More contractions, but no baby

Yesterday afternoon, I had a good, long round of contractions. They started in the middle of HEB while I was out grocery shopping with my mom. They started in my low back and worked their way around to the front, and some of them were pretty intense. So we came home, and Mom made dinner while I rested on the couch with my little microwave rice bag thing on my back. The contractions continued, and I was really getting optimistic about the whole thing. Mom was afraid to let me eat dinner, in case I was in labor. Why? I don't know. There seems to be some unwritten rule that women in labor can't eat. Don't people realize that they risk serious bodily injury if they try to keep a pregnant woman away from food? I figured, if I was in labor, I'd need my strength, so bring on the spaghetti and garlic bread!

After dinner, we all decided to go for a walk, and we circled the block a couple of times, fairly briskly. I had a few more decent contractions, but by the time we got home, they had pretty much stopped. Bummer. So I drowned my sorrows in some ice cream (fudge brownie ice cream with Hershey's syrup to up the chocolate factor, in case you were wondering!) and took a shower. I had a few more contractions late last night, but they fizzled out as well.

Today, my friend Gayla went to the mall with me, and we tried to walk the baby out. No luck, but I had plenty of people come up and ask me when I was due. When I said "Wednesday", I got looks of mixed shock, horror, and pity. I think next time someone asks me, I might just say, "Actually, I'm in labor right now!" and see what kind of reaction I get!

Anyway, I'm still here. Still VERY pregnant. And getting a little frustrated. At least I got to go get my toes done tonight. They're very pretty -- bright pink polish with white flowers on my big toes. Anna was very impressed with the little sparkly jewel thing the lady put in the middle of the flower. And the foot massage that went along with the pedicure was absolutely heavenly. You know, for all the care most pedicurists take not to go anywhere near a pregnant woman's ankles for fear of instantly sending her into labor (there's some acupressure point that's supposed to work for that), this lady rubbed all up and down my legs, ankles, and feet, and I didn't get so much as a twinge. Figures.

Stick a fork in me...

...I'm done! I'm seriously over being pregnant, and I'm ready to meet this little one!

Unfortunately, Caroline appears to be pretty comfy in my big, spandex uterus. I had a midwife appointment this morning (she's finally back -- woo-hoo!), and I'm still dilated "between 1 and 2ish cm". In other words, even after all those contractions Saturday night, no progress. Now, I do realize that some women go from not being dilated at all to having a baby 3 hours later, while others walk around 4 cm dilated for 6 weeks before delivering, so the dilation thing is not exactly an accurate indicator of how soon the baby will get here. Still, it would have been nice to see SOME difference after those contractions Saturday night! The one nugget of encouraging news is that Caroline is no longer floaty and bouncy, so her head is now low and pointed in the right direction. Head toward the light, Baby!

Other than that, the appointment was the typical, boring appointment. Blood pressure good, weight good, baby's heartbeat good, measuring right at 39 weeks. Jimmy got to watch Caroline run away from the Doppler this time, so that was fun.

Yesterday, I discovered one universal truth of pregnancy. If you wander into Wal-Mart 35 months pregnant, you will attract the attention of EVERY little old lady in the entire place. I have never answered so many questions in my life, and my GOODNESS, the number of belly touchers in that place was astounding! When I got home and told Jimmy about it, he offered to make me a sign for the next time I go out: Baby is due in a week. Yes, I'm ready to pop. It's a girl. Yes, I'm sure, even though your best friend's aunt's hairdresser carried JUST LIKE ME, and she had a boy. No, it's not twins. Yes, I'm certain. Yes, it sucks being pregnant in August. The baby's name is Caroline. No, she's not my first. No, my tummy is NOT public property! Yes, I'm aware that having sex might make me go into labor. No, it's none of your business whether or not I plan to try it tonight! Unfortunately, I think it would take a very large sign to fit all that information!

So, we continue to wait. I know that Caroline will come when she's ready, and I've asked my midwife not to discuss induction until I'm 2 weeks overdue, assuming Caroline and I are both doing well, but I reserve the right to be cranky about it if Caroline waits that long! I'm really hoping she'll decide to come out on her own before it comes to that.

I finally feel prepared!

Well, we finally got the dresser situation worked out, so I've been able to really work on Caroline's room over the past week. My mom also came to visit, and we went to Target and got some closet organizers for the vast amount of *stuff* that didn't fit into the dresser, etc. The nursery is finally finished, and I'm really proud of it!

