July 17th, 2009 §
40 weeks 6 days
Yesterday was the final day of pregnancy. We checked into the hospital at 7pm, after a celebratory dinner at Olive Garden, and got settled in for a night of little sleep and lots of baby monitoring.
Preparation
This morning, the induction started at 7am, and the contractions I’d had overnight quickly became productive (and painful).
They started getting serious around 9am, and I asked for an epidural at 10. After that, things went very quickly. The midwife broke my water around 10:30 and the epidural was administered. By 11am, I had dilated from a 3 to a 7, and by noon was ready to push. The baby arrived at 12:35pm, with roughly 15 minutes of actual pushing. She’s a doll, and we’re all completely smitten.
Our baby girl
July 10th, 2009 §
Campus at night
We’ve officially hit the due date, even though Poohpah had convinced himself the baby was due on Tuesday. Not much happening. I woke up with contractions Wednesday, but they went away after an hour or so. We went for a long walk on campus last night, and I woke up with contractions again, but still nothing.
Insert watermelon smuggling joke here
Statistics say 85% of babies don’t come on their due date, but if I haven’t gone into labor by Tuesday, they’re planning an induction. I’d like to avoid that if possible, having done it once before. Any suggestions (besides castor oil)? I refuse to ingest anything that’s going to make me sick. Labor is difficult enough.
July 5th, 2009 §
7…6…5. Almost there, which is good, because I’m starting to get tired and slow. It’s still a little hard for me to believe that we’ve already gone from this:
6 weeks
to this:
39 Weeks
But, the bag is (nearly) packed, Callista will be here on Tuesday, and we’re all done but the waiting.
(Almost) ready to go
June 28th, 2009 §
T-minus 2 weeks…. The baby has dropped, judging by the shape of my belly and the fact that it is now easier to breathe, but less comfortable to sit.
38 weeks
It feels like I could balance a stack of books on top of it and not have to worry about them falling off. Not much going on otherwise though. The midwife says I have some time left, which is good. Brandon has a big project at work that they’re rolling out over the holiday weekend (and how did July 4th get here already?!?), so I “have to make it to the due date.” Tell that to the baby.
June 21st, 2009 §
37 Weeks
T-minus 3 weeks…. Zero to 40 has a nice summary of what being 37 weeks pregnant is like (which my husband should read, so he doesn’t ask silly questions like why he’s driving).
We had a bit of scare a little over a week ago. I woke up in the middle of the night to contractions and back spasms. A quick trip to the OB the next morning determined that the baby had flipped breech – she’s been head down since the midwife started checking. It must have been a somersault – it was very quick, and painful. And the OB was not reassuring, asking if we wanted to try to flip the baby into the correct position, using external cephalic version (which is also painful and might lead to an emergency C-section), or plan on having a C-section anyway. My choice was none of the above. I asked the doc if there was anything I could do to help the baby turn on her own, and his response was, “Not really.”
Jen, whose last baby was breech for a while, had other ideas, and recommended spinningbabies.com. Turns out inversion is a useful technique for helping a breech baby flip. I tried it twice a day for a couple of days, and by last weekend I thought she might be transverse (sideways), still breech, but not head up. By the doctor’s appointment last Wednesday, she had gently turned herself head down again. I didn’t feel her turn, but am relieved that she’s in the proper position, especially since we’re running out of time.
***
Brandon and Hannah playing dots
For Father’s Day we took Brandon out to dinner at Zio’s, an Italian place in Olathe. It’s decent, and there’s plenty of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Plus, the kids like it because they get to draw on the tablecloths. This time next year, there’ll be another little one at the table.
June 13th, 2009 §
T minus 4 weeks and counting. Brandon is feeling the need to get a little creative with the belly pictures, as evidenced by this week’s entry.
Revenge of the Belly Monster!
This pic is for Nana – name that outfit!
So, I’m officially 9 months pregnant, and still have 4 weeks to go. Stupid pregnancy math. The baby is the size of a honeydew, and over the next few weeks will just be putting on a little extra padding, so she’ll be plump and squeezable on the big day.
June 10th, 2009 §
Kaity was laughing at me this morning, as I grimaced getting out of a chair. My hips are sore from sleeping on my sides.
“Remind me to never get pregnant,” she said.
“Why?”
“Because the baby kicks your ribs out of place, your hips hurt from lying down, if they flip over it hurts….”
“It’s worth it, though,” I said.
“Yeah, in the end you get a screamy poopy thing with cute shoes.”
