Friday, May 24, 2013
8 Months Pregnant and No More Work
It's been a while since I've posted, but I have had NO energy lately. I spend most of my time watching Gossip Girl and working on mindless craft projects, or just plain sleeping. I stopped working a week ago since my BP was still in the 140s with no real change. It's been nice not having to stress about work and sleep when I want/need to.
I'm thinking a lot about the next step in this process now that I've hit OB's goal date of 36 weeks (!!!!). And I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Some are the "normal" fears over how labor and delivery are going to go. How much will it hurt? Will everything be okay? Will I need to have an emergency c-section? Will he need to spend any time in the NICU? Plus, I worry about having never been a mom before. What if I screw something up? What if I'm not a good mom? What if he doesn't connect with me? I think it's mostly the fear of the unknown as we're about to jump off into this new part of our lives.
Everything's ready for Baby Boy to come any day now. We finished the last parts of the nursery by hanging the curtains, the hospital bags are packed permanently in the car, and the car seat is in my car waiting for its new occupant.
Yesterday my BP was up again at 155/80 and didn't go down much after reclining (144/82), but they were doing a non-stress test during that time too so I wasn't really laying down. The NST was amusing again, but we definitely didn't need the air horn. He was moving so much they could hear him on the monitor from the hallway and he kept kicking/moving the monitor so instead of one continuous line for heart beat, it was in bits and pieces depending on whether he would let it lay still to get heart beat. Based on the BP, my guess is that he might come sometime next week, but that's just my guess. The doctors are talking about 38 or 39 weeks before inducing, but it could be before then. :)
Monday was my official 8 months pregnant, so here's probably the last official monthly photo. I'll make sure I take one during early labor or right before they induce so I have one last belly picture.
I'm thinking a lot about the next step in this process now that I've hit OB's goal date of 36 weeks (!!!!). And I'm excited and nervous at the same time. Some are the "normal" fears over how labor and delivery are going to go. How much will it hurt? Will everything be okay? Will I need to have an emergency c-section? Will he need to spend any time in the NICU? Plus, I worry about having never been a mom before. What if I screw something up? What if I'm not a good mom? What if he doesn't connect with me? I think it's mostly the fear of the unknown as we're about to jump off into this new part of our lives.
Everything's ready for Baby Boy to come any day now. We finished the last parts of the nursery by hanging the curtains, the hospital bags are packed permanently in the car, and the car seat is in my car waiting for its new occupant.
Yesterday my BP was up again at 155/80 and didn't go down much after reclining (144/82), but they were doing a non-stress test during that time too so I wasn't really laying down. The NST was amusing again, but we definitely didn't need the air horn. He was moving so much they could hear him on the monitor from the hallway and he kept kicking/moving the monitor so instead of one continuous line for heart beat, it was in bits and pieces depending on whether he would let it lay still to get heart beat. Based on the BP, my guess is that he might come sometime next week, but that's just my guess. The doctors are talking about 38 or 39 weeks before inducing, but it could be before then. :)
Monday was my official 8 months pregnant, so here's probably the last official monthly photo. I'll make sure I take one during early labor or right before they induce so I have one last belly picture.
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| 7 months |
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| 8 months |
Friday, May 10, 2013
Baby Shower #3 - Work
Today the co-workers in my unit, threw my co-worker who is due 9 days before me and I a
joint "surprise" baby shower. Neither of us were surprised by the
shower since we both donated money towards the other person's gifts.
Also, now that I'm working from home full-time for the rest of the
pregnancy, when they said that I had to come in for half a day on this
specific day, I kind of figured that's what was going on that day during
our unit meeting.
We walked to the conference room together and she wanted me to be the one to open the door. We heard everyone in there, but when I opened the door the first face I saw was not someone from my unit so I was thinking that maybe I had walked in on the wrong meeting. All of the sudden it occurred to me that it was my hubby! It was one of those moments when I wasn't expecting him there and didn't recognize him right away because of that. That was definitely my surprise for the day!! My co-worker's husband was there as well, but she apparently knew that he was going to be there.