So here are some pictures. First, the crib and bedding:



The dresser/changer:



The window on the wall opposite the crib:




Our wonderful Sunday school class gave us a wipes/bath stuff shower this morning, so in addition to all the diapers we got from the choir, I think it will be a nice, LOOOOOOONG time before we have to buy any wipes or baby wash/lotion. It's great to have that sort of thing taken care of so that we hopefully won't have to run out for those little last-minute things when we get the baby home.

Now that the nursery is done and my midwife will be back on Tuesday, I'm feeling VERY ready for this baby to be born! I had some contractions last night that felt a bit like the "real thing". They started in my back and worked their way around to my tummy, and they were kind of uncomfortable. That's pretty much how my labor with Anna started. They were fairly regular -- around 5-7 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. But they fizzled out after a little while, which is good because I really want to make it until Tuesday! But after that, Caroline is welcome to come whenever she wants, and I will be using every non-medical method at my disposal to evict her from my uterus. I think I'm in for a lot of walking and squatting!

Here's a picture of me this afternoon in all my current ginormity:




Anna is also ready to meet her little sister. We got to go visit my friend, Michelle, the other day. She just had her baby boy last week, named Gunnar Eric. He is precious, and Anna is absolutely in love with him. She was thrilled to get to hold him. I think she's going to be a great big sister! Here's a picture of Anna and Gunnar:



So anyway, that's the most recent update. I do have an appointment with my midwife on Tuesday morning, and I guess we'll see then if those contractions last night did anything!

Another boring appointment

And I do mean boring. If the doctor hadn't checked me for dilation, there wouldn't even have been a point of her stepping foot in the room! The nurse weighed me, took my BP, and measured my tummy. Caroline has definitely dropped because I was measuring about the same this week as I was at my last appointment, a week and a half ago. Heart rate was in the 140s, and the nurse got a kick out of watching Caroline do her acrobatics trying to avoid the Doppler. Dr. Reed came in and checked me, and I'm "between one and two centimeters". So basically no change from last time. I'm still hoping Caroline will decide to wait until Karen gets back on the 7th before she decides to come, and it looks like the odds of that happening are pretty good. Then again, I was 2 cm three days before Anna was born, so I guess you never can tell.

I do think I'm doing some nesting, though. Jimmy finished painting Anna's dresser and moved it upstairs last night. We rearranged her room to accomodate the larger dresser and moved the other dresser/changing table into the baby's room. I got Anna's clothes all organized, and I filled up the drawers of the baby's dresser. But I still have SO many things that don't have a home up there! I have no idea where to store crib bedding, and all of the little gadgets (bouncy seat, swing, etc) are just sitting in the middle of the room, taking up space. I'll probably work on it some more tomorrow. I also need to get some pictures up on the walls and get Jimmy to hang up some of Anna's princess parephenalia now that we've moved her bed and gotten everything settled in her room.

Anna is spending the night at a friend's house tonight, so Jimmy and I went and saw the movie Hairspray, which was fabulous. It was nice to have some couple time, and we didn't even have to worry about what time we got home! Of course, I'm posting this at 11:00, so we obviously didn't take full advantage of our free time!

I'm also waiting on an update from my friend Michelle. She had an external cephalic version this morning, which is a procedure to turn a breech baby. They were fortunately able to turn it, so the doctor started pitocin to induce her around 10:30 this morning. As of 7:00 this evening, there was still no baby, but I'm hoping to get an announcement soon! Michelle was due a week before me, so this has been a big reality check for me. My baby will be here soon!

Who comes up with this garbage?

For one reason or another, I love to watch those baby shows on TLC and similar channels. I don't know why I continue watching them, since between the L&D stories (I swear, they have about a 90% c-section rate on those shows, usually for completely unnecessary reasons) and the totally bogus breastfeeding advice, I generally end up wanting to throw something at the television at least once per show. But I do.

The other day, there was a couple who brought their baby home to a house full of every electronic gadget and monitor and soother you can possibly imagine. They had the video baby monitor (which I actually think is kind of cool because I always wondered what Anna was doing in her crib while she was singing or talking to herself), the little sound machine to make nature/womb sounds, a little thingy to make the crib vibrate while the baby slept, etc. Most of the stuff was expensive and unnecessary, but hey, if they've got the money, I guess most of it could have been useful in some capacity.

Except the "Why Cry" monitor. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have come across yet another completely worthless (yet expensive! This sucker costs $170!) baby item.




