Category — Pregnancy

Still home.  Still in labor.  Still no idea when this baby is going to be here.  I have had fairly regular contractions all day long - they’ve been 6-12 minutes apart, depending on the hour.  Every time I think “wow, they’re getting closer together, we’ve gotta be progressing,” they slow up a little and I feel like we’ve taken a step backwards.  I’m not sure if my back labor is becoming less painful, or it’s just that the pain in the front is becoming so intense it’s making the back seem not quite as awful!!  Either way, it’s an intense pain each time it strikes.  I already told my brother to shut up for making this annoying whistling sound while I was pacing and concentrating through a contraction!  And my mom just gave Travis “a word to the wise” when he cracked a joke about how it’d be convenient if I could pop this kid out just as Carribou Coffee opens! 

Earlier today, Travis had gotten me a bowl of fruit that had strawberries and blueberries in it.  Jackson happens to be obsessed with those 2 fruits and will eat them until his butt looks like a baboon’s.  We always have to cut him off and he usually throws a fit.  He was eyeing my bowl for awhile and the second I popped up and Travis started massaging my back through the contraction, he made a beeline for my fruit.  In that short minute and a half I was out of commission, the little swiper had picked out every piece of strawberry and blueberry, devoured them, and left the rest of the fruit strewn about the couch!  When I was able to speak again, I said “hey, you sneaky little monkey!”  His response was to scratch his armpit with his fingers and yell “oooh, oooh, aahh, aahh.” 

Ok, again this has been over an hour update in the making.  Contractions are now serious.  We’re going on an hour of 8 minutes apart or less, and they mean business!  Travis just ran out to the store (but my mom is here with me) to get the last minute items we need for the hospital - lotion, gatorade, some maternity / nursing nightgowns…nothing like waiting ’til the last minute!!  Too bad it also happens to be Easter and he’s running all over town trying to find someplace that’s open.  Ooops. 

Our plan changed slightly since we talked to the midwife.  She advised that we stay home until contractions are 3-4 minutes apart, since this is our first pregnancy and the labor is obviously a lit-tle bit drawn out.  It still probably won’t be until the wee hours of the morning, but this just might be my last update.  I’ll make sure Travis updates when we leave for the hospital though.  Hopefully Belly Baby’s identity will be revealed by morning.  Because, OMG, if I’m still pregnant in the morning, I’m going to be one grumpy lady;)

So our doula was dead on.  Contractions picked up again overnight.  They were reliably 8 minutes apart, painful, with back labor, occasionally as frequent as every 6 minutes, and peaked around 3am.  Then I checked my watch as the space in between contractions started lapsing backwards, 10 minutes apart, 15 minutes apart, until I slept for a span of 1.5hrs and realized no contractions had woken me up.  Nooooooooooo!  I laid around feeling pretty crappy all morning.  Just sort of discouraged I guess.  I got some good rest, showered, and now they’ve started again.  They’re strong and all over the place - sometimes 10 minutes apart, but my last few were just 5 minutes apart.  It’s taken me almost an hour to write this little update.  But at this point, who knows what’ll happen.  I could still be pregnant next week for all I can tell!  I really want to have this baby, or at least know that we’re close, TODAY.  Thanks for all the encouragement!  I’ll definitely make Travis post if anything really happens, like it’s time to go to the hospital.  We’re not going until contractions are less than 5 minutes apart, lasting at least 1 minute each, for a solid hour.  We’re only a few minutes away, so no worries. 

Happy Easter everyone!!

Sorry for the lack of updates today.  We’re not at the hospital, and we still have a Belly Baby (not a Baby Baby).  Things were really intense overnight, then they really died down today.  I was able to get a 2+ hour nap in this morning while Trav took the babies out and my mom cleaned the whole house!  It was really nice.  When I got up, Travis and I went for another 5 mile walk, and we’ve been on-the-go all day.  I broke my own food rule and we ate at Famous Dave’s - I happen to think pulled chicken, wings, corn bread, cinnamon apples, and fries would make a great pre-labor meal.  But then again, I broke the rule yesterday too with nachos, a chili cheese dog, and strawberry shortcake dessert.  It could’ve been ugly, but things didn’t get that far, unfortunately.

