40 Weeks and Still Counting...

No news is usually good news, but in this case, it's just frustrating. Today was D-Day - Due Date. Instead of cuddling a beautiful baby girl, I chased my son around the house and work (we dropped off cookies to the office) and continued the cleaning marathon that started last week.

Bad news: No baby and my relationship with my son is deteriorating quickly. Luckily he won't remember most of this time. But I will. :o(   I'm tired of being cranky and irritated. At the end of the day, we'll make it through but I think he's going to the sitter's house tomorrow. We both need a little break.

Good news: I'm caught up on laundry once again! AND my floors have never looked so clean! My great-grandma said that good old fashioned floor scrubbing kick started all her labors, so for an hour this afternoon, I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the crap out of the floors. They seriously look fabulous. My knees however may never be the same and as you can tell, no labor. Sigh.

Once again today (from 10PM last night until about 8AM this morning) I had contractions every 5 minutes, just not active labor contractions (you know, the painful kind). Towards the end though I really thought they were starting to ramp up and borderline be painful! And then....nothing. Back to every 30 minutes and only slightly annoying.

I finally broke down and called the doctor. I talked to Jessica A (who just so happens to be my favorite midwife!) and she calmed me down quite a bit. I'm worried that this labor might be so different I may not even recognize when it's TIME. In addition, Mom comes on Friday and leaves on the 14th. If baby doesn't come on her own, they'll let me go 10 days before inducing. Well, the 14th is day 10 and there goes my help! I'm trying to be less stressed about things but can't help but get stressed when I think about that!

Jessica told me that all the starting and stopping of contractions is perfectly normal (especially for a second pregnancy) and she really doesn't see me going all the way to inducing. Never say never, but everything I'm talking about are signs of labor, just not yet. I go see them again on Friday and if I'm still not in labor she said they'd check for progress (I'm hoping for at least 3-4 cm at this point and almost fully effaced) and possible strip my membranes to see if that kick starts anything. Here's where it gets gross - I had to look this up. Stripping membranes involves manually separating the amniotic sac from the cervix. It's a 50/50 shot, but there's a good chance for me - past due date, showing signs of pre-labor, etc - that it could start labor. It also may not work, but at least we gave it a shot, right? Maybe just the thought of this working is what my body needs to calm itself down even more to allow this baby to come naturally.

In the end, I think tomorrow is going to be a mommy day and we'll try a little retail therapy and walking - sans Jack. We could each use a little time to remember just how much we love each other! Because when we're good, we're good. And when we're off, it's ugly. But this little face is definitely one of the greatest things in my life and I hope we always have this much fun!

False Alarm #2

So I really thought that today was going to be the day. All day yesterday (Friday), I felt... weird. I couldn't describe it, I just felt weird. Nauseous, slight contractions all day and even at my doctor's appointment she seemed excited that I described myself as feeling weird. All night long I woke up to mid-pain contractions, meaning they hurt a little, but I knew they weren't "real" contractions. (BTW, this concept still makes me giggle. All contractions are really doing something, only some more than others. Whatever.) The pain wasn't enough to count as an active labor contraction. There. I even had Mitch take "the last picture".

About 6AM as Mitch was eating breakfast and getting ready for work, contractions were coming about every 12-15 minutes with a little more pain. I had a minor breakdown, sobbing over him leaving. Apparently the psychological impact of him being out on a job when active labor hit was just too much for me. We've talked about it a million times and had even gone over the plan once more the night before. Nope. Sobbing like a baby. So, he called into work for the 2nd time EVER at Amazing Moves and we called my sister Megan to come down. Hearing my mom's voice in my head, I laid back down and went back to sleep.

Four hours later I woke up to no contractions and a feverish 2.5 year old. What?! The best thing we can come up with is that the two kids are somehow communicating through the belly and she knew that her brother needed me today. (Or she knew she wouldn't get all the attention - one or the other.) So I apologized profusely to Megan for freaking out, offered to make treats for the Amazing Moves office for making Mitch call in sick (yes, I made sure they knew I freaked out over nothing!), and tried to hang out as much as possible with little man. Of course, with him being sick with a fever of unknown causes, I didn't want to get too close, but I'm the medication giver so it had to be done at least a few times. 

Hopefully we wake up in the morning to a healthy Jack and the baby delivery wait can end!

False Alarms and Postive Thinking

WARNING: This blog post includes talk about peeing ones pants. I'm man enough to admit it happened to me. Deal with it or stop reading. :o)

So yesterday (Tuesday) was the free day at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Since finding this out, the plan was if I hadn't already gone into labor, I'd just walk myself into labor. Sounds like a great plan, right?