The idea is that you hold this little doohickey up to your baby when he cries, and it tells you what's wrong. Uh-huh. Apparently, all babies have a specific pitch, volume, and pattern that indicates whether they are hungry, bored, tired, stressed, or annoyed (I notice there is no "wet/dirty" in there anywhere!).

Now, I have no doubt in my mind that some babies do come with distinct cries. I've heard rumors of these babies, and it usually takes their parents about 3 days to tell the difference between a "tired" cry and a "hungry" cry if the baby truly has different cries.

But then there are those babies who come with two settings: sleeping and SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER. This was Anna. I promise you that no monitor in the entire world could have told the difference between "somewhat bored" and "someone's trying to KILL me, here!" There was no difference. EVERYTHING was a Big Hairy Deal when she was an infant. Dirty diaper? End of the world. Being put in the carseat? Major crisis. Wanted to be held? Screamed at a pitch that could shatter glass. Needed a change of scenery? Sounded like she was being murdered. It was total trial and error with her. But you know what? I think that it's actually an important part of parenting to actually get to know your baby and learn what they need. No machine is going to take the place of a parent's personal knowledge of his/her own child. I think it's a little bit pathetic that our society seems to have gotten so addicted to technology that parents no longer trust their ability to find out why their baby is crying.

This little gadget is clinically tested in Spain, Korea, and Mexico. My question is, what if your baby cries in English, French, or Chinese? Oh, and then there's this little gem: WhyCry® has been clinically tested in Europe, with a success rate of 98% when used in conjunction with the accompanying symptoms chart. So let me get this straight. After the machine gives you a reason for the cry, you still have to compare it to a symptoms chart to figure out why your baby is REALLY crying? And people pay $170 for this? Um....I'm speechless. I am now convinced that common sense officially no longer exists.

I am a circus freak side show

Well, not really. But tonight I was getting my hair done, and Caroline decided to do her Alien impression. My friend, Gayla, caught part of it on video because she had her digital camera with her. My tummy was doing absolutely crazy things, and it drew the attention of every woman in the salon. We all sat and watched for a couple of minutes until Caroline decided to settle down a bit. It was quite the conversation starter, let me tell you!

Other than that, there's not much to report this week. I don't have a doctor's appointment because I couldn't get in to see anyone this week since Karen and Dr. Reed are out all week. I did call yesterday and make an appointment for the day Karen gets back because I was paranoid that it would be hard to get in after she'd been on vacation for two weeks. I wasn't about to risk losing my 39-week appointment!

Oh, one other notable thing. Today, I broke down and bought a pair of Crocs. Well, not REAL Crocs because I refuse to pay $30+ for ugly shoes. These are $10 Target knock-off Crocs. My color choices were powder blue and Pepto pink, so I am now the (not so) proud owner of a pair of EXTREMELY pink plastic garden clogs. I had to get them because my feet have turned into ginormous sausages, and none of my shoes fit anymore. At this point, I've ceased worrying about whether I ever get my figure back after the baby is born. I just want my feet back!

Just for grins, I'm posting a picture of my friend, Michelle, and me at our last sorority meeting about two weeks ago. Michelle's baby is due a week before mine, but it looks like she'll be induced next week if her breech baby doesn't turn on its own by Monday. We live close to each other, so we plan to diet/exercise together after the babies are born. I'm so excited to have a close friend to share this experience with this time!

36 Week Appointment

Okay. Deep breaths. I found out this morning that my midwife is going on vacation. For TWO WEEKS. She's taking her daughter to college in New York. She'll be back on August 7, and my due date is August 15. No problem, right? Tell me it's no problem. I don't WANT some random doctor delivering me. I want my midwife. So I guess I'd better hold off on all those home induction methods the "old wives" recommend for a while. No castor oil for me!

Oh, and not only that, but her backup OB is going to be out of town next week. So I couldn't even have HER deliver me if I go into labor next week. It would literally be a doctor I've never met before, and that just stresses me out a little bit. Also, as a result of both Karen and Dr. Reed being out of town next week, the OB office is completely booked, so I couldn't even get an appointment for my next visit until the following Monday, and that's with a doctor I haven't met yet. So while I should be going every week at this point, it will be about a week and a half before I can go back because they're all booked solid. What a day!

Other than that, my appointment went well. Caroline is still head down, and I'm still 1 cm dilated, so there's no reason to think that I'll be going into labor any time soon. Blood pressure was good. Caroline was very active as usual. The Group B Strep test they did last week came back negative, so I won't need to worry about antibiotics in labor.

