34 weeks preggo.

Not even two weeks ago, it seemed impossible that we would make it to 34 weeks and now we're at 34 weeks, 2 days! I am excited that we've made it to this point. We no longer need to worry about him needing steroids if he decides to come early and they would not worry enough to stop labor at this point. Very exciting and promising. About 30 weeks ago, we didn't even know if the pregnancy would stick, we had a 1 in 2 chance of miscarrying, 5 weeks ago we were in the hospital thinking that there was no way that we would stay pregnant for more than a couple weeks, and here we are, 34 weeks and still pregnant. We've beat the odds so far and I have a feeling that I will be updating my blog when I am 42 weeks pregnant talking about how I am getting induced because I've gone 2 weeks over my due date. Wouldn't that be something.. but at this point, with our history, it wouldn't be surprising!

We had an ultrasound this past week on Thursday to measure growth. Unfortunately Morgan wasn't able to make it so I went alone. This was my first ultrasound at University and it was much more of a pleasant experience than my previous ultrasounds at Rose. Not that they were bad at Rose, but they this last one was just that great. She was very thorough and took her time with the ultrasound. At the end, she did some pictures in 3d which was a real treat. He has definitely filled out more since 27 weeks when we had our last 3d ultrasound. He is a big boy. He weighed in at an approximate 5 pounds, 5 ounces. This was so reassuring for me. If he does decide to come early, he is likely at a good weight already. Granted, I'd prefer to have like a 7 pound baby, but close to 5.5 is better than 3 or 4. :)

Here are some of his stats from the ultrasound:

Head circumference: 37 weeks, 1 day (yikes!)

Abdominal circumference: 34 weeks, 2 days

Femur length: 33 weeks, 3 days

Humerus length: 32 weeks, 1 day

Average ultrasound age: 35 weeks, 1 day

Estimated fetal weight: 2408 gm

Fetal weight percentile: 55%

So anyway, you can do the math. He is approximately 5lb5oz now and he is supposed to gain about .5 pounds until delivery.. if we make it full term, he is going to be a big boy!

I found out at the appointment that the baby is breech. What we've been thinking is his head down near my left hip bone is actually his butt and what we thought was his butt near my right ribs, is his head. This was a bit of a bummer to find out. I met with the midwife on Friday for my normal appointment and she gave me some ideas of how I can turn him. I am also going to ask our Bradley teacher tomorrow what I can do. The midwife said that if he is still breech at my next appointment (36 weeks), they will schedule me for an external version, which is where they turn his body with their hands from outside of my belly. I am nervous for that and would prefer not to have one, but I want a c-section even less, so I think that I will be willing to try it to see if it works.. but I will worry about it more on December 28 at my appointment. Everything else throughout our pregnancy that had a potential bad outcome ended up having a positive outcome so I am trying not to stress about it. We can worry about his positioning later. The only thing that worries me is that I am still having contractions and if we go into labor before he turns, that is an emergency c-section.

My new thing is acid reflux. It is HORRIBLE. I think that at points it is the worst side effect of pregnancy that I have experienced yet. I've been waking up in the middle of the night with what feels like 150 degree sewage in my throat. I am thinking and wondering if maybe that is what made me throw up last week since I have had it consistently since then. During the day, chewing gum and sucking in peppermints really helps but obviously I cannot do that while sleeping, so I wake up with it. I asked on Friday if there was anything that I could take to help it.. she recommended an over the counter so I took that last night and didn't wake up with acid - success!

So yeah, I've still been having contractions and my level of comfort is definitely decreasing. Some days I feel like I cannot walk, others I feel like I could walk a couple miles. It really does depend on the day, but overall, I am declining pretty quick. To be honest, when I am feeling at my worst, 6 weeks seems too long and I tell myself that once I reach about 36.5-37 weeks, I am going to start walking and walking to have him come. I am kind of hoping for a 01/11/11 baby, which would be 37 weeks and 4 days. But, he will come when he is ready and that is okay with me. If going an extra few weeks means that he will be healthier, then so be it!

