Monday, March 31, 2008

The good news and the less than ideal news

First some good news: The ultrasound today went well! The baby's doing great and the amniotic fluid level is just fine. Less than ideal news: When my OB checked things out, I still hadn't progressed much. A little, which is good, but nothing dramatic.

More good news: By the end of this week we will be actual parents, not parents-to-be!! Less than ideal: We decided to schedule an induction for Thursday at 8 am. Of course it's not the birth I had envisioned, and unless our little guy shows up early I won't get to make the "honey, it's time" phone call, but we think it's the right decision. We'll be past the 41 week mark, and this kid really is going to be big. And frankly, we're getting impatient! It's been over 3 years since we first started trying to have a baby, and we're ready for him to make his appearance!

Since it's not for a few days, there is still a chance we could have this baby without the induction, and I'll keep trying whatever I can to make it happen. I'll be staying active, drinking lots of fluids, and I have an acupuncture appointment scheduled for tomorrow. But no matter how it happens, within the next few days Rick and I will get to finally meet our little guy, and that's the only think that matters!

-Suzi

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Nope, not yet.

Not much to post except that we're STILL WAITING. Once again I've been feeling lots of Braxton Hicks contractions and some random crampiness, but otherwise nothing. I have another ultrasound and an OB appointment tomorrow, but I don't really expect to learn anything new. I'll hear about how huge the baby is, I'll probably find out that despite all the weird abdominal feelings I'm having and eggplant parm I've eaten I haven't "progressed" at all. Or maybe I have but obviously not enough.

All this waiting is driving me crazy and frankly making me cranky. I don't even want to go out to public places anymore because I dread getting the "when are you due" question from complete strangers. It used to be that they'd ask, I'd tell them, and they'd say something horrible like "I would have thought you were further along" (btw, never say that to a pregnant woman...). But I'd laugh, say something like "I get that a lot", then silently curse them as I walked away. Now if someone asks and says something stupid, I can't guarantee that I'd laugh or be silent when I curse them.

But I guess there's nothing we can do at this point! But we're really going to have to teach this kid to be more punctual when he gets older. It's just not polite to keep people waiting.

-Suzi

Saturday, March 29, 2008

40 weeks 3 days

Nope, still haven't had the baby! He seems quite content where he is. But we're going to keep trying whatever we can to convince him to show up! Tonight we made the famous eggplant parmisiana that is supposed to bring on labor. The link to the recipe and story behind it is: http://www.wchstv.com/gmarecipes/eggplantparmigian.shtml. It's a really tasty recipe, so even if it doesn't do what it's supposed to it was at least yummy, and now we have TONS of leftovers to freeze!

Side note to Tanya, if you're reading this and haven't gone into labor yet yourself, feel free to swing by and pick some up! And Meghan, we'll keep some frozen for you until you need it. :-)

This was a pretty challenging recipe and honestly, despite it's tastiness I'll probably never make it again. Preparing the eggplant was a HUGE pain! Plus, even though I had the recipe in front of me when making our grocery list today, we managed to forget to buy 2 things, which of course we discovered separately. So Rick had to go back to the store twice during the preparation of this dish. I think we're a little distracted these days!

Oh, fyi, the marinara sauce was actually pretty easy to make and was really good--there's just a little crushed red pepper in it which gives it a kick without making it too spicy. I definitely recommend trying it for other dishes!

Hoping the eggplant parm works its wonders--

-Suzi

Friday, March 28, 2008

40 weeks 2 days and counting

Just thought I'd make a quick post to let everyone know we STILL have not had this child. Currently he's hiccuping away, oblivious to the fact that he's making everyone wait.

I'm feeling much better today, so at least my theory of feeling crummy until I have the baby isn't proving to be true. Of course the fact that I'm feeling better makes me think that our little guy really does plan on waiting until at least next week to show up. Guess we'll see what happens!

Sorry I can't give you better news! Hope you all are doing well--

-Suzi

Thursday, March 27, 2008

My due date has come and gone...

...and still we wait.

Now, I realize that most first-timers like me give birth after their due date, and up until yesterday I was feeling pretty ok with that and not too terribly impatient (well, maybe a little impatient...). But I think that was because I was still feeling really good--I had energy and didn't have too many aches or pains and felt pretty clear-headed. Yesterday that all changed, and honestly I was feeling pretty hopeful that the kiddo would decide to show up soon. Suddenly I'm super tired again and my back hurts more and my stomach keeps tightening up (Braxton Hicks contractions--they don't hurt they just tighten up all your abdominal muscles--I've been getting them for about a month but the past day and a half it's been with increased frequency) and I was feeling more crampy and nauseous...I even stayed home from work today since it was a fairly dramatic shift from how I was feeling just a couple of days ago.

But nothing has changed all day. And now I'm thinking that I'm just going to feel kind of crummy for the next week or so, while our little guy tries to decide when he wants to arrive. Already he's got a mind of his own.

