Whoopie!!

After sitting up and sleeping last night, I actually got to lie on my side!! So exciting! I didn't even need to take any painkillers or anything before bedtime. Hopefully this is a good sign =) I'm really liking it.

Lullaby & Goodnight

Just finished burning baby lullabies and stuff to a CD for him! I downloaded the Fisher Price lullaby soundtrack and a couple extras. No words, though. Very relaxing. I have the songs on my cell phone (which doubles as my Mp3 player) and I put the phone on my belly and play them. They say that babies can hear them and if you put the music on before you go to sleep, they'll associate those songs with bedtime. Hopefully it works! Maybe whenever he hears "Twinkle, Twinkle" he'll stop crying and just zonk out? I can only hope it will be that easy....

Baby Shopping

My mom and my brother came up to visit! It was a really nice time. I finally got the Stuffed Crust Pizza Hut pizza I've been wanting for about 2 months. It was heavenly. Mmmm.... Yesterday, she and I went baby shopping around Eau Claire. I needed to get him some newborn socks so we stopped at a place called Savers. It's basically like a Goodwill..... only it's nicer. I figured we should check there first for some socks because at WalMart & Target the cheap socks are $7.99 for 6 pair & some were $5.99 for 3 pair! They have a large bag of 12 pair of socks that say 0-6 months, but there's no way they would stay on his tiny feet right away; they were way too big! The socks at Savers were .49 cents a pair! 2 of the pairs were completely brand new and still in packaging and the other ones looked like they'd barely been worn. Well, really? How do babies wear out socks. They only wear them a few times before they grow out of them and it's not like they're walking around and wearing them out or anything. So I wasn't too worried about used baby socks. Besides, we got all different kinds and they're so cute! 9 pair came out to be around $4.50. Also found him a pair of new fleece slippers there for $1.99 and some tiny little baby tennies to wear with his track outfit. Super cute! Then we also got a Boppy Nursing Pillow while we were uptown. I am not especially fond of the cover it came with but it was on sale so I'll just pick up a plain blue one. I figured I'll probably want to have 2 covers anyways in case one gets dirty, then I can just slip the other one on without having to worry about getting it washed right away.

Today we made another baby run. Went to Walgreens & WalMart. Walgreens had this breastfeeding lotion stuff on sale. It's for dry cracked skin, etc. That's the part I'm almost half dreading is the first few days when I'll be really sore! Got Christopher some cute little handmits. Dark blue, light blue, and white with little dinosaurs. They all came together otherwise I'd have skipped the dinosaur ones. haha. His grandma (my mom) bought him a swing! It's adorable. It's a portable swing that is close to the ground and doesn't have the traditional hard back. The chair is bouncy seat material (really soft & full) and it's for newborns because when you put them in there, their head automatically sinks into the material so it creates head support. I love it. There's a removable mobile. It has 5 speeds and 7 songs. It's so nice! I love that it folds up really small and it's also close to the ground. We are going to get alot of use out of it! Also got 3 small baby bottles (which I already sterilized) and an oil candle warmer. I know. It's not really baby related but it's going in his room because it smells so delicious! My dad is making curtains for the baby's window; well, he PERSONALLY isn't making them himself. haha. That would be comical, but he's "overseeing" their production. =) He cracks me up. He's such a project guy.

Pleurisy?

Now, I'm no doctor but I do know how to work my way through some of my medical terminology books, web MD, and GOOGLE. I don't think this is my gallbladder. 4 doctors think it's my gallbladder, but I don't. I don't know if they think I'm faking pain or have a low pain tolerance or some crap like that but.... the symptoms of gallbladder do not coincide with what I'm experiencing. I think pleurisy fits. The last time I went into the doctor with this same kind of pain (only more mild) at about 25 weeks they prescribed my codeine. He said it was the inflamed cartilage (I twisted wrong when putting on my seatbelt) but he didn't think that was the only thing. He had mentioned pleurisy which is another inflammation of the lining of the lungs and ribcage that's usually cuased by a viral infection and pregnant women have a higher chance of contracting.

I really think that's what this is. Not only that but now I'm starting to produce more phlegm; a symptom of me not being able to take deep breaths and so it's all building up. About once an hour I try to take 4 deep breaths in a row just because I don't want to end up with pneumonia or something because of this. I think I might go back into the doctor or urgent care and see somebody there. Hopefully they'll be able to prescribe me more pain meds because at least that knocks the pain level down to half and makes reclining at least semi-tolerable so I can get a couple hours of rest in. Otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do. The midwife I have an appointment with on Tuesday is the one that's convinced I merely "strained" something when I got my blowdryer...... WHAT-ever. I don't trust her to make any good calls about this. Midwives special in pregnancy and pregnancy related things, anyways. She's not certified to make any other medical calls.

