36w5d

So he wasnt a World Series baby but just to prove to him how close he was we took this picture. I am not a bandwagon jumper, baseball isnt really my thing so we didnt go running around the neighborhood celebrating like everyone else (my neighbors were shooting off fireworks). I am just so excited that the curse has been broken. Philadelphia hasnt won a championship since 1983, I was less than a year old. We were desperate for something, anything! We have the reputation of being a passionate sports town and even after all of the heartache and disappointment we still love our teams.

If you dont know, the curse is related to William Penn. There is a statue of him on top of City Hall, it had always been the highest point in the city and there was an agreement that no building could be built taller than him. 25 years ago, someone built a building taller than William Penn and we havent won a championship since. There have since been a number of buildings built taller than him but he is still the closest to the river and no one is in front of him. Then this year they completed construction on the tallest building in the city, the Comcast building. They put a small statue of William Penn on top of the building. I know, it sounds ridiculous but the year that William Penn became the highest point in the city again is the year that one of our teams wins a championship. Coincidence? Maybe... but it is fun to think that maybe it wasnt.

36w3d

Last night I decided that B should be rewarded for everything that he has done for me over the last month. Also, who knows when we will have sex again after the baby comes so we decided to give it a try. At 9 months pregnant, that is no easy task. Without going into too much detail, a huge belly definitely gets in the way. So afterwards I was in the bathroom and felt fluid leak out but it didnt feel like urine. I put on a pad and decided to see if there was more before calling the doctor. I had heard that you will continue to leak fluid after your water breaks and that is a good way to tell if it is your water or not. During that time I started to have more intense contractions that were coming every 3 1/2 minutes for about an hour. After an hour I did not have any fluid leaking and my contractions started to space out to 5 minutes apart so I stopped timing them and went to bed soon after. B was really concerned and thinks that I should have called just to get checked so this morning I called the doctor just to see what they said. They wanted me to come in to make sure that it was my water breaking. So when I was finally seen he checked things out said that my water hadn't broken (which is good because B would have been so mad at me if it had and I had just ignored it all night). Then he asked kind of cautiously if I had been dilated at all before and I told him I've been at 2 since 31 weeks and figured that is what he had noticed. He did an internal and said "Well, now you're at 4!" Holy cow! He also said that my bag of waters was bulging and must have said something funny because I laughed. He told me not to laugh or he was going to end up all wet. So he thinks the baby is coming soon but of course I could stay at 4 for a while just like I was at 2 for all that time. He said if I have another episode of contractions like I had last night that I should go in.

So maybe that old wive's tale about sex really is true, or maybe all of that shopping on Saturday had something to do with it. I went to lunch with my dad after my appointment and then to target to get my list of last minute things since the baby is getting ready to come. While I was at target I was having tons of contractions and was pretty uncomfortable so maybe labor is starting. We'll see!!!

35w6d

So every appointment ended up being not so great.

We left for our appointment with the pediatrician last night and our directions took us to some residential neighborhood without an office building in sight. I called the office multiple times but they already had their answering service one since their office was closed and we were just having a consultation. I left a message but there was nothing else I could do, there was no way for me to get in touch with them to find out how to get to their office. I called my sister and had her look up the directions again but hers took us to the same place. They called me back this morning and said that for some reason their address doesnt show up in mapquest and it sends people to a residential neighborhood in Holland so at least we werent the first idiots to do this. I said I didnt want to waste anymore of the doctors time so we will just ask any questions we have at our first appointment or when we see him in the hospital. We know we are going to go with that group based on my aunts recommendation (she is a pediatric nurse at the hospital that they are associated with).

So this morning we had a non-stress test at 8:30. I brought cookies to make sure that he would have plenty of sugar to stay active. As soon as they put the monitor on he started bouncing all around, so much so that they couldnt get a baseline on his heart rate. He eventually settled down, a little too much, so I ate my cookies and he was active enough to get one heart rate acceleration. And then that was it, he slept the rest of the time. No more accelerations for the rest of the hour. They were talking about doing an ultrasound - biophysical profile - but gave him an additional 15 minutes and during that time he had another acceleration so he passed. I am still concerned that it took him that long but they said it was fine and he looks great so I'll try not to worry.

