the-journey

March 2, 2010 ~ 37 Weeks!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:11:14 +0100

We are on the home stretch! WooHoo! My back is officially killing me. I have a pinched nerve fron the position he has dropped to. I am hoping he moves a bit more VERY SOON! With all the relaxin hormone kicking into my body the chiropractor visits only help for about 30 minutes before it slips out of place again. There is not much to do until I deliver him.

We had 2 non stress tests done. The first one we passed with flying colors. He is looking great. The second one he did pretty well but want to see me again in a few more days. He is still fine but want to watch him a bit more close. It seems par for the course to have another little hiccup!

For fun, I went to a friends baby shower! Always fun to catch up with girlfriends and who doesn't love babies and all things to do with them. All smiles from everyone and positivity! Later in the evening we attended another one of my girlfriends 40th birthday! It was wonderful.... after my nap. I am getting older! It is not as easy as it once was to get all dolled up and head into the city to the famous Bubble Lounge for some Champagne and dancing. I skipped both parts. I did however have a few lovely glasses of water and enjoyed a wonderful night. (I was in bed at 11:45) We are just not the social lights we used to be.

Unfortunate events: I got rear ended in between parties! I was not hurt and there is only a little paint damage to my car. Nothing else. I would have loved to have captured the look of the guy who did it when I got out of the car and he saw A BIG BELLY ready to burst. We were all stopped on a busy street lined up in file waiting for someone ahead to finish parrallel parking. I felt a bump and knew what had happened. :( The man said that his daughter (about 3 yrs old) had unclipped her car seat and he turned around to refasten it and accidently let off the brake. OOOOPS! Oh well, no one was hurt.

February 23, 2010 ~ 36 Weeks!

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:18:41 +0100

I am done with work! Whew! It has been a bit exhausting. The last few days I just crashed when I got home. I did well throughout the day but once I got to break to sit down it all hit me! I don't believe I bothered on getting up the rest of the night! I wish I got a chance to sleep in but with early doctors appointments and being on an early schedule that will have to wait a bit longer. The visit to the Perinatologist was a follow up to the last ultrasound where Lucas went from the 50th percentile to the 23rd percentile and to evaluate how he is growing now. He has continued to drop to 16% and on the little side 5.6lbs. I feel it is a good size but they would like him to be a bit larger. They want to monitor him weekly and do non-stress tests weekly to make certain everything is going well. I will keep you posted next week with the results!

February 16, 2010 ~ 35 Weeks!

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:37:19 +0100

This weeks task was interviewing Pediatricians. We got a referral from a friend who knew someone great. She was right! I can't even believe he is so amazing. We spent a good hour in his office learning about his philosophy and interviewing him. My favorite part was that he said we would never be rushed and we would have his complete attention anytime we had an appointment. He has offices in both Orinda and Berkeley and has been in practice for 35 years. He is an absolute Godsend! There ia a 24 hour advice nurse and lactation consultant on hand for any questions of concerns that arise. He praised and commended our choice to birth naturally (I pray it goes that way), breastfeed without formula supplementing, cloth diapering & using the delayed & alternate vaccine schedule.
On another note, only a few more days of work left. That is about all my poor swollen ankles can take!

February 9, 2010 ~ 34 Weeks!

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:25:03 +0100

This was a GREAT week! I had a wonderful time with my best girlfriend April and her son Nevan arriving into town and staying at my house followed by the third and final baby shower. It was so best but the best time ever!

April and Nevan arrived and kept the house alive! It was fun to have such a sweet little boy hanging around the house and good for Dan to see just how much his life is about to change. He learned quickly that you can't walk away from your coffee for a SECOND without it getting dumped out (No, Nevan was not burned, thanks GOD!).

April gave a wonderful private class about breastfeeding. We got all the details, tips and advice. I think we are ready!

My dear friend Jen Williams and her sister Jessica threw an amazing baby shower! It was great catching up with some friends I have not seen in a while. The food was great but let me tell you about the cupcakes....... HEAVENLY! They actually drove to Santa Clara to Icing on the Cake to get them. Coconut! Yum-O!! Jen knows how much I adore those cupcakes from her baby shower almost 2 years ago. We still talk about them! She had a bit of an adventure getting them. Once she arrived at the bakery they said the cupcakes were scheduled for the following week. She waited, had them bake some, and put the cutest little blue booties on them. They were a hit as you can assume.

