33 weeks and counting

Made it through another week!  I am really starting to count down the weeks.  And I am feeling alot more pregnant these days (heavy, slow and tired).  There was a music/arts festival in Oxford (Double Decker Festival) yesterday and I walked up to the square with my mom to check it out for a couple of hours and it totally zapped me for the rest of the day.  Unfortunately, I did not have the energy to go back in the evening and hear the headlining music (the Meters and Mavis Staples).   There were babies and pregnant ladies coming out of the woodworks and I distinctly remember in walking around the festival last year feeling anxious and bombarded by the fertiles of the world with their strollers and bumps.  Now I am seemingly a normal pregnant woman and it still feels a little strange.

While some part of me feels like I've had the world's longest gestation, another part of me feels sad to think that in a month and a half it will be over.  The latter part of the second trimester and the third trimester has been a magical and special time in my life.  I still never tire of feeling the baby move around even if it wakes me up at 5 in the morning.

My sleep is becoming more and more disjointed.  Last night I went to bed at 10 pm and woke up at 1:45 am with hunger.  Ate a half of an almond butter and jelly sandwich with milk and went back to sleep.  Woke up at 6 am.  I have never been an early morning person, but am consistently waking up between 5 and 6 am every day regardless of what time I go to bed.  I will usually stay up for 1 hour and then fall back asleep for an hour.  I am getting up 2 or 3 times to pee a night. I feel like this is all getting me ready for sleepless nights and early morning waking with baby.

I am currently reading "Bringing up Bebe" which I am sure most of you have heard about - it's an living abroad American mom's observations on French parenting.  Apparantly French babies start sleeping through the night at 3-4 months and they wean them off night time feedings pretty early.  This is in stark contrast the to book I read earlier this week called "Beyond the Sling" which is about Mayim Bialik's  (Blossom) experience with attachment parenting.   I have to say having your baby be able to sleep through the night by 4 months is very appealing to me, because I am a mess of a person when I am sleep deprived.   My plan is to be nursing on demand and co-sleep (with Arm's reach mini-cosleeper) for the first 3 months and then get him into his own crib by the fourth month.  We'll see how it goes.

On Friday, I got in a huge shipment of baby gear!  All my cloth diapers (ordered from Cotton Babies and Diapers.com), BOB stroller from REI (purchased with dividend and my REI credit card refund), breast pump (ended up going with the Ameda Purely Yours).  and Beco gemini carrier.  On some level, I feel like I am tempting fate by ordering all these big ticket items for a baby who is not actually in my arms, but I have to act "as if" and believe that everything is going be fine - our baby is going to come into this world healthy and alive.

 Hope all of you had a wonderful, restorative weekend and I look foward to reading your updates this week!

Trip to L&D to check out Braxton Hicks

I'm 32 weeks, but my ticker is stuck on 31 weeks. 

Out of an abundance of caution, I had my first taste of labor and delivery at the Women's Hospital in Tupelo tonight.  After a full day of cleaning house, grocery shopping, prenatal yoga class and gardening (and not drinking enough water), I sat down on the couch to rest around 5 pm and the Braxton Hicks began in full force (they are not painful, just tightening of the uterus and shortness of breath).   I chugged a buch of water and took a warm bath thinking that would slow them down, but it didn't help much.  After an hour of having them at least every 5 to 10 minutes, I called the hospital and they paged the on-call OB.  He said it wouldn't be a bad idea to come in and get checked out.

So, around 7 pm, my husband and I hopped in the car and sped down the road to Tupelo (45 minute drive).  I had pre-admitted last week, so I was already in the computer system which was nice.  There was only 1 or 2 other women back there in the triage area.  I had to strip down and put on one of those terrible gowns that doesn't close in the back and the nurse strapped the fetal monitor on my belly.  Baby W was kicking up a storm and and we could hear him swishing all around in my belly.  I think the doppler really stirs him up, because he is still moving like crazy after almost 2 hours of being off of it.  He's kicking me hard in the bladder right now to let me know he did not appreciate all that monitoring business.

I had about 7 contractions in an hour while I was hooked up on the monitor, but the NP on call checked my cervix and it is still closed and long, so no worries there.  The cervical check was painful - don't think she used enough lube.  Since I was having 6 or more contractions in an hour the NP wanted to give me a terbutaline shot to stop them, but the side effects were shakiness, heart racing and sleeplessness (and the nurse said I might need ambien to sleep).  One intervention begets another and then I would feel all loopy and drugged up.  Since the contractions are not hurting, about a 1 on a scale of 1 to 10,  I opted out of the shot.  Plus, if she gave me the shot, I would have had to stay another hour which would put us getting back home close to midnight and we hadn't even had supper yet.

Baby's heart rate was great - lots of good accelerations when he moved around which is what they like to see.

We could not do the fetal fibronectin test, because we had sex last night (for the first time in forever!).  I was kind of bummed because it would have been nice to get a test result back that says there is a 99% chance you won't go into labor in the next 2 weeks.  That would have been alot of peace of mind.  I suppose if I keep having the BH that I can go in and have the test done because I will be out of the the 24 hours after sex window.

