30 May to 5 JUNE!!!!!! - Page 4

[eilonwy]

I didn't actually... Eli woke up when Mike left for work and spent 45 minutes crying for Daddy, then nursed for another hour or so... the only driving I did was to move the minivan to the other side of the street so that I wouldn't get a ticket. :LOL Tomorrow, though, I'm taking it on a fairly long trip. Yay! I'll go see the doctor, run some errands, and if I can get a hold of my best friend I'll drag him out in it.

[Greaseball]

OMG...I just went through my checkbook and saw that I have spent $275 on diapers since I've been pregnant! A diaper or two here and there from the TP and from Naturalbabies! That's sort of insane...I should have made a registry at NB and sent it to my family members and let them buy all the stuff, but somehow that seemed rude.

It doesn't even seem like I have that many dipes for all the money I've spent on them. For dd, all I have are 2 pocket dipes, an AIO and a fitted, and I'm waiting on 2 more pockets and 2 fitteds. For the new one, I have a few newborn and small fitteds, maybe 10 pockets, 6 proraps, and a few AIOs. That's not that much!

I'm glad dh and I have separate checking accounts. He never has to know...

(I'm going to post this in the CD thread so ignore it there.)

[seedling]

LOL Grease, I've done the same thing! I had a couple of months of being totally out of control on the trading post and invested close to $200 (DON'T tell DH!) But I do have a huge stash now right up thru size medium (I bought very little new ... most everything I got used at really good prices). Add to that what I already had for DD and I'm basically covered (or the baby's butt is).

Well, I've been having BH cntx all afternoon. About the same as last Saturday. To the point that standing up to chop up the brocolli for dinner was uncomfortable and walking to the mail box an excercise in not looking crazy in front of the neighbors despite the urge to clutch my belly and sit on the ground. I NEVER had any of this with DD so I'm really questioning what these are. They don't feel like labor contractions but they are really really uncomfortable. With DD I had no question after about an hour that "whoa, this is the real thing". With these I'm like, "no way, can't be real but if they are just practice it's not a nice practice".

Anyway, just sent DH out to start on the lawn (it'll take him two days to do the whole thing though so if I do have the baby tonight we'll have a half way done yard) and I'm getting ready to vacuum yet again. Still haven't waxed the kitchen floor. Or spread the remaining mulch. Maybe tomorrow.

[mattjule]

Tanya-I agree that those are GORGEOUS photos.

Well, we had a playgroup today and everyone actually made it! There are 4 mamas in our town group (est. here at MDC) now and more that post but have not been able to make it yet. The kids are really good to each other with the exception of 2 boys who met today and didn't seem to get along that well. I think that will work itself out, though, they didn't seem to be malicious towards one another, just not get along well.

Okay, so I have to really school myself, but I let myself "check" once a week. I am just so curious to know how my body is doing things. I feel like I am right on track with getting ready to birth, though I can tell it is still weeks away. My ctx when Tain nurses are stronger and longer than they used to be. Anyway, I checked myself a couple days ago and my cervix was shorter and open so that with two fingers in it I could spread them without them touching each other. Since I don't really know how to interpret anything, I just thought that was kind of exciting, like my body is ripening itself and when I do go into labor a few weeks from now, there will be less work involved. So the weird part is today I checked and it is more closed and a little longer. I guess it fluctuates, but I had never heard of that happening except in moments of tension/fear during labor. It doesn't concern me at all but I did find it really interesting.

I totally sunburned my legs at the playdate today. I had sunscreen everywhere else, but I thought I'd be in the shade or standing with Tain so I didn't need to put it on my legs. Well, it was really breezy and I was wearing a dress so we decided to sit in the sun. Guess I learned my lesson...

I only have a few projects left to do. Robin, I am making my first ring wrap tonight. I am excited to see how it turns out. I got the 3" rings in the mail today!

Well, that's all. Have a good evening...

[Greaseball]

I still can't find my cervix. I think I will ask for an internal at my appt in 2 days.

[seedling]

Flat tire on the mower. DH not very motivated to get it off and take it in to have it fixed tomorrow. DH not very motivated to do anything. :

Insisted DH install baby car seat. So that's done.

Waxing kitchen floor as soon as the mop job I just did dries. Vacuumed downstairs again.

If I'm still pregnant tomorrow, I'm going to take stinky dog to have him washed at Pet Smart. DH did it last week but he still smells horrible. And I'm going to try to spread some mulch too.