After all that stress about Karen being out of town, I was very thankful I had booked a massage and a pedicure at the Aveda salon for this afternoon. Jimmy gave me a gift certificate for my birthday, and I figured I should use it now, since I won't get a chance for a while after the baby is born! It was very relaxing, and I'm glad I did it.

I also had a chiropractor appointment yesterday, and Dr. Wolff told me that everything is very well aligned and looking good. Hopefully when the time comes, Caroline will have a straight shot out of the barrel and won't make me labor for 32 hours like her big sister did!

Everything is pretty much ready for Caroline's arrival. The clothes and bedding are washed (though she probably won't use the bedding for a while, since we'll keep her in our room for at least the first couple of months), and I've ordered new hardware for the drawers on the dresser that will go in her room as well as the dresser that will go in Anna's room. Jimmy still needs to finish painting the one for Anna's room so that we can play musical furniture and get all of that worked out. Right now, all of the clean baby clothes are in a big Rubbermaid storage bin, and I'd really like to get a dresser in there so I can organize things a bit!

So there's this week's update. Kind of boring but not at the same time.

Big Sister

I've gotten such a kick out of watching Anna over the last few weeks. She's getting so excited about the baby. She loves to put her hands on my tummy, and if Caroline moves (and she usually does!), her eyes get really wide, and she smiles and laughs. It's really cool to experience this through her eyes this time around!

So yesterday, Anna took a sibling class at our hospital so that she could learn about babies and what to do with them. They watched a little video called "Sibling Silly", which was very cute. Then the teacher showed them some pictures of newborns so that they would be prepared for how the baby will look. They included a few pictures of things like the umbilical cord, some mild head bruising, and a minor rash so that the kids could see that babies sometimes look a little different at first, and that's okay. They also showed pictures of babies nursing, which I thought was a nice touch, and something that Anna will definitely have to get used to. After that, the teacher talked about how to hold the baby, with emphasis on ASKING first. This is something that I have a feeling we'll need to reinforce a LOT with Anna. She's such a little mother, I have a feeling she's going to want to hold the baby all the time! The teacher also talked about toys that babies can and cannot play with and showed the kids how to use a toilet paper tube to test whether the toy was okay for the baby.

Then she divided the kids into groups and taught them to diaper and swaddle baby dolls. It was hilarious to watch the boys, many of whom had never gone near a baby doll before! One little boy was completely grossed out by the idea of changing a diaper, and he was VERY vocal about it! But not Anna. She swaddled the baby doll expertly. Then when she went to change the diaper, she was not content to merely take one diaper off and put another on. Oh, no. She wanted to wipe the baby, too! So she found a napkin, opened it up, wiped very carefully between the baby's legs, put on the clean diaper, and then swaddled the baby again and held it in her arms and rocked it, supporting its head in her elbow, just like the teacher said to!

After that, we got a tour of the L&D unit so the kids could see where their baby brothers and sisters would be born. The poor teacher then asked if they had any questions. One little boy piped up and said, "How will the baby get out of Mommy's tummy?" The teacher handled it well (she said something about the doctor getting the baby out), but considering this was a class for 6-9 year olds, I was surprised the parents hadn't addressed that with the child AT ALL. I certainly haven't given Anna the gory details, but she does know that the baby comes out through a special opening between the mommy's legs.

Oh, and forgive me for my mini rant, but would someone PLEASE ban those stupid Heely shoes from all public places? One of the little boys in the class was wearing them, and I wanted to strangle his parents for allowing him to coast through the L&D unit without a single thought about whether he was going to knock over some poor pregnant woman or nurse. Seriously. They're bad enough in malls and grocery stores, but in the hospital? Ugh.

Okay, off the soapbox now. Here are a few pictures of Anna at the class. Also note the new 'do. She's very proud of her "grown up" hair!

Getting ready to wipe the baby:



Finishing up the diaper:



Time to swaddle:



Carefully supporting the baby's head:



Anna's "graduation" certificate from sibling class:

I have cankles!

Cankles = calf/ankles. This is so not fair. I never got swollen when I was pregnant with Anna. I blame my friend, Leanah, at church. She told me on Sunday, "Oh, you're just so cute pregnant! You don't even have swollen ankles!" So two days later, I looked down and couldn't tell where my calves ended and my feet began. Cankles. Sigh.

