37 Week Deja Vu

I feel like I've written this post before. Oh wait, I did... at 37 weeks when I was pregnant with Brice. These last few days are starting to seem strangely familiar.

Joel and I went to see Dr. Pendyala yesterday for our 37+ week appointment. Pee in cup, check. Blood pressure, normal. Heartbeat, 130 bpm and H2 was moving like a champion. I asked Dr. Pendyala to do a quickie internal to see if there was any progress as I've been feeling lots of pressure, pain and cramping. She checked. Nothing. Not dilated, not effaced and my cervix was still high and tight. Dr. Pendyala was happy and I was disappointed. I was hoping that all the pain and discomfort would lead to some progress, perhaps open up the possibility of moving the c-section up a couple of days. Alas, nothing.

So we wait. We go back again on Monday for our final, pre-surgery appointment and then we just have one more week to live (read: suffer) through.

Both Brice and Joel have little colds. I took Brice to the doctor yesterday just to check to be sure it wasn't an ear infection as he'd been tugging on his ear for a few days. The doctor told me his ears looked fine, his gums looked good and all that it seemed to be was a little throat irritation. They ran a quick strep test which came back negative. By the time Joel got home from work yesterday, he was feeling awful. He took some Nyquil and retreated upstairs to the bedroom to get a good night's sleep.

So, I think for the most part, we're all done. We're done with feeling like poop. We're done with being sick. We're done with sleepless nights and seemingly never ending days. I get calls from lots of people telling me to relax and enjoy these last few days of being a mother of one, but I'll be honest, there's not much to enjoy. Its very difficult for me to carry or play with Brice and within an hour, my energy is dwindling. The most enjoyable thing we do is go to the pool for family swim hour. Brice loves the pool and I love feeling weightless for a few minutes. Yes, I'm feeling the self pity at the moment. I'm ready for this science experiment to be OVER so that I can get back to being a parent, having a life and doing the simple things like sleeping on my stomach, zipping up my boots or wearing clothing that doesn't include a hefty elastic waistband.

Oh, one piece of good news! We did get a new camera. I'll upload some of the new photos this evening and post them. We're due for a 13 month Brice update!

Well I'm Couch-Bound, Mama

So much for my uneventful last month of pregnancy. Monday night, while driving home from work, I started feeling sharp shooting pains that began at my right hip and continued down my leg to my calf. I got home early, so I asked Graciela to stay a bit longer so that I could take a quick, warm bath in the hopes that the muscles would relax and the pain would subside. The bath seemed to help, so I sent Graciela home and went back to playing with Brice. I put him to sleep and I could feel the pain as it returned to my right side. By the time Joel got home an hour later, I was limping around the house and couldn't make it up or down the steps. I tried getting on my hands and knees so Joel could massage my hip. I tried lying down on the floor with my knees up at a 90 degree angle. I tried walking around the house. Nothing worked. Finally, I gave up and went to bed. The pain became worse throughout the night and by about 1am, I was waking up every hour to get up and move.

Tuesday morning I called in to work to say I would be working from home. The pain was now traveling up my side and I was starting to feel some good contractions. I took a shower and had about two contractions while I stood under the warm water. We called the doctor and she said to try to sit still with my feet elevated. By 1pm, the contractions were coming with some regularity and I was full on uncomfortable. Another call to the doc and we were told to go to labor and delivery at the hospital for some monitoring.

We showed up at the hospital and the nice nurses there got me all hooked up to the machines. The contractions were coming every 9-11 minutes but were not getting any closer or more intense. An internal showed that I was not dilated or effaced, so the contractions were not progressing into true labor. After two hours, we were sent home and told to continue to sit and rest.

Wednesday we went back to see Dr. Pendyala for a quickie growth ultrasound and appointment. The ultrasound tech went quickly, but we were able to get a brief glimpse of our little girl. At 35-36 weeks, she was measuring at 5lbs, 12 oz. Perfectly average! Her lungs were functioning, my fluid levels were perfect, her kidneys appeared to be working and she was head down and happy. Dr. Pendyala was happy with the results. She basically instructed me to stay at home for the remainder of the week. We'll see her again on Monday and hopefully at that point, she'll green light me to go back to work. While its very relaxing being at home, I'm already a little bored and the fact that I can't do much doesn't make this "time off" very fun at all.

