35 + 1 Weeks

Well, it's official. I'm gigantic.

I wonder if I'd lay on my stomach and rock back and forth, if I would look like a see-saw.

Went home to PA again for a few... hours... and saw both of our families. We got a crib handed down to us from my cousin after plans for another one fell through. But Spud put it together yesterday while I was at work and the room looks almost all done! He has big plans for making a changing table too, that turns into a desk later on. He is going to model it after one I had on my Wal-Mart registry.

We also got a lot of baby swag too! Yay for bottles and baby slings! Thank you everybody!

As of today, there's just 34 more days to go. This little tot has thoroughly lodged herself underneath my ribcage and has given me a few contractions too, but I love her already and can't wait to meet her! And those contractions (other than the ones I spoke of in the last post) were mostly happening while we were driving 10 hours home in the rain late into the middle of the night after 2 and a half days of constant Christmas cheer. I tried to keep hydrated, but you can only relax so much in a completely packed car!

She'll stay in there as long as she can - I hope! Now, we need to decide on a middle name. Any suggestions? Something short, doesn't rhyme with Emma, doesn't have too many K, R, M, or A sounds.

This week's complaint: Ridiculous swollen ankles. Hideous...

This week's development: Her liver and kidneys are fully developed now!

Baby's size: Size of a throw pillow or the weight of a honeydew melon.

33+4 Weeks

Well, this little tater tot is getting grounded as soon as she's born.

Thursday night I didn't sleep very well - waking up every hour or two, having weird pains, and (of course) peeing all the time. It wasn't that I was overly exhausted, or anything, but when I went into work that morning, it wasn't the funnest experience ever. While getting ready that Friday morning, I thought I was getting some weird cramps and just tried to keep an eye on it. The day before I had just been to the doctor and told him about some weird sensations south of the border and he just said it was all normal, without actually telling me how to help or prevent them.

Around 11:00am - I can't take it anymore. I've already had 3 five minute breaks in the break room, laying on my side on the dirty carpet, and rubbing my aching lower back and tummy. I told my manager that I felt something was going on, something didn't feel right and that I needed to call my doctor. When I did, all the operator would let me do was leave a message for my doctor's nurse and, being half-frustrated and half in pain, I called Spud while crying and sitting on a shelf in the stock room. This, of course, scares the crap out of him and he starts making plans to get a ride to pick me up (I had our only car with me) and then drive me home. All I needed to do was give him the go ahead.

Manager lets me go home and starts getting excited that the tater tot may be coming soon (she's never been pregnant before and doesn't realize how scary it is to be this early). Skip ahead to the afternoon, laying in bed, feet propped up, and feeling contractions coming more and more and the dreaded "low, dull, back ache" on the list of pre-term labor signs. After a nap and dinner, it's still going on so I take a bath and we head out to the Labor & Delivery Department of the hospital. It's not that they hurt immensely or anything, but one of the things that they stress to us in Childbirthing Class is that if your water breaks or if you have more than 4 contractions in an hour, then you should call your doctor or go into Labor & Delivery.

They put me on the monitor and turns out I'm having contractions every two minutes. Ha! Who knew? While they were mild (the highest was a 26 out of 100), it was enough of a pattern to scare the nurses. The one who examined me went out to the nurses station and happily exclaimed, "She's thick and closed!" meaning that we weren't having this baby 7 weeks early tonight!

So Spud and I watch Will and Grace, relax and check out the room we may be in soon, while the nurses force me to drink a lot of water to rehydrate my contracting muscles. They flip and turn me from side to side trying to get a good read on the tot's heartbeat and to make me slow down these crazy contractions!

Everything ended up fine and I didn't think that I was really going to give birth just yet, but I just wanted to be checked to see if what I was feeling was actually what was going on. So now I had a "test-run" and will feel a little better prepared when it's "show-time!" I took the next day off of work ("You just lost [X amount] dollars!" Spud exclaimed) and rested in bed for the day. I still felt a couple very mild contractions, but I've been trying to drink a ton of water to help prevent them.


This week's complaint: Slightly swollen fingers and toes.