The NP told me I need to slow down and only do one active thing a day.  Can't do yoga and gardening in the same day.   It's hard this time of year to limit activity on pretty warm Spring days, but I have to start cutting back, so I don't have another episode like this.  I've read that some people just have "irritable uterus" and I think I have a touch of that.  I do know that on days I'm not real active, I don't have the BH contactractions like this.   Once they get going, it's really hard to stop them.  The NP says tylenol can help, so I will try that.  So hopefully, I won't have to go back until the hospital for at least 2 more months - this little boy still has alot of growing to before he's ready to come out into the world!

John Braxton Hicks - 1872

As an aside, I have 2 articles to recommend, if you are looking for something to read on the internet- 

1) The haunting story of 5 Ole Miss sorority girls who were killed in a terrible accident 25 years ago as told by a survivor.  These 5 women never got the chance to become mothers and the writer identifies herself as a "nonmother."  I wonder if the accident subconsciously impacted her choice not to have children. "We Thought the Sun Would Always Shine on Our Lives"

Also I googled the author's name and fertility and found this article where she talks about how Bikram yoga helps reset her body (and possibly return it to a more fertile state at age 42?) 60 Day Makeover 

2) The story of a couple who delivered at 32 weeks told from the father's candid point of view. Pain is a Gift

New Belly Pic

Here is my 31 week belly pic with anniversary flowers in the background - - -

31 weeks!

Where does the time go? - My little ticker says my baby is 4 lbs!  He's definitely a little mover and groover-  I can really feel how long he is getting.
My weight has been holding steady for the last month at +20 lbs.   I don't know why I have stopped gaining, since I am still eating alot, well, maybe a little less since I am getting fuller faster.  I think the baby is just taking from me now.  My next OB appt is next Thursday, so it will be interesting to see how much he's grown in the last 2 weeks.  Still lots of Braxton Hicks especially when I am sitting on the couch at night.   I need to keep track of them.  My OB said if 6 or more an hour I need to call her office.  Getting a good night's sleep is getting a little harder.  I feel like I toss and turn more and am getting up 2 times a night to go to the bathroom.  I suppose it's all to prepare me for sleepless nights in the the months ahead.

My nursery is pretty much done - got my curtains hung this week.  I need to post some pics.   My arm's reach mini-cosleeper is coming in this week, so I am curious to see how that works out.

In other news, today is our 4 year wedding anniversary.  This morning, my husband cradled his hands over my belly and felt Baby W moving all around.  Such a peaceful, sweet way to start our anniversary day, considering 3 years of our marriage have revolved around trying to make this happen :)
I think we might go see the Hunger Games tonight, since we haven't been to the movies in eons.

We are still on the fence regarding circumcision.  Oh my god, y'all, I watched a youtube video of it last night before going to bed and it was pretty horrific.  I had a nightmare about circumcision last night.  I guess we are lucky to be in a position to have to make a decision over this, but it's a hard one for me.  I can see the pros and cons of each side, but I am leaning towards not doing it, because it just seems barbaric.  The reason my husband wants to do it is, so that our son won't feel different from his peers.  I would like for my son to be able to make his own decision regarding his body, but I know that it's alot more to go through to get circumcised when you are older.  Kind of like how tonsil surgery is harder as an adult, which my husband will be having in a couple of weeks.  He is going to get his tonsils and adenoids removed and his sinuses straightened out.   He's been putting it off for years and we figure we might as well do it before the baby gets here and while we have COBRA.   I hope this baby stays put until at least 37 weeks.

So my replacement at my husband's law office is trained - yay!  Hence my leisurely morning of blogging. Although I feel like I have a million and one things to tend to.  #1 on this list is getting the baby shower thank you notes done.  Gotta do it.

That's all the news for this week.  Hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the unseasonably warm spring weather we are having.

29 weeks

How Far Along: 29 weeks and some change.

How Big is the baby? My ticker says a pumpkin.  Over 3 lbs.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Around 25 lbs - wt gain has slowed a little bit in the last month probably because I have been exercising more.

Maternity Clothes: Mostly maternity, but still wearing some prepregnancy tops and stretchy yoga pants and if you can believe it I've only bought one new maternity/nursing bra.  

Movement: Last night I felt like my uterus was a washing machine on spin cycle.  

Belly button in or out? It's getting pretty shallow. 

What I miss: Biking and running. I am going to miss my cousin's wedding in a few weeks because it's too far to travel in the 3rd trimester:(

Milestones:  Baby shower!

Food Cravings:  Ice, pistachios and oranges.

Aversions: None. 

Symptoms:  Onset of braxton-hicks contractions.  It's weird because they are not painful, but I get out of breath and lungs feel kind of squeezed right before one starts.  Strangest feeling.  I'm fighting a yeast infection right now too. Not fun. 
Best Moment this week: My baby shower on Saturday.  I have to admit one small part of me was dreading it, but it ended up being lovely.  

Funny Moment: We got a carseat at the shower and the first time we snapped the seat to the base it got stuck.  We spent about 45 minutes trying to figure out how to undo it (a strap had gotten stuck where the base attaches to the seat), and not without alot of sweating and cussing. 

What I'm looking forward to: Enjoying the last trimester of pregnancy with him on the inside and fanastizing about what life with baby on the outside is going to be like.