When the levee breaks

Dr. Plimpton breaking Jenny's water sac seems to have kick started her
in the right direction. Whereas before, her contractions were at most
a 3 or 4 out of 10 on the pain scale, they are now solidly in the 5 to
6 range.

Go baby go!

Labor update

6 hours of being on petocin and no real change in my contractions.
They are stable and weak, just like at home.

But Dr. Plimpton just came in to check on me. Yay! It was good to see
his face. He broke my water, so now we are committed. I'm still only
4cm dilated. He's hoping that between the petocin and the water
breaking, we have a baby sometime this morning. Fingers crossed.

Sent from my iPhone

Checking in

On The Way To The Hospital

The hospital called to let us know they have a bed ready. We were
commenting that we are leaving for the hospital a good hour earlier
than with Alli, and I'm not in active labor. What a different
experience this is.

Alli is at Marcie's house. Bagheera is at Erik and Kris house. I'm
having contractions, but nothing strong. I have no clue if they are
just going to break my water or give petocin or both, but we are ready
for a long night.

Kim will keep the blog updated.

Sent from my iPhone

38-1/2 Week Checkup

I would have never thought I would be blogging about another checkup with the doctor, and yet, here we are...

I have lost 3 lbs since last week's visit (unsure why, but I have been a little nauseous lately).  The baby is unknown in weight because the head is so low the doctor couldn't get measurements.  But, he said that based on his judgement, the baby is probably 6-1/2 - 7 lbs, and the measurement from last week being 7-1/2 lbs was definitely heavy.

I'm 4cm dilated and ready to go.  Once again, he's just surprised that I haven't started into active labor yet.  And then I had a contraction while we were there and he asked about how strong I thought it was and I said maybe 2 out of 10, and that's what I've had for the last 7 weeks.  He said "Well, there you go.  Only 6 more weeks of being pregnant!"  hahaha

The baby was so low we couldn't even get an ultrasound of the face.  Unreal.  No wonder I'm so uncomfortable and waddle all over the place.

So we are now talking about going to the hospital for an induction to get the active labor started.  He said the hospitals have changed their processes, so his office has to call to schedule.  We are tentative for tomorrow afternoon, but the hospital is pretty busy and they are not sure they will get us in.  So, we are guessing we will be in the hospital sometime this week or this weekend, and then finally meet the baby that has been procrastinating in my belly!!!  :)

Every Pregnancy is Different

I know you always hear that every pregnancy is different, but until you experience just how different, you just don't want to believe it...

My pregnancy with Alli was easy - textbook as a matter of fact.  From looking back at the blog and from what I remember, I was running 1-2 miles until 6 months, started swimming at 32 weeks, assumed my due date was probably when I would stop working because I would have the baby on or after my due date, my labor started on a Sunday and gave us plenty of warning so we could tell work and make final preparations for the baby.

Now this pregnancy.  At 26 weeks I got stung by a scorpion (3 times).  Ok, that was unfortunate and not really a pregnancy problem, but still!  I ran 2-3 miles up to 15 weeks only, then could only walk.  The baby dropped at 31 weeks and then I couldn't even walk without bringing on contractions.  With Alli and a stressful job, going to the pool and swimming for exercise seemed out of the question.  I had to start working from home to keep the contractions at bay, at least until week 36.  And then we hit the magical calendar date of week 36 - safety.  The baby could come out - throw caution to the wind.  I was 2cm dilated and every indication was that the baby was coming soon.  Week 37, contractions are sporadic and not strong, dilated to 3cm, ready to pop at any time.  And then the week/this weekend since my last appointment:  pink show for 3 days straight, baby dropped so far down I was having issues sitting, cramps on both sides of my groin, and the fear that we would never make it to the hospital fast enough if my water did break.  And besides all of that, Kim's project had a big due date and he was on critical path and was working a lot.  (Ok, so can you say a lot of stress in our household?)

So this weekend was a turning point.  We went to the hospital to get checked out.  I mean, 3cm on Thursday, pink show for 3 days and groin cramps doesn't sound very good.  Kim finally packed up work and drove me down (we have at least a 40 minute drive to the hospital).  Alli wound up with an impromptu play date with Cali Pennell, who lives 2 miles from the hospital.  Everything checked out fine - contractions indicated pre-labor; baby's heartbeat was fine.  I was still 3cm dilated, 70-80% effaced, ripe to go at any time.  The hospital triage was slow and we were able to chat with the nurse quite a bit.  In the end, she said "You really need to reduce your stress.  It might be that your body wants to push this baby out but the stress is keeping that from happening."

