express yourself

Well, three days overdue, and still no baby. We had an ultrasound yesterday to check to see that the amount of amniotic fluid is still OK (and it is), as well as a non-stress test. They hook you up to a monitor that checks the baby's heart beat, and he has to move a couple times in about 20-30 minutes, and they check to make sure the heart beat rises and falls as it should - that test came out beautifully as well. So, he's doing just fine, and those tests are "good" for about three days.

I myself have been doing pretty OK, up until recently. I still have not felt much in the way of contractions, but on top of the swelling problem I've been having, unfortunately my hip has now made it impossible for me to do much to try to help things along. For those of you that don't know, last week I woke up one morning with severe hip pain. Sitting is fine for the most part, but any pressure I put on my left hip is very painful - bad enough that I can barely dress myself, let alone walk. Its just a result of everything loosening up and moving around in my pelvis, on top of already having a hip problem, so there isn't much to do about it except take some tylenol and give birth. :) We did purchase a yoga ball that I should be able to do some squatting and bouncing on, as that has been said to help things along a bit, so that's nice. Chris has been stellar support, and has pretty much been doing literally everything, down to washing my feet in the shower for me. :)

Otherwise, I still haven't progressed much at all, so if I don't go into labor by Thursday morning (when we have another non-stress test), they'll check me in to the hospital sometime on thursday or friday night, depending on bed availability. At that point they'll administer hormones several times throughout the night to start dialation. The doctor says that has often been enough to bring on labor naturally (that would be nice). But if that doesn't work, then they'll induce with Petocin (which brings on faster, longer, and harder contractions, so at that point I'll probably look in to getting a light epidural). This has a somewhat higher risk of stress to the baby, so they'll watch him very closely. The doctor also mentioned that I am at a slightly higher risk for C-section due to several factors, among them including the fact that I'm overdue, I haven't progressed at all, and the baby is getting pretty big.

So, that's a complete update. Obviously there are some possibilities in there that I'm really not too keen on, but we knew going into this that anything could happen and you just can't predict it. (Although, so far this is following my sister's labors to a T - she had the Petocin, and STILL didn't progress, hence her 30 and 18 hour labors). It is kind of stressful, but I think most of it is just normal emotional ups and downs from hormones and the big Unknown. Besides, if it is just now starting to get truly challenging and difficult to deal with day to day, at 9 months pregnant, then I'm not too bad off!

We'll keep updating as we can - thank you for being patient with me as I disappear for months on end (blog-wise). I hope to blog a bit more regularly soon - I know, I keep saying that, but I really enjoy it and mean to build more of a habit, as soon as we have a bit more routine to our lives again. :)

Labels: baby, pregnancy

Has it really been so long since I've written a blog? A really decent one? Truly? Alas, despite my sincere good intentions to keep updated with my blog, I have failed miserably, when you consider my goal was to update at the very least once a week. So much has happened in the last six months, I hardly know where to begin. The most important bit of news has yet to be officially aired in this blog (and will explain a lot!), which is we are expecting a baby! As of this Saturday I will be 26 weeks pregnant with a little boy we plan to welcome into the world on or around Mother's Day (May 13th). We didn't actually plan that at all, it just worked out nicely that way - we didn't even put two and two together that our due date was Mother's Day until a few months ago. Or at least I didn't, maybe Chris was faster on that than I was. Which wouldn't be at all surprising, because I have completely lost my mind. It feels like it at least! For the first 13 weeks, I was very sick, all day/night, every day, so pretty much every minute of every day was spent at work working, at home trying to eat and sleeping, all the while trying not to throw up (for all you more squeamish readers, I apologize - I'm not very squeamish usually, so I just tend to say what is in my head, which unfortunately doesn't always come out all that "proper."). Thankfully indeed that disappeared not long after the first trimester, so we've been able to enjoy the rest of the pregnancy so far. As of this week, though, I'm starting to really feel big, even though I don't show all that much. I'll have to take a photo and post it - unfortunately, we've taken very few photos of me. I'm pretty sad about that, as those would be really fun to look back on, plus I tend to forget most everything that isn't immortalized in a photo or journal as a reminder. Better late than never, though, so we'll start taking some pictures soon, I hope, now that the weather is nicer and we're out and about more. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes…losing my mind (see?!)... This baby has sapped my brain of it normal ability to process details, analyze information, or remember…anything. Which really sucks when you analyze for a living. Sheesh! I've never written so many sticky notes in my life. Does anyone know what causes Pregnancy Brain, besides the obvious answer (the baby)? I mean, what is it REALLY that makes you lose your mind, and is there a cure for it? Does it come back? We're in real trouble if it doesn't. I do appreciate and understand my own mother a little better now, though. She was pregnant three times.

Anyway, so we are very happy. We're just entering into that anxious phase though, as everything is starting to sink in now that we only have 14 weeks left to go, and my ever-growing belly is a constant reminder of the changes to come. I'm so happy the weather is nice, though - freezing, but beautiful. I don't know how I ever thought I'd want to have a baby in the dead of winter, as we had originally been thinking. I never would have survived the dark dreariness, which in my mind I always enjoy, but in body and spirit it just depresses me. I never know how much until the first sunny days start to appear and I start feeling 1000 times better, and never realized how NOT myself I was being. Lots more energy these days, even though I’m really tired too. If that makes sense.

Labels: pregnancy