[ksjhwkr]

Well, today we had the ultrasound because I was measuring (and still am) 46 cm. Baby is good. There is only one (HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF) and is head down!!! The head is right on my cervix, WONDERFUL!! According to the measurments, baby is about 9 1/2 lbs. Of course at this point in the pregnancy, the accuracy of the weight is give or take 2 lbs...so baby could be 7lbs or 11 lbs! I think it is probably closer to 8...the ultrasound also said my due date is June 11 instead of the 21. So, instead of being 37+1, it says I am 38+5. I am dilated to 1 cm and my cervix is still pretty high up there. However, I am starting Evening Primrose Oil. It is supposed to help ripen my cervix. My midwife told me to take 3 orally and insert 6 vaginally at night. I'll combine that with lots of sex and nipple stimulation, and hopefully the baby will be on his/her way next week!!!
Other than being HUGE and having so much pressure down low, I am feeling ok. I'm not sleeping too good, but I will live and luckily it won't last forever!!!!! That really helps a lot to know, if I thought that I would be pregnant forever, I would never do this again. But having had one child, I know that birth is inevitible! YIPEE!!!

Ok, now I am off to read the rest of what's been going on today!!!

[Smithie]

Wow, Kim! What exciting news!

My mw did a home visit today, and James has recovered 100% from his slow start in breathing and body temp. My stitches look good, too, and my nipples aren't any more battered than is normal.

Sorry if this is TMI, but I figure it's important info: since I didn't want an episiotomy and James had a hand up and shot right out of me, my labia tore on either side of my clitoris. If you doctor describes this to you as some sort of horrible thing, tell him to shove it. I am so much happier to have these superficial tears than a deep muscle cut farther down. And there was certainly no nerve damage! Otherwise I would not be so ouchy!

[Greaseball]

Kim, if you ever face induction, make them go by your LMP date rather than the u/s date. U/s is notoriously inaccurate for messing up dates...as well as baby sizes.

[wildthing]

Hi again everyone!

Thank you all so much for the good vibes. It doesn't seem to be an urgent situation at this point. I am having blood work done Thursday, and possibly an ultrasound next week, unless baby comes first. If it is solid growth, they will biopsy again. If it is fluid they will drain. If it is soli, and the biopsy coes back 100% benign, I don't have to worry about it anymore. If it is at all questionable, it is recommended to remove it. It can be done surgically, a few months after the baby comes. If it is a serious cancer situation though, that would be different and need immediate attention. I am quite relieved.

Greaseball, I have spent way more on cloth diapers than I have any right to! I made most of my stash, but honestly, does any newborn *NEED*45 fitteds a dozen porefolds, 10 covers and 7 pocket diapers? I haven't told dh about the dozen size 0 Kissaluvs I bought, just because they were in the outlet section and came in colors.

I am feeling really good physically, if not emotionally. I woke up the other night and cried because my oldest is planning on moving out in July, and she is planning on moving quite far away. Far enough that we will probably have only yearly visits at most. I am sad that she is leaving for my ownfeelings of missing her, but more because of how much her siblings will miss her. The sadness of knowing how upset my 8 and 5 yo dds will be when they realize they won't see her every day breaks my heart. And this new baby......they will hardly know each other. I know my kids would move out of the house, I just wasn't prepared for them to move out of our lives.

Anyway, I am still pretty comfortable most of the time. My ankles were awful at the conference, but I haven't had an swelling since I have been home. Some heartburn at night is the worst thing going on. Baby is very low, but I think my chiro adjustments have helped with the pubic and back pain I was having. I am so glad to be able to completely relax and just let baby come whenever he or she is ready to come.

Well, I am tired, and it has taken about 7 hours to finish this post! :LOL I will talk to you all later.

[ksjhwkr]

Grease~if I face induction then I will go by my ovulation date. I haven't had a period since I got pregnant with Emma. When she died I was fulltime breastfeeding and my cycles hadn't returned. Luckily though I started charting my temp and know when I ovulated. However, I don't think that I will be induced or that it will even be discussed. I am having a homebirth and being a vbac, I won't do anything that isn't natural for helping getting things going. If that means I go to 42 weeks and have a 15 lb baby, then oh well! :LOL Thanks for the advice. I know that u/s at this point are really unpredictable, but I feel like baby is around 8 lbs right now...just a big kiddo!

[seedling]

Kim, glad your news was so good.