We have our last Bradley class tomorrow. I am kind of excited for it to be over with. School ended for me as of this evening (submitted my last paper of the semester, YES!) and with these classes ending as well, I will have less on my plate to stress me out. I am hoping to get out my thank you notes to my shower by xmas time. That is stressing me out as well. Its already been 2 weeks so I feel like I need to get them out as soon as possible. It's just been hard with not feeling well, school ending, etc. If not, I will get them done next weekend while on Christmas break.

I think that is about it. Next time I post, Christmas will be over. I can't believe that it is almost that time again, where has the year gone?! I am excited to share my last Christmas with Morgan and our animals and enjoy the moment. But, I am excited for next year as well when we have our first Christmas with the little one. I wish it would snow.. I am not really keen on the whole idea of having 50-60 degree weather on Christmas day.. I like it to be snowy and cold, the way it is supposed to be!

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

33 weeks preggo.

Is it really less than two weeks until xmas? Luckily I finished all of my xmas shopping yesterday (with the exception of the animals!). I may buy the baby something else as well, but we shall see.

I had been feeling pretty good and felt like I was finally back on a good streak. However, last night I woke up after about an hour of sleep and had a bad stomach ache. I ended up having diarrhea over the night and threw up probably more violently than I have since I had food poisoning a few years back. Throwing up this late in pregnancy is no fun. I immediately started having contractions and bad cramping. I felt some of the contractions in my legs but figured that I would give it a little time before going to be seen at the hospital. After about 2 hours of laying in bed restless and in pain, I finally fell asleep. This morning I woke up for work and was still nauseous and had a bad stomach ache with cramping and contractions. I missed work again today. It stresses me out to miss work which makes me feel worse.. its a vicious cycle.

This last weekend we put up the xmas tree. It was weird to think that this year is our last year that we will be putting up the xmas tree without a little one running around. To be honest though, I think both Morgan and I need the excitement of a little one around to put us in the xmas spirit. We were talking about how neither of us are in the xmas mood and how it will be nice to live through the excitement of our son around xmas time. I am excited to start our own traditions with him and follow some of those that we both experienced as kids. I am excited for that; not only for just xmas time but just experiencing all the small and big things in life. It will be neat to see everything through one more set of eyes.

Depending on the day, some days I feel like we will still be celebrating our son's birthday by the end of the year and others I feel like we will be waiting until our due date or beyond to celebrate. Either way, whenever he decides to come is fine, I'd just prefer after the 34 week mark but 37 or after if possible!

Today while I was home sick, I drafted our birthing plan. Morgan looked it over when he got home and was really excited. Surprisingly, I am not any more nervous after writing down all the details of our hopes and dreams of our labor and birthing experience. We've decided that if the situation allows, Morgan is going to catch the baby. I will really need his support and need him near me through most of the labor but I think that it would be very special for him to be able to catch the baby, and he would like to, so I will let him leave me for that moment. :) Hopefully all goes well so that he is able to catch him coming out. How neat would that be? Now that the birth plan is done, we need to work on packing our hospital bag. You'd think that after 2 false alarms it would be packed already.. talk about procrastination.

I am starting to get a little concerned that this little stubborn guy is not going to turn. He is still laying diagonally across my uterus. His head is down near my left hip and his butt is up under the right side of my rib cage. Sometimes he moves up and will be laying straight across but his head never goes down further than my hip area. I am going to have to ask on Friday at my appointment what I can do to try to move him. I am also going to look further into spinningbabies.com and see what I can do. With all of the preterm labor scares we have had, I am a little scared to move him with fear that he will decide to come out once he is turned or that the movements will put me into labor. I really do not want a c-section and would like to do anything that I can do (that is safe!) to prevent one.

I am getting an ultasound on Thursday. This is likely our last ultrasound (hopefully!). They will be measuring his growth to ensure that he has made proper progress from our last growth scan which I believe was at 28 weeks.

We bought frames for the nursery this weekend and Morgan has started his magic with drawing the art for the nursery. How neat that he gets to do all the artwork for his little boy's room.

Well, I need to get some food in my belly and rest so that I feel better for work tomorrow.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

32 weeks preggo.

Hello, December! Where is the snow?

