3 Weeks Left!

At week 37, your pregnancy is considered full term, meaning baby is likely to thrive after birth. Baby spends these last weeks in preparation for the outside world… meaning careful refinement of the blink, suck, inhale and exhale. Meconium, which you’ll probably find in the first diaper, is accumulating in the intestines. If (okay, as) you worry about giving birth, consider what it’s like for the little one. During the journey out of your womb, baby will produce more stress hormones than any other time in life

How far along? 37 weeks

Total weight gain/loss? Up 2 from last week, up 17 total. I thought weight gain was supposed to slow down/stop towards the end of pregnancy? I feel like I'm starving all the time now and seem to eat a lot.

Maternity clothes? Every thing full time now.

Stretch marks? :( Yes. I have 2 that are towards the bottom that are raised, not flat on my skin. They hurt or itch a lot though, especially at the end of the day. 

Sleep? Still waking around every 3 hours or so. But, I can still generally fall back asleep pretty quickly. However, the late pregnancy insomnia has started. Twice this week I couldn't fall asleep initially then woke up wide awake at 5am.

Best moment this week? Seeing my boy at the ultrasound again.

Movement? He is still moving, but he's running out of room now so it's not too much now.

Food cravings? Warm chocolate chip cookies

Gender? It's a BOY!

Labor signs? Yes. Still having contractions. I've been having them ever since Thursday, I just don't always feel them. Hopefully I won't show up at the hospital too late!

What I miss? The cooler weather, sleeping through the night, no heartburn, and still sex.

What I'm looking forward to? Labor and finally not being pregnant!

Weekly Wisdom: If you have a big baby, don't go into an appointment expecting to hear anything about what the course of action will be. Go in with no thought out plan so you won't be disappointed by what can or cannot be done.

Milestones: Full term!

Emotions: Starting to cry more. And, I'm also getting really irritable. Just get this guy out!

Super cute blog!

http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

Found this through the August 2010 Moms board on the bump. Too cute!

Back to L&D

So, late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning, I woke up shivering and nauseous. I eventually decided to go back to sleep thinking if it was actual labor, I would either wake up in more pain or with my water breaking, or that I would not be able to sleep because of it. It wasn't real. Yet.

I took it easy with my sister yesterday, we went to get a pedicure, lounged around during lunch, then went to my house to see my cats. I took a nap on the couch with one of them. I woke up around 4 feeling nauseous again but burning up, not shivering. This time, I could also feel contractions, occasionally. With Jason still being out of town, I wasn't able to concentrate on how many I was having or how far apart they were. I grabbed my hospital bag and went back to get my sister. We decided to go to triage to see what was going on.

I was having irregular contractions but with an average distance of 5 minutes apart (some were 4, some were 5 and a half...). I asked the nurse about it and she said that they don't always come at regular intervals in the beginning. I once again, couldn't feel them, well, I could in my lower back, but not in my stomach, and I could talk through them with no problem. She then did an internal, and Monday, when I was just over 1, I was now at 3cm. So, since I'm 36 weeks, they don't want to do anything to speed it up. Especially since I can talk through them and am not in too much pain. So, they sent me walking for an hour. If I was in labor, there probably should have been some progress after an hour of walking the halls of the hospital. There wasn't, I was still 3. Contractions were now irregular with an average of 4 minutes. So, they sent me home. But, the nurse basically told me to ignore the preterm labor discharge papers (the same ones that I had gotten every other time), and told me to come in for certain signs, including when the pain is so much that I can no longer talk through it.

So, there we have it. However, the nurse thinks it will be sooner rather than later. She was to be off until Tuesday and it sounded like she expected it to happen by the time she came back. The full moon is Monday, so who knows, perhaps! But, I don't think I'll be lasting to my wishful thinking birthday of 8-9-10. As long as he's ready though, that's all that matters.

4 Weeks Left!

How far along? 36 weeks

Total weight gain/loss? Up 1 from last week, up 15 total

Maternity clothes? Every thing full time now.