So, I can’t believe all that and still no baby yet.  Travis was so bummed that things had fizzled.  He was like “come on!  Can’t you just like play with your boobs or something?!”  It was pretty hilarious.  For those of you who think that’s totally weird, I’ll explain what he meant…you can use a breast pump, nipple stimulation, etc. to induce the body’s natural labor hormone, oxytocin.  I cracked up when I read all the comments about Travis sleeping through my contractions last night!  Truth be told, I’d rather he get his rest before I really need him.  He’s definitely up for the birth partner job, but he does much worse than I do on little sleep, so it’s ok for him to get some rest now.  He’ll be great when I need him, and I know that.  I just love ragging on him! 

As for the labor status…I started having some strong contractions again a few hours ago.  They’re not exactly regular just yet, but according to my doula, who is very knowledgeable, oxytocin usually peaks ~2am, so it’s not unusual for things to get going overnight and then die down the next day.  She thinks they’ll likely start back up again tonight.  I HOPE that’s the case, and that this time it turns into full blown labor!  Thank you for all the advice and info on back labor.  I’ll be doing the rocking on all 4’s and using the birth ball, and Travis and my mom have been helping the pain a ton with the counter pressure. 

Hoping things take off tonight!  Thanks for all the sweet comments and positive thoughts.  I REALLY hope I have something exciting to say SOON.

So last night got pretty intense.  The contractions became more and more frequent and more and more painful.  Like the kind where I was on all 4’s rocking and trying not to grimace.  BTW, can someone (Nicki maybe?) explain why I’m having back labor when we just saw that the baby is not posterior on that ultrasound yesterday?  Every contraction started with some serious low back pain, and it then moved around to the front and the contraction would start.  They got as close as 6 minutes apart, lasting 1-2 minutes each.  I tried to sleep in between contractions, but that got tough to do.  I was able to get a few minutes here and there when they were still 10 minutes apart, but after that, there was no sleep to be had. 

Travis slept through most of my contractions though.  Every now and then, while I was rocking on my knees, he’d reach over and touch me.  And being the birth partner that he is, he’d say something in between his snores, like “don’t tense up, try and relax and breath through the contractions.”  Then the snoring would resume. 

This morning, about 2 hours ago, I hopped in the shower, thinking I’d better get one in before things get too intense.  But the contractions actually slowed down after that!  I guess it was ok in a way because it gave me a tiny bit of rest.  Now I’ve had 3 contractions in the past 35 minutes, so I think they’re now starting to pick back up again.  I think today is the day, but we’ll see.  Travis and I are going out for a walk when my mom gets here this morning.  I’ll keep you posted today.

Here are a few pictures of my family from yesterday:

Ok, I’m REALLY sorry if this is a false alarm.  But it just might be early labor.  Contractions have changed in quality (as in they’re a wee bit painful) and are becoming regular.  They’re still far apart, about 10 minutes, and it’s probably still too early to tell if this is going to fizzle or not.  But in case it’s real, I thought I’d blog it!  I’m taking my doula’s advice, drnking 2 glasses of water, eating something high in protein, and I’m off to bed.  I’ll update more when I know what’s going on…

Just kidding.  Still loooooooving pregnancy.  Just a lit-tle bit ready for there to be a Baby, instead of a Belly Baby.  So, um, the appointment…I’ll say politely that it was one of the worst patient experiences I’ve had.  After the part where she walked in, stated her name, but didn’t shake either of our hands, then ordered Travis to turn the lights off, she made sure to tell me she’d have to hurry because she’d double booked our appointment and another one of her patients had been waiting 20 minutes already.  Didn’t realize that was my fault, but sorry??  She then told us that “they” all decided, after reviewing my chart, my real due date was 3/14 and it shouldn’t have been changed to the 3/17 based on my early ultrasound.  So according to that, she’d induce me NOW, if she were my doctor, not let me wait until next Friday.  And THAT, is precisely why she is NOT my doctor.  Then she gave us crap because we’d opted not to have an anatomical ultrasound at 18 weeks.  “That’s a rule of mine with my patients.  Most of us are really uncomfortable delivering babies when we don’t know what to expect.”  Again lady, exactly why you will NOT be delivering my baby! 