June 7th, 2009 §
This weekend was spent preparing. On Saturday, we drove in to KC to tour the hospital where we’ll be delivering. The maternity ward is nice, there are separate delivery and recovery rooms, and all the newborn care equipment is built in to the room. A couple of rooms have jacuzzi tubs, and they have birthing balls available. And it’s the only Level III NICU in the region, not that I think we’ll need it, but it’s nice to know it’s there just the same. We were also able to get all the admission paperwork filled out, so we don’t have to worry about that when I’m in labor.
We also stopped by Babies’R'Us to get the one thing we absolutely have to have before bringing the baby home.
The Car Seat
This one is nice because it’s convertible. It’s appropriate for kids 5-100 lbs, and it converts to a booster seat when they hit 40 lbs, so we only have to buy one car seat. We figure until she’s old enough to put in a stroller, she’ll be in a baby sling, and those newborn car seats are awkward, anyway.
Stuff to donate
Today we cleared out a bunch of stuff we don’t use anymore: VHS tapes, books, DVDs, and clothes the kids have outgrown. We were able to resell the media, and donated the clothes to Goodwill. It won’t be long before our house is overrun with baby things, so better to clear out what we don’t need now.
June 3rd, 2009 §
/sarcasm
Things I won’t miss:
- having the forward momentum of a snail
- rude texting college students who pass me (see above) and then don’t bother to hold the heavy metal doors to the parking garage open for the slow pregnant lady
- being kicked in the ribs when I drive
- heartburn – it’s been pretty constant throughout
- pregnancy math
- Seriously. I’m 32-34 weeks pregnant, depending on if you calculate based on LMP (adding two weeks when I wasn’t technically pregnant, which is how most OBs calculate it) or based on conception date, which is a little fuzzy. That means either 8-8.5 months, if a month is four weeks long. And my husband telling me that technically months are 2 or 3 days longer than that, so I’m not really 8 months pregnant yet? So not helping. My baby journal sidesteps the entire issue by using “lunar months,” which are exactly 28 days (4 weeks long). Oh, and that whole human pregnancy lasts 9 months thing – totally bogus. It’s 40 weeks (from LMP) = 10 lunar months. 38 weeks from conception = 9.5 lunar months.
Things I’ll be happy to see again:
- my feet, just by looking down
- my belly button, which is disappearing more every week
- shoes I can tie, though I’m afraid none of my current shoes will actually fit me when this is all over
Things I’m surprised I can still do:
- bend over to shave my legs, which is nice, since it was 95 degrees here on Monday
Things I’m surprised I can’t do:
- get out of, into, or roll over in bed gracefully (what little grace I had is totally gone at this point)
- relax in the recliner (the baby puts too much pressure on vital organs when I lean back for any length of time)
Things we still have to do:
- get a car seat
- get a diaper bag
- pack the hospital suitcase
- figure out a birth plan
- tour the hospital and finish pre-admission process (we’re doing this on Saturday)
For those who are interested, I found a couple of blogs this week that have lightened my spirits a little while giving the straight scoop on this whole pregnancy/post-partum business:
- Zero to 40 – a weekly pregnancy guide
- For this week (week 35), the guide says pregnant women-
Are the very picture of motherly grace and beauty. Also: waddling. (check)
Fatigue may be a big problem right now. You may need a daily nap, or find yourself crawling into bed by 9 pm. (pretty much)
So. 35 weeks. Five more weeks to go. A little over a month. I’ve always found that reaching weeks 35 and 36 is a big mental milestone, as (depending on the pregnancy math) I suddenly find myself looking at just one more flip of the calendar. And I no longer have to include the MONTH when I tell people my due date.
May 31st, 2009 §
We’re coming into the home stretch now. When I dropped Kaity off to babysit Friday afternoon, one of my friends commented, “You look more pregnant that when I saw you last!” – which was two weeks ago. Sigh. At this point, with her head on my bladder and her feet tap dancing on my ribs, the baby really doesn’t have anywhere to go but out. For family still wondering about gift ideas, the baby registry is here (my name, password baby).
34 weeks
The background for this week’s baby bump is from a new art installation on campus.
Under Construction - appropriate
The Spencer Art Museum commissioned a piece, made from locally-harvested and sustainable dogwood and maple, by North Carolina artist Patrick Dougherty.
Stickwork
Looking out through the top
It took several volunteers a couple of weeks to put the sculpture together, after cutting 6,000 pounds of saplings from a nearby wood.
Tree sculpture
Kaity was inspired to take this shot, while lying flat on her back in the mulch. Better her than me, I would’ve been stuck there.
Kaity's view from the bottom
