Senioritis

Do you remember the last semester of college or high school? That feeling that you knew you were done, so why wasn't it over already. I'm going through that today. Just a frustrating day at work and it has me totally bummed out. It's not the pregnancy I'm done with, it's totally fine. It's just the knowledge that after I give birth I won't be working as much and I am so looking forward to that.

I know mothering is a job so don't get your panties in a bundle. It is the career I have always been working towards. I do love my work in interior design but I don't find it as fruitful as I used to because it's just not what I want anymore. I plan to work after giving birth but in very limited capacity. Mostly I will work from home and then I will bring the baby with me when I do come in. Or that's the plan anyway.

I would love to be a stay at home mom full time. I would also love to have 4 children, but those things aren't in the cards for me right now.

What I need right now is a nap. I'm so cranky! How am I going to get through the next 11 weeks?

28 Weeks Later

Finally in my third trimester! Woot! Woot!

I can't decide whether it feels like this pregnancy is going by fast or slow. I look back and recall finding out I was pregnant and being in total disbelief. At 8 weeks we got to see the little zygote floating around which made it a bit more real, but it was still just a blob. 4 weeks after that it was like there was a real baby in that ultrasound, with arms and legs and a button nose. Then there was the first kick and getting all the normal test results back. And lastly waiting for my baby bump to become noticeable. Waiting for all those milestones seemed like forever at the time, but now I'm nearly at the end and wondering where all the time went.

In my 28th week there is no doubt that I have a big round belly. Random people have no problem asking me when I'm due or what the gender is. It's really refreshing since I feel like I've been showing since 16 weeks, but it was that stage where people are like "baby bump?" or "too much lunch?". At around 20 weeks I had to buy maternity clothes and at 24 weeks there was no doubt that I was showing. Now I can't even wear any of my old tee shirts unless I want to sport the round belly, which isn't my bag.

I'm also starting to feel contractions more and more. I've been feeling them since about 18 weeks, but wasn't sure what they were. I told one of my doctors I was feeling "pelvic pressure" and he assured me these were light Braxton Hicks contractions. Now I actually feel a tightening of my abdomen like muscle strain, but without the pain. It's great that they don't hurt and it's so exciting to feel the pregnancy progress but it's also pretty distracting.

I feel them the most when I walk in the morning and to get rid of the contractions you're supposed to change positions, but that's hard when you're at mile 3 of a 4 mile walk. I got a little worried this morning because I had 3 during my walk and then a few when I got home, one of which got pretty intense. It didn't hurt so much as leave me breathless. I figured I'd wait it out since I see the doctor on Wednesday, unless they got closer than 15 minutes apart. After I had half an hour of rest they pretty much stopped and I've only had 1 small one since.

So everything is progressing normally and I'm feeling pretty good still. I really just need to start planning my baby shower and working on the baby's room. I also have quite a few friends that are pregnant right now and the most recent one is finding out her baby's gender today. I'm waiting with bated breath to find out. You can check out her fantastic blog here.

And here's a photo of me and some of my pregnant friends.

A scary situation

So I spent last night in the hospital... Or maybe it was just considered this morning. I started having terrible abdominal cramps at 9pm and called my OB by 9:45. She instructed me to take anti gas meds, acetaminophen and lots of water and if I wasn't feeling better in an hour, to call her. By 10:45 I was doubled over in pain, so bad in fact, I was crying and moaning and scaring the living shit out of my dogs. I tried changing positions, standing, lying on my left and even down on all fours. No dice, still had stabbing pains across my upper stomach and was sure I was going to die.

I hesitated calling my OB again, sure it was gas or something ridiculous and didn't want to waste anyone's time, she sent me to the ER. So I texted Adam at work at 11:30 and told him we needed to go to the ER. Poor guy had been working since noon on less than 5 hours of sleep and was so upset by a sick pregnant wife made worse by the thought of another sleepless night followed by 12+ hours of grueling work. But he hightailed it home and made a 20 minute drive in 7 minutes, I shit you not.

The dogs are frantic, pacing in circles, I'm propped up on a chair and the piano trying not to moan so loud as to wake my neighbors when Adam gets home and rushes me to the ER. After taking my blood pressure and other vitals they determine I'm not in labor, which I knew for sure. I know it's my first time and all but I'm pretty sure I know the difference between a contraction of my uterus and stabbing pains under my ribs shooting to my belly. I also have to mention that there was a lot of fetal movement. In fact, the baby was enjoying the heck out of my pain. with every moan there was an aftershock of his swift kick straight to my belly button.

So I head up to the maternity ward for some drugs. Which made the baby start disco dancing. I could actually feel his Saturday Night Fever like maneuvers. But hey, we were both on morphine and feeling much better. Fast forward 2 hours to the ultrasound. Baby is fine and I am fine on paper, still having stabbing pains. They determine it must be gas. And yes folks that's the end of my story, I was rushed to the hospital at midnight because I couldn't stand GAS PAINS. The nurse asked if I had outlined a birthing plan and what kind of pain management was I looking at. WEEEELLLLL, I had planned natural birth, but hell, if I can't stand some gas, then I would love a fucking epidural.

And might I ask what kind of gas this is anyways? Not that you want to know, but there hasn't been a toot out of me since yesterday morning. It's not like I'm a fart machine, but pregnant women are known to be gassy. Apparently all my organs are so smushed that some major gas bubbles just get stuck in there and may take hours to exit! That is foul, it's going to be like a sewage spill when the gas finally escapes.

As for me, I'm still in pain this morning, not stabbing pains but aching like I have been punched in the stomach repeatedly. And this is after a nice dose of morphine and 2 percocet. So what have I learned? No more gassy foods, for real yo. I have no problem saying goodbye to broccoli but I'm not looking forward to cutting out the fructose, that has been my life blood since day 1 of pregnancy. Goodbye my yummy acidic fruits; no more pineapple cherries, citrus and hello boring apples and bananas. And goodbye flavor; no more onions, garlic, and red pepper.