Anyway, she was only supposed to be using ultrasound to measure the amount of fluid in there.  But apparently, she took it upon herself to “take a look around” while she was there.  So much for her other “waiting” patient.  She was just looking for something to be wrong and decided she couldn’t get a good enough view of all 4 chambers of Belly Baby’s heart to say for sure it’s normal.  She kept misorienting the ultrasound probe and saying “see, I’m just not sure I can convince myself everything is symmetric.”  Then she’d flash by a great view that I could SEE was normal, but would re-orient the probe to show it from an awkward angle to justify saying she wasn’t so sure.  She kept scolding us with the “it’s never good to do an anatomical ultrasound at 41 weeks, when the baby is all squished in there and it’s harder to see things.  If we just would’ve done this at 18 weeks it would have been so much easier.”  Um, FREAK, you weren’t supposed to be doing this now anyway!!  This is NOT why we came.  And you are not our doctor.

So then she left and came back to tell us she’d paged the head of perinatology and he would like to see us to be sure there’s nothing wrong.  “If this is high risk, they’d like to know upfront because no one wants to deliver a baby with a possible heart defect.”  But he can’t see us until next week, and we might deliver by then.  So she says, “I’ll take one last look.”  This time, Travis and I are both howling when the perfect heart flashes up on the screen.  She freezes the probe and says, “hmm, I guess if I’d seen this the first time around, I would have been satisfied that everything is fine.  But now I’ve already raised the question, so I feel like I need to follow up with the perinatologist.  I’m sorry if I’ve worried you guys.”  We were like “uh, NO.  We know our baby is fine.  This is the best example of why to AVOID unnecessary testing and ultrasounds.”  So, we told her we do NOT want anything to do with the perinatologist, and instead, she’s going to let our midwife know that there was just small worry about the ultrasound, and let the midwife do what she wants with that info. 

So everyone knows, there is nothing to be worried about; Belly Baby is fine.  The worst part about this experience was I honestly think this was a personal thing and this doctor did not have Belly Baby (or my) best interest in mind.  It was about criticizing us and our doctor for the management choices we’ve made.  The whole experience made us SO VERY THANKFUL for our doctor, and SO VERY HAPPY about the decision we made to go with a midwife in our doctor’s absence. 

Everything she was supposed to be checking for today was perfect - the amniotic fluid index and the non-stress test.  The baby’s estimated size based on ultrasound was only 7.2lbs.  She also gave us crap for that.  “Hmm, this baby is a little on the small size.  I guess we won’t worry too much about it though.”  When we told her Travis was born 12 days late and only weighed 7.6lbs, she still wasn’t impressed.  Whatever. 

So tonight is a harvest moon, my sister just informed me.  TIME FOR A HARVEST!!  I am contracting, but what else is new?!  Just hoping things pick up soon. 

Don’t worry, that was Travis’ beer (although I had a few gulps).  He just recognizes a good place to rest it when he sees one. 

Well, tonight is the full moon…so one can hope.  For those of you who care and aren’t easily grossed out by pregnancy stuff, I lost my ‘mucous plug’ and have had some ‘bloody show’ this morning.  These are signs of labor, but don’t necessarily mean it’s going to happen right away (of course we’re hoping it does!).  We do have to go for our AFI / NST at 1pm today with the crabby medical director.  I’m not really very excited about that, but hopefully we’ll just get news that the baby is doing fine in there and can safely hangout another week if need be (to avoid an induction).  Oh, and a few people have asked us what Belly Baby’s name is going to be…truth is, we’ve had 9 months to figure it out, and we still don’t know.  We’d been pretty set until recently, and now we’re all over the place again.  

A big congrats to my sister, who matched yesterday into her first choice family medicine program.  It’s in rural Oregon.  Although we may never see her again (just kidding Crit!), I think she and her fiance are going to love it there.  AND, she’s going to make one hell of a family doc!  Good job Critter!

It’s been fun having my family here.  Shane was a little overwhelmed by all the people yesterday, but Jackson seemed to enjoy all the action.  My family is shocked and really impressed that Jack knows all his colors and almost all his letters already.  The kid is ridiculous, and I don’t think we’ve had much (or anything) to do with any of it; he’s just super smart.  He LOVES books, loves the alphabet, and will watch Sesame, then go pick out the “letter of the day” everywhere he can find it in his books!  Is that crazy or what?  And his vocabulary has exploded this past week.  He’s constantly surprising us with words we haven’t taught him and cute new things, like “snack time,” which is his favorite phrase right now. 

That brings me to another topic…our language.  Yes, Travis and I talk like truck drivers.  Recently, Jackson repeated something that should’ve never been said.  I believe it was “Oh, $hit!”  Whoops.  That prompted a conversation that went like this:

Travis: “What the F*$& is with that bitchy medical director?”