Exhausted, both emotionally and physically, we had dinner with Angel and Cali, then went home to get ready for the week.  And in my sleepless night that I had, I finally came up with a de-stress plan:
1)  Stop working
2)  Schedule an induction  (seems like cheating, but I need a near-term date both for myself and for Kim's work schedule)


I often wonder if I would be so stressed if I didn't have 6 weeks of contractions prior to being full-term...

37 Week Checkup

The appointment this morning went well.  The baby is doing fine - still moving around, with a heartbeat of 156.  The doctor said I was 3cm dilated.  (Apparently I was 2cm dilated last week but I spaced on that tidbit of information.  No *wonder* it's so hard to walk around!)  Contractions have been stronger, but not consistent, so no labor yet.  The baby's measurements are giving the doctor an estimated weight of 7 lbs 8 oz.  Ouch!  That's a full pound heavier than the ultrasound estimates on Alli, so this is definitely going to be a bigger baby.  But, I have not gained any weight since last week, so once again, I must have lost a pound.  Have no clue where I am losing this weight...

There's a full moon this weekend, and hospital statistics say more deliveries during full moons, so I'm hoping I fall into this statistic.  :)  We are looking forward to meeting our new family member, and I am very ready to be done being pregnant.

37 Week Belly

I got back onto Facebook, just to give me something to do while on maternity leave.  One of the comments was to "see" the belly, so I took a self-portrait trying to show the basketball that has replaced my stomach.

Here's what I got:

Next checkup with the doctor is tomorrow.  Keeping my fingers crossed that labor will start soon.  I keep having stronger contractions, but nothing strong enough to push a baby all the way out, and definitely not consistent.  Keep trying baby!  We are all anxious to meet you!

Week 36 Checkup

We didn’t get very good ultrasound pictures this week, mostly because the head is half way down the birth canal and the baby is all squished.  The doctor said he would guess I would be able to make my appointment with him next week, but probably won’t go much past that.  I think this weekend sounds like a good time to start labor.  :)

Everything in general looked good.  Baby is estimated to be 6lbs 7oz.

Ready or Not, Don't Come Out!

This pregnancy has been a little more of a rollercoaster than my last one - you know, with a scorpion sting, the baby dropping at week 31, contractions so early, etc, etc, etc.  I've been saying "throw caution to the wind" as soon as week 36 starts, and the doctor gave me the "ok" sign for this weekend.  And now it's almost here and I'm having second thoughts.  Why?  Not because I'm not ready to meet the little gem that's in my belly, but I'm not ready for the little gem to come out and be exposed to the things floating around our air...

Over Labor Day weekend, Alli got sick.  Nothing big - she stayed in PJs all day on Saturday and watched TV - didn't want to do *anything* and didn't eat very much.  The next day she woke up with a croup cough.  Well, we know how to deal with that, so honey/lemon water for cough, Little Noses every night before bed, Vitamin C.  She was feeling much better by the end of the weekend.  The cough still lingers (yes, even still), but it's not bad.  But then I got it.  So by Tuesday, I had a congested head and a cough.  And that went on til about Friday and then by Friday, I really felt sick.  Saturday I slept the whole day (yes, the whole day).  I only got up once to force a peanut butter and jelly sandwich down my throat cause I figured I needed some kind of food, and then went back to bed.  I was pretty much in bed through Monday, so 3 full days of sleep and I wasn't getting better very fast.  But finally I've turned the corner, and while I'm still coughing and don't feel 100%, I'm much better.  But on Tuesday Gage (Marcie's youngest) came down with a super high fever.  He's been bed-ridden since.  And now Marcie has it - the cough, the fever, the congestion.  And she never gets sick.  They have 5 people in their house that this "disease" will go through.  Ugh.  And people at work are dropping like flies as well.  Some get the high fever symptom, and some don't.  Our family was lucky in that we didn't.

But do I really want this little baby to come out and experience this little epidemic that seems to be going around?  Hell no!  So here it is, my weekend to throw caution to the wind, and I'm probably going to do my best to let the baby sit in my belly a week or two longer, hoping this "disease" passes through the community and is basically gone before we welcome our newest family member.