Experiments in Life

Yes, I am still pregnant…

Yesterday was my official due date. It came and went and we still have no baby to hold. But, that is okay. She will come when she is ready. I am currently trying to deal with this the best I can. The plan to induce is still in place if she isn’t here by June 11th. In fact, I will go into the hospital in the evening on June 10th (8-9 PM) or so and my doctor will come up to the hospital and break my water once her kids are in bed. It’s really comforting to know that she would come and do that for me even though she isn’t on call. Of course, she is on call this weekend and said that this weekend would be a great time for me to have a baby. She said that if I can’t handle things and am not doing well to come in this Sunday and she would break my water that night. So, Emily could be here as early as June 5 or as late as June 12. I’m going to hold out as long as I can. It just depends on how I am doing mentally and physically. If you’ve not heard, I plan on going as natural as I can during labor and childbirth. Because of this decision, my doctor encouraged me to wait the extra week and not be induced until June 11. However, June 11 is written in stone. She will not let me go over that, which is probably a good thing. I am so lucky to have such a supportive doctor, and husband as well. Jonathan has been really great throughout the whole pregnancy, but he is really shining right now. I couldn’t ask for a better husband

So, here’s the information you’ve all been waiting for:

I lost 1 lb over the past week (total pregnancy gain 13 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heart rate was 140
Measuring at 36 cm
The baby is definitely in the head-down position
Cervix: a ‘good’ 3 cm dilated
Effacement: 80% (we think-the doctor forgot since she was stretching my cervix)
Station: not sure, I’ve had a lot of hip pain and pressure, and since I lost a couple of cm, we know she has dropped further into the pelvis. My guess is she is definitly lower than -1.

My doctor stretched my cervix for as long as I could tolerate it. Jonathan was impressed as to how long I could bear it. It is more uncomfortable to me than painful, although there is some pain and definite discomfort afterwards. We are hoping that this will further dilate me and cause contractions to start. So far, I am pretty consistent in that when I do have contractions, they are always 5 min. apart and the same length in duration. Unfortunately, I manage to have 3-4 good contractions and then stop. So, we will have to wait and see if my labor will start on its own. I guess Emily is just taking after her parents and being stubborn!

So, that’s the update for this week. I do have an appt. scheduled for next Wed. We are hoping that we will not have to keep it. Of course, we were hoping not to have today’s as well. Oh well, all in good time.

Maybe this weekend…

Well, so much for progress…

I gained 0 lb over the past week (total pregnancy gain 14 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heart rate was 140
Measuring right on for 39 weeks (~38cm)
The baby is definitely in the head-down position
Cervix: 2 and some cm dilated (not quite 3 cm yet)
Effacement: 70%
Station: -1

So yes, I did progress some since I am now 70% effaced. Up until this point, all she said was that my cervix was soft, this is the first time she has mentioned effacement. She stretched my cervix a little again so I’ll probably have some mild contractions over the next day or two. Last week after stretching, I was really sore and had a few random contractions by Friday afternoon.

There is not much else to report. We were all hoping I would be further along with the dilation, but she will come in her time. I’m trying to be patient. I was doing well until this week. I do believe things are finally beginning to take there toll. I am very tired now and beginning to look that way. My doctor did give us what she called a ‘light at the end of the tunnel date’. If I am still pregnant by June 9 or 11, we will induce. My doctor is pretty adamant about not letting me go further than that. So, at the most, I only have 2 1/2 weeks left. Perhaps something will happen by the end of the week or over the weekend. We’ll just have to wait and see.

We’re hanging in there though. Some days are just better than others. Yesterday was good, but today is not as good. At least I have work to keep me busy. We’ll be sure to let folks know if anything starts happening, but it looks like it is going to be a little while longer before the fun begins.

The next doctor’s appt. is next Thursday, the day after my due date. I am hoping that we will not make that one, but only time will tell. So, look for another update on the 31st.

Progress at last!