Impatiently yours,

Suzi

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Update: My OB is suddenly reasonable again!

We had another OB appointment this morning, and it was if we were talking to a completely different person than we talked to last week! My OB didn't try to convince us to induce at all, just asked how long we thought we wanted to wait. And when we said we'd be willing to induce sometime next week, she said "let's wait until Monday and see what happens". She did mention that she doesn't want us to go past 42 weeks, which seems completely reasonable--I think that's fairly standard if you go the OB route (midwives might let you go a little longer...).

As Rick commented on our way to the parking garage, maybe we just caught her on a bad day last week!

We still have our ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow to check the amniotic fluid level--if anything changes I'll keep you all posted!

Feeling relieved,

-Suzi

Monday, March 24, 2008

Didn't intend for this to be a rant against my OB...

No big news to report (unfortunately) but I figure it's been over a week since I posted and I didn't want anyone to either worry or get their hopes up! This Wednesday is our due date, and I'm feeling like we'll easily pass it before our boy shows up. Though if my OB had it her way I would have been induced by now--she was really pushing me at the past 2 appointments, despite the fact that I kept telling her that I would like to at least give my body the chance to try a natural birth. If there was some serious medical reason (gestational diabetes, preclampsia, etc) to induce early, I definitely would have given in and accepted the induction. However her reasoning was, well, kind of b.s. As of Thursday she was estimating the baby to be about 8.5 lbs so she thinks I'll have a hard time delivering that large of a baby (why she thinks this when women deliver larger babies than that all the time, I don't know). She said his shoulders could get stuck and we'd have to end up getting a c-section. Bull. Yes I know that could happen, but according to what I've read more inductions end up in c-sections than natural birthing of large babies do (and, by the way, a "large baby"--I think the term is macrosomia--is classified as over 9 lbs 15 oz, not 8.5 lbs). Her second reason for an induction was to avoid having the baby poo while in utero and end up swallowing it, which could lead to complications if he swallowed enough of it. Also bull. Once again, yes this could happen, but it could happen to any baby, there's no reason to think that our baby has a greater chance of this happening than any of the other millions of babies born on or past their due dates. Plus, as gross as it sounds, tons of babies do swallow poo in utero and are fine!

I know my OB has my best interests and those of the baby in mind and is just trying to be proactive and prevent certain complications, however these complications she is speaking of are all speculative at this point. I'm glad I stuck to my guns and fended off the pre-due-date induction. She was kind of peeved with me, but I was peeved with her too. I now realize the importance of hiring a doula--my OB was absolutely wonderful up until this point, which is why I didn't hire a doula or bother finding a midwife instead of her, but now I feel like she doesn't want to listen to me anymore. A doula would stick up for me! Rick has done a good job trying to stick up for me but since he has the same amount of experience in this birthing thing that I do (that is, none) my OB isn't really listening to him either.

All that being said, we have another appointment with her tomorrow (Tuesday) followed by an ultrasound on Wednesday and we'll discuss our options then. If I do end up getting induced, my guess right now is that it wouldn't be until after this coming weekend since it takes 3-4 days to schedule with the hospital and they won't schedule inductions on weekends. I feel much better about that option since by then I'd be a good number of days past due and it would give our little guy that much more time to show up on his own.

That's the update! As mentioned in the title, I didn't start this post with the intention of venting but since nothing else is happening, I guess this is all I have to talk about! :-) Hope all of you who celebrate Easter had a wonderful holiday--

-Suzi

Sunday, March 16, 2008

My friends are so freakin' talented!!!

The alien painting party was a true success! Everyone who was able to make it created such awesome, awesome art - I couldn't be happier with how these paintings turned out! They will look fabulous in the nursery! And to those who couldn't make it, we'll happily bring out the painting supplies again whenever you have a chance to get out to visit us, just say the word. Or if you'd prefer to work in the comfort of your own home, that can also be arranged.

Two of our little guy's future BFFs were in attendance with their folks--Sophie and Liam. Sophie even made her own painting! She's got talent, that's for sure. I think she really captured both the loneliness and hope of outer space in her abstract melding of color and form.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the coolness of our nursery today!

Much love,

Suzi

Friday, March 14, 2008

Contribute to the nursery decor!

Second post today but I kept forgetting to send out notice about this earlier!

In an attempt to be artsy and cool we want our friends and family to add to the decor of our little guy's bedroom. Since we have an aliens/space theme you all are invited to come by on Sunday afternoon to paint your own little creature (or spaceship or planetary system or whatever) to be featured on the nursery walls. I bought a bunch of canvases and will be paint the background colors on them so all you have to do is design something to for the foreground. Simple designs are encouraged, so please don't think you need to have any artistic talent at all to contribute! We'll have the bedding fabric (which has little aliens on it) and the artwork we already own in sight for inspiration as well.

