Hayden Thomas

He is here! He was born on Monday, 11/10, at 4:08pm and was 7lbs8oz and 19.5 inches long. I am going to write up my birth story later but here are some pictures (sorry they arent in order). I think he is pretty darn cute!

38w1d

Well tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our lives... today is the last day of life as we know it. I cannot believe that I am going to be a mommy tomorrow. I cant imagine what it will be like to see his little face for the first time (and probably his huge cone head since he has been stuck in my pelvis for so long!). Touching him and holding him and smelling him... it is all going to happen. Everything that we have worked for over the last 2 years will finally be here. There was almost no part of this that was easy but I already know it was so worth it. I already know that I would do it all again. I cannot wait to meet our sweet little boy.

Update since my last post: Friday I went to lunch with my mom and then to my NST. It was probably the best one I've had. The first time she came to check on me he had already passed so we were finished a half hour after my appointment time. Sometimes we wait longer than that to be seen so it was nice. That night I went to my moms Grandmom shower which was fun. She was really surprised and got some gag gifts and some really nice things including a pack n play, bumbo, books, bibs, etc. Yesterday, we spent the day cleaning and getting things done around the house. We really worked hard all day so by the time evening came we didnt feel like going to the movies for our date night but we did go to PF Changs for dinner - delicious as always. I am so happy to have a clean house for the baby to come home to and for visitors as well. My house had really suffered while I was on bedrest and I never quite got back on track until yesterday. Today we are going grocery shopping and stocking up the freezer, finishing up a few things around the house and then relaxing for the rest of the day. My mom is having dinner for us tonight and hopefully we will get to bed early since we (I) have to be up at 4 to confirm the induction. Unfortunately, the eagles are playing at 8:15 tonight so we will probably miss some of the game if we are able to sleep - I have a feeling that we wont be getting much sleep though!

Today is going to be the longest day ever!

37w6d

So after all of that complaining I had a pretty good doctors appointment... I am having a baby on Monday!! I had my regular OB appt this morning with Dr. B. When he came in I asked about how long they wait after your due date to induce, he said a week. So we start the exam and I asked if I will be stuck at 4cm until I am in active labor, he said not necessarily and then said no, definitely not, you are 5 now. So I am considered advanced dilation now since I am not yet in active labor but more than 4cm. He is concerned that I could go into labor or my water could break and I would go really fast and possibly not make it to the hospital. They have been concerned about this for a while but I guess the more and more dilated I am the more serious it becomes. So why not induce me today? This is what my mom asked. I am not 38w yet so there would still be a very, very small chance that his lungs arent fully mature. That, however, is a moot point since I had the steroids. Either way, he would prefer to wait until I am 38w and a few days just to be responsible. So I could go into labor on my own this weekend but if not, I will be having a baby on Monday!

I really did try to think about this and make sure I wasnt making a decision based on physical discomfort that could possibly hurt the baby or me. I think I am making the right decision though, there really arent any additional risks that wouldnt be present if I went into labor on my own and I am actually mitigating a potential risk.

This afternoon I am going out to lunch with my mom and then to my NST. Tonight I am going to a grandma shower for my mom at my aunts house - it is more gag gifts like granny panties. Tomorrow I hope to go to the movies and out to eat with DH for one last date. I guess the rest of the weekend will be spent preparing! How do you prepare?? What do I still need to do? Eek!

37w4d

Attn everyone: Please stop asking me if I have had the baby yet... I will let you know!!! It's not like I am going to have him and not tell anyone.

Sigh... I am getting constant text messages from people asking if I am in labor or if I've had the baby. First of all, this is annoying when all I can think about is when I am going to have the baby. Second, it costs me money! My cell phone bill last month had $42 worth of text messaging!! I know everyone is curious and just wants to check in but I dont know if I can take a few more weeks of this. Will people just get bored and give up? As much as I am trying to get him to come out I really dont think that he is going to be here much before his due date. I think this would be so much easier if I didnt spend all that time on bedrest wondering when he was going to come. That just added to the end of pregnancy anxiety. Everyone says that the last month is so hard but what if the last month was actually twice as long? Twice as much time to be anxious, twice as much wondering, twice as many questions, twice everything.

I think I am going to plan a date night for me and B. We have a certificate for movie tickets and a gift card to PF Changs that we received for our anniversary. I figure we better take advantage of it soon before we arent able to!

PS Sorry to complain. I really do appreciate people caring and wondering, some days are just harder than others.

My Pumpkin!

Since he is probably about the size of a pumpkin now I figured these were appropriate! I am the size of a whale... why is it that I look so much bigger in pictures than I do in the mirror??

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!!