I gained 1 lb over the past week (total pregnancy gain 14 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heart rate was 140-150s
Measuring right on for 38 weeks (~37cm)
The baby is definitely in the head-down position
Cervix: 2 cm dilated
Station: -1 (yes, it’s possible for this to change)

So, finally I have something interesting to report. I am a whole 2 cm dilated, actually closer to 2.5cm but my doctor decided to err on the side of caution. Things are starting to happen. Our Emily did manage to move back up some, last week she was at +1 station, but my doctor reassured us that this is normal. Babies have a tendancy to move up and down some before labor. My doctor is also confident that I will not go past my due date. So, based on her cofidence and experience, we’ll be having a baby in the next couple of weeks or so. She also stretched my cervix a little, which could speed things along.

I think we are as ready as we can be. My bag is mostly packed for the hospital and most everything is cleaned the way I want it. I still need to clean our bathroom and vacuum and dust the main areas again, but I figure I’ll get to it this weekend if Emily doesn’t have any other plans. I’m trying not to stress too much over the dust and dog hair, but this nesting thing is going to be the end of me. I have been so anxious to come home and do things around the house after dinner every night this week. Luckily, Jonathan has been my calm before the storm, as always. Just last night he looked up at me and said, “But it doesn’t have to be done tonight” and that was it. I sat right down and didn’t move for the remainder of the evening. I don’t know what I’d do without him, well that’s not true. I’d be scrubbing floors and dusting

Pretty soon we’ll be holding our baby, we are so excited. We are going out to celebrate our anniversary tonight, so hopefully Emily will wait until at least tomorrow Jonathan did have a talk with her earlier this week about this. We’ll just have to see if she listened.

Oh, in other news, my belly button is about to pop out. It’s trying really hard to become an outie, but it’s not quite there yet. We’ll just have to see if Emily comes before or after it pops

There is not much else to report. My next appt. is for Wednesday, May 23. We’ll be sure to let folks know if something happens before then.

Well, not much has changed in the last week but here are the new stats:

I gained 0 lbs over the past week (total pregnancy gain 13 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heart rate was 140s
Measuring right on for 37 weeks (~34.5 cm)
The baby is definitely in the head-down position
Cervix: closed yet somewhat soft
Station: +1

I am uncertain as to the correctness of the station. I didn’t really think you could be that far along but not dilated or effaced at all. I am in the process of researching this, but it may be possible. I’m certain I heard the doctor right because I repeated it back to her and she nodded her head in agreement. Regardless, she said the baby’s head was ‘engaged’. So, that’s what I was told. People at work have been commenting about how it looks like the baby has dropped some, so…

Basically, I think Emily could come at any time. I just have to actually start labor first But who knows, I could be 0cm today and 4cm tomorrow. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Stay tuned for next week’s update

Oh, and congratulations to Misty and Stephen on the birth of their daughter Liza. Welcome Liza!

And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…

I gained 0 lbs over the past 2 weeks (total pregnancy gain 13 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heart rate was 140s
Measuring right on for 36 weeks (~34 cm)
The baby is definitely in the head-down position
Cervix: closed yet somewhat soft

So, no baby this week, or next week either

I knew that the baby was head down and moving further since I have suffered from moderate pelvic pain and pressure the past couple of days. However, she has not yet ‘dropped’ as the saying goes. Unfortunately, there is nothing that can really be done about the discomfort other than have the baby. So, we will just wait for that to happen. Hopefully the pain and discomfort will not get too bad before the end.

People keep asking me if I’m miserable yet, the answer is simply ‘no’. Although things are starting to get uncomfortable or slightly annoying, I am not completely and utterly miserable or ready to not be pregnant anymore. I’ve rather enjoyed being pregnant and will be somewhat sad when she is no longer attached. I know that I will be happy, but I won’t be feeling her move inside of me anymore. That is just something I’ve gotten use to the past few months. I’m already a little sad that she isn’t as active, but I understand she is running out of room. And she still throws a fit every once in a while just to remind me that she can

Last night, my mother and I took a much needed trip to Babies R Us. We exchanged a few items and stocked up on ‘ugly’ outfits for Emily to throw-up on and get messy (in the words of my mother). We also picked up a few last minute things like grooming supplies and car seat accessories. I think we are almost ready to bring home a baby. Tonight will consist of washing clothes and sheets so that we can make up the crib, which Jonathan so kindly put together while we were out. I was so excited to finally get to open things. I had been holding off on the items we had received from showers just in case I needed to exchange them at the last minute. So, after months of watching all of this baby stuff collect in the nursery closet and being unable to open things, I went crazy last night. We opened everything we bought at the store as soon as we got home. I’m sure Jonathan thought I was nuts

Well, that is all that’s happening around here. I am now far enough along to start going to the doctor weekly. I will be checked for progress from now until I have the baby. However, I have decided that the whole getting checked part is totally overrated

So, stay tuned for weekly updates from now until the arrival of the site’s newest star, Emily Nicole

A friend of mine, Jeff, pointed me to this meme. I just couldn’t pass it up so here are my results.

