I had my weekly appointment today and all went well. The big surprise was that my doctor would like to induce next week. I guess I was too surprised to really ask a lot of questions, but she said she thinks it will be time then. I'll have my regular appointment on Monday afternoon and then we'll schedule, so she told me to be thinking which date. I think Daron and I are leaning toward Thursday or Friday (the 9th or 10th). That way it will be right before the weekend making it easier for my parents to come up and meet their new granddaughter (my mom still hasn't retired). Daron's mom is here in town, so she'll be nice and close when the baby arrives. Plus it'll give me the most time to get things handed off to my backup at work.
Other updates - I had the Group B Strep test last week and it was negative, so that is good. I'm happy to not have to take IV antibiotics during delivery. My blood pressure and the baby's heartbeat were both very much the same as usual. I did officially hit the 40 lbs gained mark, but I guess I'll be on the downhill side of the weight deal next week! Last week I was 1cm dilated and starting to efface, but she didn't check that this week. She will next Monday, though.
The contractions have continued to pick up in frequency and some are a little painful at times, so I'm actually kind of hoping we'll beat the doctor to the punch!
Finally, I've become quite the attraction in Adan's classroom. When I walk in I am often mobbed by kids wondering why my stomach is so big and wanting to touch it. Last week, I literally had four kids with their hands on my stomach all asking me questions at the same time, plus several more standing around them. Adan thought maybe he should show off my stomach, so he kept trying to lift my shirt for all to see. So, here I am trying to answer kids questions, hold my shirt down and figure out a way out of there all at the same time. The teacher did finally come to my rescue and redirect kids away from me. I swear, I barely made it out of there alive!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
36 weeks!
Can you believe it?! I can't believe it is now under a month until our due date. I don't know if I've said this before on this blog, but time has really felt like it has moved by slowly for me. Everyone else comments on how fast it feels like it has gone by! I guess I always feel like other people's pregnancies go by fast, too.
I'm now on weekly appointments, so I will be having another one tomorrow afternoon. My doctor is going to check and see if there has been any dilation as a result of all the contractions I've had. In addition, I will have the Group B Strep test done. Apparently if I test positive for Group B Strep, I will be put on IV antibiotics during the birth to prevent it from getting passed to her. In adults I guess it doesn't cause much harm, but it can cause babies to get quite sick. Other than those things, it should be a fairly routine appointment.
I don't have much new since I've already posted a couple times recently, so I will leave you with new pictures. A couple are my normal belly shots taken by Daron, and the other is a picture my sister-in-law took of me last week. I also included the picture from 32 weeks for comparison. It feels to me like I've grown a bit since then.
I'm now on weekly appointments, so I will be having another one tomorrow afternoon. My doctor is going to check and see if there has been any dilation as a result of all the contractions I've had. In addition, I will have the Group B Strep test done. Apparently if I test positive for Group B Strep, I will be put on IV antibiotics during the birth to prevent it from getting passed to her. In adults I guess it doesn't cause much harm, but it can cause babies to get quite sick. Other than those things, it should be a fairly routine appointment.
I don't have much new since I've already posted a couple times recently, so I will leave you with new pictures. A couple are my normal belly shots taken by Daron, and the other is a picture my sister-in-law took of me last week. I also included the picture from 32 weeks for comparison. It feels to me like I've grown a bit since then.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Adan's Big Brother/Big Sister class
A couple weeks ago, Adan, Daron and I went to a Big Brother/Big Sister class offered by the hospital. We were told to bring a picture of Adan as a baby, a doll and a blanket, and then they provided a little play bottle, a couple tiny little newborn diapers, and then just a fun little activity book. The class for kids ages 3-10 who are expecting a new brother or sister.
So, class started off with each child showing their baby picture. Then the instructors would ask them some questions such as whether they were having a brother, a sister, or if it was a surprise. Adan went first, and while he was pretty quiet, he did answer all her questions with some help from us. Then after the introductions were all done, they showed a video that he seemed to really watch intently. It was aimed at small kids and talked about why babies cry, what they eat, etc.