Donna, sounds like you have reason to breathe a little easier too. I'll continue to keep you in my prayers while you wait for results. It seems so far off to think of my DD leaving home. I can't imagine how you must feel. That sounds really, really hard. Like you are caught between wanting what will make your child happy and letting them have the freedom they need and your own emotions (and those of your other children) about not having them in your daily lives.

So far today, I'm feeling okay. I'm taking dog to get a bath, going to PO, going to playdate, getting some groceries, coming back home to work while DD hopefully naps, and then going back in to town late in the day for bloodwork (hope my platelet levels are still up). After all that, if I'm not too tired, I'm going to spread some mulch in the garden. It really needs it since we're getting cranked up summer wise here. I guess I should be happy I have another day to take care of stuff like this.

I really just can't believe how impatient I feel. I was NOT like this with DD. Last night I was thinking how I just needed to let go of all that impatience and know that God has a perfect plan and that the baby will come when the plan says it is so. But then I thought "What if God really wanted me to wax the floor first?". So it's waxed now! I'm really only being partly funny with my thought pattern here.

Okay, off to take care of my list!

[mattjule]

Wow, I just looked at the list and there are 5 mamas due during this thread! Seems so fast that it is all coming together...

So happy to hear everyone has had good news! What a relief for both Kim and Donna.

Kim-so measuring that far ahead is just baby or there was some extra fluid in there? You can do this hb, yipee! I know my hb is SO important to me...

Donna-not like it is much consolation, but I moved out when I was 17-my youngest sibling was 6. And you are right, most of my younger siblings and I don't know each other very well. They got over it pretty quickly, though, (it was a lot harder on me than them!) and we were close before I moved out. As much as it saddens me that I missed so much of their growing up, it isn't a hopeless situation. We just forge new relationships based on who we are now. It has been kind of nice, in a way, to not carry the baggage of their childhood into my interactions with them now. Being the older sister, it would have been really easy to treat them as little children otherwise. It isn't ideal as far as having close relationships like my mom always envisioned for us, but that doesn't mean we don't love and care about each other. Sometimes being in a big family means when you leave you need some time to find out who you are outside of that context. Our family was much different that yours, more kids and lots of special needs kids, but all of us that have moved out have found that to be true.

Seedling-take care of yourself! You sound like you are going to be exhausted when you go into labor...

I slept horribly last night. Woke up starving at 3 am, ds was permanently attached to me, even when I would push him more toward the middle of the bed in desperation. I finally moved to the guest bed (yeah, we have one!) at 7 am, but never got to go back to sleep before he got up. Oh well, I've been spoiled the last few weeks w/dh getting up with him. Guess the real world is starting to sink in again. It has been like a honeymoon for me and I will be sad when everything goes back to normal, though him having a paycheck again will be really nice.

I have been working on my dh's messenger bag-that is almost done. He is such a patient man, it has been mostly done for a few months. But then he got a laptop so I needed to make a padded insert for it. So that is almost done, then I am going to make him a sling, then a sling for a friend of mine once we test out his to make sure we like it. THEN I'll see to the house. Dh picked up the clutter in the living room last night so it isn't too bad.

Well, I am going to get going, I have some errands to run. Belly rubs to everyone still cooking and labor vibes to those of you who are ready!

[bandana]

is anyone else EXHAUSTED????????????????????????????

2-1/2 weeks to go and i can NOT get enough sleep. i was up until 3:30 every night over the long weekend and had a house full (45 people) on sunday, which was GREAT, but it caught up with me today i think. i also can't take any time off work, because the more i take off, the more stress i put on my husband, since we work together. i know i sound so whiny, but i am having one of those days where i just want to GO HOME!!!!!!!!

thanks for the outlet, ladies. sorry i haven't been posting a lot. how is everyone feeling? who's still working?

~laura

[ksjhwkr]

Julie~ Yeah, I have lots of fluid and a bigger baby. So, that's why I'm measuring so big. The u/s tech said that I had borderline abnormal amounts of fluid and said that baby's bladder was full, so if s/he goes to the bathroom I'll have abnormal amounts! :P I told my midwife this and she just laughed. I am on the high end of the range, but it's nothing serious. My blood pressure and weight gain and urine are all fine, so we're not worried. I will just have a big baby...I've expected that all along, so no biggie!

I am SO tired today! I couldn't sleep last night. I did the EPO and was pretty crampy all night. I plan on spending a lot of time in the swimming pool today. That always helps me feel better!

