It's Nearly Go Time!

I had my OB check today. No weight gain or loss again. Unfortunately, I have not had much progress toward labor even though I am 8 days overdue. I am still fully effaced with the baby in the proper position but I am only 1.5-2 cm dilated so we talked about induction which I am totally ready for. I never thought I would want Pitocin since I have heard such awful things about it but I also never thought I would still be pregnant at this point. He said that my cervix is ready so Pitocin is the next step. I would get admitted into the hospital, they would start the drug, and things would hopefully take off from there. He thought it would take a few days to get scheduled but came right back into the room to say that they actually have an opening at 6:30 tonight. I said, “I’ll take it!” I was relieved for about five minutes then the terror set in. Nonetheless, I am glad that things will be moving along finally and it is nice to know when it is going to happen. We are currently at work this morning then are going home to take naps and get everything in order. The bags have been packed and in the car for weeks now but I will probably take them out and double check that I have everything I need. I called my parents and Paul’s parents. My parents are coming up to the hospital once I am settled in tonight. Paul's parents are coming down tomorrow to be at the house to help Rachel get moved in, stay with her, then bring her up to the hospital to meet her little sister. I am completely nervous but totally excited that we are going to meet Lily soon!

Last Pregnancy Picture

Here is a picture taken of my giant belly last night:

41 Weeks Along (Thursday, 2/27/09)

Saturday morning we got up at 6 a.m. to drop Rachel off to Dan at a McDonald’s in Ann Arbor at 7 a.m. I actually stayed up when we got home because we finally decided to acknowledge that there is something wrong with the furnace thermostat. It kept turning the furnace on, blowing out the hot air for a short period of time, then as soon as it turned off, it turned right back on again. Meanwhile, the thermostat constantly read the same temperature. This is a colossal waste of gas (and money) so we decided to buy a new thermostat. We waited until 10 a.m. to leave because we also had to stop back at the dealership to pick up the book I accidentally left there when I was paying for the car repairs. Apparently the sticker shock caused me to completely forget my book. We got the thermostat recommended by Consumer Reports. We are really impressed by it. Instead of turning on constantly, the furnace came on once, blew for an extended period of time, then didn’t come back on for another three hours. We stayed home for the rest of the day and napped through the snow storm. Sunday was less than thrilling spent cleaning the house and catching up on my shows on the DVR.
Everyone was surprised to see us at work on Monday (and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday). I am beginning to feel like this baby will never come out. We tried everything: sex, spicy food, eating lots of basil and oregano, acupressure points, massage, exercise, etc. Nothing! Tuesday was my second fetal non-stress test and amniotic fluid check. Everything still looks great with Lily. She scored a 10/10 on her test for active arm and leg movements, adequate fluid level, and practice breathing. She is just so happy in the womb that she doesn’t want to leave. Work wasn’t too busy for us all week because they didn’t pre-book any patients on us because they didn’t expect us to be there every day.
I have been feeling well but growing increasingly uncomfortable with the cramps, pains, and constant peeing. I am really really ready for her to come out now. Every day I grow more and more frustrated that it isn’t going to ever happen, at least, not without induction. It figures that I can’t get pregnant without medical intervention and can’t get unpregnant without it either. I even gave up being pregnant for Lent but that didn’t work. Plus we don’t know what we will do if we aren’t on maternity/paternity leave when Rachel arrives and starts school. We picked the beginning of March figuring that we would both be home to be here physically and emotionally for Rachel during her transition but we can’t be home unless the baby is born. How will we get her to school and back? We really didn’t want her to start her new school as a latchkey kid already. We will know a lot more after my OB appointment tomorrow.

News from the womb…
The baby is fully cooked and just hanging out. Again, 88% of babies are born within two weeks of the expected dates of delivery, either early or late. My baby is still within that time frame.