After the video they got into the hands on part. They showed the kids how to diaper a baby and then let them try it out with the diapers they provided and the doll we brought. Adan actually did pretty well, and he felt so proud of himself. Next they showed them how they can safely hold a baby and how to hold the bottle. They showed them how to swaddle the baby, and then talked about how babies can't eat the same foods they eat and why they shouldn't ever give the baby any of their own food. Lastly, they talked about toys and how to know if it was safe for the baby to play with. It was so cute to see him take it all so seriously. She would ask something like, "Can the baby eat pizza?", and he would shake his head and say "no" very earnestly. Since class, he really likes to talk about the things we learn. He tells me that they baby won't be able to talk, but that she'll cry. And he likes to tell me that she'll only be able to drink "baby milk" and not "kid's milk", which are how he refers to breastmilk and his regular milk. I think it will be great for him to feel involved in this whole process.
After all the classroom stuff was done, they took us up to tour the family suites where we'll stay in the hospital after the baby is delivered. The kids were allowed to each take a turn pushing the buttons on the hospital bed. Here we are in a room full of people, and Adan thought it would really be a good idea if I hopped into the bed when he took his turn. I did manage to talk him out of that one! However, I have a feeling that I will be taking some up and down rides in the bed when we're staying there for real. Overall, it was a really fun time for us, and I just can't wait until Adan gets to finally meet his new little sister.
So, class started off with each child showing their baby picture. Then the instructors would ask them some questions such as whether they were having a brother, a sister, or if it was a surprise. Adan went first, and while he was pretty quiet, he did answer all her questions with some help from us. Then after the introductions were all done, they showed a video that he seemed to really watch intently. It was aimed at small kids and talked about why babies cry, what they eat, etc.
After the video they got into the hands on part. They showed the kids how to diaper a baby and then let them try it out with the diapers they provided and the doll we brought. Adan actually did pretty well, and he felt so proud of himself. Next they showed them how they can safely hold a baby and how to hold the bottle. They showed them how to swaddle the baby, and then talked about how babies can't eat the same foods they eat and why they shouldn't ever give the baby any of their own food. Lastly, they talked about toys and how to know if it was safe for the baby to play with. It was so cute to see him take it all so seriously. She would ask something like, "Can the baby eat pizza?", and he would shake his head and say "no" very earnestly. Since class, he really likes to talk about the things we learn. He tells me that they baby won't be able to talk, but that she'll cry. And he likes to tell me that she'll only be able to drink "baby milk" and not "kid's milk", which are how he refers to breastmilk and his regular milk. I think it will be great for him to feel involved in this whole process.
After all the classroom stuff was done, they took us up to tour the family suites where we'll stay in the hospital after the baby is delivered. The kids were allowed to each take a turn pushing the buttons on the hospital bed. Here we are in a room full of people, and Adan thought it would really be a good idea if I hopped into the bed when he took his turn. I did manage to talk him out of that one! However, I have a feeling that I will be taking some up and down rides in the bed when we're staying there for real. Overall, it was a really fun time for us, and I just can't wait until Adan gets to finally meet his new little sister.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Oh, the Braxton Hicks...
They say that Braxton Hicks are your uterus' way of practicing for labor. Well, if that is the case, then my uterus should be set! As I mentioned in my last post, I had been having intermittent contractions, but nothing too regular or frequent. And then a week ago last Thursday, they started getting closer and closer together. I was drinking water like it was going out of style and laying down, but they just kept coming. When they got to more than 6 in an hour, I called the oncall doctor and she said to head in to the hospital. I was 34 weeks at the time, so they want to keep you from going into labor at that point still. It was 11pm, which is not very convenient when you have a 3 year old sleeping soundly in the other room. We called my sister-in-law who is a nurse at the same hospital and she was going to be getting off in a half hour. By this time, the contractions were about 5 minutes apart, so we elected to try to get a sleeping Adan into the car and meet her there. She then would switch vehicles with us and bring him back home. That whole staying asleep thing, though? Yeah, didn't happen. I felt bad when I heard he stayed up until 1:30am - yikes!
Anyway, we got checked into what they call the labor and delivery triage unit and they hooked me up to both a contraction monitor and a doppler device to track the baby's heartbeat. The contraction monitor started recording contractions every 2-3 minutes, so they had really increased in frequency by that time. The baby's heartbeat was perfect, so no problem there.
Luckily, I was not dilated or effaced at all. After the contractions continued to maintain themselves at every 2-3 minutes, though, the doctor decided to give me a shot of terbutaline. This drug is used both to try to stop labor and apparently for asthma attacks. One of the not so fun side effects is that it makes you jittery. They gave me the shot and within 10 minutes I was feeling the jitters, and it wasn't too much longer after that that the baby started moving around like crazy and heartrate was all over the map (sometimes up to near 180 bpm). They told me the heartrate wasn't anything to be concerned about and that it will spike up like that when they are moving around, but it bothered me that it affected her so much. They told me they would monitor us for two more hours and then, providing the contractions had stopped, I could go home. Fortunately they did stop, but because of those darn jitters, I was not able to fall asleep there either. We arrived back home somewhere around 2:30 or 3am, and thankfully I was able to fall asleep then.