Well, that's all for now. Me and baby are just chilling. At least HE'S awake to keep me company! Sam, Michael, and my mom are all asleep. I'm jealous. They all went to sleep before me and they're all still sleeping. I want to get an airhorn and wake them up or something. I'm bored.

Owwwie

7.02 a.m. Probably got 2 1/2 hours of "sleep". Much better than nothing. It was challenging but basically heavenly while it lasted. Pain has actually gotten worse. It now hurts to swallow and drink. I am hesitant to take a painkiller. I only have 6 left and who knows how long this will go on or if it's going to get worse. Whatever is irritated on the right side has gotten more swollen. It feels like there is "water" or something around a couple of my ribs. Whereas I can feel bone on the left side, no problemo; I have to poke through squishy, sore tissue to get to the rib on the right side. I have no idea what's causing it. I hope they figure it out soon, though.

37 Weeks Full Term

Full term. Yay! Means I could have him ANY day now. Which I am hoping will be sooner instead of later. Still no luck sleeping. Laying down agitates whatever it is that's causing all of these problems (presumably the gallbladder) and makes me unable to take in any breaths. So, fun fun. It's 3 in the morning and I'm still awake just plugging away taking small lil breaths. No laughing! Or burping. Betcha never thought burping would be painful! hahaha.... haaa (that's the only way I can laugh) =) But yup. Just getting through everything. All I keep thinking about is that in a week or 2 weeks I'll have my cute little baby to hold and it'll all be worth it. Nighttime is when he moves around the most now and really presses down on my pelvis. Oh, and I know this is gross and probably way more information than you want, but I started spotting today (well technically yesterday). I noticed it. It was past the 24 hours since my pelvic exam though, which can sometimes cause the bleeding, so I think it was a genuine sign of cervix dilating! After you notice bleeding labor usually begins within the week. Hopefully this means I won't have to be induced and I'll just go into labor on my own! Alrighty. Well I'm going back to watching House and relaxing here on the couch. Hopefully I'll nod off for at least an hour.

My hospital ordeal...

Before I even start: I just typed up this whole thing. Then my computer froze & it all got erased. I was on the last paragraph & now I am starting all over. F***. And I am actually finishing it now at 3.40 in the afternoon because I couldn't get it done this morning!



Yesterday, well technically 2 days ago now because it's already Friday morning, I woke up and I had this stabbing pain on my right rib underneath my boob area. I figured I'd just slept wrong or something and got over it. It didn't get better the whole day so I took some Tylenol for it and a hot shower, which seemed to help. I figured I'd just be able to sleep it off and wake up and be fine. Wrong. I woke up yesterday and the pain was so much worse than the day before. I couldn't take in a deep breath without it feeling like somebody was stabbing my lung. Still, I figured I could just ignore it and get on with the day until it got to the point where I could no longer sit or lay down. You know that little inhalation breath you take before you sneeze? Yeah, I had to stifle 3 sneezes because I couldn't catch that deep of a breath. So of course I surf the internet for rib pain during pregnancy. The best I came up with was slight rib separation, baby's foot stuck, gallbladder problems, or just "pregnancy pains". Eh. That's probably what it was; pregnancy pains. So I tried the heating pad. Nada. Frozen corn used as an ice pack.... still nothing. Eventually I ended up calling the Marshfield Clinic Midwives (my pregnancy care providers) to see what they thought I should do. When they finally got ahold of this dum-dum (it took her 12 minutes to answer her pager and even the receptionist was annoyed) she didn't tell me any breaking news. Had I taken a warm shower? (check) Tylenol? (check) Sleep? (impossible) or how about an ice pack or a warm compress? (check, check!) Obviously nothing had worked for me and that's why I was calling. She asked if I remember doing anything that could've set it off..... nope. Nothing at all? Well, I did bend over to get my blowdryer, but that's about it. I said that.... mostly as a joke but apparantly to her that was the lightbulb! It MUST have been the darn blowdryer and now I had a muscle strain. Ding, ding, ding NOT! Yeahhhh.... must've been my 1/2 pound blowdryer that caused this, right? Considering I woke up with the pain. Sure. Whatever. It was useless continuing to talk to her so we just got off the phone and I just agree with her. Doesn't help that she talked at speed of snail.... Well, just to humor one of her suggestions I tried taking another hot shower for 20 min. Guess what didn't help? The hot shower?!? No way.



