carpet we had before. Bonus: this carpet is not 20 years old AND is not green, so these are giant pluses.

We went to a parenting class this week, and it was pretty useful. A pediatrician was there, and she answered all of the questions everyone had. We also got a fancy poster of baby poop. Peter couldn’t look at it. Ha.

I was talking to a friend today on Facebook. We are both actually due on December 23rd, so it’s nice to compare stories. I can’t tell you how hilarious and comforting it is to hear that someone else doesn’t realize they have crumbs and stains on their clothes. These boobs…they hide the view of all the junk that lands on the belly.

I’ve been trying to wrap all of the Christmas gifts this week. It has been slow going, since I get tired after wrapping 4 gifts. Wrapping involves lots of leaning and stretching. Tough stuff!

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9 Months — AHH!

We had our 36-week doctor appointment on Wednesday. From here on out, this means doctor visits are weekly, and pelvic exams come back into the picture — huzzah!

The baby’s heartbeat was 152, which is pretty much where it’s been hanging around lately. My blood pressure was good, so these swollen legs are just a result of normal water retention.

I’ve been sneaking a peek at my records every time I go to the doctor because I am always curious what the “fundal height” is that week. Just in case you don’t know, the fundal height is the way they measure your uterus (aka stomach in my opinion) to see how the baby’s growth is. The doctor hasn’t told me anything about the baby’s size, but I saw that my fundal height has been matching my number of weeks since sometime in the 2nd trimester. If you are 36 weeks, they expect you to measure 36 cm. So yay!

No dilating going yet, which is fiiiiiine by me. The baby was in head-down position at the appointment, so we’ll see how much she wiggles each week and changes position.

My doctor asked us to make a Birth Plan, which I never wanted to make because I am not that high maintenance…but after that crazy birthing class, I realized the things I do NOT want. No mirrors. No 10 person party in the delivery room.

I’m pretty open to my doctor’s recommendations though. I think she’s a smart woman. She’s educated. She went to school for this (several times). She delivered thousands of babies. I have never done this and have never taken a medical class before. I value her opinions and her expertise in this area. With that being said…if you are reading and thinking that Peter and I might make poor or uninformed choices, please don’t worry. We are educated people also, and you will be able to make all of the decisions you’d like for your own labor and delivery.

For the past 2 days, I’ve noticed that my lower back has been popping a lot. I think the relaxin hormone is kicking in again — it’s never fun. My pelvis has returned to being pretty sore, and now that my lower back is feeling achy, my body thinks it’s 92 years old.

I am pretty bad at drinking water just for the heck of it. I usually drink when I eat, so I’ve been trying to make myself drink more. I’m not sure if that’s why peeing in the middle of the night has increased or if it’s all of this internal pressure going on.

This stage of pregnancy is pretty uncomfortable, but even with that being said, I don’t feel horribly unlike my normal self. I just miss being able to get off the couch without assistance :). Wiping my woman parts on the toilet is also pretty hilarious.

There is still a lot to do. We need to install the car seat, pick a pediatrician, actually do one GOOD cleaning of the entire house, hope that the new hallway carpet gets installed this week or sooner, make a stock pile of sugar glider food, etc. I’d say for the most part we have all of the baby equipment and stuff we need. It’s just a matter of making sure we do all of the things that probably won’t get done again for months.

Today is Christmas Decorating and Hospital Bag Day.

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Childbirth Prep Course

*Warning: Contains graphic information and a lot of use of the word “vagina.”

Peter and I had our Childbirth Prep Class last weekend. We opted for the 8-hour weekend course instead of the 4-day event during the workweek.

When we arrived, we were the only couple there for a while, but they slowly started trickling in. Soon our room was filled with 9 other couples.

We had to start by introducing ourselves, and everyone said their name, due date, doctor’s name, and any other little tidbits of information we wanted to provide. I was surprised to hear that 8 of the 10 couples were due after me because I thought everyone looked like they were going to pop any minute now. Shh — never tell them I said that!

Everyone seemed pretty normal, and most of their stories made us laugh because we could relate. So naturally, I thought this was going to be a pretty mild 8-hour day.

As a side note, I would like to state for the record that I am now terrified of child birth. I have seen The Joy of Life video in health class before, watched A Baby Story on TV, and have heard horror stories about childbirth from just about every mom I’ve ever met…but when you know that childbirth is inevitable, it takes on a whole new scare factor.

The little “intensity” — this is another word for “pain” — charts made me want to cry. Here is my interpretation of the Stages of Labor charts we saw.

So with all of that being said…lunch was somewhat silent as I sat there and ate my chicken sandwich in shock.
After showing us 15-or-so charts, we got to watch “the real thing” as depicted by 3 “real” women. I don’t know where you get 3 women who are willing to allow someone else to film their childbirth and their hoohaw for the world to see…but I am going to guess it’s at a hippie commune where women go into labor just because “they love how great it feels! Get me a mirror! I can’t get enough of this stuff!”
In the middle of this 3-D animated DVD complete with actual birthing scenes, the guy next to me starts asking questions. First he asks about the importance of a birthing tub. “Could I just put my wife into a hot tub?” he asks. Immediately the instructor says no because of public water that could be infected with germs. “What if it’s my hot tub?” Her answer is still no due to temperature. “What if I turn the temperature down?” She says, “Let me put it to you this way, sir…your wife probably weighs 150+ pounds right now. You are not going to get a Stage 1 pregnant women into a hot tub safely and then get her out when she reaches stage 2 or 3.” He just didn’t get it.
The video also referenced the “ring of fire.” This was very concerning to the guy next to me. “Um, is there anything I could put in there to help…you know…stretch it out and get it ready for childbirth?” 
HOLY CRAP! DID HE JUST ASK IF HE COULD GAUGE HIS WIFE’S VAGINA? 
Yes. Yes, he did folks. The instructor very quickly said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Sir, please understand that this process has been happening for thousands upon thousands of years. A woman’s body knows how to get ready for childbirth. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE INSERT THINGS INTO HER VAGINA!” The most disturbing part was how he turned to his wife after this comment and said how he didn’t agree; he really thinks they need to start getting it ready by stretching it out. 
Finally, the instructor talked about how sometimes a woman can accidentally poop during all of this pushing. She was really trying to lessen the fear that women have of this possibility by explaining that a woman’s body generally starts shutting down the digestive system a few days before labor, so there is less “stuff” in there. I think she referred to labor poop as “little deer pellets.” 

Well, this guy just wasn’t having it. This absolutely disgusted him, so he raised his hand. “Hear me out…what if…we took some sort of tube…and shoved it up there, so it would just whisk the poop away?” A POOP TUBE.

Once again, the instructor had to explain that he was really focusing on the wrong thing. I think he was imagining an active “spray” that just continued during the whole pushing phase.

I think the best part of the day was how everyone quickly turned and looked at the guy each time he raised his hand. And his wife…she didn’t seem phased by his questions. That was the weirdest part.
All-in-all…we laughed, I cried due to my new-found knowledge of this inevitable doom, and we have a funny story to tell you.