Since then, the contractions seem to follow a pretty regular pattern for me. In the morning, I have very few, if any. Toward afternoon I'll start having intermittent ones and by evening, I have at least 3-4 an hour. A couple of times it's gotten to that 6 in an hour point, but since they don't stay at that rate, I've been able to avoid another hospital visit.
Tomorrow is my next appointment, so I'll catch my regular doctor up to speed on how they've been since the hospital visit, of which she is aware. Her nurse called me the next day and just told me to continue to increase the fluids and take it easy for now, which is what I was already doing on my own.
I've done a bit of googling to see if this means I'll likely deliver ahead of my delivery date, but it seems like that is not necessarily the case. Some people have them quite frequently for several weeks before delivery, so who knows, I could still be pregnant on July 24th when the doctor said she'll go ahead and induce!
The night we went to the hospital, Adan of course what we were doing riding in the car in the middle of the night. I told him mommy's stomach was hurting so we were just going to have the doctor check it out, but that everything was okay. He accepted that and didn't seem concerned. The next night, the baby kicked in such a way that really hurt and took me by surprise, so I kind of grunted. Adan comes over and says, 'Mommy, what's wrong?' So I told him that the baby had kicked and it hurt. He said very seriously, 'We better call the doctor'. I explained to him that we didn't need to call the doctor for that, but I just think it's so darn sweet how he wants to take care of me. He's going to be such a good big brother! I'll post in a couple of days about the Big Brother/Big Sister class we took with him last weekend. It was so much fun!
Anyway, we got checked into what they call the labor and delivery triage unit and they hooked me up to both a contraction monitor and a doppler device to track the baby's heartbeat. The contraction monitor started recording contractions every 2-3 minutes, so they had really increased in frequency by that time. The baby's heartbeat was perfect, so no problem there.
Luckily, I was not dilated or effaced at all. After the contractions continued to maintain themselves at every 2-3 minutes, though, the doctor decided to give me a shot of terbutaline. This drug is used both to try to stop labor and apparently for asthma attacks. One of the not so fun side effects is that it makes you jittery. They gave me the shot and within 10 minutes I was feeling the jitters, and it wasn't too much longer after that that the baby started moving around like crazy and heartrate was all over the map (sometimes up to near 180 bpm). They told me the heartrate wasn't anything to be concerned about and that it will spike up like that when they are moving around, but it bothered me that it affected her so much. They told me they would monitor us for two more hours and then, providing the contractions had stopped, I could go home. Fortunately they did stop, but because of those darn jitters, I was not able to fall asleep there either. We arrived back home somewhere around 2:30 or 3am, and thankfully I was able to fall asleep then.
Since then, the contractions seem to follow a pretty regular pattern for me. In the morning, I have very few, if any. Toward afternoon I'll start having intermittent ones and by evening, I have at least 3-4 an hour. A couple of times it's gotten to that 6 in an hour point, but since they don't stay at that rate, I've been able to avoid another hospital visit.
Tomorrow is my next appointment, so I'll catch my regular doctor up to speed on how they've been since the hospital visit, of which she is aware. Her nurse called me the next day and just told me to continue to increase the fluids and take it easy for now, which is what I was already doing on my own.
I've done a bit of googling to see if this means I'll likely deliver ahead of my delivery date, but it seems like that is not necessarily the case. Some people have them quite frequently for several weeks before delivery, so who knows, I could still be pregnant on July 24th when the doctor said she'll go ahead and induce!
The night we went to the hospital, Adan of course what we were doing riding in the car in the middle of the night. I told him mommy's stomach was hurting so we were just going to have the doctor check it out, but that everything was okay. He accepted that and didn't seem concerned. The next night, the baby kicked in such a way that really hurt and took me by surprise, so I kind of grunted. Adan comes over and says, 'Mommy, what's wrong?' So I told him that the baby had kicked and it hurt. He said very seriously, 'We better call the doctor'. I explained to him that we didn't need to call the doctor for that, but I just think it's so darn sweet how he wants to take care of me. He's going to be such a good big brother! I'll post in a couple of days about the Big Brother/Big Sister class we took with him last weekend. It was so much fun!