What do you think?

Here’s what you’ve all been waiting for…

I gained 3 lb over the past 2 weeks (total pregnancy gain 13 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heartrate was 141 (which the doctor assured me was fine)
Measuring right on for 34 weeks
The baby is definitely in the head-down position

As you can see, our little Emily continues to thrive and grow. Lately, she seems to get the hiccups quite frequently. So far, that has not been too annoying, although it can make trying to get to sleep at night a little interesting

As for me, I have no major complaints at this point, just the usual third trimester woes. I am experiencing heartburn on a nightly basis and staying asleep is getting quite difficult. I now find that my hips hurt at night and I have to change positions a lot, which is quite a feat in itself Sometimes I have trouble getting back to sleep after having to make the 20th trip to the bathroom. And of course, I am majorly tired. I thought the first trimester was tiring, it doesn’t even compare to this! Other than that, I am my usual perky self

Oh, for those of you who have not heart, I was discharged from physical therapy recently. My back is still giving me a little trouble, but at this point, it was taking more and more creativity to treat me. Ask me about the dog bone and the sink plunger at some point

Well, that’s it for this update. My next appt. is two weeks off, but will then occur weekly up until the baby arrives. My regular doctor will also be back the next time I go. I am looking forward to seeing her again as I am most comfortable with her.

Until next time…

Alright, we’re getting close to the end here. Only 8 more weeks. I can hardly believe it. Anyway, here is the update:

I gained 1 lb over the past 2 weeks (total pregnancy gain 10 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heartrate was 148 (slightly lower than it has been, but that’s because Jonathan was not here to wake her up ;))
Measuring right on for 32 weeks

The doctor did mention that it felt like Emily had turned and was now head down. This would explain the four or so ribs and vertebrae that my physical therapist put back into place for me yesterday I was a little surprised to hear this though since I am still feeling the movement on either side of my belly. I guess she is just moving both arms and legs around like a wild woman. I can already tell that Jonathan and I are in trouble

Well, that’s really all I can think of to share. The doctor’s appointments don’t take very long and not much seems to change over a period of two weeks. Well, except for my waist line

Oh, the picture for this week will be late, but for a good reason! Jonathan is in Canada until Thursday night so there is no one to upload it to the computer. I will try to make sure that one gets posted as soon as possible though.

Stay tuned for another pregnancy update in two weeks!

It has started…the assembly of baby products. I have now officially had my first taste of what it is like to put together necessary baby equipment.

At our first shower, we received an umbrella stroller. Well, since it was all nicely compact, we decided not to unbind it so that we could get it home. Monday night, my mother and I snapped the ties holding it together. Two sets of wheels promptly fell off. At first, I thought I had broken something. That turned out not to be the case. Apparently it is common for strollers to come with only two or none of the wheels attached (as I found out later). So, we managed to put on the wheels and roll around the nursery with it. Well, since getting the umbrella stroller working took almost no time at all, I wanted to tackle the travel system.

For those of you unfamiliar with a travel system, this is a rather large stroller which allows for the infant carrier to sit in it comfortably for the first few months. Then the large stroller can be used up until the child’s toddler years, or 40 lbs or so. Based on past experience, I thought this would be a piece of cake and not take long at all. Boy, was I wrong. We couldn’t even get the stupid thing out of the box My mom and I had to flip the box on it’s side and lift the bottom of it while I attempted to pull the system out of the box. We finally succeeded, only then I was trapped under the infant carrier unable to move. It was quite hysterical. After doing away with the plastic wrap and ties (which resulted in more wheels falling off, all of them to be exact) we dug out the instruction booklet. Yes, we read and attempted to follow instructions, it was a disaster! I guess that is what we get for trying to follow directions. In the booklet, it showed what parts were included in the box. We were missing a piece. We searched all over until we figured out that it was already attached to the stroller. Go us

