Sunday, February 28, 2010

Disappointed.

No water breakage here. Damn full moon giving me false hope. I even slept with the blinds open to try and soak up the moon rays. It didn't work.

I am tired of waking up disappointed to still be pregnant. I know it's wrong, but an extra 50 pounds on my frame really puts a toll on my body. Swollen all over, stretched skin, and a neverending battle with infections/headaches... It's hard to want to stay this way.

Funny thing is I wake up sad Im not in labor pains and during my commute I actually look longingly at the hospital (doubt that happens for most people). I did have a dream I was one of those "pregnant for 40 years" T L C ladies.

So off to work I am heading, to be asked the same "you are still here" questions until Saturday, when I get to say so long to work for at least 10 weeks. I hope my cupcake baby comes at the beginning of this maternity leave so I am not sitting around feeling sorry for myself waiting for her arrival.


-- Post From My iPhone

Friday, February 26, 2010

Hey guess what I have!

Another ultrasound appt, but not for baby...I have to get my kidneys checked out this afternoon after my doctor spotted yet another possible bladder infection yesterday at my normal appt, along with some intense spasms today that sent me straight to his office in tears.

I was checked yesterday and even with all of the falsies, I am as tightly closed as a summer vacation house in winter. Only a 10% chance of delivering this week.

The doc has an idea that all of my cramping could be related to this infection. We talked about maybe doing some antibiotics when he got back test results and sent me packing (sad about the news of false labor).

This morning I went to work a little throwuppy and achy. As soon as I got out of the car, I could barely walk due to some intense back pain that went from the middle of my back to my tailbone. After an hour of tears, I called in and got an emergency appt. I knew it wasn't labor, it felt more like back pain associated with a kidney stone (Ive had a few in my day).

While waiting to go for this ultrasound, the spasms have since gone bye bye, but I am still going to go, and get the antibiotics I was prescribed...Better safe than sorry. If the pain comes back and gets really intense, I have a free pass to go straight to the hospital where they can monitor me and Madelyn.

-- Post From My iPhone

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Ah the love

After finishing up our baby shopping on Tuesday (just nursing tanks left on the list...which I am procrastinating on cause damn they are expensive and what happens if nursing isn't successful!) we did dinner with my dad, stepmom and one of my aunts. Madelyn was taking a bruising 101 course in my belly and even ashs eyes got big when he put his hand on my stomach during one of her assaults. It was an uncomfortable dinner! When we finally got home (we missed lost which pretty much doesn't happen here in this household) I started getting mild cramping and headed to bed. I woke up an hour later to severe cramps that I immediately started timing again. This lasted for 5 hours and even though they never got closer than 6 minutes, I called labor and delivery at 3am, cranky and exhausted. They told me to take a bath and try to sleep. Right, a bath at three in the morning...excellent advice. The contractions stopped on their own sometime after I forced my eyes closed to a clock that said 4am.

These suck by the way. I am all about contracting and the baby producing process, but it is just that....I want these events to produce an outcome, not just go away and not have a baby in the end of the pain tunnel.

But, my post is not just about contractions. Everyone knows I live my job, I love it, I do. But I am getting on my last nerve here and just need a moment to vent. I used to be full time but switched to part time to move to "the clinic" as we shall call it from now on, with the agreement that it would go to full time sooner than later. I am kicking ass. I do well at my job and often give the full timers a run for their money sales wise even being there less hours. My beef is this: most of last month 3 out of us four gals were on vacation, or sick, or dealing with family business....guess who covered ass and got to deal with changed schedules, added sales goals and overall coverage of the counter -8 month prego lady. Not a big deal, I dealt with it... until here we are in month 2 of covering ass and I am now 9 months, ready to poop (haha, meant to spell pop, but poop is also a good word to use). When I should be calling out because I got two hours of sleep from contractions, or just sheer f*ing exhaustion, I work and have my schedule changed to accomondate someone else calling out. It's awesome. My work actually called monday to see if I could pull a 6th work day this week....6. They also scheduled me to work until 11:15 pm this Saturday in my 38th week of pregnancy. I've already been called today to switch my schedule, instead of a mid shift, I now get to close because the same person is continually calling out. So my next four days are as follows - close, open early, close late, open. Awesome. I am supposed to be the one causing others to work around my health, yet here I am.

Pissy.

-- Post From My iPhone

Monday, February 22, 2010

Almost there


Tomorrows the day. She's got one day until she's officially freeloading.

Her movements are crazy painful and damn is she strong. Madelyns head is down tight and the twinges on my cervix send me to my knees! All of the prep work is done, nursery is set, the very last of the needs list will be picked up tonight with our gift cards from the shower over the weekend.

We've got to get the dogs nails done and groceries out of the way today. I wish I could say I would be spending the day laboring with signs of contractions in my mist instead of these super fun duties, but oh well.

I think I might try and find this red raspberry leaf tea and evening primrose oil to help move things along or at least make labor easier when it does finally happen.