Next I skipped a step and just called the Sacred Heart ER and they told me to go ahead and come on in. Easier said than done. The car ride was hell. It hurt so bad to sit there I was in tears. Thank God Sam was driving. I just wanted to scream. Inhaling literally just hurt so bad it was taking my breath away. After what seemed like forever we finally get to the hospital. Check in & that takes 15 min. Then of course because I'm pregnant they send me up to the 3rd floor: Labor&Delivery, even though this had nothing to do with labor and delivery. They put the baby on the monitor and he was great, which was a relief to me. He was healthy and kicking and moving. They also picked up my contractions which were irregular. 11 minutes, 6 minutes, 14 minutes, 4 minutes, and 5 minutes apart. I also got to have the super fun VAGINA exam where she jams her fingers into your cervix to see if you're dilated. That's bad enough alone but add that to laying down in excuciating pain and I could've kicked her in the face. I wasn't dilating at all, which was good. But they couldn't do anything for me up there so they had to send me back down to the ER. Hm. Go figure. 2 hours later.

Ok. So now it's midnight. Checking in again took another 15 min. It was alright though because I got to stand at the front desk vs. sitting in the waiting room and that felt alot better. Sam was dozing off. I felt bad, he was so tired! Finally we got called back. They wanted to run some bloodwork on me to see if it was my gallbladder. Pregnancy can affect how your gallbladder works and gallbladder inflammation and stones runs in my family anyways. Ugh. I hate hospitals so much. We were put in a room. It only took 45 min. for the lab tech to draw my blood. I was in so much pain sitting there but I didn't want to take painkillers yet in case they had to do an ultrasound. I wanted to be able to tell them where it hurt. Well, they decided they could try this one shot that was supposed to help with the GI tract/gallbladder. I had to get the shot in the top of my butt.... ow. It burned alot. Not only that, but it didn't help. 2 oclock the doctor came in with the results of my labs. Turns out a couple of the enzymes associated with the gallbladder were elevated so they were going to go ahead and do the ultrasound. 2.30 a.m. the woman from ultrasound came to get me. Sam was zonked out. She just wheeled me and the whole bed to the room. I wanted to scream. It hurt so bad to breathe and then I had to lay down for the procedure and that just about put me through the roof. She had to hold the ultrasound transducer on the spot that was sore and I wanted to shove it down her throat. Omg.... I seriously was just laying there crying.... it sucked. =( Then I was supposed to lay on my left side but.... yeah. That wasn't happening. I half screamed and then I just couldn't breathe at all because it hurt so bad I was gasping for air. It's just the worst feeling. So she took me back to the room.

Next came another hour long wait. The procedure was inconclusive because they couldn't really get a good view of my gallbladder. I was unable to take deep breaths (obviously!) so really it was kind of pointless. The doctor came in to talk to me. She thinks that it's probably still the best bet that it's the gallbladder. Pregnancy causes gallbladder stuff anyways & that makes sense. It just means that basically there's nothing they can do for me. Which is just so frustrating beyond belief. All those doctors and all that time in the hospital and basically they just chalk it up to "pregnancy pains" and unable to do anything for it. Sucks. The only thing that will clear it up is delivery. Ugh. So not much longer. They tried giving me some Tylenol-3 for the pain which is really just strong Tylenol with a little bit of Codeine, but that's it. I can't even take over the counter ibuprofen. Basically I'm just S.O.L. So that was it. The only thing they gave me were 8 prescription Tylenols. EIGHT. How many are in a dose? 2. How many uses is that? 4. how many days will that cover at the MOST? 2. Great. Good thing it only hurts when I sit, lie down, and what's the other one? Oh yeah!! BREATHE! ugh... Then we went home. The car ride home sucked even worse than the one there. I was in tears the entire time and it's just soooo frustrating because I want to know what's wrong and I just want it to get better. All I wanted to do was sleep.