By this time it was 10:30 and my OB appt was for 9:00. When I got there they took me right back (yay!). I gained 6 lbs but I had lost 2 last week so it kind of evens out. This puts me at 176 - eek!! So she did all the normal stuff - fundal height, heartbeat - and then checked me and I was the same - 2cm and high. That means all of these contractions are doing nothing. Also, she still wants me to take it easy. She said I can go out occasionally and start prenatal yoga again but I shouldnt be doing any extended amounts of walking. And then with a smile she said, "we are probably going to end up inducing you" because apparently that is a really funny prospect. It's funny to everyone except me, I think. Oh well, at least I can start doing things to get ready for this baby, even if he doesnt end up coming for another 4 or 5 weeks. No rush to get the car seats installed I guess!

I'm sleepy so I'm going to take a nap and then try to figure out how I'm going to keep myself busy for another 4-5 weeks.

35w5d

I am finished with Procardia! It has been 12 hours since my last dose! So far nothing has happened but I dont really expect it to. I'm convinced that he wont be here for a few more weeks. Anyway, now I am medication free! I told B that he really needs to get the car seats installed now since the baby could come at any time. I imagine he will be doing it while we are waiting in front of the hospital to go home. I think I am going to make him do it tomorrow.

Tonight we are meeting our pediatrician and tomorrow I have a NST and then OB appt where they will check for progress. I'll update if anything exciting happens at any of these appointments.

Have I mentioned my stretch marks yet? I didnt have any until just recently and now they are popping up all over the place. Last week I noticed some above my belly button and then a couple days ago noticed them below my belly button. I didnt notice these before because I cant see there anymore!! Today I saw a few on my sides. This is not fun. My mom didnt have any stretch marks and she gained 60 lbs. Doesnt that mean that I shouldnt have them either, especially since I've only gained about 20? By the way, I am still shocked that I havent gained more weight, it is in my genes to get huge when you're pregnant and I certainly havent been doing anything (diet, exercise) to prevent it. I guess that is the benefit of being sick for half of your pregnancy.

I am off to read book 4 of the Twilight series! I've read the other 3 in a day each but this one seems to be the longest so I might not finish it until tomorrow. I forgot how much I love reading!

35w3d

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Finally I have some shower pics to share!! including my huge belly at 34 weeks...

35w1d

So everyone complains that the last few weeks of pregnancy are torture because you are always questioning whether labor is starting. I have been like this since 32 weeks and it is getting old. This morning I had an hour of contractions that were 5 minutes apart and then I decided to stop timing them, get a shower (I wanted to smell pretty if I ended up in the hospital) and then relax for a little to see if they continue. I am still not timing them but I think they have slowed down now. I try not to get too worked up when this happens but it is definitely frustrating.

Yesterday we did a lot of work to the baby's room. We cleared out all of the boxes, got stuff put away in the closet and organized, and put together the swing and bouncer seat. Brian also returned all of our duplicates to BRU, they took everything back without a fight even though we didnt have receipts for everything. He used the credit to buy some remaining items off our registry so now there are only about 5 small things left and they arent things that we need right away. Today I am hoping to put together the pack n play (I still dont know where the heck I am going to put it, I dont see how it is going to fit in my living room without putting it in the middle of the floor. Maybe that 60-ish inch tv was a little too big.), the stroller and getting the car seat bases installed. Also, there is a little more baby laundry. A few more small things I'd like to do: I want to repack our hospital bags. As a result of all of our visits I've decided that I want to have multiple small bags instead of one or two big bags so I am going to pack a triage/labor bag, post-partum bag and a bag for B. I also need to pick out a coming home outfit for the baby. I really want to go out and look for something but it seems silly with all of the clothes we already have. There is just nothing that would work well with the knit sweater and hat that I was hoping to use, everything has little appliques of cars or animals or sayings on the front. Arent there baby clothes that are just plain without cartoon appliques?? I am on the search for a plain, light blue cotton footed sleeper - I cant even find one online! I would even do something that had stripes or was a different color, I just want it to be plain without any appliques or animal/car prints. Please let me know if you know where I can find one.