Well, I updated last week on a Tuesday. On Wednesday, I ended up back in the hospital having contractions and generally feeling uncomfortable. I figured since it had been 48 hours of contractions, I should probably go in. They hooked me up to the monitors and of course, was contracting. They were a lot more obvious on the print out this time around than last time. Last time I went to the hospital my contractions looked like mole hills on the printout. This time around, I had a few rocky mountains. There were a couple that actually went off the chart. I felt a couple contractions in my knees which scared me. When they did a physical exam, they noticed that I was having some active bleeding. Although I went to the hospital pretty sure it was just another scare, I was a little more concerned once I was hooked up to the machines and watching my contractions and noticed the bleeding.

They contemplated keeping me over night to monitor me, thought about doing an amniocentesis to check my amniotic fluid to determine whether or not bacteria was present, whether they should give me steroids for his lung development and medication to stop the contractions. Through my urinalysis and blood sample, they saw that my white blood cells were high. While they were not for sure, they decided to conservatively treat me for a bladder infection with an antibiotic. They ended up letting me leave the hospital and I was on bed rest until my appointment on Friday.

It is now almost a week later and I am still contracting on and off. I also get uncomfortable pretty easily. I do not know how much longer I am going to last at work as I am very uncomfortable while there, especially after about 2pm. I've been having a lot of lower back, vaginal and general pelvic pain from sitting in a chair for so long. As well, my abdomen stays consistently tight throughout the day. But, I am doing my best and will continue working until either I can't anymore, or am told that they won't let me anymore.

I do have to say, after feeling the way I have for the last week, I will be surprised if this baby makes it to the new year. I've been advised that 34 weeks is sort-of our short term goal. At that point, we will no longer need to do steroids to ensure/accelerate lung development of the little one. As well, beyond that point, they will no longer stop labor if it happens. They measured my cervix and said that it was 2.3 and they would like it to be 2.5 or longer at this point. They also said that it was a lot softer than it should be. So, with that information and how miserable I am feeling, I think I will be really surprised to make it past 36 weeks, which is NYE.

We had our baby shower on Saturday. Janine did such an amazing job. I couldn't have asked for anything else for my shower! I am very grateful for all of her time and effort that she put into planning our special day. I was able to spend time with some real quality people and received some really nice gifts for the baby. I was really sure that I would not cry but cried on the 2nd or 3rd gift when I opened a pair of baby Carhartt bibs from my coworker Kathi. Then, I opened a card from Morgan's brother Tim and his girlfriend Jordyn, cried and basically couldn't talk because it was so special to me. I posted a picture of it above. It is all of our animals with the lil one riding Sammy's back. It is so dear to my heart. We are going to get a frame for it and hang it up in his nursery. My mom came out for the shower and it was really nice to have her here for it. We went shopping with gift cards on Sunday and bought some additional items off of our registry. I feel like we are finally starting to get ready but I am pretty confident I will never really feel READY READY.

While I do think that we will be having a baby this month, it is still crazy to think that if not, we will likely have a baby NEXT MONTH! WHAT!? Pretty crazy. I admit that I am not ready on a lot of levels, but am so ready on other levels.

I should be getting a call tomorrow to schedule my ultrasound. They are going to do one last ultrasound to measure growth to ensure he is still on track. I will be curious to see their weight estimation so I can know semi what to expect if we end up going early.

So, at this point my short term goal is to make it to 34 weeks which is December 17th. But a better goal than that is 36 or 37 weeks. Maybe I will have a 01/01/11 or 01/11/11 baby after all! Guess we shall see.

Well, that is about it. Enjoy the pictures from my shower.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

31 weeks preggo.

This last week has gone by fast. We left last Tuesday and headed off to Iowa to visit my family for Thanksgiving. We arrived on Wednesday and I enjoyed having time with both my immediate and extended family. We left to head back to Colorado on Sunday. We ended up driving the whole drive back in one shot on Sunday and arrived back home at 2am on Monday morning. I think overall between driving to and from Iowa, driving to Madison, Wi for black Friday shopping, driving to see my grandmother and driving to Thanksgiving dinner, we drove close to 2500 miles. On the way back, I didn't think that I was going to make it in one shot and while the last 2-3 hours were pretty close to miserable, it was really nice waking up later Monday morning in my own bed. We ran some errands and had our Bradley classes later on.

