Pregnancy Update!

I think I should probably do one of these now because I think it will be a baby update if I wait too much longer!  The little gremlin is making her way out soon, I’m sure of it!  I also want to apologize to those of you who have emailed me or left a comment that needs a reply, I haven’t been able to get back to them all just yet, I will try to very soon!  I usually try to answer my emails over the weekend but this weekend has left me doing other things before getting to them, if you have sent me an email or left me a comment I WILL get back to you, just as soon as I can!

MiniM is doing just great, I have complained a lot through this pregnancy (because much of it DOES suck!) but really things could be SO much worse.  I have been sick and miserable, and wanting of a lot of sweets but she is healthy and seems happy based on her constant dancing… I hope everyone’s ‘building of a person’ could go so smoothly!  In reality I would take a lot more if it assured me she was going to be healthy and happy!

The worst singular part to date (other than the CONSTANT nausea) is the second glucose test because I failed the first one by so much.  I had to take it again.  Nothing about that was terrible terrible, I mean I like sugary stuff but they take your blood and then make you drink this awful pure soda syrup crap then draw your blood every hour for three hours.  I’ve never been scared of needles at all, if I were it would have only been the icing on the cake next to the 5 hours of shakes and dry heaving (trying NOT to throw up so I didn’t have to do it all again!).  Through all of that MiniM was doing flips and having just as hard of a time.  I had taken my laptop in to get SOME work done while I waited the three hours but ended up not even being able to focus enough to do a thing.  AND I had to fast for it.  It really should be illegal to make a pregnant lady fast!  If that’s the worst of it that is not so bad.

There have been very few ‘cool’ parts up to this point but by far the coolest part is that I get the opportunity to know and bond with this little human being before anyone else!  She has a little schedule it seems (we still play before bed), she doesn’t get scared of things like she used to (I let/encourage Denver to bark so that noise won’t set her off later).  She is mostly pretty quiet until it’s just her and I and then she gets playful, and she gets the hiccups a lot!  Lately she has started sucking on her thumb I think, there is a weird rhythmic motion she seems to make right before she gets quiet.   That stuff is pretty cool and hasn’t really started until the last couple months or so.

It’s funny how completely terrified you are in the beginning of all the things your body will have to endure but by the time you get this far along you are ready for whatever, you could literally cut me open and I would be ecstatic just to eventually know that I will heal and will be able to lay down again, someday, comfortably!  Last night I ‘slept’ upright again in a recliner because that was as comfortable as I could get.  That is of course the most uncomfortable thing on my recently broken back… it is a miserable balance most of the time on how I am going to be able to get enough sleep to sustain my next round of ‘things’ to do.   The great news, I am done working for a while at my day job!  I still have other things to do and get done that I will fit in my schedule but stopping working now helps for SO many reasons.  Again, it involved sitting for 8 hours a day which KILLED my back.  The biggest part though was that I haven’t been able to get to really real sleep for the last several weeks until 5:30-6:00am… and then was woke up to go to work at 8… to which I could never seem to be on time! I can sleep and stay asleep now when I am actually asleep… that is until she’s born…

So, one week ago on Sunday I was woken up at 2am with a really bad stomach ache.  I was dazed, a bit confused and then I realized that must be a contraction.  I got up and walked around to make it feel better, I was literally doubled over, it was awful (just wait… I know 🙂 )!  It didn’t go away at all with my walking so I just waited it out and tried to relax through it, which is hard to do when your body is rebelling so hard!  It lasted 6 minutes, I know because I looked at the clock when I woke up and then it just stopped and I decided I should go back to bed and get some rest.  If it kept happening then being rested was the best thing for me.  Two hours later the same thing happened, except I had to RUN to the bathroom, I felt like every single piece of everything in me was about to explode out… another 6 minutes and I was going back to bed.  Then, nothing.   Just two really bad Braxton Hicks contractions.   So I have been on alert since about a week ago.  No real ‘nesting’ kicking in, just being a bit alert.  On Tuesday was my latest midwife exam (I am on to weekly exams until she gets here now), my midwife asked if I had any contractions I said ‘yep!’ (she has asked me this before to which I replied ‘I don’t know, I think so’… met with a joking eye-roll 🙂 ).  She laughed and said THAT’S how we know its progressing, and that it was a good sign.  She listened to MiniM’s heart-rate (it’s perfect 130) and took my belly measurement.  It should be about 1 cm a week from week 20 on up to about 40 cm, my last measurement was 39 and this time it was 32.  I was a bit confused about that but she said she dropped and was now engaged in my pelvis and ready for action any day now.  I think her moving into place must have been what that Sunday night business was all about.  My midwife thinks it’s any day now, whenever my body says go.  She said most first time moms go to 41-42 weeks but I may be one of the lucky ones that get’s out of this a little early!  I am at 37 weeks which is perfectly acceptable, if I go into labor they won’t stop me.  The main concerns are only that MiniM hasn’t grown her brown fat that helps regulate her body temperature so after birth, they would make sure she’s eating and staying warm, other than that no worries.