This week's development: Braxton-Hicks!

Baby's size: Size of a medicine ball or the weight of a pineapple.

32 + 5 Weeks

Childbirth Class

Really, I am quite glad that I signed up for a series of child birthing classes at my hospital. The class is a bunch of Power-point presentations and videos of sad, mid-1990's, disheveled women giving birth filled with about 10 moms and dad (more than half of them under 20) and a poor teacher who can't entice them to participate. I could have learned a lot of this from pregnancy websites (and have) but it's a refresher and it's good to be able to find out the hospital's policies and ways of doing things.

When we lived in Cleveland and first got pregnant, I really wanted to give birth in a birthing pool, in a birthing center, with a midwife and doing things they way I wanted. The more I thought about some random doctor strapping me to a bed and forcing me to push and tear and then ripping my tater tot away from my arms - the more nervous I got about giving birth. As we learn more about my hospital, I am filled with mixed emotions because some services they offer are progressive and mother-friendly, and some are not.

Pro
Baby allowed to lay skin to skin for first hour
Squatting bar available
May bring your own birthing ball
Rocking chairs available for labor positioning
Showers and bathtubs available for labor
Hep-lock option, instead of IV

Con
Only 2 people in room during delivery
No food or drink - just ice chips
No pictures or video during delivery
Nurse directed pushing
No birthing tub available for delivery
No NICU available




Taken from www.motherfriendly.org:

A mother-friendly hospital, birth center, or home birth service:

1. Offers all birthing mothers:
• Unrestricted access to the birth companions of her choice, including fathers, partners, children, family members, and friends;
• Unrestricted access to continuous emotional and physical support from a skilled woman—for example, a doula,* or labor-support professional;
• Access to professional midwifery care.
2. Provides accurate descriptive and statistical information to the public about its practices and procedures for birth care, including measures of interventions and outcomes.
3. Provides culturally competent care—that is, care that is sensitive and responsive to the specific beliefs, values, and customs of the mother’s ethnicity and religion.
4. Provides the birthing woman with the freedom to walk, move about, and assume the positions of her choice during labor and birth (unless restriction is specifically required to correct a complication), and discourages the use of the lithotomy (flat on back with legs elevated) position.
5. Has clearly defined policies and procedures for:
• collaborating and consulting throughout the perinatal period with other maternity services, including communicating with the original caregiver when transfer from one birth site to another is necessary;
• linking the mother and baby to appropriate community resources, including prenatal and post-discharge follow-up and breastfeeding support.
6. Does not routinely employ practices and procedures that are unsupported by scientific evidence, including but not limited to the following:
• shaving;
• enemas;
• IVs (intravenous drip);
• withholding nourishment or water;
• early rupture of membranes*;
• electronic fetal monitoring;
other interventions are limited as follows:
• Has an induction* rate of 10% or less;†
• Has an episiotomy* rate of 20% or less, with a goal of 5% or less;
• Has a total cesarean rate of 10% or less in community hospitals, and 15% or less in tertiary care (high-risk) hospitals;
• Has a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) rate of 60% or more with a goal of 75% or more.
7. Educates staff in non-drug methods of pain relief, and does not promote the use of analgesic or anesthetic drugs not specifically required to correct a complication.
8. Encourages all mothers and families, including those with sick or premature newborns or infants with congenital problems, to touch, hold, breastfeed, and care for their babies to the extent compatible with their conditions.
9. Discourages non-religious circumcision of the newborn.
10. Strives to achieve the WHO-UNICEF “Ten Steps of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative” to promote successful breastfeeding:
1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is routinely communicated to all health care staff;
2. Train all health care staff in skills necessary to implement this policy;
3. Inform all pregnant women about the benefits and management of breastfeeding;
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within a half-hour of birth;
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation even if they should be separated from their infants;
6. Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breast milk unless medically indicated;
7. Practice rooming in: allow mothers and infants to remain together 24 hours a day;
8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand;
9. Give no artificial teat or pacifiers (also called dummies or soothers) to breastfeeding infants;
10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from hospitals or clinics

* Items in red are concerns that I have about my hospital's policies.