34w6d

I'm back! No, I didnt have the baby, I was just lazy. My shower was so great! We got just about everything from our registry, I cant believe it. Everyone was so generous and my mom did a great job. I will have to get my mom to send me pictures so I can post them.

Since then, we've washed all of the baby clothes (and there are a lot of them!) and put them away. We also washed the bedding and have that on the crib. I have a pile of returns since I got a lot of duplicates so we will be able to buy the rest of the things that we need. I am hoping to get everything else put together/put away/organized this weekend.

I had my NST this morning. Luckily the baby was in a very playful mood so he passed easily and we were out of there pretty quickly. No real changes, still having contractions although they seem to be worse at night and often wake me up. Once I get up in the morning they slow down. I'm guessing he will be here around Halloween, what is your guess?

33w6d

Tomorrow is a big day! 34 weeks and my shower!

Yesterday I had my OB appt. I lost 2 lbs which is awesome because I gained so much at my last appointment so losing a few pounds means it was probably fluid and not just ice cream. I dont know what my bp was but nothing for the doctor to be concerned about. We saw Dr. T and we both agreed that we really like her. She let B find the heartbeat with the doppler, I didnt realize that he had never done it before even though we have one. He was able to find it though! She said that I will come off bed rest and procardia at 36 weeks. My next appt is scheduled for 35w5d.

Also yesterday, my aunt brought over dinner for us and a huge container of apple crisp - mmmm! Her neighbor, who is a good friend of the family, called her yesterday asking how to get to my house, she had made dinner for us too! How lucky are we? So we had one dinner last night - tilapia stuffed with asparagus and spinach - and the other tonight - chicken, noodles and carrots with biscuits and gravy. Apple crisp both nights!

This morning was my second NST and he almost failed. It took the full hour and a bag of m&ms for him to get his 2 movements with accelerations in. I was getting a little worried, I dont know what happens if he fails. By the time we were finished with that I was exhausted, I am not used to that much activity, so we came home and I relaxed for a little and then went out for my mani/pedi. It was heaven. The woman was really great at massaging my legs and feet. Sometimes you get people who are kind of skimpy with that part but she was fabulous and I needed it! So now I am all ready for my shower tomorrow! I am still not checking my registry so it will be a surprise though I am so tempted. The weather is going to be perfect too!

33w4d

So Tuesday came and went and there was no trip to the hospital! Contractions are a little more frequent but still dont hurt. Yesterday was a rough day, I think I was just bored and bed rest is finally getting to me. Today I want to try to do more instead of sitting on the computer and watching tv but so far I havent.

Right now I would love me a chai latte and slice of pumpkin loaf from Starbucks. Unfortunately, no driving privileges. I wish they delivered. Anyone want to bring me some?? :) Maybe I will send my sister when she gets home from school, she has nothing better to do I'm sure.

I'll update you after my OB appt tomorrow and NST on Friday. Can't wait til Saturday!

33w2d

A picture of me doing my favorite thing, eating ice cream! This was taken around 30 weeks but my belly was definitely big enough to be an ice cream rest at that point! Everyone says that I was getting really swollen right before I ended up in the hospital - I noticed too - but it has gone down a lot probably because the procardia is for pregnancy induced hypertension in addition to pre-term labor. So there you have it, my swollen, piggy self!

Another week on the sofa is beginning. The nest isnt working this morning and MSN is being so slow so I've been trying to find other stuff to look at online without stalking my registry. I am really going to try not to look at it for the rest of the week but it is going to be hard. I cant wait for my shower though, it is going to be so much fun! And I will finally feel like we are semi-prepared for this baby to come.

Yesterday my contractions started changing. They had been pretty consistent (every 6-20 minutes) with a tightening feeling sometimes with a little pressure, making me feel like I have to pee - I imagine those are similar to braxton hicks contractions. Yesterday that kind of stopped, I still have tightening but I dont feel it very much. Instead I was having a lot of back pain and then pain down into my thighs. This is similar to how I was feeling in the days before I ended up in the hospital, especially the back pain. So I wonder if I am transitioning from uterine irritability to gearing up for labor. Only time will tell of course but when I went to bed last night I was sure I would wake up in labor. This morning I am not having the back pain but I am still not having the BH-like contractions. My mom said maybe this is the calm before the storm or maybe the procardia is finally working. Who knows? Hopefully I make it until at least Saturday after the shower!!

