37w3d

Today is election day... finally. We can all breathe a huge sigh of relief today. Relief that all of the campaigning and negative ads are done with (living in a battleground state makes watching tv miserable) but also relief that I was finally able to cast my vote and hopefully help my candidate win. I dont want to get political on here so I'm not going to get into issues but I do want to say make sure you get out and vote today. It is so important. It doesnt matter who you vote for (although I would prefer if you voted for the candidate that I support!), your voice needs to be heard. Elections have come down to a few hundred votes, every vote does matter. Dont count on everyone else to do it for you.

So since I voted this morning, the baby is now allowed to come at any time. B and I decided that we need to stop thinking that he is going to come early (even though it isnt early anymore). There is a very good possibility that he will be late, even if I am already 4cm. Nothing is happening except I am getting more and more uncomfortable. My belly just aches. Plus, it seems that my stretch marks double every day. A few more weeks and my belly will be one big stretch mark! :) I love them because they symbolize my growing baby but I think I have enough now, I dont need anymore. I dont know if this baby could be any lower, he is on my lap. I cant even sit with my legs closed because he hangs between them! My little boy is going to have a serious cone head, an adorable one but definitely a big one!

I am off to continue my nesting. Yesterday was a very productive day and I expect today to be the same! Maybe a little later I will post some pictures of Halloween and the nursery since it is almost complete.

37w

So I'm full term... who would have thought I'd make it this far. Hopefully this means that I will have a perfectly healthy baby which would be a relief after all we've been worried about. Yesterday was an interesting day though. I woke up at 4:30 with strong, painful contractions. They were coming one right after the other and I remember thinking "So this is what they're talking about when they say you'll know when it's real labor." After a half hour I decided to get in the shower to see if that changed the pattern at all. The contractions were still frequent but not quite as strong and long. By about 6:30 they had spaced out to 5 minutes apart and werent really painful so I decided to get a little sleep and just talk to the doctor about it when I went in for my appt at 8:40. She was delivering a baby so I had to wait about an hour to be seen and all during that time I continued to have contractions which were uncomfortable and I felt like I needed to breathe through. She checked me and I was 4cm, 90% and 0 station - I found out that at my last appt I was on 50% effaced so I had made a little tiny bit of progress. She decided to send me to L&D to monitor my contractions and see if it was real labor. I called B and my mom and told them I was going up but didnt think I would be staying, it just didnt feel like the real thing anymore. My mom works close by so she came right over and I told B to wait at work until I was on the monitor for a little while and saw what was going on. By the time I got upstairs and registered he had decided that he was coming home (an hour drive). Literally, as soon as I was put on the monitor my contractions stopped. In the 2 hours I was there I had 2 contractions. We watched the parade for the Phillies and at 12:30 the in-house OB checked me and there was no change so they sent me home. I was so frustrated because I knew that I shouldnt have been there and I had just wasted everyones time. I dont want them to take time off for false alarms and have less time for when the baby gets here. So I've made 2 decisions - 1: I am not going back to L&D until my water breaks and 2: If I do go before then, I am not telling anyone (not even mom or B) until it is decided that I will be admitted. Plus, my mom and B called EVERYONE to tell them that I was going when I told them both that I didnt think I would be staying and then everyone called later to see what had happened. I felt bad enough that it was just the 2 of them, when I found out that everyone knew I felt like an idiot. So there was my third visit to L&D in 6 weeks... ugh!

I think I will go walking this morning to see if that helps at all. The bottom of my belly hurts when I walk but that isnt going to go away until I have this baby so better to push through it, right? The only problem now is that I need to have this baby today or early tomorrow or not until Tuesday after I vote. I told B that if I go into labor on Tuesday I will wait until the polls open and vote before going to the hospital. He says no but this election is really important to me and I would be really upset if I didnt get the chance to vote. I wish I had thought about getting an absentee ballot sooner. Oh well. Please make sure you vote on Tuesday!!

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...