40 Weeks Along (Friday, 2/20/09)

I am ten months along now! The baby is now at full term and can (please) come out any time now!
On Saturday we cleaned the house for most of the day. Rachel arrived in the evening for her last weeklong visit before she comes to live here. This trip was already booked and although it seems kind of silly to have her come for a week, go back to New York for a week, then move out here, it will actually be a good thing to give her a vacation and allow her to get enrolled in the school before she moves out here. Her stepdad, Dan, came to stay with friends in Ann Arbor for the week so he dropped her off. It was so nice not to have to deal with the airport chaos. We spent the evening relaxing and watched The Emperor’s New Groove.
Sunday we went to Ally’s 3rd birthday party then visited with my parents. It was a fun day. Since Carol so kindly volunteered to attend to me as my own personal massage therapist during labor, I brought her directions to the hospital as well as the forms to fill out for her and Grant to be Lily’s godparents. I think it is very appropriate that since my parents are Carol’s godparents that she be my child’s godmother.
Monday was Rachel’s 11th birthday. She spent the day at Kassiana’s then we brought both girls home for a sleepover. My parents came down and we had dinner at Red Robin then ice cream cake and presents at home. I think Rachel had a good birthday. Paul was sure that Lily would be born today but it didn’t happen. Here are some pictures from the evening:

The week was spent living day to day waiting for Lily to arrive. Rachel ended up staying every day at Kassiana’s while Paul and I continued to work. Everyone keeps asking when I am going to have the baby and they all seem amazed that I am still working. I continue to feel fine with occasional pains and cramps.
Wednesday night we had Thai food to try to kick Lily into arriving on her due date (Thursday, February 19). I got mine hot instead of my usual medium, which is already super hot at Thai Express. It was yummy but nearly unbearable. Later that night I thought my water broke. I was using the bathroom, finished, and stood up only to have a gush of fluid come out of me. I hurried and sat back down so everything went into the toilet. Since it was all mixed together, I could not tell the color or odor of what came out so I could not tell if it was urine or amniotic fluid. I waited for two hours but no labor pains started. I called the Birthing Center Triage phone number and asked for advice. They told me that if my water had broken, it would probably continue to leak so to watch it for the next few hours. It was already midnight so I ended up falling asleep. Thursday morning (my due date) I called again to report that I did not appear to be leaking so they told me to wait and tell my doctor about it at my appointment Friday morning. I didn’t really feel comfortable with this since you are supposed to deliver your baby within 24 hours of the water breaking or you can get an infection so later that morning I called my doctor’s office and talked to one of the nurses there. Since I was in the building, she agreed that I should go over to the Birthing Center Triage and just get checked out although she didn’t think my water had broken. I spent about an hour there. They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and checked Lily’s heart rate at rest and made sure that it increased with activity. They also did an ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid levels and did a pelvic swab to see if my water had broken. It had not. They said what probably happened was that when I got up, Lily shifted on my bladder releasing more urine that I couldn’t hold back due to the stress she put on my pelvic floor muscles. How embarrassing but it was worth it all to know that she is doing okay. During my pelvic exam they said that I wasn’t dilated at all and still only 50% effaced. That made me so disappointed as I have been having cramping all week, apparently with no results!
Friday was my weekly OB check. He said that everything still looks good. If I am still pregnant at my next visit, we will discuss induction. He also had me schedule another fetal non-stress test (the heart rate monitoring I had done yesterday) and amniotic fluid index check for Tuesday. The good news is that between Thursday and Friday, I made some progress. I am now almost completely effaced and one centimeter dilated. It’s not much but I will take any progress I can get! While I was at my doctor’s visit, Paul took Rachel to Navigator School to get her enrolled and have her take a tour. Navigator is the Pinckney school for 5th and 6th graders which is somewhat like middle school in that the kids do change classes but there are no bells and the kids are escorted to their next class by their teachers. They do have lockers, though. Rachel seemed very impressed by the school. She loved the mural in the cafeteria, the rock climbing wall in the gym, and the rec room with skeeball, table tennis, and air hockey. She had a number of kids come up to her and say hi. We were all relieved that everyone seemed so friendly. She is all set to start school on March 2nd. I left work early on Friday because the check engine light came on in my car on the way to my doctor’s appointment. We definitely need the car working when we bring the baby home! It ended up being the EGR valve which translates to super expensive car part. They also replaced my back shocks which I knew were bad. $850 later, I was back home. We spent Rachel’s last evening here having breakfast for dinner and watching the new episode of Monk. We have to meet Dan early Saturday morning so we turned in early. Rachel said that she finally isn’t sad to be returning to New York because she knows that she will be back to us in a week.
Overall, we had a good week with Rachel. We were all disappointed that Lily wasn’t born when she was here but what can you do!

News from the womb…
The last of the vervix is disappearing. By this time, about 15% of the baby’s body is fat. About 80% of this fat is located directly under the surface of the skins while the other 20% is found on organs and muscle tissue. If born now, the baby will weight about 7.5 pounds and measure about 14 inches from crown to rump. Of course, baby’s length at birth will be measured from head to toe.