Got home. Tried taking another shower / bath. No luck. The baby was moving around so much, the most he's ever moved before. Every time he moved he pushed on my pelvis and my thighs cramped up. Maybe this whole hard time breathing thing is just my body getting ready for labor, which I don't think will be too far away. I tried sitting up & eventually found a good enough position where it wasn't excruciating. 6.30 a.m. & I caught a couple winks. Finally. I just can't take any deep breaths. Shallow is the way to go. As long as I don't raise my voice or talk loudly it doesn't agitate anything, either. So, looks like that's what I'll be doing. However they were talking about early induction for medical reasons. I just want to know what's going on before I go into labor otherwise I have no idea how that's going to work. If I can't breathe, there's going to be no way I can deal with contractions or push. Whenever I have a contraction it irritates the rib area and that doesn't feel very pleasant. If this is still acting up by the time I go into labor I'm forgetting the waterbirth. I'm just going to take the nicer, more pain-free way and get the demerol until the epidural. I'm overall just kind of frustrated and exhausted with the whole thing. I want it to be over, or at least feel better. Christopher is a little fish in there, too. That's not helping. He moves my whole belly around and consequently pushes on the sore spot. But it's ok. He's the only one I'll let push on it and get away with it =) Well. My brother and my mom are coming up tomorrow. That'll be nice. I think they'll take my mind off of stuff and mom's going to help me with a couple of things around the apartment hopefully. So, I'll just be kind of taking it really easy for the time being. Nothing exciting. No funny movies because laughing is off limits. Maybe I'll get to catch some sleep eventually when I just crash!

Acupressure Points

So, I'm back. I have my red raspberry leaf tea (which is supposed to soften the cervix and tone the uterus and get it ready for labor! in case you were wondering...) and am reading up on natural labor induction methods. I was reading through the list a couple minutes ago and there are a few teas you can try etc, etc and castor oil, which doesn't sound like fun because that gives you diarrhea and then I get to acupressure. I've heard about this, like women going in to have a pedicure if they're having prelabor symptoms and then they'll start going into labor afterwards. Supposedely, there are points on your body that correspond to your reproductive organs and pregnancy. Ok, so here's a little background info; the other night, after I was done taking my bath, I noticed there was a point on the bottom inner sole of my foot that hurt when I massaged it. (I like massaging peppermint foot oil and cream into my feet before bed. It's my fav!) Anyways. I noticed it when I was about 4 months pregnant, but the other night it was just reeeally bad, and sore. Well, I thought it was a blood blister or something until I realized it was in the exact same spot on my other foot. I figured it was just swelling or something pressing on my muscles. Alright. So here I am reading acupressure points on the body that correspond with pregnancy and the most common ones are the webbing between the thumb and pointer finger, 4 finger-lengths above the ankle bone on the calf, and the most uncommon one that not all women experience? The bottom of the foot on the inner sole! I couldn't believe it. Then I was thinking back and remembered that after I massaged my foot that night I did have some pretty intense Braxton Hicks contractions. Well, being the curious person that I am, I just had to try it out again. I started massaging the bottom of my foot right where the sore spot was, and guess what? Braxton Hick's contraction within 30 seconds and it was really strong!! Crazy huh? I think now that I tested that out I'm probably going to leave the foot massages out of my routine for at least a week.
=) But I just had to share. I thought it was pretty nifty.

* White * Out *

SNOWING!?! Again.... I can't believe it. Today is (and I quote) "The worst traveling day this season." So much for that walk today. I was going to go at 1.30 when Sam told me that. I'm really glad I listened otherwise I could've been out there in the blizzard trudging along. haha. Looks like I'll be walking the apartment hallways again. Just an interesting side note... only 12% of women have their water break before labor, contrary to what the movies make is seem like. The only connection that scientists have found to the environment and why some women break their water is barometric pressure. When there is a storm; women break their water! Crazy huh? I'm glad I'm not further along otherwise today could've been the day! I should check out what the weather looks like for the next couple of weeks. =) Sam called into work and we're going to download a movie to watch today. We were going to go to the video store and rent one, but the sideways snow and white out had us reconsidering that thought. That's about it for today. Up until this week, sure I was pregnant, but it didn't really bother me much. But THIS week, boy do I feel pregnant. I literally have to maneuver around just to get out of a seated position and waddle around. It's crazy. It definitely takes a toll on you. I'm really just wore out. But I'm excited because I know there's only a couple weeks left of this! Yay. Oh, and the cutest thing? For Valentine's Day I got Sam a coffee mug & this little stuffed puppy to fit inside it. Well, our kitty pretty much adopted him. She will pick him up in her mouth and she carries him all over. She has her own chair in the living room and blanket and she'll literally give him a bath and cuddle with him in there. It's so cute. So we found another little stuffed bear to give her and she treats them like her kittens. It's so cute! <3>

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

36 weeks + 5 days

Leg Cramps

Scratch the walk; guess who didn't make it out the main doors of the apartment? Yup. Me. I took a nap and then Sam left for work at 3.30 so I was going to go for a walk then. My inner thighs had been cramping up but I thought that once I got out of bed they'd be better. Nope. The only thing that happened was I got such an intense wave of pressure in my pelvis that I ran to the bathroom otherwise I am pretty sure I would've peed my pants. My thighs haven't really stopped cramping up yet, they do it once every 10 minutes or so or whenever he moves around. Standing and walking is really uncomfortable. It feels like I have a bowling ball between my legs and I'm walking around with it there. It's one of the strangest things and probably the most awkward that I've ever felt! My waddling factor definitely just went up a few degrees.