Me: “Travis, seriously.  You have to stop that $hit.  Clean up your language in front of the babies!” 

I think our poor kids are doomed.  There might be a lot of soap in their futures when they’re old enough for school or whatever.  We HAVE GOT to curb our cussing.  It’s pretty bad, and I’m going to be really embarrassed about it when something slips from one of their mouths in front of someone who thought we were nice, polite people!  But is there really anyone still out there who has that impression?  I guess I should dispel that notion one way or another if there is. 

So, we’re currently waiting for Shane to wake up from his morning nap, then we’ll head out for our daily 5 mile walk.  All these efforts have to be doing something, right?  Well, I’ll update after our appointment later today.  Cross your fingers for us!  And those of you who guessed a delivery of 3/21 or 3/22, I’m rooting for you to win the contest!

Sorry to psych you all out with a pseudo update.  No Belly Baby yet, although I am contracting a bit.  I’m pretty sure it’s not true labor - I have my doubts these contractions will go anywhere, but we can hope!  If nothing happens by tomorrow, we’re going out to the mountains with my family.  No, I won’t be snowboarding this baby out of me, but I will be hiking around the base, at high altitude, in hopes that stirs things up.  We’ll only be 1 hour away from home, so it’s not like I’ll be stranded somewhere in labor…if that plan did work, that is. 

So, today was an absolutely gorgeous, clear, classic Colorado day.  My mom, Angela, Travis, Shane, Jackson, and I enjoyed a fun day at the park.  Travis and I walked about 5 miles roundtrip, which was SO nice.  I contracted nearly the whole way there and back, but things subsided as soon as we got home.  Darn it!  We didn’t get Jack’s haircut YET, because Travis got cold feet and used stall tactics all day.

Possibly the last pictures of Jackson’s rockstar hair:(

Hopefully these are the last pictures I’ll have to post of ‘the shelf’:

My brothers were talking about going to an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse tonight for dinner.  When I said I’d stay home with the babies so Trav could go with them, my brother, Alex, said “Whaaaat?  Oh, we’re bringing you too; you’re our BIG hitter!  We’re counting on you to get our money’s worth out of that place!”  But then we decided no one, except Alex (my brother who works as an oil engineer in Siberia), could afford Texas de Brazil, since “money doesn’t grow on trees.”  Alex’s response was “yeah, but it grows in oil wells.”  Smart ass.  So then we were debating what we wanted to eat for dinner at home.  It was between hotdogs, baked beans, and coleslaw, or tuna melts on English muffins with broccoli and sweet potatoes.  I had a “no hot dog” preference (logic similar to my reasons for abstaining from Mexican food), and there was a big uproar when my mom said “the pregnant lady gets the pick.”  Travis yelled out “are you kidding me?  She ate half a plastic spoon with her ice cream and didn’t notice until I pointed out the spoon was chipped!  She’s totally indiscriminating in her eating.  You could smush a hot dog, coleslaw, and beans on an English muffin, stuff tuna on top, and she’d still eat more than she should!!”  While that may be true, I resent that comment!

Also, in case anyone didn’t know, my good friend, Karin, FINALLY got her I-600 approval.  Karin is one of the most incredible people I know and is going to be a fantastic mom to her little girl, Caroline.  She’s waited something like 7 months to travel!  The DoS recently pulling that really crappy move of changing “60 days from I-600 submission to determination” to “oh, we meant 60 business days” further prolonged Caroline’s orphanage stay.  We had the pleasure of getting to know Caroline pretty well while we were in Vietnam, as she was Shane’s orphanage buddy.  I am SO excited for her to come home and be with her mommy!   I can’t wait to see the 2 of them united, FINALLY.  Karin just emailed me from Vietnam and she will be meeting Caroline Friday, which is Thursday night, our time.

Ok, sorry to all of you who gave me hope and guessed an early due date for me.  Apparently, Belly Baby wants to make a grand entrance, probably because s/he felt gypped with the lack of attention his/her pregnancy got early on.  Plus, if I were inside a cozy womb and heard the crazy, circus-like commotion going on outside in the world around me, I think I’d hideaway as long as possible too!!  I swear, we’re trying everything - primrose oil, pineapples, walking, Holly’s frothy beer suggestion, seriously testing Katie’s “what got it in there will get it out” theory, etc.  I haven’t had Mexican food yet, but I think it might be wise to avoid that in case there is any association with labor.  You see, I’m lactose intolerant.  I can’t imagine anything more horrifying than me eating a ton of melted cheese, then going into labor.  How’s that for a mental picture?!  Ok, ‘nuf said. 