Stretch marks? :( Yes. More than 2 now, all near my belly button. They no longer hurt, but man does my stomach itch like crazy! Nothing seems to help!

Sleep? Still waking around every 3 hours or so. But, I can still generally fall back asleep pretty quickly.

Best moment this week? Finding out that my doctor says, yes, I'm about 1.5cm dilated and around 75% effaced.

Movement? He is still moving, but I think he knows his dad's not in town and he's not moving as much.

Food cravings? Ice cream. That's pretty much it. Yup. Oh, and back to sweet tea. Soon enough. :)

Gender? It's a BOY!

Labor signs? Yes. Still having contractions. In fact, I think they're coming about 45 minutes apart right now. Soon it seems.

What I miss? The cooler weather, sleeping through the night, no heartburn, and still sex.

What I'm looking forward to? Well, besides for labor... My growth ultrasound on Tuesday then the appointment right after where we'll discuss if we need to bring Hunter to the world in some other manner other than the traditional way.

Weekly Wisdom: Don't be surprised if you have to go on bed rest even if you don't think you have a reason that would require it. If things are moving too fast, they'll need it to slow down!

Milestones: Down to the last month!

Emotions: Starting to cry more. Jason is out of town and he told me to rub my belly for him and that he misses Hunter. That made me tear up!

Bed rest, sort of

Well, I saw the doctor yesterday. I told her about my 2 visits to OB Triage last week. She listened and did my exam. At that point, she did realize that I was just over 1cm dilated and she said about 75% effaced. She doesn't want me at work helping things along until I hit full term next week. So, according to her papers she gave me, that puts me off of work until next Friday.

My FMLA through my work says maternity leave cannot be intermittent. It has to be all in one block. So, that might be a problem. I've called my HR group in charge and told that I wanted to make sure it was ok or not otherwise I could tell my doctor it's an all or nothing situation but the lady I spoke with didn't give me any indication that it would be a problem so hopefully I'll be approved for that. Now, I have to call the ones in charge of disability so I can get paid. Fun times.

So, I gave up

Yeah, I gave up on wordpress. I can't find a suitable theme for the new blog and I don't want to pay to be able to edit the CSS and such. So, I scraped it and I'm back here on blogger. They've actually made some enhancements that I didn't realize so it should be good to go soon. In fact, you might even be able to find it. There's just no posts right now.

Thus, the reason the About Me section has changed and now shows me as Hunter's Mom. Well, there we go!

Babies galore!

In the span of 4 days last week, 4 of my friends had babies.

Saturday, July 10 saw 2 babies. Jill, a sorority sister of mine, had a little girl, Carolyn Leona, around 9:30 Saturday morning after a labor of about 36 hours (Yikes!). Saturday night, and Vanessa gave birth to Logan who decided to arrive just a few weeks early (he was 36 weeks).

Monday, July 12, Lori, another sorority sister, gave birth to Emily Winifred, who came right on her due date.

Tuesday, July 13, Libby, my pregnant friend in my baby shower pictures, gave birth to her son. They've been quiet so far on the details as even though he was 2 days shy of his due date, he was needing help breathing and has spent a few days in the NICU. We ran into the father yesterday in the hospital cafeteria while we were eating lunch during a break from our childbirth class and he gave us the news. Upon hearing that, we figured his name wasn't that important just yet. We just hope that everything turns around and they can bring him home.

In other news, I was back at Triage late Wednesday night due to more contractions. I took Thursday and Friday off from work. I go in for right around a half day tomorrow before leaving to go to my 36 week appointment. I've felt a few more contractions, but none that were really trackable. We'll see if I'm still 1cm and 80% or if those numbers are different. And, my childbirth class was yesterday and it was pretty interesting. I am glad I took it. We were hesitant after the baby care class we had in June, but this was much better. Now, it truly is a waiting game. Ideally, if he could show up after this week as Jason is out of town for band camp. But, my sister will be flying in to stay with me, just in case. Who knows, there is a full moon next Monday.