It was a fun hour spent talking, opening gifts, drinking juice, eating cake, and basically having a great break in the middle of the work day.
Look at all the cute gifts!
Our last shower with Dennis' family was scheduled for Memorial Day weekend. That would be at 36 weeks, 2 days - two days past my doctor's goal date. The family decided to cancel the shower and instead throw a "Welcome to the World" party after the baby is actually born. They didn't want me traveling so far at that point given everything going on right now in the pregnancy. Plus, now it will be more fun because he'll be there and everyone can meet him!
We walked to the conference room together and she wanted me to be the one to open the door. We heard everyone in there, but when I opened the door the first face I saw was not someone from my unit so I was thinking that maybe I had walked in on the wrong meeting. All of the sudden it occurred to me that it was my hubby! It was one of those moments when I wasn't expecting him there and didn't recognize him right away because of that. That was definitely my surprise for the day!! My co-worker's husband was there as well, but she apparently knew that he was going to be there.
It was a fun hour spent talking, opening gifts, drinking juice, eating cake, and basically having a great break in the middle of the work day.
Look at all the cute gifts!
Our last shower with Dennis' family was scheduled for Memorial Day weekend. That would be at 36 weeks, 2 days - two days past my doctor's goal date. The family decided to cancel the shower and instead throw a "Welcome to the World" party after the baby is actually born. They didn't want me traveling so far at that point given everything going on right now in the pregnancy. Plus, now it will be more fun because he'll be there and everyone can meet him!
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Baby Shower #2 - Vienna
Today was our second baby shower that took place at my friend's house and was planned by her and another friend. This was a MUCH smaller shower
than the one in Pittsburgh, but it was great to actually be able to talk
to everyone a bit more because there were fewer people.
A home-made vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream frosting that was absolutely amazing!
One of my favorite gifts was a hand-made quilt from my friend with pictures from the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" I'm going to have to buy the book for the little guy so that he recognizes the pictures on the quilt one day.
Tons of cute clothes!!! My mom predicted that since we know what we're having, that we would get tons of baby clothes and she was right! Surprisingly, there hasn't been a single duplicate outfit. More sports clothes again in the mix!
Another friend bought a bear that you can either heat up in the microwave or put in the freezer to get cold for injuries, bruises, to bring a fever down, or whatever the case might be. That in and of itself is pretty neat, but then she told me to read the names on the side of the box. They all had different names depending on the color, like Honey, etc. The blue one that she bought has the name Buckley! He's now sitting on the shelf in the nursery until we need to use him for his actual purpose.
A home-made vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream frosting that was absolutely amazing!
One of the fun activities for the day was for everyone to write funny
sayings on newborn diapers for all of the late-night diaper changes to
make us laugh when we have to get up in the middle of the night.
One of my favorite gifts was a hand-made quilt from my friend with pictures from the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" I'm going to have to buy the book for the little guy so that he recognizes the pictures on the quilt one day.
Tons of cute clothes!!! My mom predicted that since we know what we're having, that we would get tons of baby clothes and she was right! Surprisingly, there hasn't been a single duplicate outfit. More sports clothes again in the mix!
Another friend bought a bear that you can either heat up in the microwave or put in the freezer to get cold for injuries, bruises, to bring a fever down, or whatever the case might be. That in and of itself is pretty neat, but then she told me to read the names on the side of the box. They all had different names depending on the color, like Honey, etc. The blue one that she bought has the name Buckley! He's now sitting on the shelf in the nursery until we need to use him for his actual purpose.
Friday, May 3, 2013
Non-Stress Test & Full Bed Rest
Things are starting to get a little uncomfortable for me just because my
belly is so big, plus the occasional Braxton-Hicks contractions that
take my breath away every once in a while. I've also been getting random headaches on occasion, but
they are not strong enough for me to even bother taking anything for
them (not that I can take anything other than Tylenol.