On other news, we’ve been having a lot of fun with my family, and more arrives today.  My dad, 2 more brothers, and another sister.  Add that to my mom, littlest sister, and 2 adult brothers.  They’re all staying in a hotel not far from us, but there’ll still be lots of action around here and I’m looking forward to it.  I just HOPE this baby arrives before they leave next Wednesday.  Crazy to think it’s even a possibility that I’ll still be pregnant then!  Yikes.  Oh, and a piece of advise for others…I don’t recommend sharing your ideas for baby names with people if you’re not ok hearing criticism.  We’ve been questioning ourselves now and I think, at this point, the baby’s name will be a surprise even to us!  We’ll just wing it and name the baby when s/he is born I guess! 

Oh, and a few other great quotes I’ve heard this week:

In response to me asking for a frothy beer to induce labor, “with a gut like that, you look like someone who should have a large beer in hand!”  Watching me get into the driver’s seat of the minivan, “wow, I’m really surprised you still fit behind the wheel!”  Umm, thanks?!

On other news, Shane got his first tooth.  Actually, his 2 bottom middle ones came together, so he got his first 2 teeth.  Otherwise, he’s doing great!  Cute as can be, and the sweetest little snuggle bug ever.

On a shocking note, Jackson MIGHT get a haircut.  My mom has been ragging on Travis, and today Travis was playing around with Jackson’s hair and realized how gorgeous his face is.   

I promise to post when something happens.  Hopefully that’ll be SOON!

First of all, today is Travis’ birthday.  He’s 29, going on 45!  Happy birthday, old man!

So we just came back from our appointment with the midwife.  She. Was. AWESOME.  We are SO happy we decided to go with them, although I still miss our doctor.  According to our midwife’s estimate, the baby is not all that huge; she guestimates ~7.5lbs.  She says her estimates are usually pretty right on.  Man, I hope she’s right!!  The head is down and very low, which is good.  I’m 60-70% effaced, which is great.  But still not really dilated.  Sweeping my membranes wasn’t even an option, since she couldn’t even reach inside the internal os yet.  We’re going for a long walk after lunch, and then I’m starting primrose evening oil today.  I had high hopes for the storm system that’s moving through right now causing a drop in barometric pressure and that kicking my labor off.  But I fear my Yiayia may have been right - this baby is holding out for the full moon, which is on 3/21.

Here’s the crazy part…my total weight gain is up to 51lbs!!  FIFTY ONE POUNDS!!  That means, I put on 4lbs in the past week.  WOW.  I’m only 5lbs shy of eclipsing Travis’ weight.  I attribute that to 1) all the help I’ve had carrying babies and doing things around the house, 2) everyone cooking for me lately, and 3) Travis baking again. 

As for the gender…today the baby’s heart rate was 135, so still in boy range.  But the midwife predicts GIRL.  My mom says I’m carrying like it’s a boy in the tummy.  But, according to an old Greek wives’ tale, a baby who “takes your beauty” (ie: causes your face to blow up), is a girl.  So based on that, she thinks it’s possibly a girl!  Gee, thanks mom?!  Hahahaa!

Let’s just hope I’m not still pregnant on Friday, because if I am, we have to go for an AFI / NST (where they look at the amount of fluid and make sure the baby is doing well in there) with the only doc at our clinic who does ultrasounds.  Guess who that’d be?  Yup, the medical director.  Um, awkward much?  Yeah.  If everything looks fine, we can go another week without having to induce [I'm shuddering at the thought of an induction].  42 weeks is as far as most people are comfortable allowing a pregnancy to go before scheduling an induction.  However, in the event we have to, it’s nice to know I still won’t have to be transferred to an OB; the midwife can induce me.  The only time I’d need an OB to step in is if there’s a need for forceps, vacuum, or C-section.  And we’re REALLY praying it doesn’t come to any of that.  Inductions are a slippery slope, and one we’re trying to avoid if possible! 

I’ll keep you all posted if anything happens!  Believe me, we’re doing what we can to be proactive here!