February 2, 2010 ~ 33 Weeks!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:40:37 +0100

Another week and another GREAT Baby Shower!

My Mother-in-Law (Sandi), and Sisters-in-Laws ( Kim and Ines) hosted a shower for me. Again, it was at my house and they did an amazing job. Attendees were, family and church friends. This shower was super emotional for me.

Kim had everyone write down a blessing for me when they got there and pick a special bead out of a tray for me. Before I would open the persons gift, they would read the blessing to me and add there bead to a string. I cried..... my hormones are running a bit strong this last week and each person had such wonderful special blessing for us. Kim made a book of blessings and the beads that were strung were made into a necklace that I am going to wear while delivering. It is a symbol of love, strength and prayers from all the women in the room of the shower. It was beautiful!

Ines was in charge of games!

We played four fun games:

1) Cut a piece of ribbon guessing the circumfrence of my belly. Some people are too kind and some not so nice. However, my niece Annalise got it exactly right!

2) The "BABY" word game...... say the word baby and get your clothes pin taken away. The person with the most clothes pins won. The kids were brutal with this one!

3) Create a baby out of playdough.... I got to be the judge who made the cutest baby! Aunt Paula won this one and she wanted to give up. I think she is an artist! It was cute and small in a little crib.

4) Guess the baby food..... 4 foods.

It truley was a special shower that I will never forget. I think I am tearing up just thinking about it!

I had my weekly appointment with the OB/GYN. She is a bit concerned with the drop of size in Lucas. We talked about what the Perinatologist said and she was a bit more cautious. She says there are several reasons it could be happening one being stress. Guess she shouldn't have sent me back to work! I only have two more weeks left and am going to finish them. She thought that work stress could be it too. UGH. Oh well. She also talked to me a bit about my birth plan. I am getting the feeling that she is a bit jaded by her recent experiences with women wanting to give birth naturally and taking a long time. I stress my importance of wanting to go natural but his health comes first. I also stressed the importance of her getting an informed concent before doing anything. I tend to buckle and not stand up for myself as much as I like. Thankfully, Dan will be there and he won't have an issue being an advocate for me as long as Lucas and I are doing fine. I also will have my Acupuncturist there too. She has delivered a lot of babies too.

January 26, 2010 ~ 32 Weeks!

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:26:25 +0100

It has been a wonderful and busy week. I have been getting ready for my mom to come to town. She hosted a wonderful baby shower full of old friends and co-workers. It was held at my house and she made it stunning. There was a bit of an owl theme going on and we got a bit carried away.

Owl cookies, cupcake, decorations, soaps.... too cute.

We collapsed after! As much fun as it was it was nice to relax and put our feet up after.

Thanks again mom! I love you! Thank you to everyone who could attend and for all the great gifts for Lucas!

Friday, we had an appointment with the Perinatologist for a follow up ultrasound after my glucose testing. Even though I came back negative they still wanted to check out Lucas and make certain he was on track. He did drop from the 50th percentile to the 23rd percentile. The pernatologist was not concerned. He said as long as were were between 10%- & 90% that was normal. That is a huge range but apparently the norm.

I began seeing a chiropractor to get my hips in line for the birth and so he begins to decend properly. Super easy appointment but I sure was sore the next day. She had warned me of it and had me come back a few days later for a follow up adjustment. I see her weekly until I deliver.

January 19, 2010 ~ 31 Weeks!

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:40:46 +0100

Another busy week!

Work:
Reviewing resumes and interviews.
Unfortunately, no luck finding the right person & time is TICKING!!!!!
16 Working days left!

Fortunately, Lucas is doing great. We had a great Friday night date in San Francisco with a wonderful dinner and great tickets to see Cirque de Soliel's Ovo. It was amazing (just like every show they have done)! We had forth row center seats.....and the entire show narrated by a five year old boy sitting behind me. He was adorable and had an interesting perspective of the bugs. Makes it hard to wait until Lucas will be talking nonstop.

January 12, 2010 ~ 30 Weeks!

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:40:13 +0100

I survived my first day back at work. It was an interesting first day then the remainder of the week went smooth. Upon my arrival I was quickly put back to work. We hired a replacement for me 6 months ago when I went out on bedrest and she has been doing great. She has the skills to perform the work and I needed to train her for all the details of things falling through the cracks. After ONE HOUR of training SHE QUIT! She just walked out. Oh no! It was all on me to carry the load again. We did recieve a letter the next day with her written resignation. Time to get ads out and find someone else. By the end of the week my ankles were huge and my back was actually hanging in there. I thought for certain that I would be miserable but I did great.