.... On a side note, Spud says that he'll slip me some crackers while I'm in labor because even HE knows how bad I get when I don't eat for long periods of time!

32 Weeks

I found out today that certain departments at work have adopted members of a needy family for Christmas and we can donate items to give these children presents. Men's and shoes got the young boy, Women's got the young girl, and Accessories/Home/Kids got the baby due Dec. 21st. I work for the manager who runs all three departments and I float between all of them (on occasion) so I was extra excited to help out this needy family. They are having a baby girl only a month before me and the only words under her column were just "Baby Items - all."

As far behind as I may think I am with getting baby items for my own baby, these people really don't have much of anything and this baby is coming... soon! Yes, a baby can sleep in a laundry basket for the first couple weeks if neccessary (apparently my grandparents were so poor that my Aunt Pam slept in a dresser drawer for the first few weeks of her life). But she will still need diapers, bottles, wipes, and something warm to cover her little body.

My baby might not "need" the gym and the bouncer and all those silly little things, but I was able to either afford them or have friends and family generous enough to buy the items for her. I just feel so bad that this family may not be able to afford anything "special" for their baby. So, I am going to donate a few items as soon as my next paycheck comes in and, hopefully, this family can breathe just a little easier once their Christmas miracle arrives.

Enjoy the season, my friends, and remember what it is all about - giving to others, and not receiving.



This week's complaint: Getting out of bed is becoming more and more... amusing....

This week's development: If born now, she has a great chance of survival at 32 weeks.

Baby's size: Size of a sack of POTATOES! or the weight of a large jicama.

31+3 Weeks

Day in the Life

1:31am Wake up to pee for the first time in the night. Go back to bed and try to get comfortable.

3:34am Wake up laying on back and worry that baby is not getting enough oxygen. Flip to left side.

4:45am Flip sides. Make menacing gesture to snoring Spud.

4:46am Pee.

7:00am Spud's alarm goes off. Reset until 7:45am. Why didn't you just set if for that time in the first place??

7:44am Finally start to fall into a sound sleep.

7:45am Alarm goes off for the second time.

7:46am Make menacing gesture that is most unlady-like. Pee.

8:00am-9:00am Baby Story on TLC. Get mad at elective c-sections.

9:05am Pee

9:07am Start filling bathtub with water because water pressure is so low.

9:08am Contemplate peeing again, because of the sound of running water.

9:10am-9:45am Check email, Facebook, and Myspace. Eat cereal and daily banana (prevents leg cramps). Bathe. (sidenote: all actions take place IN the bathtub, simultaneously)

10:00am Laundry sorting. 4 loads today plus working on mountains of hand me down baby clothes.

10:22am Pee

10:30-11:30am Try to upload pictures from baby shower for the 18th time. Get frustrated.

11:33am Cry.

11:34am Spud fixes problem with one button.

11:35am Continue with pictures as normal.

12:02pm Lunch!

12:15pm Start writing thank you notes from baby shower due to reminder from mother-in-law.

12:30pm Realize that.... oh wait.. gotta pee.

12:31pm Realize that packet of thank you cards only contains six cards.

12:46pm Fix makeup from crying spell earlier and head out to dollar store for more cards.

1:20pm Pee at Dollar General.

1:29pm Check out. As receipt is printed, realize there's Tinkerbell wrapping paper.

1:35pm Check out again with $3 worth of things on debit card plus Tinkerbell wrapping paper.

1:36pm Walk out door and see Tinkerbell window clings. Leave store disgusted.

1:50pm Arrive home and put dollar store treasures away.

1:53pm Switch laundry ("Didn't you hear it stop, Spud??")

1:59pm Settle down to write thank you cards.

2:00pm Pee

2:01pm Settle back down to write thank you cards.

2:20pm Finish checking Facebook.

2:30pm Decide to write blog about day. Shove unwritten thank you cards out of the way.




This week's complaint: Christmas rush at work means longer hours on feet.

This week's development: Tater tot doing full body rolls. That hurt.

Baby's size: Size of a soccer ball or the weight of four navel oranges.