Well, Jack and I headed off yesterday afternoon and had a blast at "the Gardens" as he called it. I'd never been to the Mordecai Children's Garden section, but it was awesome! He loved playing in the dirt and getting to touch all the plants. There was a pond where we spent a long time watching the geese and the ducks. After about an hour, we headed to the 'big garden' and walked there as well. Lovely time, but Jack was very confused about where the lions were. Apparently the Botanic Gardens are very similar to the zoo and he was out of interest for plants.

"Mommy, I can't fly! I have hands!"

Wonderful mommy that I am, we packed up and headed up the street to the zoo. Luckily we have a pass there, so the day was still free! After about 15 minutes there, I started to feel contractions. WOO HOO! I knew they weren't "real" but it was progress. (NOTE: the pee talk is about to commence) When we stopped to go to the bathroom I was helping Jack and couldn't help but think that I'd peed in my own pants (just a little mind you). I was so mortified! We get after Jack for having wet pants and here I am - peeing my pants like I'M the one potty training.

Side note: For readers who've never been pregnant, this is super common, but one of those things that no one really wants to admit to. Why? Because I just told the world I peed my pants. You'll never look at me the same, right? :o) Whatever. Truly, all I could think about was the Facebook thread where Bridget told me to take an extra pair of pants in case my water broke. I can hear her laugh already, accompanied by "Dumbass!" Here's to you my friend. Touche.

But that got me thinking, did my water break and just get blocked by her head? Also very common from what I hear. I eventually put it in the back of my mind and we went on to visit the gorillas, lions, and hippo.
Five hours (and a MAJOR "I don't want to leave the zoo! meltdown) later, I'm talking to my mom, who I can admit these things to and tell her I'm pretty sure I peed my pants - hardy, har, har. She was the one who convinced me to call the midwives and ask their opinion. Twenty minutes later I'm saying goodnight to Jack and Mitch and heading to the hospital. (No, Mitch didn't come with me - in the event of it really being my water breaking, the midwife said I'd probably have time to go back home and get my things in order.)

By midnight, I'd learned that no, it wasn't my water, but baby girl has descended "really far" and I'm 2 cm dilated. While I was disappointed that a  birth wasn't going down, I'm glad she gets to come in her own time. Jessica (the midwife) said that she expected to see me back "within the week", so I'll take that! In the meantime, Jack and I are cleaning the house everyday hoping that we'll have guests soon. Today we also planted pansies in the planter boxes! Very fun times!

Waiting...

So here we are... 38 weeks. Full term. Just waiting. After panicking last week and making sub plans for before my maternity leave was scheduled to start - just in case - we're waiting. Don't get me wrong. On one hand it's okay because she must still have some cookin' to do, otherwise she'd be out already. And the longer she's in, the more I get accomplished on the outside. On the other hand I'm cranky and uncomfortable!

In the last week we've gotten her room finished (with some help from Jack as you can see...), some of the old toys out (again, with help from Jack) and clothes washed, sorted, and put away. I've even got the bottles ready to go for when we need those!

The closet was an adventure. Thanks to my mom, we pulled down all the nasty old wallpaper that was in there. Then we had to patch the holes and marks that the previous owners had obviously used the wallpaper to cover up. Finally, we had to use a texture spray to match the walls before we could paint. Yeesh. Quite the ordeal. But it's done! One more thing checked off the list. Jack liked putting things in the closet, especially all the little baby toys we'd saved. I don't think he remembers them as his toys, but it's very fun to open those drawers and pull things out!

There is still a queen size bed in the room since the guest room isn't ready yet, but since she won't need the room for a few months, the rush to finish her room was really more for me to feel better about having a physical space for her.  I guess she could at least take naps in there...

The changes have been a little hard for Jack. As you can see from the picture, he's trying out all of her things. He knows it's hers, but just can't help but to see if it can be his, too. I didn't have the heart to stop him from trying out the chair. I figure once she's here it'll be soon enough. And oddly enough, after that first day, he hasn't tried it out again.

I had a great conversation with the midwife on Friday about ways to transition him as painlessly as possible. She thinks all the things we've done so far are good ideas, but since baby's been getting a lot of attention on her room this week, we went last night to Home Depot and bought Buzz Lightyear wall decals for his room. He was so cute walking through the store carrying his "stickers". Tonight he and Mitch put up all the stickers and had a blast! He was so proud and couldn't wait to call me in to show me! I hope we can keep up this level of energy and commitment to both of the kids.