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
My sweet little boy
I've continued to have contractions here and there, and if I am not careful to drink what seems like gallons of water, I will get several within a short period. Last night I was sitting on the bed in my room folding clothes. I had two contractions in about 5 minutes and realized I hadn't drank any water since supper (which was maybe a couple hours earlier). Daron was downstairs in the kitchen, so I yelled down and told him I'd had some contractions and asked if he would please bring me some water. Before he had gotten up there with the water, Adan walked in with his Diego cup. When he had heard me ask for the water, he went to his bathroom (the main one, we just call it his), got his cup, and put some water in it. He said, "Here mommy, have some of my water". Aw, what a sweetie pie. Of course, there was maybe a sip and a half in the cup, but it was the thought that counted. That was actually a good thing anyway, since the water is soft and we generally only use the cup for rinsing after brushing his teeth. I made sure I drank that water though and told him how nice that was of him. He was very proud.
Speaking of Adan, he had his first vacation bible school program tonight. To see some videos from it, check out my other blog - http://jilla34.blogspot.com/. It was soooo cute.
Speaking of Adan, he had his first vacation bible school program tonight. To see some videos from it, check out my other blog - http://jilla34.blogspot.com/. It was soooo cute.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Getting closer
I'm nearly 34 weeks along - its hard to believe only 6 more weeks to my due date! I asked my doctor today how far we would go past my due date and she said she would probably want to induce at 41 weeks. Of course, she also considers my due date 7/17, so that means 7/24. Hopefully it will be before then.
So, why, you may ask, does the doctor have a different due date than I use? Well, if you've read my blog from the first post, you'll recall that I had some very early ultrasounds. Every single one of them measured 3 days ahead (well, one measured 4 days ahead), so after they all were consistently ahead, I decided my due date was July 14th. I didn't really know if my dates were right anyway. However, the measurements weren't enough different for her to change the dates in her paperwork. Thus, I am officially due on 7/17.
My appointment today was very standard again. My blood pressure was 102/68, so still hanging out very low. My weight had gone up by a few pounds (sorry, not going to give that number!), but nothing to be concerned with. I'm now getting close to hitting the 40 lbs gained point, though. They like you to stay in the 25-35 pounds over pre-pregnancy weight range, but she doesn't seem concerned, so I'm not going to be either.
Adan has been getting anxious for this whole event to happen. He continues to ask multiple times every day if the baby can come out yet, but now he occasionally adds a plaintive 'Pleeeaase?' to the end of the question. I have a feeling I'm going to be asking this same question in a few weeks! Oh, and another Adanism. A few weeks ago he told me he was going to tell the baby funny jokes. The next day he ran up to my stomach and said, "Hello, baby! Funny jokes!!". I guess he was being literal about what he was going to tell her!
Next appointment is June 15th, which also happens to be my birthday. I told the receptionist I will be expecting a cake. :-) I'm sure she noted the schedule.
So, why, you may ask, does the doctor have a different due date than I use? Well, if you've read my blog from the first post, you'll recall that I had some very early ultrasounds. Every single one of them measured 3 days ahead (well, one measured 4 days ahead), so after they all were consistently ahead, I decided my due date was July 14th. I didn't really know if my dates were right anyway. However, the measurements weren't enough different for her to change the dates in her paperwork. Thus, I am officially due on 7/17.
My appointment today was very standard again. My blood pressure was 102/68, so still hanging out very low. My weight had gone up by a few pounds (sorry, not going to give that number!), but nothing to be concerned with. I'm now getting close to hitting the 40 lbs gained point, though. They like you to stay in the 25-35 pounds over pre-pregnancy weight range, but she doesn't seem concerned, so I'm not going to be either.
Adan has been getting anxious for this whole event to happen. He continues to ask multiple times every day if the baby can come out yet, but now he occasionally adds a plaintive 'Pleeeaase?' to the end of the question. I have a feeling I'm going to be asking this same question in a few weeks! Oh, and another Adanism. A few weeks ago he told me he was going to tell the baby funny jokes. The next day he ran up to my stomach and said, "Hello, baby! Funny jokes!!". I guess he was being literal about what he was going to tell her!
Next appointment is June 15th, which also happens to be my birthday. I told the receptionist I will be expecting a cake. :-) I'm sure she noted the schedule.
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