After finding the not-so-lost piece, we moved on to the next step. Mom kept asking about a basket and if there were snaps. I couldn’t figure out why she was so consumed with snaps until I looked at the book. Apparently, they had tried to make things really easy to understand and kept printing the word “Snap” in a little bubble to demonstrate how to attach the basket under the stroller. Again, it was already attached so I’m not really sure why they felt they needed to reiterate this point. Moving on, we finally got to the wheels. Here is where the hammer comes in. “Hammer?” you ask. We did too. We just couldn’t understand why you would need a hammer to put together a stroller. So there we were, myself, my mother, the two dogs, a partially put together travel system, a hammer, and we were fresh out of engineers. (For those of you who don’t know, Jonathan is in Canada this week. But that’s another story.) We couldn’t believe that we had gotten that far along in the assembly and now needed an engineer.

Being the optmist that I am, I figured that we didn’t need an engineer. Afterall, the booklet did not say we needed one I somehow managed to convince my mother that we could do it; we had gotten this far. I knew Jonathan would not be happy to come home and find the travel system partially put together and taking up our living room. So we began putting on the wheels and came to the hammer part. Well, I tried and failed miserably to take care of the hammering part. My mother, however, had much more success than I did. Let it just be said that under no circumstances should I be allowed to hammer things, ever!

After succesfully attaching all the wheels, I thought we were home-free. Wrong again! One of the last things to do was to put the parental cupholder on the stroller frame. Again, this almost proved to be too much for us. We could get one side to snap on, but not the other. We tried everything. Mom didn’t want to force it and I was ready for this stupid thing to be put together already! We continued on and finally managed to gather up enough brute strength to force the stupid piece on. Then we came to the foot rest for the stroller. See the previous 6 sentences and just substitute the foot rest for the cupholder, that’s how things went. At last we managed to get it all together. And what did I do once the stroller was completely assembled? I proceeded to chase the dogs around the house with the new baby stroller They need to get use to it right? It was very satisfying

Conclusion drawn from assembling the travel system: my mother and I are equal to one engineer!

Yep, I’m 30 weeks already. In only 2.5 months, little Emily Nicole will be gracing us with her presence. I’m excited yet not quite ready for things to be over. I’ve rather enjoyed being pregnant, aside from the backpain and TMJ. However, it could have been much worse and I am grateful that I missed the whole morning sickness thing.

But I digress… Here is the update you all have been waiting for.

I gained 2 lbs in the past 2 weeks (total pregnancy gain 9 lbs)
Blood pressure is good
Heartrate was 150 (Jonathan woke her up prior to my appointment)
Measuring slightly small right now - apparently I’m 1cm off from the expected measurements. The doctor reassured me that this was nothing to worry about. She did not change my due date.

That’s all there is to tell at the moment. Emily is still quite active, especially at bedtime and in the early morning hours, around 3 AM to be exact. I’m sure this trend will continue to be the same after her arrival

My back seems to be doing better. I think the braces, in combination with the therapy, have really helped. I’ll be good as long as I don’t do anything stupid to mess up my back again. I did get a new toy in therapy today. They instructed me to use an oversized noodle for therapy exercises. It’s shorter than the usual pool noodles, but much bigger in diameter. I am supposed to balance myself on said noodle and then proceed to roll it out from under me without moving my body’s position or falling on my butt. I am sure Jonathan is going to get much enjoyment out of this

Oh, I do have a funny story to tell. While I was waiting on the doctor to come in, I was checking out the new exam room (my usual doctor is out with her newborn twins!). On the wall there was a plaque of sorts showing cervical dialation. It was quite simple really. There was a small circle denoting 1 cm. Then the circles continued up in size until about 6 cm. The trend then jumped to 9 and 10 cm. Oh my goodness! I never realized how large a 10 cm circle was I think my eyes started popping out of my head once I hit the 10 cm circle. After that, I couldn’t stop staring at it. Nothing else would catch my attention, and I tried! So now I have something else to have nightmares about. I’m sure 10 cm circles will start chasing me down the hallway or something I guess it’s best not to dwell on such things.

Well, that’s all I have for now. Stay tuned for another update in two weeks.