As for baby girl herself? She's doing well. I have two days left at school before my leave kicks in and I think we'll make it. Today had a few aches and pains that made me a little nervous, but after getting home and getting my feet up things calmed down and I think I'll be at work at least one more day. As of last week she was measuring 37.5 cm (right on) and her heart beat sounded perfect. I'll go back this Friday and we'll see how's she's doing then! 

9 MONTHS!

 Well folks, we're there. We've hit 36 weeks which is the final, ninth month of pregnancy. I think it's weird how your body figures it out, too. "What? The ninth month? Isn't that supposed to be the worst? Okay, guess we'll have to step it up a bit!" No thanks, preggo body. Your help is completely unnecessary. I am quite capable of feeling completely exhausted without the added "help" you're giving me. 

After a long week of state testing (which I will add our kids ROCKED! I can only hope that the Math test next week is as good!) I'm feeling quite drained. On my feet for longer hours constantly proctoring the test was WAY harder than I thought it was going to be. The non-pregnant chicks in the group were exhausted, so the two of us that are preggers were definitely tired! Each night was a little worse until finally Thursday night I curled up into a ball and fell asleep at 9:00 hoping that baby girl decided to stay in there.

I'm definitely taking a page out of my friend Robyn's book (hey mama!) who has successfully held off labor for a while now. I come home every night and put my feet up. No more lifting Jack unless it's an emergency (falling asleep in the car is pretty much it) and very little bending over to clean. Mitch has wonderfully picked up a lot of my slack and even yelled at me Friday night to go back to bed. Okay, sweetie. Message heard.

After seeing the doctor on Friday I felt a bit better about things. She didn't seem to think birth was as imminent as I did, but there will be a lot of time spent over the next few days preparing for an extra early arrival. If I'm prepared for her to come that early it'll hold her off, right? Kind of like a Murphy's law thing, yeah? I'll let you judge for yourself if I'm a little lower than before. I'm pretty sure my coworkers are all trying to jinx me by talking about it..... :o) And BTW? No judging on the outfit. My pants weren't comfortable any more so on went the yoga pants!

The upside to the week? Nesting and organization. I've gotten a lot of little projects off the list, such as organizing Jack's toy bins and labeling them. Gotta love the Pinterest project ideas! Even the bins downstairs have labels on them too. I took a page out of the English Learners lessons I've been taught and put the words and pictures on them. He loves being able to "read" the word by looking at the picture!

 
In addition, there's finally new progress on the guest room! Sheet rock is almost finished thanks to Michael G from Mitch's work who came over and helped him get the big pieces up. The big furniture is now out of baby's room so there's really no more excuses to get it patched up and painted. That's the goal for this week. I know she doesn't need it right away but the mommy in me needs to know she has a place. Like a sense of belonging. Plus then I can begin my OCD organizational rampage. Wait. After the resting talk from earlier, maybe I should hold off for a couple of weeks until it's safe for her to come. :o) But anyway... This week's goals are to be prepared for any circumstance. Bags packed, car seat ready, plans ready to go at a moment's notice. I'm an OCD, type A-er so this should be no problem, right? Here we go!




 

The Resting Games

Week 34! We meet again. I've said it about 6 times this week, "Something is definitely different this time around."

I don't know if it's baby girl's personality, her gender (we ladies ARE feisty), the second pregnancy aspect, or the fact that I'm three years older (practically 30, GASP!) but this is a tougher pregnancy for sure. I now have a pregnancy belt that I wear some days or nights because my legs and back just won't hold me up. I'm  also needing to lay down most nights after dinner because she's so uncomfortable in there and laying down is the only way to stop the violent flips she's doing. 2028 Olympic gymnastic team here we come!

At the 34 week appointment, she's measuring 36 centimeters but we're right on with weight gain, blood pressure and size. I mentioned the violent flipping and pain from this week and was told as long as it goes away when I lay down, no worries. Just normal hormonal/physical changes going on. Muscles relaxing, hips shifting, you know, super exciting things like that! Some days, though, I wish she were just here and I was recovering already. 

It's not to say that I'm not excited about these last weeks, because I am. But man am I tired! I think mostly I feel worse about being a good mom to Jack. My hormones are definitely all over the place so I probably seem bipolar to him but I just can't run after him the way I used to. And I think he's noticing the difference. Perhaps the shrieking is cluing him in? Or the fact that mommy disappears for most of the evening and he comes in to say goodnight to me now, not the other way around. Talk about weird.

