May Mamas...End of April - Page 5

[TurboClaudia]

I've been feeling extra tired the past few days, and the top right of my belly has been achy when I wake up in the morning. Add my major lack of motivation to do anything (laundry, final to-do list, paying bills, cleaning the bathroom, etc.) and I feel just plain lazy. I wish my mommy was here now for a few days to help me get ready...

warmly,
claudia

[MorningDove]

Hi All,

I keep thinking I could have this baby any day. My blood pressure is staying down (I hope yours is too pottermamma), but I'm going stir crazy with all this bed rest (although, obviously I'm not in bed right now - but I'm not active). I talked to my doula and she said I have most of the early labor signs - but I've been that way since Sunday. Maybe this baby is going to wait until the beginning of May. The frustrating thing is that I feel like all this sitting and lying down I'm supposed to be doing is not helping baby come. I want to walk! I have another Dr. appt tomorrow. Hope the blood pressure is still good or I'm pretty sure they will induce.

We still haven't finished packing the hospital bag. Every time I mention it to dH, he wants to wait. I guess it will be an early labor activity for us. I haven't put anything into the freezer other than some beans (I'm not supposed to be standing up in the kitchen much anyway). Dh seems to think that he will cook for us. I'm not sure how reality will play out. He may be rushing to the Costco freezer section. At least it is almost time for farmer's market to open so at least we can eat vegies and fruit.

Hope to reading about births and posting an announcement of my own soon. Just remember, moodiness is one of the signs of impending labor. That kinda cheers up my grumpiness.

[kids'ncows]

Geez Louise! I'm gone for a few days and this place is all changed around (looks nice but loads slower) and there are a bunch of posts from the May Mama's to catch up on!

Wow! Some of you are at your due dates!!! I'm happy for you but freaking out for me, I'm afraid I won't be able to live in my nice little state of denial much longer! Yes, I'm happy that we're having another one, but this may be my last pregnancy and I'll miss the awesomeness of it and there is so much still to do!!! So make sure you gals post your birth stories - I love to read them and I need those doses of reality. (Though I do hope this kid comes before I have to spend anymore money on clothes...)

I am not hungry - there is no room for food! But I feel so tired that I find myself sticking sugary junk in my mouth for the instant boost - uuggghhhh!!! My ligaments are definitely softening, unfortunately they are not just the pelvic ones, I've become a total klutz and really wrenched my ankle last night.

OK, vent over We got some good news last night that makes it more likely that I'll get to be a SAHM and homeschool - yippee!!!! (I'm a WAHM now and that is a HUGE challenge. DC #1 would probably have to go to school next year if I were to continue my work schedule.)

My 4.5 yr old told me this morning that it must be time for the baby to come out because my belly is getting so big that it might pop!

You ladies keep taking care and I really do look forward to reading birth stories!

[Jacqulyn]

WOW! So many of you Mammas are close.

I went to the MW yesterday and she said I should start getting things in order because form the looks of it; this baby could come sooner than later. I am not due for another 4 weeks, so that was kind of a shocker for me. She said she still thinks it will be full-term, but could come more around the 38th week instead of the 40th. YIKES! I still have someone living in our nursery!! I will kick him out (well, downstairs...) this weekend. I still have to finish making the nursery bedding and washing of clothes, packing, cooking, making a call list.... so many things

My job is stressing me out. I mentioned before about how much I had to do before I left and my boss keeps giving me more and more things to do. We kind of got into it today. I tried to tell him I just can't take any more projects and he just doesn't listen. :

The Farmers Market opens this weekend! I just love to go there, even if I don't buy anything, I love the atmosphere.

Have a good Wednesday!

[Marco Esquandolas]

well, while you're up there....

So I had my appt tonight and the MD examining me is palpating away and she gets this odd sort of look and then all she says is "hmmm, baby is big...". Then she asks if I've been having many bh's and right on cue, I have a nice one for her to feel right on the exam table. It has been a looooong day-crampy, bh's, and the v&d (my body seems to evacuate from both ends a week or so prior to labor) are pretty tell-tale for me. Today was the appt to do my gbs swab so she *asks* (I like this particular MD a LOT, btw) if she can go ahead and check my cervix while she's up there and all, lol. Yep, dilated btwn 1-2, thinning out nicely and baby is fully engaged. I kinda figured all that, esp the head being engaged part, but it was actually kinda nice to hear the rest after the discomforts of late even though all it means is that I'm close (like a calendar couldn't tell me that one, haha). Soooo, she gave me the final weeks rundown about call or come on in when contrax get 5 mins apart or if water breaks and all that good stuff. I am still trying to not get excited but whatever, that's right out the window. I AM excited!! Actually, I keep vascilating btwn cranky & tired as all get out and giddy & energized as a kid in a candy store. Just thought I'd share!