I had been feeling pretty crampy since Friday and it was hit or miss depending on the time of day. Yesterday afternoon I started feeling really uncomfortable; lots of tightening, some contractions, headaches and some mild pain in my lower abdomen. I had some contractions in the night last night that kept me from sleeping. I stayed home from work today and stayed in bed all day, not even with the TV on and while I am feeling a little better, I don't think I should be feeling this uncomfortable and tight in my stomach so I will be sure to address it on Friday. I still have a headache as well. I felt a little down after class last night because I am definitely feeling more uncomfortable than anyone else in my class and that is a bit of a bummer.

My mom arrives on Friday and we have the baby shower on Saturday. I am excited for the shower and excited to celebrate the life of our soon to be born son. Janine has put a lot of work into planning for it so I cant see all her effort in action! I will be sure to post pictures.

I can't believe that we have less than 8.5 weeks left assuming we go full term. I am a little mixed on whether or not I will go through till the end. Part of me thinks that I will go by the end of the year. Guess we shall see, eh?

I bought the baby's coming home outfit today while on bed rest. It is 0-3 months so I am afraid that it will be too big for him, but it is what it is. It comes with the outfit, hat and a blanket. I wish that it came in newborn size, but it is what it is! :)

While I feel like my stomach is just growing and growing and looking very big now, I was surprised that no one commented on how "big" I was while we were back in Iowa. None of my family has seen me pregnant, so it went from seeing me before I was pregnant and then at 31 weeks. Most people said that I was small and/or had a cute belly. That made me feel better as I was expecting to freak out telling me how big I was. We were at Michael's the other day buying stuff for the shower and the cashier asked when I was due and when I told her, she felt the need to tell me that I wouldn't be making it that long. Seriously, are manners not necessary when a woman is pregnant? Ah well :)

I am sleepy and don't have much more to update about. So, I will leave it here.. sorry for the boring update!

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

30 weeks preggo.

Well, we're 75% of the way through, baby.

Last Friday we had our appointment with the midwife. The appointment went pretty well. My blood pressure was a little high but I had a really stressful afternoon at work so I am thinking that is why. I was also running late to my appointment and started crying on the way to the appointment because a) my afternoon at work was horrible and b) I hate being late to appointments so I started to stress even more. The midwife assumed that my blood pressure was high for the same reasons I did. I hope that is it and that it's not a sign of things to come, aka preeclampsia. The baby's heartrate was in the 140s, so that is good. Bad news is that he has turned and is no longer head down! The little brat! He was doing so good with being in the right place. Hopefully he turns again.

Speaking of which, I had another episode of contractions on Thursday evening. I felt weird in class, couldnt get comfortable in my desk (by the way, I only have about an inch of growth before my belly won't fit into the desk anymore) and just felt weird pressure throughout my tummy. I got home and had some cramping and ended up having contractions, some being stronger than last time but still nothing too extreme. I drank some water and went to bed. I woke up the next morning with only slight contractions and mild cramping. It went away throughout the day, though. I am hoping we have awhile yet before we experience another contraction episode since we are headed for the road tomorrow evening. I'd really like an uneventful weekend!

We painted the nursery again. We painted last weekend and ended up with dark spots all over the walls. So, we got another batch of paint, this time with a primer in it and went to work. It looks really good now. I just want to get it finished, one less thing to worry about and overwhelm me. I hope to finish it the weekend after our shower.. which is coming up quick, less than two weeks away (totally crazy).

Stomach and stretch marks are still growing. I looked in the mirror tonight and commented on how much I hate them. Morgan says he doesn't even notice anymore.. I do. I have a constant reminder as they are starting to be somewhat painful and they constantly itch. I really need to start walking and start eating a little better. Once we get back from vacation I am going to hit the ground running (only, not literally) and walk a little more and eat a little better. That way, I can take out my last two months (hoping I make it that long) strong and healthy.