I dont know if I mentioned this before but B has some knit items that were made for him when he was a baby - 2 sweaters and 4 hats. I went through them yesterday and found that one of the sweaters and hats appears to be newborn size so I am going to have my mom wash them for me and hopefully we can incorporate them into his coming home outfit. I was thinking of just getting a blue sleeper to wear under it. Hopefully we can store them properly and they will become heirlooms. I will try to post pictures.

32w6d

Tomorrow is 33 weeks, I am so thrilled we are here and kind of surprised we made it this far. I had an NST this morning. They were planned before the PTL for my thyroid, I will have them weekly. Baby was sleepy in the beginning but after a few pieces of chocolate he behaved and everything looked good. I had some contractions while I was there too. I havent been paying attention to how often I have contractions because there is no need at this point unless they become more intense, during the NST they were every 6-10 minutes, no cause to get excited yet.

So I am now stuck in the house until Thursday when I have my next doctors appointment unless I decide to take another trip to the hospital. For the last 10 days the only 2 places I have been are home and the hospital. My only planned outings next week are to the doctors (which is in the medical building attached to the hospital) and another NST on Friday (which is in the hospital) So it looks like home and hospital will be the only places I go until my shower next Saturday which is at my moms. Cant a girl go to Target? What about in one of those motorized scooters??

32w4d

Spent the night in L&D again. I had been having contractions for about 24 hours but they were irregular and not too intense. They did say to call if I was having any contractions but I was pretty sure it was nothing. Anyway, my mom convinced me to call and they told me to go in to be monitored. I got in there and was having some contractions between 7 and 17 minutes apart. The house doc checked me and said I was 2cm and 60%. She also checked to make sure that my water didnt break (negative) and did another ffn (positive). They eventually started me on an IV (Brian was upset that it was a few hours after I got there before they hooked me up again as we knew it would be necessary since there really wasnt anything else they are going to do for me at this point). Unfortunately, as soon as the IV started my contractions were coming 3-5 minutes apart for a while so I wasnt going anywhere. They moved me to a quieter room for the night and increased my procardia to every 4 hours instead of 6. We tried to get some sleep without much success. Brian was sleeping in a horribly small and uncomfortable chair in a freezing cold room with a paper thin blanket. I was lucky enough to be in a decent bed with a pillow and enough blankets but was hooked up to all of the machines so it wasnt easy to sleep.

Aunt Marie came on at 7 and was my nurse for the rest of my time there. Also, Dr. T, the newest doc in my practice, was on so I got to meet her and she followed my progress starting at 7 also. I was still having contractions but not as frequent. Dr. T checked me and I was still 2cm (so I'm going with that from now on, I guess the first doc was a little aggressive). She wanted me to continue on the procardia every 4 hours and see how I do before I could leave. Around 9 I made Brian go home to get some sleep because I was expecting to be there into the afternoon. He was still planning on going to work at some point so he needed the sleep. After my 8am dose things slowed down to just irritability and a few contractions here and there. Finally, by 1 they decided to send me home... finally! I spoke with both Dr. T and Dr. B (he was there for a c-section and stopped in), they both said that I will probably continue to have irregular contractions so no need to call every time anymore (although they both said it was good that I went in last night and they wouldnt have kept me that long if I had called unnecessarily), they've done all they can do for me. Next time I call it should be for regular contractions that are at increased intensity - when I go into labor.

I'm glad to have clear instructions now. I'm glad I dont have to keep spending nights in triage to try to get contractions to stop. Obviously I want him to stay in there and cook a little longer and I will continue bed rest and the meds but if I have to spend one more night in L&D I might go crazy. When they told me to come in last night I almost cried. I wanted them to just say irregular contractions are fine, I knew these were fine. Ugh, oh well. Better to be safe than sorry, we dont know what it could have turned into. So I will continue on bed rest and take the procardia every 4 hours. I have a non-stress test on Friday and an appointment with Dr. T next Thursday. Hopefully I wont see her before then!!

Oh and everyone on L&D knows me now... I am like a celebrity up there!!