Morningdove-I hope your bp cooperates. Keep lying on your left side if you're supposed to! I know it is a pita, but it is for the best.

[KKmama]

Ds is taking a really long nap (and the house is clean ), so I decided to try to update/organize the "quick" roll call (the list of user names, edds, etc.) I also marked everyone who's replied to the current threads (because there are a lot of mamas either MIA or lurking! ). If y'all don't mind, I'll post it in a new sticky thread... The roll call thread is great, but as we're slowly but surely birthing our way through May, it will be nice to have a place to quickly see everyone's status (okay, okay, I'm really anal, but *I* want to know!). Here's the link: http://www.mothering.com/discussions...49#post1387949

I did this because I was wondering myself who was up soon (well, all of us ).

Could this be a nesting thing?

[pottermamma]

Thanks for the continued well wished re: this blood pressure. Morning Dove I hope yours continues to stay down. When the midwife checked on Mon, my left arm was 122/88 but my right arm was 116/74 and then lying down was 112/62...so that is good although we were both amazed at how off the two arms were!!!! So, still spending lots of time on my left side and taking my herbs and I'm off of work except for some stuff I'm doing at home. Dh is run down though as he is doing EVERYTHING!!!!...whatta guy!!!!!!

Thanks KKmamma for all your "nesting" you have made it nice and easy to keep up with everyone.

I can commiserate with you Sherri and Sarah, I'm on my way to Friday (4/30) and I never thought I'd make it....see, I told you guys when I posted so long ago that I thought for SURE I"d have an April baby it would end up making me go into May...which is fine...it is why I joined this thread instead of the April one anyway....aside for not wanting to switch after getting to know you lovely ladies!!!!!!! But I SOOOOO want to meet this baby...I am trying to just enjoy the last few days/weeks we have together in this special way cause the baby can only stay in about 2 more weeks right!!!!!!!!

[mittendrin]

kkmama, sounds like you really have finished all your nesting, since you felt the urge to organize us now, :LOL
how 'bout you come over to my house and knock yourself out? i got 2 kids dressers to organize, a bassinet matress to make and if you want to, fill my freezer with yummies

the list is actually a lot longer. when i hear you ladies talk about thinned out cervixes and mucus plugs, i just keep telling myself, wow, i still got a month! so i can be lazy, right?

baby is being a pita again today, i just can't believe how much my butt is hurting. somebody said sth about being constipated. yep, let me join the club... :

i have a vibe, we'll be hearing our first birth story before the week is over
good luck to all!

[fiddlefern]

Hello all-

Just 2 days of work left- hooray!

I'm due in 2 weeks, but I have a feeling it'll be more like three. Momma's intuition combined with the fact that first-timers are often a week late, from what i hear.

I am not freezing anything. I'm letting other people take care of me after birth.

I'm letting dh pack for the labor- I printed out a list for him.

I will wash the baby clothes next week (assuming baby doesn't come sooner).

Honestly, what I hope to accomplish before baby comes is filing. I have a huge pile of papers in the office that I haven't dealt with- basically since I became pregnant. I have a bunch of other projects it'd be nice to complete (marriage was 4.5 yrs ago- I've done 3 pages of the scrapbook), but if I can get the filing done, I'll be happy.

I wish you all peace and plenty of sleep.

fiddlefern

[PattyCakes]

DANG it! I just lost my post! GAH!

Hang in there Sherri and Sarah!

I'm down to 2 days too - tomorrow is my last day! I'm so ready to be done. THings are very, very stressful right now. Despite me planning for months for this - my boss has only JUST realized that I'm ACTUALLY having a baby and leaving in 2 days- he's being an ass and I'm having piles of contractions.
Not good.

On a good note, we found our ped yesterday. She's really nice, open to talk about everything - is TOTALLY ok with delayed/modified vax and she practices homeopathy. Whohoo!

Also - we took an infant/child CPR class last night. (yay for us). Glad we did it, though I really hope that I don't have to use it.

Due in 3-4 weeks - but I think I may go a bit early. (not that it matters to me if I'm early or late). My Mum comes in less than 2 weeks and I can't wait to see her - nor can I wait to get to nesting at home. I just wanna get in there and get my stuff done.