3 weeks to go.


-- Post From My iPhone

Friday, February 19, 2010

Falsies

I had 'em big time last night.

4-5 an hour for 5 hours, contractions that started at the top of my stomach and rolled downward. I wasn't quite sure they were contractions but even when I moved they seemed to get stronger not lighter. Madelyn moved after every one, she had the most active night to date while I was wincing. They hurt more than braxton hicks normally do.

They went away when I finally got to sleep. I was hoping they were going to turn into more, but it wasn't meant to be. I even prepped the bed in case my water broke.

Speaking of sleep, most of month eight I was getting up 4 times a night to pee and drink a ton of water, I was drinking at least 24oz in the middle of the night on top of my 80-100 I was drinking each day. Now that I'm bigger and she's dropping, you'd think it would get worse, but I am actually sleeping through most of the night. Just one trip/one waking period and I wasn't even thirsty last night. Weird.

I still feel like she's coming early. Our last baby shower is this Saturday, at my favorite cupcake store, so once that is over she has fully been ok'd to come by the family. It's awesome to see how excited everyone is for her arrival!

-- Post From My iPhone

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Fighting the hippy


So we had another doctors appt, only this one we went with the most recent ultrasound information (larger baby). After telling him about the fetal medicine doctor recommending that we get induced on our due date, he hymned and hahhed about it...saying you can never be sure as it's an estimate. We were a little frustrated. I don't want to try and go past, not with even the slimmest of chances of a stillborn due to the umbilical cord artery. He doesn't understand this. Him and his five perfect babies and five perfect labors to boot don't see a reason to worry.

Argh.

The toughest part of all for me this last month has been dealing with the short term disability, maternity leave, and paperwork headache. On top of being uber tired and in dull ache like pains, my work requires notice of 30 days from the date of delivery for maternity leave. And all of the other random documents I have to fill out are just as nasty about when you leave. I just want to be at home with my feet up right now, but dammit I don't know when she's coming so I can't take off exactly two weeks before she delivers for the sake of our HR...you lose, thanks for trying.

Argh.

Anyhow, these are my two biggest rants of the day, seems like they could have been seperate posts but I am tired and lazy, now back to work with the crazy "I swear it's a full moon" customers I seem to be magnetic to today.


-- Post From My iPhone

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Real advice


Found a really funny source of pregnancy woes from an excellent writer. Thought I would share...

http://skepchick.org/blog/2010/02/what-pregnant-women-wont-tell-you-ever/

-- Post From My iPhone

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Won't hear me say this again

I hope Madelyn doesn't come tomorrow. It would suck for her to have a valentines day birthday. So my goal is for her not to come tomorrow, if she wants she can come Monday, just not tomorrow.


-- Post From My iPhone

Friday, February 12, 2010

Interested parties

Being pregnant seems to have a full time job attached to it, especially in this last month.

There is a constant borage of questions, antidotes, advice and predictions that I get to deal with every moment of the day. Because I work in retail, in a particularly busy environment, I have to answer to 40 or so different remarks everyday.

Take today for instance...

When are you due? (40 times or so)

What's the actual due date? (I tell people a rough estimate. A month, 6 weeks etc...)

What are you having? It is your first? Are you excited....nervous...tired...(the list goes on)

Oh you are definitely having a....(apparently people are unaware of ultrasounds as I had people say both sexes, only to argue with me when they got it wrong and tell me it was definitely a boy and the ultrasound was soooo wrong so don't be surprised!)

You look....small, gigantic, ready to pop, barely pregnant, good, carrying it well, scary (yes, two mall walking drones refered to me as scary today).

Besides the obvious annoyment of answering the same questions over and over, sometimes it seems that it's almost too much personal information. Not that it would happen to me (knock on wood a few trillion times) but it's a little freaky when someone wants to know all the ins and outs of my pregnancy so they might follow me out to my car and try and rip my baby from me (it sounds retarded and obsessive, but I think about weird stuff).

I am lucky that only a small handful of people I don't know have walked right up to rub on my belly, but the constant questions are almost as bad!

-- Post From My iPhone

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Poop.

So this post is all about poop.

You've been warned.

No seriously. Prepare for too much information.

........

Pregnant ladies might be all glowing and lovely, and the idea of growing a child might make people melt with love...but the reality is most days emotions and energy levels are all based off of my pooping ability that day.

Pregnancy pretty much stop all of that production and unless you do crazy amounts of fiber in your diet.

Up until a few days ago I was all in that group of ladies with slowdown production and 3 days between poops was the norm.

A few days of constant poop and tonight...drum roll please.... The beloved diarrhea. Most of the time this would be a relief to the system, but this late in pregnancy, it can actually be a precurser to labor.

Besides the crazy amounts of nesting, I can now add weird digestive bowel issues to the "could it be soon" question in my head.

Just as I was telling Madelyn to stay in there till the end of the month (money wise it would be great if she did)...