But I'm okay with it for sure. I will do nearly anything to stay out of the hospital until at least the last week of April. And FYI I burped during writing that last paragraph adn the baby gave a little kick... We may be on our way to recovery.

Exactly 3 months left

My due date is May 17th, which means as of today there are exactly 3 calendar months remaining. I am feeling more and less prepared every day. We have the crib so we have a place for the baby to sleep, but will he actually sleep in it? Will we be up every hour? I have outlined my birth plan and have a good idea of what I want, but what if an emergency occurs? We toured the hospital last week and all my birth classes are scheduled. So I guess the rest is up to chance.

My main concern these days are baby showers. It seems like there will be one to go to every weekend until I'm due! 4 for friends and 3 for myself. I'm not even sure how I ended up with 3 baby showers. Too many people and places I guess. One for my mother, one for my colleagues and one co-ed so my husband can be somewhat involved.

My next door neighbor is hosting the co-ed shower, but we're planning it together. I made the mistake of doing the shower invitations with my husband. A nearly 7 month pregnant woman and a distracted man are no good at editing. Heed my warning. I already had to beg the printers to halt the invites once because I effed up on the date. And I'm sure when we get them we'll be having a "Baby Shoer on Saxurday Muy 28th" or something along those lines. I should let my fantastic neighbor take over, but I am a control freak...who's losing control!

And as for the distracted man, Adam started a crazy project this week. He was only supposed to be consulting on a project for a few weeks. But the main engineer messed up and was fired the first day. Now it looks like my dear husband will be doing the whole 8-10 week project...6 days a week...16 hour days. A nightmare as well as a blessing. I'm so nervous that I'll go into labor while he's at work at 2am. And who will help me hang the drapes?

And now I have to take my own weekly belly pictures, I guess another thing I'll have to enlist the neighbor to help with. Until then, here is me in the nursery/storage room. At least we've got the crib, some diapers and boobs, so the baby can at least survive.

Makes me wonder

Hello baby belly! You're looking large and in charge at 26 1/2 weeks. People are finally realizing I am pregnant and not just chunky. Just a few days ago I was at Trader Joe's and the checker refused to let me carry out my grocery bags myself and enlisted a busy bag boy to help me. I felt a little bad because I've always prided myself on being self sufficient at the grocery store, bagging my own groceries etc. I felt like I was taking advantage but I realize this might be the only time that I get pampered by random folk, so I'm embracing it.

Otherwise things are normal. No crazy cravings, no terrible aches and pains, only a little heartburn. And I guess this is uncommon and I'm waiting for it to change, but I have been sleeping fairly well. Sometimes I wake up a bit thirsty or with a bit of heartburn and I wake up twice every night to pee. But I can get back to sleep. I have yest to suffer leg cramps or the insomnia that keeps me awake, and I am so thankful.

Starting Sunday I will be in my last week of my second trimester and I am so anxious. I'm not to the point where I want the baby out, he's been no bother at all. I just want to meet him and see his personality. I wonder if he will take after Adam and be content to just sit and tinker with things. Or will he be more like me, always on the move and exploring. I just keep wondering and it makes me so anxious and excited.

Only 95 days left...

Less Than 100 Days to D Day

I almost can't believe in 3 months we'll have an addition to our family. On Saturday I realized I had exactly 100 days left until the due date which puts me at 98 days left today, or 26 weeks. I'm so close to the third trimester and it's all down hill at that point. Then we get to meet the little fella!

Everything is very mundane right now. There are no big changes besides my ever expanding stomach and flattening belly button. I think Adam may still be a tad bit in denial. He knows the baby's coming but I'm not sure he's really acknowledged the changes that are going to come. We've had a few discussions about how things might be with the baby here regarding feeding/ sleeping schedules but it's crazy that we can't do any planning for him.

Preparation yes, planning no. I'm hoping to breastfeed but even that is up in the air, maybe he won't take to it. I'm also hoping to be able to pump so I can share feedings with Adam, so we can both bond with our son. But it tends to be true what they say about the best laid plans...

So now I'll just focus on things that I have a bit more control of: baby registries and showers, birth classes and hospital tours, and just being as prepared as possible.

Birth Education and a Plan

We signed up for childbirth education classes today at our hospital. I had flirted with the idea of doing the Bradley Method but the classes just don't fit into our schedule, 12 weeknights or Saturdays just don't work with a husband working 100 hour weeks, including Saturdays. I did buy the book and I hope to implement some of the techniques, but Adam isn't really into it. So we'll stick with our 2 day accelerated course and go from there.

The Bradley Method is Husband Coached Childbirth. So rather than having a midwife, your husband coaches you through a natural delivery. Now Adam isn't really up on me having a natural childbirth in the first place. He knows I'm pretty high strung and I think he wants me drugged so the birth will be a little more mellow. And he doesn't want to be the coach because he's afraid I'll freak out on him, this is a very realistic fear and I can't really blame him. So I'm trying to come up with a birthing plan that will suit the both of us.

The first thing I have to acknowledge is that although I am creating a plan, I have to be ready to let go of it if needed. I'd love to try this thing naturally, but I understand if my body isn't into it that I may need pitocin or an epidural. I can handle that. I just want to try everything possible to make this a positive experience. But when it comes down to it, I'm so excited to meet my son, I'm ready to do almost anything.

I found an awesome website that helped me to organize my birth plan. It's not super detailed, but good for now and I highly recommend it. So now I just have to focus on the first part of birthing education, the hospital tour scheduled for next Thursday. I'll let you know how it goes.