5 more working weeks = 20 working days!

Dan and I took our birthing classes this weekend. It was an intensive weekend 2 day class on Hypnobirthing and Birthing from within. There was so much information to grasp in the class! We were on overload and Dan was getting the flu. We left day 1 and Dan was ready to die! He was so sick! We had dinner plans with friends that we cancelled. We probably would have cancelled even if he wasn't sick because we couldn't even absorb another piece of information. We picked up take out on the way home, ate in 15 minutes, fed the dog and were in bed by 7:00pm! We slept all night and were still tired and another day to go! Day 2, Dan wanted to stay home! NO WAY! He did not get the option. Sorry, I really needed him to be there. Fortunately, at noon, we switched gears to post natal care and baby care stuff. I did not care if he listened to that stuff so slept in the car for the remainder of the day.

I really feel bad about forcing him to attend when he was so sick. I was worried about the two other couples in the class getting sick. Besides, I really needed my coach to be there! I tend to be easily persuaded to do things and really need him to be my advocate at the hospital for what we want during our birth experience and know all the options and alternatives. We practiced vocalizations, guided visualations & how to work with your partners coping skills in pain. It was an amazing class and I am so glad to have a combined hypnobirthing & Birthing from within class near us. That is a great benefit about living in the Bay Area.

I AM SO GLAD THIS WEEK IS OVER! I NEED SLEEP!

January 5, 2010 ~ 29 Weeks!

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 03:38:33 +0100

It is a new year!

Lucas is moving, doing summersaults and kicking me like no ones business! He is strong!
That is what I like, a strong healthy baby!

Lots of news to share....

1) I had a bit of a cranky week. I got the days mixed up again for my appointments at the OB/GYN. Fortunately for me I caught it late the night before. Unfortunately, it was for a fasting glucose test. Oh well. The test was as expected, long and I was HUNGRY! 12 hour fasting before the appointment, blood draw and drink a nice sugary orange glucola drink, wait an hour, blood draw, wait and hour, blood draw, wait an hour, blood draw. Four pokes and 16 hours without food to a pregnant lady. I was at the end of my rope. I did bring a nice lunch that I scarfed down as soon as it was over!

2) This is the kicker! 29 weeks pregnant, been on disability and NOW I am fine to go back to work! Seriously???! This is the news just following the fasting test AND BEFORE I had a chance to eat!!! I was not certain the Doctor was going to leave the room alive! I kind of have a new routine down here. The thought of getting up at 5 am makes me cringe. I have been very fortunate to have the last 5 months off even though it has been a long rough ride. I am certain I will get back in the swing of things quick. Besides, I only have to do it for 6 weeks. That equals 24 working days. I will be counting down! Funny, now that things are stable, I have to work because NOW it is getting really difficult. Everytime I try to roll over in my sleep it wakes me up. I have to use the ladies room at least 2 times a night. Arhhhh. Not to mention the fact that I need my daily nap . How am I going to pull that one off? I will be really tired at the end of the day and dinners will become minimal.

I know what you're thinking! No sleep... you have no idea what is going to happen once Lucas gets here! It was a rough day and I just needed to vent it all out. I will be better tomorrow and probably look forward to visiting with my friends and co-workers.

I just wished that I would have told the cleaning lady to switch to every other week AFTER Lucas was born.......

Turn that frown upside down and put on a happy face!

December 29, 2009 ~ 28 Weeks!

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 03:48:21 +0100

We got through the holidays without a hitch. I have been really compliant with the diet. Training my body to deal with the meat has been the most difficult. My stomach is finally coming to terms with it.... SLOWLY. We had a wonderful time with all of our family get togethers.

Today we had another very detailed ultrasound at the perinatologist and Lucas is right on track! He is exactly in the 50th percentile. This is a good sign with the possible gestational diabetes. We took Dan's mom along for the visit and hopes to get a really grat picture of Lucas. I was thinking it would be great to have one so late when he is fully formed and developed. NO SUCH LUCK! he was face down, one hand blocking his face and the other sheilding his profile! Hmmmm. He is holding out for D day! What he doesn't realize is they want me back in 1 month. Hehe. We will give it another try!