Have a great day everyone!

[mcsarahb]

Howdy mamas-

Well, everyone wish me a happy EDD...Thanks!

I'm doing okay, having some sort of weird pains up at the top of the uterus, right below my ribs. Can't tell if it's uterine or just gas...

Trying to keep myself busy and not second-guess every single contraction (Is this it? Is this the one?! Did that one feel different? Is that five in a row in half an hour?!?!?!). I'm such a stereotypical first-timer. :LOL

DH is being an absolute peach and hanging out with me all day today. Even has a special dinner planned that he won't tell me about. We're planning to go to the awesome Japanese Garden here in P-town and maybe go buy his birthday present (yes, his, but it's still a fun game for me, too). Also might peruse some baby resale shops.

Have a good day everyone-

Sarah

[KKmama]

Go Sarah go!!!! I'll be like a 1st timer, too, because with ds, I had an emergency cesarean with absolutely no labor. (It's part of the reason I was so excited that I have some dilation and effacement going on--never had that before!)

All of a sudden it hit me today--I'm SOOOOOO ready to not be pg anymore. Gad, I hope I have this baby soon. (I'm 39 wks tomorrow.)

I scheduled an acupuncture session for Saturday. I have kind of mixed feelings about doing it... On the one hand, I think it's better to try to do some of the "get the show on the road" stuff early enough and gently enough that it has a chance to help very gently, etc. On the other hand, I wonder if I'm doubting my body's ability to do it's own thing. But then I consider things half-way rationally and realize that one thing I'm trying to do is to avoid having major surgery again unless I really need it, it seems pretty prudent (yeah, the knife doesn't look so appealing). I also realized something really weird... if I just decided I was sick of being pregnant, I could just call the dr's office and schedule a cesarean. That is so weird (and kind of nasty). I mentioned that to dh (no, I'm not considering it), and he said, "Yeah, just call up and say, 'Please cut the baby out of me.'"

We may have come up with a name, but it's a really weird name, and I can't believe we're considering it. Dh asked me about it this morning, and I had actually been thinking about asking him about the same name the other day, but I thought it was such a crazy name that he'd just say no. I consider this to be another sign that I'm losing it and maybe the baby wants to come out.

[Sarah'sMama]

This is me today. Anyone who doesn't want to hear me wallow in self pity, please proceed to the next post.....





I am so discouraged today. I *know* edd's are an arbitrary date. I *know* that since I'm barely a fingertip dialated, baby's head is still sky high, haven't dropped, no contrax means absolutely nothing. BUT, I'm still so dang discouraged. I so wanted to have this baby by this weekend, b/c dh works every other weekend, and has to work next weekend. So I just know she's gonna decide to come on Wed. when they'll send me home from the hospital on Friday, and dh is working all weekend, while me and my postpartum hormones are left to deal with a 2yo whose world has been turned upside down, and a newborn by myself. On Mother's Day weekend. Which my hubby will probably forget b/c he hasn't even thought about getting his own mother anything, I have taken care of it. And to top it all off, I have no family close by to come and help. I have lots of friends who have offered to help, I am just so terrible at asking for help. I don't know why. I am uncomfortable asking and having other people take care of me. So I start crying in the parking lot on the way out to my car, and dh gets all defensive, like I'm blaming him or something. And then I tell him I wish he were off work next weekend and I'm so tired of playing second fiddle to his job etc. etc. And I can tell I hurt his feelings but I just can't help myself at this point. In order for him to get next weekend off he has to ask to switch with people he really can't stand, so I don't really want him making a deal with the devil but at the same time, I just don't know what to do. I know I'm going on and on, but I can't help it. I am just so....I don't even know. I love my dh dearly, and I know he loves me, I just feel that he isn't even trying to understand me right now, and all that I'm going through. And I know he's got a lot going on in his mind too, his mom was just admitted to the hosp. last night very ill secondary to a hip surgery she had last week, and she's several hours away, and I know that is bothering him. I don't know. I'm just so sad right now. Everytime I think about it all I can do is cry. So I came home and had a bowl of mashed potatoes, a biscuit with margarine, and a big bowl of ice cream. Healthy huh?

OK, so sorry to unload all this on you, I just don't know who else to talk to. Thanks for reading if you've made it this far.

Thanks mamas.

[DawnaRose]

bah lost my post too, whats up with that!?

Anyway-

happy due dates to all our momma's that are there or really close!!