Something I've found this week to possibly make up some of the ground I feel I'm losing with him are toddler busy bags (or toddler activity bags). If you have children, or will have children, I swear to God you need to take a look at these! I've spent about $30 so far on various materials to start creating different bags and I've rarely seen Jack so excited about something for so long. "A game?! For me?!"

The first one I saw was done by a friend who had it at one of our regular Olive Garden dinners. Jack sat in the lobby (in one place!) for almost 15 minutes playing this Pom-Pom game. It was nothing but craft pompoms and a box with a hole in it. You take the pompoms out and the kid puts them back in the box one at a time through the hole. A monkey could do it and a toddler will be amazed by it! We now have that game, a similar version using a Pringles can and pipe cleaners, a lacing card game and a clothespin activity.

Hanging up the laundry!

Using the lacing cards

I'm working on more lacing cards (Daddy's the artist in our house so we're dependent on him to make us patterns) and up next is a pasta beading activity bag. I'm pretty excited to dye pasta sometime this week because, of course, it wouldn't be a cool toddler game without some color!

Who knew I was a closet crafty person? Well, I guess it started when Danielle and I made those sweet Christmas gifts followed by the freezer meal extravaganza! Apparently if you surround yourself with crafty people it rubs off! Thanks!

Anyway, the long story made short is that Jack and I have been able to bond through these little activities. They give him something to do that I can either help with or sit and watch him do to give myself time to rest. He gets to be creative and "be a good boy" which is something he's very proud of!

We just finished up a Parent-Tot swim class trying to achieve the same purpose. Even though Mommy couldn't swim every night, Daddy stepped up to the challenge and took over on the nights that my back or legs couldn't take it. (Baby Girl favors the right side, directly over my sciatic nerve which often makes my leg tingly or outright numb. Nice, huh?) But Jack LOVED swimming with either of us and it gave us time to just be HIS parent for a while. I'll need to remember things like this in the future when she gets all the attention.He's one cool little dude and he needs a mommy too!

SNOW DAY!

Every kid's dream and every parent's nightmare - the snow day. However, as fun as they can be, we were unfortunate enough to have one on a day that we already had no school. The educator part of me says, "GREAT! We didn't miss a day of instruction time!" The 10-year-old part of me says, "No fair!" You win some, you lose some...

But the larger lesson here is: What do you do with a 2 1/2 year old when you can't leave the house? You may laugh at me, but this is a serious question! I am the errand running queen! I visited work almost daily while on my first maternity leave because I was so bored! Sure we can go out and play in the snow, but you can only do that for so long before Mommy starts to freeze. Jack doesn't understand what frostbite is, so trying to reason him back into the house was a fight I was NOT looking forward to. 

Luckily, however, Daddy got to stay home too! Being unable to leave our neighborhood in the 12 inches of snow at 7AM this morning made it possible for him to call in. This also meant that I could go back to sleep until Baby Girl allowed me to wake up and function normally. I guess I needed that rest, huh? 

Back to the original question though. Here's a breakdown:

• Dora the Explorer
• Playing kitchen
• Building stuff in the basement when Daddy's not watching (this involves Jack going into the construction zone and moving things around)
• Go, Diego, Go
• Lunchtime! 
• Dinosaur Train
• Making Valentine's Day cards
• Playing Thomas the Train
• Arthur, no, Big Bird, no the Mickey DVD! (this exchange encourages Jack to open the DVD player - this is against the rules - and become banned from the TV/DVD area)
• Go outside and play in the snow! As planned, Jack refused to come inside until bribed with a combination of hot chocolate and a warm bath
• After his bath he got TV privileges back and passed out in front of an episode of Dora 

So how does Baby Girl fit into all of this? Well, we learned a few things today about her as well. She sleeps a lot on snow days. With my feet up for most of the time and no errands possible, we got a LOT of resting accomplished. Also, while suiting up for playing in the snow, we realized that snow pants should come in a maternity size option. I'm guessing that skiing isn't recommended for pregnant people (or at least super inexperienced ones like me) but having too-small pants could have caused an issue, luckily they stayed up! I just put on a tight sweatshirt over the top. Finally, we learned that having Daddy around is the best thing ever. Several times lately she's gotten all wound up in there only to calm down when Daddy starts talking or cuddling with us. She's already earning suck up points from the womb. I am doomed!

All in all, it was a good day despite the 17 inches and counting of snow we received. Hope everyone else was as warm and safe as we were!