Come by any time between 2 and 5 pm on Sunday. Send me an email to RSVP so I know how many canvases to prepare! Oh and if you can't make it on Sunday but still want to contribute just let me know--we can make alternative arrangements.

-Suzi

A couple of pictures and a 38 week update

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd post a couple of new photos along with my update. We had an ultrasound on Tuesday that went really well--the baby looks great and my fluid levels are still normal. We also got a couple of 4d pictures (the 4th "d" is movement, which I didn't know until this week) of his head and it's been confirmed that he is cute. Obviously you can't see the movement part of the ultrasound picture but I have to admit that part was totally freaky. It definitely had a "melting face" quality to it that looked a little like it should be in a horror film. I'm glad we got a couple of good still photos! You can't see his forehead since the top of his head is pretty dang low right now, but if you look closely you can see that he's smiling in the top picture. :-)

The other photo is, of course, of me in all my 38-weeks-pregnant glory. It's getting hard to find clothes that fit, and this shirt (which is a loaner from a friend of a friend) used to be so huge I thought I would always swim in it, yet now it barely covers my belly! Heehee...

Now for the update: Nothing is happening. I had an OB appointment yesterday which included a quick internal check and nothing has changed. No dilation, no effacement. Boo. And my OB said that even though the ultrasound indicated that the baby is currently around 7 lbs, she's guessing he's really closer to 8 lbs. That's a pretty big baby for 38 weeks, especially since it looks like my wishful thinking of going into labor early probably won't be a reality. In fact my OB is already talking about inducing me, though I have told her I'd prefer not to be induced until my due date has passed. Once I hit 40 weeks and 1 day, we'll talk. Until then, I'll be looking up all the ways to get things moving on my own (lots of walking and activity, burning that herb my acupuncturist gave me, finding the mythical eggplant recipe that's supposed to naturally induce labor, plus some other stuff that's not polite to discuss...).

Hope everyone is doing well and has great plans for the weekend! If you need to find me just look for the big pregnant lady wandering around Lowell eating eggplant...


-Suzi

Thursday, March 6, 2008

Progress pictures




Hi everyone! Thought I'd post a quick photo montage of the progress we've made! First, the picture of what we started out with. I didn't get a good shot of the horror of the paint stripping process (mostly because I was trying to stay out of that room during that time), so we skipped to Rick painting, then to the finished walls, ending with the finished walls and floors! Since we're still in the process of putting together furniture and adding various baby stuff to the room I decided to wait to post any photos of the furniture that's already in there. We'll get a good finished (or mostly finished) shot at the end! Oh, fyi, you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them. I highly recommend trying that when looking at this particular set of them!

-Suzi

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Nursery progress!

Hi everyone! I was hoping to post a few pictures of the nursery progress today but forgot to download them from the camera before leaving the house. So instead I'll do a write up on it and post the pictures at some later date. The update: It's finally all coming together! We finished painting the walls and the trim a week and a half ago, and had the floor refinished last week (yes it still stinks--my word how long does it take for polyurethane to finish off-gassing?). It looks amazing!! Rick brought the doors to a furniture refinisher last week and just got them back yesterday, so we still need to paint them but just getting all that paint off makes a world of difference. I think we're going to do that with the windows as well once it warms up a little more--talk about a time saver! However we'll probably do a price comparison to see if it would make sense to replace those two windows outright--they wouldn't have the same character of the old wood windows we have but they'd be more energy efficient. We'll see how it shakes out.

Rick also started putting the furniture together this weekend. The crib is beautiful, just as we thought it would be. We did run into a bit of a snafu when putting it together--the pre-drilled holes on the front railing didn't match up with the posts! But thankfully the store that it was purchased from let us bring back the defective part and exchange it for one that was drilled correctly. I feel like they really went above and beyond the call of duty doing that for us--I think most baby furniture stores would have made us contact the manufacturer and get a new part from them (which I was prepared to do, having heard that was how the baby furniture world works), especially since we had neither the receipt nor the box that the crib came in. So if anyone out there is looking to buy baby or kid's furniture soon, shop at the Kid and Baby Furniture Warehouse in Reading! They also sell toys, strollers, high chairs, etc.

In addition to the crib, the bookshelf is also together so we can start loading it with all the books we received from the shower and from Christmas. Our little guy has quite the library started!

We still need to put together the dresser, which might be challenging. We found it at IKEA (along with a rug, a lamp, and a really cool nightlight) and haven't taken it out of the boxes yet. I'm a bit afraid, to tell you the truth. There's a lot of parts, and since it's IKEA furniture you know the directions will be in pictogram form. I'm usually pretty good with stuff like that (thanks to years of putting together jigsaw puzzles with my mom!) but in my current state of hugeness it'll be difficult for me to help much. In fact there's a chance that Rick would find my presence bossy and annoying during the assembly process (though of course he'd never tell me that). :-)

That's about it for the update--I'm sure I could find more to add but this post is too long as it is! I'll post pictures soon, I promise! Much love--

-Suzi