So that was awesome news!  Which brings me to Friday.  Friday was my last official day of work.  It still hasn’t really hit me that I won’t be going back tomorrow morning… I have a whole list of other to-do things to do but it will just be weird to not go to the office.  So Friday, I wake up and head to work.  I sit down and instantly start having contractions.  Nothing too terribly painful and not too close together.  I just keep tabs on things and we are talking 2-3 contractions per hour lasting the entire time I was at work and a couple hours after, then they seemed to slow down a bit.  They were still there but maybe 1-2 an hour.  I decided on Friday that I had better go get her some clothes and stuff ready in case so I drove home and headed to my folk’s place to get a few loads of laundry done (I do have a washer/dryer but I find I don’t use it too much, laundry is a good excuse to visit!).   I head out there and visit/hang out and then head home to do a little more work.  The contractions continue throughout all of Saturday too, not getting any more or less in frequency or intensity.  Saturday night I did not sleep at all.  I was upright in my chair, pissed off at the world that I could not get an ounce of shut-eye, Denver was sleeping like a little princess and I just wanted to shake him awake so I didn’t have to be up all night alone!  Finally, at almost 9 this morning I was able to get to sleep and slept until noon.  When I woke up there were no signs what-so-ever of labor.  Short story, it’s been a weird weekend and I think I am going to have a kid soon but I have no idea!  

I have been nervous to be alone so I have made poor James drive all over with me, we went and got all those items on my ‘need-to-get-before-baby-comes’ list.  He has been working his butt off to tie up some of his projects so he can hang with MiniM AND spent the weekend building Denver a fence so that I don’t have to keep my eye on him with my hands full of newborn.  It will be so nice to be able to let him outside to play without having to be there with him constantly (to date we haven’t had a fenced area for him).

And today, was a burst of energy for the nesting! I have literally started at the top/ceiling of my house and have been working my way down DEEP cleaning everything (I no longer have Denny slobber on my ceiling…).   Yeah!

I hope everyone is well, if I am offline for a little while now you know why! 🙂

This is MY perspective of my pregnant belly. I literally cannot see what color panties I am wearing anymore...

It makes a nice little shelf which is great for setting my drink on 🙂

And the side shot, her butt is at the top and her back is facing forward in this shot, she is in the right spot so there should not be any issues with a breech baby at this point, she's been head down for a while.

James out there working hard to make D a fence, it was a sopping wet weekend, He was able to get all the concrete in before it really started coming down but it was not the best weekend for fence building, he did what he needed to though to get it closer to enclosed for D though, and I appreciate it!

You can see D in the background 'helping', and barking at passer-bys

It will be UBER niec to have the fenced area! and we got grass seed to plant so that we can get rid of the ucky construction site mess soon.

I moved the bed back around too, I didn't like laying in the loft sideways at all, I neer fell off but D did take his first tumble a couple nights ago. I think he's part cat because he totally landed on his feet and had a 'WTH did you do that for' look on his face. Again, I WILL have a rail, that is an early summer project. This works out MUCH better though, glad to have the head of the bed back up by the window!

And I cleaned up the stairs and my car. I had a lot of things in my car that I needed to bring in and find a home for, my luggage, computer stuff etc. There are even some diapers (I will be using cloth diapers but the first couple weeks will be disposables.

And for those ho may have missed the update, Denver is feeling MUCH better, he was sick of a couple days and lethargic, he's his old self again now though!