This last weekend I had a prenatal massage. It was really nice. The only downfall was the soreness I experienced afterwards. I think there was a major release of lactic acid. I am still feeling a little sore tonight. I plan on getting another one when we get back from Iowa.

Well, it is late and I have to get up early so I can get in and out of work early so I must sleep.

Wish us luck on our journey of 800 miles each way. Please be good to us, baby. We need this last trip together and to enjoy ourselves.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

29 weeks preggo.

Well we've had quite an eventful week; but mostly weekend.

I dont remember if I felt rib kicks last week or not, but I am definitely starting to feel random rib kicks here and there now. My stomach is getting much bigger which also means the stretch marks are stretching. I remember when they first appeared and they were very short and I was wishing I didnt have them. Now, I just wish they would stop growing. I feel like they're going to be like 8-9 inches long at the rate I am going! It's pretty depressing, I won't lie. It seems like every day they are longer than the day before.

Yesterday was our most eventful day of the week. We went to go look into buying a new car. I don't really feel like telling the whole story again but it ended up with the sales person yelling at me, Morgan yelling at him, them cussing eachother out, me being afraid Morgan was going to get punched in the face by this sales person. Both Morgan and I were not surprisingly worked up. My hands were shaking and I could feel my heart racing. I laughed on the way home saying that I was surprised the situation did not put me in labor. 5 minutes later, I had menstrual cramps.

We got home I went to the bathroom and noticed a little bit of blood. So, I went to lay in bed and drink some water because I felt like my cramps were getting worse and my back was starting to hurt. While laying down, I noticed that I was starting ot have contractions. I just sort of shrugged them off at first because I've had them off and on throughout the last couple months. Well, after drinking a lot of water and laying on my left side, they weren't going away. I started to time them and realized they were coming every 3 minutes. This started to worry me. I knew that it was normal to get contractions here and there but knew it wasn't a good thing to have them forming a pattern, and they were doing just that.

So, I called my midwife and told her my symptoms; that I had a little blood, had been contracting every 3-4 minutes for the last 45 minutes and had some cramping both in my abdomen and lower back. She suggested that I drink more water and take a warm bath and then come in. I took a quick bath and felt better while I was in the water. I thought that my contractions were going away and was ready to call her and tell her I was not going to come in, as I was better. I got out of the bath and started to get dressed and had another contraction. I figured it was better safe than sorry, that I was probably just dehydrated but I should go in.

We got to the hospital and they hooked me up to the monitors. I asked Morgan to look at the printout to see if I was having contractions and I was - so the waterworks started. They were getting worse; the pain, the pressure and the frequency. The midwife came in after about 35-40 minutes of being monitored and the first thing she said was, well you're definitely contracting. I started crying again. She told me that they were going to check my cervical length and if it was short I would be moving floors because I was going to have a baby, if it was medium length they would run some labwork to see if I was going to go in labor within the next 2 weeks and if it was still long, that was the best case scenario and would mean I was not in labor.

Immediately I started thinking about him being born at 29 weeks; how little his body would be, what difficulties he could have, if he would even survive, whether I would be able to stay in the hospital with him for awhile, how we would afford me being out of work if either I was put on bed rest or he was born early, how backed up at work I am and how I need to get caught up before I leave for my maternity leave, whether or not we were ready to be parents just yet, how we didnt even have a diaper at home, how I wasn't ready to be in labor, wouldn't be able to finish my birthing classes, whether Morgan was ready both to be a dad and a support system during labor and delivery, and about every other thought that one could imagine.

So, they did an exam and took a sample to run through the lab if my cervix ended up being of medium length. It was a little painful but wasn't too bad. After that, they called in an ultrasound machine and checked my cervix. The length was 3.2 and both the woman measuring me and the midwife said this was very promising. The midwife told me that I could go home and basically diagnosed me with an "irritable uterus" and that nothing I did or could have done, could've caused this. She said that I may continue to have contractions throughout the rest of my pregnancy and as long as they're not getting more painful, my waters do not break or I do not start bleeding, I am OK. She said it is tricky for me because I was experiencing all pre-term labor symptoms so if I do experience pre-term labor, I will have to distinguish the differences between what I was feeling on Saturday and the new feelings I am experiencing. She said that I can continue on with my activity and do not need to be on any kind of bed rest, which is nice.