I still have one week to go, I'm 39 weeks today and about to head out for my appt. I'm seeing a new doctor this week since mine is out of town, so I hope this one isn't too different than my regular doc. Last week the "plan" was to induce me at 39 weeks since the baby keeps flipping around and I really don't want a c-section, but who knows what this doctor will think... :

Speaking of flipping, on Tuesday I went with my sons class on a field trip to see a play, and wow, the bus ride sure was bumpy! heh, every one kept asking me if I was "ok". The play was great and I was really hoping that the bus ride would throw me into labor that night (how sad is that, haha) but all it really did was upset the baby I guess, because that evening she flipped herself around breech again I actually sat here watching my stomach flip and flop all over and sure enough she had her head right under my ribs again But yesterday when I woke up it felt like she was back to head down, so here's to hoping she is back down when they check me today!



Hope everyone has a great day, and lots of well wishes for all

[KKmama]

Sherri, just caught your post... I'm sorry you're feeling so crappy. Just let it all out...

You can still have the baby this weekend... I'll send big vibes your way.

[Sarah'sMama]

Thanks KKMama, I needed that.

[Defenestrator]

Morning Dove and Pottermama -- I hope the bp stays nice and low!

Good luck to everyone else who is approaching her due date.

Sherri -- I know how frustrating it must be to seem like you are on a time clock! I hope that your baby comes at a time that is good for you. I sympathize with fears about taking care of two kids at once on your own. My ds#1 is 4, but super-high-energy and has been showing a lot of signs of being jealous about the baby. I am expecting an acting-out-fest right about the time that dh goes back to work and fear exhaustion.

I had a big shift last week from feeling like I wasn't going to have the baby anytime soon to feeling like it could easily be in the next week or two. Baby dropped on Thurs -- I look totally different and have to move differently and have almost constant cramping from pressure on my cervix. I was having some issues with excess fluid on Mon. when I went to my appointment, so I was still having a lot of pressure up by my ribs, but my midwife gave me a high potency homeopathic remedy and the pressure cleared by the next day. I still have horrible heartburn all of the time but I have learned to cope.

I am having nightmares, literally, about caring for children. I had one last night where my son and a little girl (in the dream it was the little sister of one of his friends) both fell through the ice while playing and I was able to rescue him, but not her. Dh and I both thought it was reflecting anxiety about caring for/protecting two kids at once. I have absolutely no birth fears, so I guess I have to be anxious about something.

I am a little weepy around any media that touches on parent/child issues. I read The Nanny Diaries last week and ended up crying all the way through it, and watched Pieces of April last night on dvd and got pretty weepy by the end of that as well. No more mother/child stories for me!

I finished my finals and now am just doing one writing project and nesting, nesting, nesting! I have a mother blessing this weekend which is being thrown by my midwives and includes a few close friends. I am very excited and hope that baby waits until then to be born so that I can go. After that he/she is free to come!

Good luck to everyone over these next few days.

Stacia

[PattyCakes]

Sherri!!! Hugs Mama!

[mcsarahb]

Hi again-

Sherri - ! I'm glad you told us how you feel. I am sorry you have to deal with the time pressure - how horrible to have constraints on something like this! It sounds like you and your dh are trying to work it out, but maybe you need to give him just a little bigger push...Is there any way he can take a few more days off if the babe comes at the "wrong" time?

I'm not feeling too much time pressure, except that my mom is coming on the 11th and insists that a. she better have a granddaughter by the time she gets here and b. there's "NO WAY" I'll go "THAT LATE." Harumph. I love my mom dearly, but I'm afraid she's jinxing me!!

I think it's interesting that no one has gone into labor yet (that we know of). There's a few of us at our EDDs, and several more close behind, and still no babies. That means we are a bunch of healthy, full-term mamas! Boy, can we cook 'em!

Sarah

[shalom]

oh, I commiserate with all of you may mamas! I've got all the same stuff going on- moody and ready to have this baby! of course I swing between 'I am strong and ready' and 'this house is such a disaster and I am so stressed out I can't handle labor now'. I am due on Tuesday and then I have until the 11th before my midwife goes out of town. my 1st was 7 days past due and my 2nd was five days past- so I am hoping it happens soon.

my best news for the week is: the parents in my son's second grade class have offered to make meals for us! we are new to the area (since January) and was so sweetly shocked when they offered. we are so lucky!

well... I haven't had a vag. exam and my cervix is so anterior that I can't usually reach it all. but, when I go walking it is like back to back BH's. I need to figure out how to walk more often.

good luck everyone! can't wait to hear birth stories!