Full term tomorrow!

Well, one more day and Henry will be 40 weeks. Hard to believe, but at the same time it feels I've been pregnant forever. It looks like our little boy is going to be late. We went to the doctor yesterday and found out that there had been no progress made since my last appointment. I still seem to be fairly high, well rather HENRY is rather high, and I'm just about a centimeter dilated. No effacement yet. Soooo the doctor went ahead and scheduled me for inducement. I'd go into the hospital Thursday evening for the Cervidal or however you spell it and then the Pitocin would start the next morning at 6am, roughly. This would be May 7th.

I really, really do not like the idea of choosing my son's birthday. I know technically I am not choosing it, but ever since I came to grips with this pregnancy, I've always just assumed he would come on his own, when he is ready. I knew he'd be late. I was, Jason was, just seemed likely, especially being the first, but it never occured to me that'd he'd be late enough to need to be induced. I am keeping every bone in my body crossed in hopes that he will come before then. This weekend would be nice.

Every day I wake up thinking maybe today will be the day - well rather I stay up way too late, not able to sleep, thinking wow this might be a super stupid idea because what if my water broke RIGHT NOW and I had gotten no sleep? But the other half of my brain is telling me he won't come that day, not yesterday, not today, not tomorrow, because I haven't felt any huge progress. I've had some cramps but they aren't enough to make me go WOW LABOR!! That and I have not had any other signs that he was on his way other than dropping. He still isn't all the way dropped from what I gather, but he's definitely lower than he use to be.

I cannot really accurately describe the feeling of just sitting here waiting for my life to completely and irrevocably change forever. It is exciting and terrifying all at once. I keep thinking there is no way I am ready for this. I get scared out of my mind, but then I have to remind myself that I am not the only new mother out there and that I have a very supportive husband. I am so lucky to have the man I do for the father of my child.

I think we are pretty much ready for him to get here. Clothes all washed, bags packed, for the most part, save a few toiletrie items that have to wait. Maybe he will take me totally by surprise and just decide to come, out of no where. I'd love for him to come today - my doctor is on call and would be able to deliver him. What are the odds of this happening? Slim to none. BTW I think almost all of the self induction methods are bull. There are only a few that I can see that would actually help. Most of them are just old wives tales, which makes me sad because I want him here NOW!

38 weeks today!

I've been horrible about updating this thing. I think about it often, but actually taking the time to do it is another thing.

Today I am officially 38 weeks, one week into being full term. Apparently this means very little to Henry. We had an appointment on Friday only to determine he's made no move to get out, at all. I am not dilated, effaced, stationed or whatever, nothing. In fact the doctor had to realllly dig around to even get to the cervix. Yeah I know, lovely picture, but that is the case.

Because we had no reason to worry about him coming this past weekend, we went down to Houston for a family reunion. Well technically the reunion was near Woodville 2 hours away, but we went to my mom's Friday and then drove up for the day that day. All in all, we were probably in the car 13-14 hours this weekend. I am thinking probably not the best thing for a 37 weeker, but oh well, didn't seem to do any harm! It was so wonderful to see everyone one last time before Henry gets here. My family is SO excited.

I'm being a horrible slacker lately. I don't even have my hospital bag packed. For some reason I cannot do it. I keep worrying that I will forget something or do something wrong, etc, so I just don't do it at all. And then there is the matter of school. All of my projects are coming to a head. A huge powerpoint presentation is due Monday. I'm about three slides in and it probably needs to be about 18 long. Hey, that's progress right! Plus the huge project that is due next Sunday, April 25th. Just thinking about it makes my blood pressure skyrocket.

Speaking of which, I should get back to it.

Shower pictures!

I can't sleep, and I promised shower pictures (even though the few people who do read this blog actually have already seen them, oh well!) a long time ago. Time to deliver!







Don't mind that I look very puffy and gross. BLEH.

32 Weeks and Counting!

I haven't updated in several weeks, shame on me! Well I survived my fantastic shower. I will have to post some pictures later of the wonderful job my cousin, grandmother and aunt did in decorating. They carried out the owl theme throughout the entire shower and it was absolutely adorable.

We ended up with about 40 people there, which includes some of the men folk that came and hung out in the kitchen doing the dishes. Yes, that's right, they did the dishes! We ended up with far more stuff than we ever imagined getting. We are so grateful for the wonderful friends and family that were so generous.

We also started our Lamaze classes a few weeks ago. Due to the snow storm we ended up with last month, the course got shortened from five to four weeks. We have one more class to go to this next Thursday, which I'm looking forward to because we finally get to have a tour of the hospital.