39 Weeks Along (Friday, 2/13/09)

Saturday was such a beautiful and warm day. Paul spent the day working in the garage and I cleaned and vacuumed the accumulated winter dirt and salt out of the car. All then bending and cavorting involved are getting increasingly hard. Sunday wasn’t quite as nice but Paul continued cleaning out the garage. I worked inside for part of the day and relaxed with a book for the rest.
The rest of the week was fairly uneventful with the exception of Wednesday. Wednesday morning I had my weekly OB appointment. Again, I did not gain or lose any weight. My regular OB was on vacation this week so I saw a different doctor along with a medical student. They had a hard time finding Lily’s heartbeat which freaked me out. Apparently it is just harder to hear as she descends lower. She is still head down and the heartbeat, once they found it, is strong. This time I got a pelvic exam and was told that I am not dilated but I am 50% effaced. Sadly, this gives no indication as to when labor will begin but it is a good sign that things are apparently moving along. After work, Paul and I ran a bunch of errands. We got my prescriptions filled, returned a broken diaper pail to Target and replaced it with an unbroken one, bought Rachel’s birthday presents at Borders, got more garage supplies at Lowes, and grocery shopped at WalMart. We didn’t get home until late and were exhausted.
This week was filled with more cramping and general discomfort in my stomach. I feel like the skin is stretched as far as it possibly can go. I went the first 36 weeks of my pregnancy with no stretch marks and now they are growing by the day. It hurts when anything bumps my stomach which I continually do with car and cupboard doors as I am not used to the decreased clearance in front of me. I mostly get crampy when I am moving around and have to pee constantly. The good news is that these symptoms are making me more ready to give birth as they make having Lily inside me less enjoyable. My back isn’t bothering me and I haven’t had any edema which is good because I am on my feet all day at work. Apparently being 39 weeks pregnant elicits no sympathy from my supervisors as I seem to have a busier schedule than anyone on any given day of the week. Gee, thanks! My coworkers have been placing bets on what day I give birth so I made up a grid and posted it. Karen is shooting for Valentine’s Day. Although I don’t want to go over my due date, I signed up for 2/24. We’ll see who wins.
Since Rachel is flying in on Saturday, Paul and I decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Friday. We were quite tired, though, and ended up taking a 2 hour nap when we got home from work. I was actually the first one up and had to drag Paul out of bed for a change. We had a very nice dinner at Ciao Amici’s in Brighton. I love that place. I wanted to see Slumdog Millionaire afterward but Paul was too tired so we ended up going home and turning in early. How lame are we? It was still a nice evening and probably our last date night for a long while.

News from the womb…
The baby’s skin is becoming thicker and paler and its lungs are increasing their production of surfactant which will keep the air sacs in the lungs open. The baby is now gaining about ½ ounce of fat each day it stays in the uterus.

38 Weeks Along (Friday, 2/6/09)

Last weekend was so eventful that we chose to do a lot of relaxing this weekend. Saturday we had a date night. We went to Thai Express for dinner then saw the movie Gran Torino. I thought it was very good. Sunday I mostly laid around and caught up on my shows on the DVR. My energy levels were really low all day.
Monday through Wednesday was my last rotation at the Brighton Health Center PFT Lab until after the baby is born. They probably don’t want me going into labor and leaving the lab without a worker so Cate will be going out there from now on. In my downtime, I made a Word document of directions on how to get to U of M, where to park, and how to get to the birthing center for my parents and Carol using directions and maps from the U of M website. I emailed the document to my dad and will give Carol a copy when I see her for Ally’s birthday party.
Friday was my weekly OB appointment. Seeing as how the appointment are so close together and I have been eating like a hog, I was not surprised that I finally had a visit where I didn’t lose any weight but I was surprised that I hadn’t gained any weight either. Paul got to accompany me to this appointment which was nice. I told the doctor that I have had my usual Braxton-Hicks contractions this week but have also had mild cramping. He said that’s a good sign and it means that my cervix is probably thinning out in preparation for labor. We asked about what point we talk about induction if I am overdue. Apparently that point is 41 weeks. I hope that I go into labor on my own as I have heard a lot of nightmare stories about being induced. After my OB appointment, I went over to the birthing center for my scheduled car seat inspection. Apparently Paul did an awesome job installing the car seat this week as it was in perfectly. The girl gave me some pointers on how to pack Lily into the seat, how to adjust the straps, and when to move her up to a new seat. I found the whole thing very helpful. I feel now like we are really ready to have the baby arrive. Her nursery is ready, her car seat is ready, I just don’t know if I am ready yet.