Other than that, things are great, though! I had my 35-week midwife appointment this afternoon, and things are looking good. I asked Karen to check the baby's position, since she still seems to be flipping 180s on a regular basis. She checked me and said she was pretty sure she was head down (also told me that I'm 1 cm dilated), but she wanted to do a quick ultrasound to make sure. She sent me across the hall, and sure enough, Caroline is in launch position. She's still very floaty, though, so I'm not 100% convinced that she'll stay that way. I've been doing squats and bouncing on the exercise ball tonight to try to encourage her to gravitate and stick. Jimmy thought it was hilarious to watch me typing on the computer while bouncing vigorously on the ball, but hey, if it helps, it will be worth it! The ultrasound tech also said that she's "definitely still a girl." That's reassuring because if she's not, our son will be wearing a LOT of pink!

I didn't get a weight estimate or anything (ultrasound can be off by 2-3 pounds at this point, anyway, so I don't put much stock in weight estimates), but Babycenter.com says that Caroline is around 18 inches long and probably weighs about 5 pounds. Of course, Babycenter.com also says that she's running out of room, and her movements should be getting smaller. In that regard, Babycenter.com is full of crap. They clearly have not met my little alien because I still get giant bumps and rolls on a regular basis. Last night, Anna spent about half an hour at bedtime singing to Caroline (this baby ALWAYS reacts to music!) and watching, wide eyed, as my belly morphed into strange shapes as the baby somersaulted and rolled around when she heard Big Sister's voice. I've decided my uterus must be made of spandex, since she obviously still has plenty of room to maneuver in there!

Last Saturday, some friends threw me a baby shower, and that was a lot of fun. We got some really wonderful gifts, and the food was fantastic! The cake was the best I've ever eaten, and I still have one piece left! My friend, Melissa, gave us the cutest little pair of hot pink capri pants and a little floral top that I plan to use as Caroline's coming-home outfit. It's absolutely adorable! I'll try to post a picture of the outfit, if I can ever find my camera, which went MIA the day before the shower. It has to be around here somewhere! We also got the infant carseat yesterday, and I installed the base this morning, so the hospital will now let us take our child home if she's born. And now, I guess we just wait.

Oh, George, how I missed you!

We spent part of the weekend at a friend's beach house this weekend. There were tons of people there (there were actually three beach houses -- two were rentals), and it was SO much fun! We got to swim in the ocean (despite some rain this morning, which did finally clear up enough to let us swim, but not enough to keep Anna's lips from turning purple from the chill!), build sand castles on the beach, and hang out with our friends (all 30+ of them!). We all went to dinner last night, terrorizing at least three waitresses who earned every penny of that 15% gratuity that is added for parties over 6 (the number of spilled drinks from our sordid party of rambunctious kids was probably double their usual weekly quota!), and then sat out on their deck watching the moon float over the ocean. It was really beautiful.

The only problem was that I discovered about halfway to Galveston that I left George at home. George is my ridiculously large maternity pillow (Best Pillow Ever! Link here), and he has made sleeping during the last few months so much more comfortable. Now, normally I wouldn't have been too upset. I mean, it was just one night, right? Surely I can arrange pillows around me to get me through one night! But I happen to have a cold this weekend, and I can't breathe lying down. Since everyone knows they don't give you the good drugs when you're pregnant, this means that I have to find some natural method of relieving my stuffy nose, and the only thing that seems to work is to elevate my head to a practically-upright position.

The house we were staying in had exactly two extra pillows, so let's do the math. One pillow under my head. Check. One pillow behind my back. Check. One pillow under my bump. Check. Okay, we're out of pillows, so what to do? I needed one between my knees and at least two more under my head to get me upright enough to breathe. So let's move on to the beach towels (which were thankfully unused at this point). Move the pillows under the head (ah, I can breathe!), and fold one towel to go under the belly. Wait, I'm still going to run out! Okay, these are big towels, so what if I rolled them? Finally, a solution! So I ended up with two rolled up towels -- one under my belly and between my knees, and the other wedged behind my back. It wasn't George, but it got me through the night.

You know, Jimmy gave me a hard time when I ordered George. He thought George was a waste of money and that he took up too much space (thus the name -- we figured the pillow was at least as big as an extra person in the bed!). After all the tossing and turning and rolling and stuffing and wedging that went on last night, Jimmy is now feeling the George love. I don't think I'll be hearing any more complaints from him!