Also happening Thursday, and a bit more exciting for us, is our final ultrasound. I wasn't going to have the doctor do it at first, since we will have to pay for it, however, the more we thought about it, the more we realized we really want to know everything is going ok in there. I don't have a lot of time left, so knowing whether or not things are looking good for delivery is important to us.

I will have to do another post with the nursery updates. It's coming along! They are going to start mudding the walls in the next few days so maybe we will be painting in the next week or so. That would be fantastic!

I guess it starts now

The lack of sleep. 5:20 this morning I am wide awake. I might have fallen asleep at 1:30am at the earliest. This is getting ridiculous. I cannot sleep for more than 4 hours at a time anymore. I did not sleep at all Thursday night. I did get a small nap Friday during the day, but not enough to cover even half a night's worth of rest.

Well, the guy my father in law hired to come help with the baby room was supposed to come today. And he did show up. And then left again to go get more tools at home. Two hours later, he's no where to be found. My father in law calls him and he says, "Oh sorry, my wife got called into work. I have to play Mommy." So he is coming tomorrow. Seriously though, wouldn't you have the decency to call as soon as you found that out? Jason has been sitting around all morning waiting. I even cleaned a bunch downstairs to make sure the space was ready to be worked on.

I am sure this is normal, to some degree, but I'm feeling really alone lately. It's great talking to my cousin, as she just had her baby nine months ago and it gives me someone to relate to, but for the rest of my friends, for the most part, I feel really distant. I feel like I am losing them. It breaks my heart. Don't want to make this post too depressing, but had to get that off my chest.

Week 29, Snow, School, Stress, and some other S words

S words....that reminds me of a Celebrity Jeopardy episode from SNL. I'll take Swords for $200 Alex. That's S Words, oh nevermind.

Well I've reached week 29. Sleep (ah ha, another s word!) has been very hit or miss. As I type this, it is 10:30am. I never went to sleep last night. I tried, believe me I did. It just never came. I cannot lay in bed awake too long. I start thinking about all of my stressors and it just worries me even more, making matters worse.

School has been totally kicking my butt lately. I'm taking two courses this semester, and while one of them is cake, the other one is a mess. I have to create a course, beginning to end, on a topic of my choice. I do love my topic though - Baby Sign Language. Jason and I are completely on board for teaching Henry to sign. I took over 3 years of sign language while in high school and college, and it is amazing how much of it I still know. This book has been our favorite and I highly, highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in teaching their baby to sign. The benefits of baby sign language are countless. I could spend an entire post on just that. But I won't!

So, the snow. Yesterday we received the largest amount of snow that Texas has seen in one day in recorded history. It's completely insane how much we got. The DFW airport reported 12.5 inches. I know to my MD/VA friends, this is nothing. But for here, it is completely unprecedented. While it is a bit frustrating being stuck at home (we cannot make it out of the neighborhood in our Civic, well ok, I don't want to try), it is also absolutely beautiful outside. It's been a lot of fun walking around in it with Jason. He's been very reminiscent of his childhood up in Washington. They spent a lot of time skiing. Me, personally, I've never seen more snow than this and of course have never been skiing. Absolutely beautiful! Especially since Jason and Mike (my father in law) were able to dry out the satellite. I MUST be able to watch the Olympics tonight. Opening ceremony! SQUEEEE!!!! (another s word!)

One week from tomorrow is my shower (oh my, there's another one!). Can't wait. I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful family that cares so much about me to throw this for me. My grandmother has really outdone herself. I think she's just as excited about Henry as we are. From the way she acts, possibly even more so!

Ok, that's enough S Words for one day.

Third Trimester, Here I Come!

Well I've officially survived the entire 2nd trimester and have started the last leg of the run. I'm 28 weeks as of today. It seems like the weeks pass more slowly lately. I think it is because I think of him so much, and every week I get more and more excited to meet him.

I had my glucose tolerance test on Monday to check for Gestational Diabetes. I'm in the clear! I tested with a 121 and they want you to be under 135 before the test again. What a relief! I was really worried I'd turn up with GD - the last thing I wanted. I think I just assume the worst far too often. So many people seem to have to take the 3 hour test or even end up with GD these days. I'm very fortunate to not be one of those people.

We had to go back today for the actual appointment after a scheduling issue on Monday. The doctor wasn't at the office we normally go to Monday, buuuut no one ever told us that. The doctor checked everything and all my numbers are pretty much bang on. Blood pressure is fine, urine samples fine, glucose fine, heartbeat of the baby fine, size of uterus, fine. Pretty much everything is exactly as it should be.

Next appointment will be February 25th at 31 weeks. We start our Lamaze Class February 11th and are having the baby shower on February 20th. Busy busy month for us!

Now if I can just avoid the stress from school eventually killing me, we'll be great!