Friday, November 1, 2013

41 Weeks


Well I've made it to 41 weeks! I think everyone is surprised at this point that I haven't gone into labor yet, or that I haven't been induced, but we'll get to that (and I have a question about) :)  

Cravings: Not much, everything gives me heartburn, so eating isn't my favorite thing right now. 

Symptoms: Holy heartburn! I had heartburn a little with Gabriel, hardly anything with Eli, and this one is taking the cake! Seriously, the further along I go, the worse it gets. I think my feet are swelling just a little, which I usually don't have a problem with in pregnancy. I just notice it a little when I take my socks off at the end of the day. Hmm... what else, that's not too gross that is ;) Sore back and hips. Baby grinding on my pubic bone (or at least it feels like it!), sore EVERYTHING!

Complaints: Besides that the baby isn't here yet... I can't sleep very well at all (not that this is new, but it's just worse). I lay down to sleep, and within a couple of minutes my SI joint gets locked up. So sleeping isn't happening unless I get to the point of pure exhaustion, at which point I just sleep through the pain, until it wakes me up, and then I end up sitting on my exercise ball (which has become my BFF) at 3AM for about an hour, until my SI unlocks itself and gets stretched out, and then I can finally go back to bed... only to do it again a few hours later. Thankfully, Josh has been 'letting' me sleep in on his days off (really I just push him out of bed, so he doesn't have a choice, hehe!), so I do get some sleep... just not any good sleep. Sitting on the exercise ball is about the only comfortable thing, but even that gets to become sore after awhile. 

Weight gain: 7-8 lbs

Movement: Yes, but only here and there. He seems to sleep most of the day and only have 1-2 times of semi activeness, which I'm not complaining about because when he is slightly active, it just hurts! 

Doctor appointment results: Between 2-3 cm, 50% effaced, and a very healthy, happy baby :) We did have the induction talk, but neither my doctor or I want to do that unless absolutely needed. Getting induced (especially with having the two prior c-sections) adds a lot more risks, and it's not as nice on baby or mommy. But, because I have been given 3 different due dates throughout this pregnancy (though the 25th of October was the pretty 'for sure' one), and because I am going beyond the medical norm and not getting induced yet, my doctor did ask if I would do an ultrasound to measure the fluid in there, make sure the placenta was healthy, and have me take a No Stress Test. So I did that yesterday, which turned into this whole mess, since it turned out that I wasn't ever scheduled for one of them when I was supposed to be... I ended up having to walk from the radiology department in the 1st street building at St. Mary's for the ultrasound, up the skywalk to the hospital on the 4th St for the NST, and then back to the 2nd St. building where I parked. I didn't plan on being out that long, so I never packed any snacks, so by the time I got to birthing floor at the hospital for the NST, I was starving! So I asked if there was a vending machine or something near by, and instead, they brought me 2 different meals, a salad and a sandwich, fruit, snack bars, and a drink to have while I took my NST. Surprising it was actually yummy, even if it was hospital food ;) 

Also, I had a question out there for all the Mommy's whom have been induced. My doctor told me how she induces women, and it just sounded like a lot longer process then the norm that I have heard (it also sounds far more gentle on the Mom and baby, so I'm not complaining, but just a lot longer). She said she has her patients come in the night before, and inserts a saline bulb in the cervix to stretch the cervix to at least 3cm, and then you sleep in the hospital with that in and it stretches things overnight (and apparently, sometimes that alone will cause the woman to go into labor). Then in the morning, they start the pitocin at a very low dose, sometimes so low that you don't even feel anything for the first day, as a way to 'prepare' your body for labor. If that doesn't cause your body to signal your body into labor, they take you off the pitocin that night so you can sleep, and then start it again the next day, at which point she said the body reacts to it immediately and says 'oh I know how to do this' and goes into labor... It sounds like a really looong process, but more gentle then all the stories I've heard about women going in that morning, and getting a high does of pitocin until the contractions are at what the doctors want them at, and then you labor really hard and long all day until you finally have the baby (or have a c-section). But, I've never had to have induction talks before, and maybe this is the normal... or maybe it's not... I don't know! So, is that what your doctors told you if you got induced? 

Mood:  Tired and impatient! I've come to terms that the due date is just a number, and some days I'm perfectly ok with being 'late'... and other days/times, I'm so overwhelmed and beyond ready to be done... like when I'm up for hours at night because of pain in my back :) 

Planning: To have this baby at some point soon (and hope that my house is not a disaster when the time finally comes)! 

Dreams: Every night I dream about either labor, or last night it was that I got induced. And then I wake up and hope I'm in labor and I never am :( 

Baby Size: BIG! Or at least he feels that way! The Bump website stopped sending me emails about how my baby is doing this week and his size, and started sending me emails about my newborn... which I don't have yet, so now their emails are kinda irrelevant :) 

Other events of the week: After my long morning at the doctors office yesterday, I went and had my first pedicure! It was pretty great! My favorite part, oddly, was the chair I sat in :) I usually don't like massage chairs, because they always seem to hit all the boney parts on my back and hurt rather then feel good. But this chair was nice and gentle, and worked my extremely sore lower back, I was so bummed I had to get up at the end! I mean, the feet part was nice too, but the chair was wonderful! Also, the lady who did my pedi didn't speak English, which was AWESOME! Why? That meant I didn't have to talk the entire time or have someone asking me when I was due/how I felt/when I was going to be induced (people always think I am planning on that)/or anything regarding birth or baby :) I love my baby, and I'm excited to finally have him at some point, but to not have to be asked the same questions over and over again, and simply just enjoy myself, well, it was pretty darn wonderful :)