News from the womb…
88% of babies are born within two weeks of the expected dates of delivery, either early or late. My baby is now within that time frame. The baby’s toenails have now reached the end of the toes. The circumference of the baby’s head roughly matches the circumference of its shoulders and hips. The movements of the baby are quite restricted now due to space limitations in the womb. At this point in development, the average baby weights about 6.33 pounds and measures almost 13.5 inches from head to rump.

37 Weeks Along (Friday, 1/30/09)

On Saturday I cleaned the upstairs, finished organizing Lily’s things, and advised Paul on the finishing touches on the mural. We completed a few paint touch ups, redid the shadowing under the pooh characters, and did the bees and bee trails. It seemed like fate did not want us to finish the mural, though, as things kept going wrong. We read that we should protect the mural with a coat of water-based varnish. It worked fine over the acrylic paints and details we did with permanent marker but it ruined the bee trails that we did with a scrapbooking marker. That setback we remedied by repainting sky blue over the trails with plans to redo them with permanent marker. Then since the painting tape had been up since December 6th, it wanted to pull part of the mural down with it. Those touch ups Paul did not feel like dealing with at 9pm so we watched some TV and went to bed early.
Sunday Paul got up really early, got the rest of the tape off without incident, and fixed the places that the tape had peeled up. I cleaned the downstairs, redid the bee trails, and then took a bunch of pictures of the finished project. Yes, it is finally done and looks wonderful!!! (See my previous blog entry for the pictures.) While we were taking pictures, my parents pulled up (perfect timing) in my dad’s new truck so we had to go check it out. It is a beautiful GMC Sierra with an extended cab. I am glad he got himself a new vehicle finally but we will miss the Suburban which went with us on both of our UP camping vacations. My mom worked on creating a safer system to fasten on the crib bumper headboard while Paul and my dad brought the dressers up from the garage, arranged the furniture, hung the mobile from the ceiling, and hung pictures and shelves on the wall. Meanwhile, I filled the dressers and arranged everything in the room. It is almost completely done. There are just a few things left to put away. We had a late dinner at Zukey Lake Tavern then went to bed exhausted. While my parents were over, Paul had gotten an interesting call from his ex-wife, Lisa, which we had to discuss before going to sleep. Apparently she is getting a divorce from her current husband and is moving into an apartment in New York City which would mean another upheaval and school change for Rachel. Lisa has a lot to deal with and none of us want Rachel to go to school in NYC so she wanted to have Rachel move in with us ASAP and go to Pinckney schools. We are excited at the prospect of having Rachel full time and having her around more to establish a connection with Lily right away but the financial and emotional stress of suddenly going from having one part time kid to two full time kids is overwhelming. I stayed up most of the night stressing over the details.
The rest of the week was spent finishing putting the nursery together and ironing out custody and financial details with Lisa. We decided to have Rachel move here on March 1st. That way the baby should be born and Paul and I should be on our leave so that we can help Rachel adjust to her new school. Since we will be home, we can hopefully help her transition better but I worry about us being able to meet her emotional needs during such a life upheaval for her while we are trying to adjust to life with a newborn and meeting the baby’s needs which is a big life upheaval for us.
Tuesday we had our tour of the hospital birthing center. We learned the check in process, toured the triage area, high risk, and low risk areas, saw a room, the nursery, and got answers to a lot of questions. I was quite surprised to find that I appeared to be the youngest person in the tour group.
Friday I had my now weekly OB check. I lost another 0.2 pounds making the total loss 12.7 since I got pregnant. But my OB says that Lily is growing great, her heartbeat is strong, and she is still in the head down exit position.
I still feel great and am enjoying being pregnant but it won’t be much longer before Lily arrives!

News from the womb…
The baby’s grasp is becoming firmer and firmer. The baby now automatically turns toward a source of light. This is called the “orienting response” and permits the baby to practice being more aware of its environment. While the ossification process of turning cartilage into bone has been progressing steadily, not all of the baby’s bones will be ossified by birth. This is advantageous as the baby’s skeleton is more flexible when it contains cartilage, making the passage through the narrow birth canal easier. Because the baby’s quarters are so cramped at this point, when it moves the contours of its arms and legs make moving bulges on my abdomen. From the end of this week on, the baby’s growth will be much slower until birth, with the exception of fat production.