I'll hit the 36 week mark tomorrow and the doctors feel that if I can make it one more week, the baby will be good to go if she decides to come early. I'm all for letting her bake but this discomfort is... well... uncomfortable (and as I am typing this, I'm having a contraction!). So, we've got 25 days to go. Tick, tock, tick, tock.

35 Weeks, 30 Years Old and a Trip to the Pool

First, I want to wish my wonderful husband a very Happy 30th Birthday. He turned the big 3-0 yesterday and I'm so happy that he is finally joining me in the "old fart's club." It was a little lonely being the only club member in the household. We had a wonderful dinner at Rouge last night with Allyson, Eric, Eleana, Dan, Chrissy, Rob and Simon. The food was pretty good but the company, as always, was excellent. So nice to have such a good group of friends. Oh, and I'm never going to forgive Allyson for buying Joel a video game for a birthday gift! What were you thinking? I'm sure I'll find him couch-bound at 3am playing shoot-em-up against 10-year-olds. Good times.

We hit the 35 week mark on Friday and as of today, I have exactly 28 days to go until the big c-section (unless H2 decides to bless us with an early appearance, although we're not holding our breath). I'm feeling HUGE, none of my clothes are fitting me, sleep is pretty much non-existent and this heartburn crap really needs to end ASAP. I know that I'm in the home stretch and I'm thankful to see the end in sight, but I really wish the pregnancy gods would play nice and give me a day or two reprieve. I've forgotten what its like to be able to catch my breath and see my feet and even shaving my legs is a task (a task that I am still doing every day, thank you very much).

We've got a doctor's appointment with Dr. Pendyala and an ultrasound scheduled for Monday, January 18. This is the 36-weeker so they'll take some measurements of H2, look at the amniotic fluid and attempt to give us an idea of how much she'll weigh on the big day. I went back to look at Brice's measurements from this appointment and they were putting him at 8lbs, 3oz. This was pretty accurate as they say that babies gain about 5oz per week at this point and he was almost 9lbs at birth at 39 weeks. Please feel free to place bets this time around on how big or small you think little girlie is.

Joel and I also took a major step this week and we joined the New Canaan YMCA. I figure, once this second baby is born, I really have no excuse to continue avoiding the gym as I've done for the past two years. They've got a great swimming facility and it will be nice to also take some spin and yoga classes again.

We decided we'd jump right in (literally) and we took Brice to the family swim hour on Saturday. Let me start by telling you that getting into our suits and into the pool was a workout unto itself. Joel decided to lift weights for a bit before going swimming, so I went with Brice into the women's locker room. I got him undressed and put on his swim diaper, at which point he burst into tears. I had a feeling he was getting hungry, so I pulled a bottle out of my bag and shoved it into his mouth. We sat on the floor while he ate... in his swim diaper...which is not absorbent at all. I prayed that he would not pee all over the floor. Finally I was able to get him in his bathing suit. Now it was my turn. For anyone who has spent time with me over the last few weeks knows that I move at a snails pace. Trying to get boots off, pants off, underwear off and bathing suit on while managing a 13-month-old was challenging. There was a moment when my foot became lodged in my underwear at the exact moment that Brice decided to peek under one of the changing room curtains. I'm not sure if Brice's face or my half-naked pregnant body scared this poor little old lady more as I grabbed him just as he was about to pull back the curtain.

We made our way out to the pool. I sat Brice on the side and hopped in. Joel was right. Feeling weightless was WONDERFUL. I brought Brice into the pool and we bopped around for a few minutes when once again, he started to cry. I was determined to get him to spend some time swimming, so we sat on the side for a bit while he calmed down. One of the nice lifeguards brought over some rubber duckies for Brice to play with and I'm not sure what the connection was, but all of a sudden, he was all smiles. We played with the duckies, dunked our heads under, he jumped off my shoulders into the water and even held on to the kickboard. He was a real champ in the water and Joel and I were so proud of him for being fearless. My plan is to try to take him once a week going forward so that by the time we go down to Florida, he's a real swimming master. Yes, this is part of my master plan to breed a future Olympic swimmer.

So, we'll update more after our doctor's appointment next week. Let's hear it for big, healthy babies!

Pele, David Beckham, Landon Donovan and now introducing Brice Harvill!