I worry now that I won't make it full term, but having an irritable uterus only really increases my chances of having preterm labor about 8 percent more than a non high risk pregnant woman, so that is promising.

But, having contractions that ended up being only a minute to a minute and a half apart was quite a scary experience. I am glad everything is okay and that this little guy is going to continue to bake.

Today I am feeling pretty good and we decided to pain the nursery. We dont have a light in the nursery so I will probably have to wait awhile before I can see how it turned out since it is always dark out when I get home from work! Total bummer.

Anyhow, time to eat and then study my eyes out.

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.

28 weeks preggo.

Hello, again.

This week we had two appointments. On Wednesday, we had our growth scan to see how well he is growing. I was a little nervous since at our 3d scan he was saying that the baby was big/chubby/perhaps further along than I thought I was. Well, the scan went well! They predicted that he weighs 2pounds 7ounces, so basically 2.5lbs! Big boy! They can't predict how long he is since they curl up so much inside. But, according to what measurements they did, he falls in at the 41st percentile, which is great! Not only is he not a huge baby like the guy said at our ultrasound, but he is also growing properly and they were worried that he wouldn't. Hopefully he keeps it up so that at our 32 week growth scan, he is where he should be. My fluid levels were great and they said everything looked great! He was head down at the appointment with his butt near my navel on the right side.

On Friday we had our first real appointment with the new midwives. We both really, really liked the midwife that we met with. Her name was Anne and she was just great. She was so warm and just seemed to really take an interest in our lives, story and baby. We had to do the glucose test. Luckily I didn't have to fast during the day, I just couldn't have any sugar. So, we got there and I drank the orange drink they had, we had a one hour meet with the midwife and then they drew my blood. I was laying down on the table when they drew my blood and afterwards I felt a little dizzy. I told her that I felt a little dizzy and next thing I knew, I "woke up" on my side with cold washcloths on my forehead and neck. Morgan said they were talking to me and I was unresponsive and my lips turned blue and I lost all color in my face. Pretty crazy! I am hoping that this meant going into the test my blood sugar was a little low and after drinking the glucola, I had a huge spike and then drop in blood sugar level which made me go unconscious for 10 seconds. Im not sure that I would have passed out of my levels were high, but I guess we will see when I find out this week how I did on the test. I've never passed out from having my blood drawn before, so it was a little bizarre. The midwife told Morgan that he was going to be good at labor and delivery since he remained so calm! I know he'll be great. He's my rock.

Tomorrow I have to call to make my next appointment as well as all my remaining appointments. From here on out, I go every two weeks until about 36 weeks and then I go every week until 41 weeks. Hopefully I go in labor before 41 weeks, though! I am excited to get all of my appointments scheduled!! It's coming up quickly!

The great part of my appointment is that our midwife gave us the definite okay to drive to Iowa for Thanksgiving. It almost seemed like she was encouraging us to go. She just said that we need to stop every 2-3 hours to walk around and make sure that I drink a lot of water. That made me happy. I was scared that she would say no and I would be devastated.

We picked out a paint color today for the nursery. We bought a sample and painted a small section in the nursery. We are going to paint the rest tomorrow. I'd really like to get a move on the nursery so that we are prepared in the case that he decides to come early! Hopefully not too early, though. While I'd love the tax break of him coming before the end of the year, I know that it is best for him to bake until at least January 14th or so. But, I would prefer him to stay in there until he is due.

Physically and emotionally I have been pretty good. I have the same back and hip pain that I've been having the whole time but other than that, doing pretty well. I've been pretty well emotionally lately, which is great. I am concerned about post-partum depression but we will cross that bridge when we get there :) My midwife suggested that I start taking a calcium/magnesium supplement to help alleviate/prevent the leg cramps that I have been having. They're pretty horrible when I get them.

Other than that, not much new to report! Banana bread is baking and it sure does smell great :)

See you next week.

xo, mommy to be.