Seedling~I am with you...I keep saying, "Whatever God's plan for this baby is, I will accept it", but DANGIT I want baby here next week!! I REALLY don't want to have the baby this week...too much going on. And, Sunday is my Mom's birthday, I don't want to have the baby on her birthday. I'll never hear the end of how they are just the same, birthday buddies, blah blah blah...I don't want to deal with it. I just keep saying June 10. We'll see...but I am also feeling really impatient. I think I am feeling so impatient because I am SO big! I can't imagine that there is a whole lot of room left for baby to grow in there!!!

[Steve's Sweety]

Greaseball

OMG...I just went through my checkbook and saw that I have spent $275 on diapers since I've been pregnant!

Oh gosh, I wish I had only spent that much. I think I am around $600 now. Once I started, I just couldn't stop!

Nothing to report here. Didn't have my May baby. We'll try next time since I hope to have kiddos about 2 yrs apart.

Oh, my nephew was born on 5/27. He was 10 days past due and weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. At 38 wks they were telling her he was already 7 lbs 14 oz and they were estimating him to be around 9 if she went past due. Way to scare a woman.

Course my midwife offered to me w/o my asking that she didn't think I had a big baby in there, just a "nice avg sized one that should slip right out". And of course as I sit here chastizing SIL's Dr. for telling her what he did, I find myself holding onto what my mw said. So within the last couple days I have stated that I think this baby will be 8 lbs 2 oz or so. I didn't ask my mw what she meant by nice or avg size, but assumed she meant around 7- 7.5 lbs.

Oh I just can't wait to meet him/her and see!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was asking Steve the other night when he thought the baby might come and he said "by this time next week". He says he's basing that on how big I am (uh, buddy, there is still growing to be done) and the fact that he started feeling an urgency to get things done within the last couple days.

Myself, I had been thinking that I'd go past June 14 (my o EDD) but when my mw checked me she sounded so positive about my cervix doing "some work" that I got to thinking maybe I wouldn't make it to June 14 after all. I have had the #21 in my head for a bit now, but I thought it was going to be my nephew born on 5/21. Instead he was born on 5/27 and I'm thinking maybe it's me that's going to have a baby on the 21st.
Not that that wouldn't be ok, but I'm so ready to see this little person!!!!!!!

[Smithie]

I crashed and burned pretty hard yesterday (you experienced mamas were probably waiting for that), but my own mom arrived in the evening and saved my ass. James also got his tummy full for the first time in his little life and has been asleep for OVER AN HOUR.

I took a bath and then lay down for an hour all alone by myself, and that was all I could manage. I'm a tear-drenched wreck. But there is light at the end of the tunnel. I think maybe I need some fresh air.

Despite a slightly cracked nipple, bfing is going very well. I am so relieved about that.

[irishgreengables]

AARGH! I am so exhausted and so tired fo all these contractions and cramps and NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING! Ob tday said cervix is lower and softer but still very CLOSED! I am cranky and mean and just want the baby to come!

Thanks for letting me rant.

Peace,

[mattjule]

Smithie-actually, that makes me feel normal. I keep reading about these mamas with the perfect babies that don't cry for hours for no discernable reason and how they sound so rested and together. I remember how it was for me after Tain was born...he slept a lot the first week or so, but after that it was aweful! I was so sleep deprived I cried all the time from exhaustion, I just wanted 2 minutes to pee without him crying, it was very hard. I was starting to feel like everyone had a secret I didn't have! If it helps at all, Tain was better by month 2. So it was only 3 weeks of really hard stuff. Sounds like forever right now and it seems like forever when you are living it and 5 minutes is a long time, but it is kind of like being in labor, it helps to know there is an end somewhere. Hang in there, it is hard, but it will get better. I am glad you have some help. I only had help for the first week, when everything was fine, so I know how alone and overwhelmed you feel. Big, big hugs to you, mama. You are doing a good job.

[rubelin]

Hey everyone! I haven't read through the new messages but wanted to ask for some prayers today. Just got back from an appt with the MWs and they are concerned that babe's flipped to breech They're having trouble feeling the head in my pelvis, from the inside and out. At the very least, he's gone posterior so his position is just way different than it's been. They're worried because I'm about 2-3 cm dilated and pretty effaced and my bag is bulging and it would be not so great if the bag broke with his head up. We're heading down to the US clinic to double check. Please send head down thoughts!! I'm trying not to freak out, but it's hard. I can handle posterior, but breech means automatic section wit hour HMO Dr or paying for a hospital birth (and poss section) with the one Dr in the city who will attempt a vaginal breech.

Gotta run, Dan's worried about traffic. I'll post when we get back and let you know how it went!