Only time will tell!

-- Post From My iPhone

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Holy whatta biggin'

We had another ultrasound today. I was half hoping on the way there that the fluid levels would be low, so they'd have to induce me in two weeks rather than let me go over my due date. I know it's awful, but if I had to feel like this for more than 5 more weeks, ash and I would be at wits end and I would be crying all of the time. My mcdreamy hippy doctor with five kids of his own at 35 (his wife is one of those lovers of the pregnancy bug plus they are Mormon) was all about letting me go up to 42 weeks if necessary and I could not for the life of me handle it.

So, little ol Madelyn and her super small bod have gotten ginormous. As in 12 weeks ago she was in the 37th percentile, than 8 weeks ago she was at 56th, 4 weeks ago she was at the 47th and 3lbs 11oz.....now she's a massive 6lbs 5oz and in the 76th percentile. Looks like she's just a late bloomer! That weight of course can be off, but if she goes to 40 weeks, she could be 9 f'ing pounds! Holy large batman.

My mom has been seriously concerned (like enough to call me four seperate times in two days) about them letting me go over due to the single umblical vessel and small chance of stillborn if they bake too long. I promised her I'd ask. The genetic counselor doctor lady didn't have that concern, but because of the size Madelyn is showing, she did indicate there would be NO way the Doctor should let me go past my due date.

At my next appt, the one with the super strep test (yah!) I am sure gonna let him know what she said.

Not that it may matter. My little Braxton hicks are getting more intense, more in the back to front kinda cramps, and she's moved into a very painful head down position. I still predict the 25th of February, let see if I am better at this "mothers intuition" than I was at the gender.
-- Post From My iPhone

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Ahem.


Shoes are a thing of the past now. I am officially swollen from my toes to my knees, plus my hands and my eyes. This is awesome.

My blood pressure is higher but not "high enough" to dictate a phone call to labor and delivery or my doctor. I only know this because during a recent dizzy episode he had mentioned that exact phrase after similar readings.

Agh, 5 more weeks. 3 more working. Jesus.

Starting to have a few contractions an hour, mostly off and on and they never get too strong or too close. I hope this means she's going to come soon, like 17 days from now when she's full term officially. I am just ready to have her. Ash too. He looks at me and just says how he is ready to have this child in his arms... It's sweet.

-- Post From My iPhone

Saturday, February 6, 2010

How is it?

That we already have 900 dollars in medical bills for a baby that hasn't arrived yet. This is nuts.

Right as I go down in hours due to swelling, taxes abd hoa dues are due, we need new tires on my car (the baby mobile needs to be safe)...

Yikes.


-- Post From My iPhone

Friday, February 5, 2010

Wonderment

As I am here at work scheduling out my maternity leave, I started wondering...

Will I be one of those women who go to labor and delivery twenty times in the next month or will I be the one who doesn't know she's in active labor till it's too late to get to a hospital.

Over the last few days, I kept thinking the baby was just getting all "out in front for a few moments" and just now realized that these are braxton hicks (at least I hope that they are). I've had two in the last hour and the previous ones have been similar. Alot in a small amount of time and usually when I am walking.

The dizziness is more extreme today, well...it's a half dizzy and half weird pressure headache that doesn't feel "right". For being pregnant, I am also not peeing nearly as often as one would envision...not that I should complain about that, but should I worry?

5 more weeks to go, how am I going to make it work wise...everytime I am here I feel really shitty. It really is hard to focus and get through the day at home not standing on my feet giving makeup advice!

Here's to it going fast.
-- Post From My iPhone

Monday, February 1, 2010

Never knock on wood.


Seriously. I was just telling my friends last night at our dinner shower that I hadn't thrown up or been sick to my stomach since new years. Ha. Here I am feeling a little ill now as I write this.

Yesterday was a bad day besides the party. I worked alone at my counter and was experiencing a mad headache (still here...and worse these two days but Ive had it for three weeks now) super dizzy/vertigo like feelings and cramping. I knew my blood pressure was high...I was starting to have some major swelling in my hands and feet but I couldn't get away. Even after sitting at the dinner shower for a few hours, drinking a ton of water I was still swollen (but felt a little better).

I am looking forward to talking with my doc today, as we are in the two week appts phase luckily this one was already scheduled. I'm going to be sure to talk about this and the cramping and one episode of bleeding that has me worried. Either I will get reduction in hours note or talk to him about a bedrest note. My blood pressure always checks out higher than normal for me at my appts, but I don't get it measured after Ive been at work standing all day.

The dinner shower went awesome. It was a coed friends shower filled with conversation and good food! We (well Madelyn) got some diapers and clothes. She is already so loved and it was good to get together in celebration without the shower like festivities (games etc). We truly appreciate all of our friends!

And because I can. Here's a picture of ash working on his "baby do" list. Finishing the downstairs painting before she comes....


-- Post From My iPhone