Something that helped me lose some of the stress was an early shower gift from Dennis' family - our travel system!!! Now we can install your car seat so we'll be ready to go if he makes an early appearance. That came on Tuesday and it made me feel so much better since that was the one thing that we need in order to bring Little Man home from the hospital. I didn't even wait for Dennis to get home and was putting the last wheel on the stroller as he walked in the door.
Today was another doctor's appointment and I'm officially on full-time bed rest now. I can still work, but need to be even more reclined, so Dennis bought me a TV tray to put my laptop on and work from bed so that I can lay back a little more. I'm also no longer allowed to go to your Jacob's baseball games, and I can't even cheat on that one because one of my doctor's kids plays in the same league so I would possibly run into her at the field. She was the one that put me on the bed rest and she said that sitting straight up is the same as standing at this point when it comes to my blood pressure. My BP was high again (although not as high as two weeks ago) at 140/86 today. The goal is still 36 weeks which is only three weeks away - crazy! How they explained it to us this time is that if my blood pressure is too high, they will send me straight to labor and delivery rather than sending me home and induce labor with Pitocin without my even going into labor naturally. So, just in case, we'll install the car seat this weekend and pack my hospital bags so that we're completely ready.
While we were there today, they also did a non-stress test. So, I was strapped into the monitor and the nurse left the room while it was tracking. She came back in and realized that the little guy was being stubborn and was most likely sleeping so she used an air horn to wake him up and apologized if he ends up having a fear of clowns because of it. :) We had to use the air horn a couple of times because he just wanted to get back to his nap. Dennis made the comment, "for the love of God, what's a guy got to do to get some sleep around here!" I laughed so hard at that comment that they had to reposition the monitor. Eventually he cooperated and they said that everything looked good. I'm now going to be going to the doctor's twice per week for a BP check and once per week they will do the non-stress test.
Something that helped me lose some of the stress was an early shower gift from Dennis' family - our travel system!!! Now we can install your car seat so we'll be ready to go if he makes an early appearance. That came on Tuesday and it made me feel so much better since that was the one thing that we need in order to bring Little Man home from the hospital. I didn't even wait for Dennis to get home and was putting the last wheel on the stroller as he walked in the door.
Today was another doctor's appointment and I'm officially on full-time bed rest now. I can still work, but need to be even more reclined, so Dennis bought me a TV tray to put my laptop on and work from bed so that I can lay back a little more. I'm also no longer allowed to go to your Jacob's baseball games, and I can't even cheat on that one because one of my doctor's kids plays in the same league so I would possibly run into her at the field. She was the one that put me on the bed rest and she said that sitting straight up is the same as standing at this point when it comes to my blood pressure. My BP was high again (although not as high as two weeks ago) at 140/86 today. The goal is still 36 weeks which is only three weeks away - crazy! How they explained it to us this time is that if my blood pressure is too high, they will send me straight to labor and delivery rather than sending me home and induce labor with Pitocin without my even going into labor naturally. So, just in case, we'll install the car seat this weekend and pack my hospital bags so that we're completely ready.
While we were there today, they also did a non-stress test. So, I was strapped into the monitor and the nurse left the room while it was tracking. She came back in and realized that the little guy was being stubborn and was most likely sleeping so she used an air horn to wake him up and apologized if he ends up having a fear of clowns because of it. :) We had to use the air horn a couple of times because he just wanted to get back to his nap. Dennis made the comment, "for the love of God, what's a guy got to do to get some sleep around here!" I laughed so hard at that comment that they had to reposition the monitor. Eventually he cooperated and they said that everything looked good. I'm now going to be going to the doctor's twice per week for a BP check and once per week they will do the non-stress test.
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| I feel like my belly looks HUGE from this angle... |
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