I'm assuming this just means the baby's moving into an even more uncomfortable position lower down. Stretching and yoga are supposed to help with muscle tenseness and cramping and I do yoga nearly every day (whenever Sam works because I refuse to do yoga when he's here! haha). So not getting enough stretches in isn't the problem. Geez, wouldn't that be crazy if I went into labor tomorrow or something!? Well, I don't want to jinx anything. I still have to get a few things yet and move my room around.

*****************************************************************************
36 weeks + 4 days

Spring's in the air!

I am absolutely loving the weather outside. It's beautiful!! Woke up at 9.23 this morning and guess what? I had an appointment at 9.30! I literally jumped out of bed, threw some gel in my hair and sprayed it, put a little bit of cover-up on, and walked out the door at 9.30 and got to the appointment by 9.37 a.m. Yay me! haha. Picked out some hand mits but Sam and I have to go to Target or somewhere and get him some little newborn and little baby socks. I'm going to go for a walk soon in this amazing weather =) Put on my tennies and go, go, GO! My inner thighs have been cramping up really bad, though. I'm thinking that's a good sign, means labor will be coming soon! Yay. Not yay for the labor but yay that we'll have the baby.

36 week appointment

Had another doctor appointment today. As I was getting ready to leave I asked Sam if he was coming and we got into an argument & stuff and I thought he was just trying to get out of it again so I basically stormed out all upset and went to the appointment by myself. Meanwhile last night I was stressed out because the apartment was messy and I've been so exhausted lately that I haven't been able to get all of the things done that I used to do and I was just freaking out and had a big attack and anyways. So I'm kind of cutting ahead but when I got back home, he had vacuumed the apartment, cleaned the bathroom, done the dishes, straightened everything up, put the garbage away, tidied the living room, moved the chairs, lit candles & incense, organized the kitchen, and hung up a picture. I was sooo shocked!! It was the best. Ok. Back to the appointment. So I get there and find out that I'm 20 min early. Perfect. Add that onto my already great morning. Finally get called back. I gained 2 pounds since the last appointment. They said that's fine because I haven't gained any weight for a month and a half and most of it's going to the baby anyways. Met with a different midwife. She didn't seem very for epidurals....... she was all about the natural birth stuff and the "labor pain is good pain" regimen. Yeah.... well, good pain or not, it's still pain. So then she callously introduced epidurals on the labor sheet and I wasn't about to even ask her her feelings on them because I already knew from the stingy tone in her voice. Don't get me wrong, she was very, very nice. Just one of the midwives that's about the ALL NATURAL way. Hopefully she's not there the night I deliver. haha. Hm.... they also did a Group B strep test.... the one I mentioned before where they take a va-jay-jay swab. FUN. ....

His head is waaaay down low. Which is what's been causing my thigh cramping and pelvic pain. I knew I felt him drop because I've been able to eat more these days. My uterine height is 39 cm. Which is crazy. That means he grew alot in the past 2 weeks. The entire pregnancy I've been measuring right on with my weeks. Uterine height is how large your uterus is and they measure it in centimeters with a tape measure. At 20 weeks your uterus should be in line with your bellybutton. So if you're 17 weeks the uterus should be 3 cm below the bellybutton and if you're 30 weeks it should be 10 cm (or fingertips) above the bellybutton. 2 cm above or below how far along you are in weeks is normal. For example at the last appointment I was 34 1/2 cm and 34 weeks, which meant I was right on. Now, I'm 39 cm and 36 weeks, meaning he grew.... ALOT. And also that he's slightly larger for his age which means.... HE'S COMING EARLY!! Just like I expected. I'm thinking within the next 2 weeks. So that was pretty crazy. I was shocked when she told me how much he'd grown. So much for a nice little baby to deliver.... =) His heartbeat was 141 which is perfect. So he's a happy, healthy little man! He's also very long..... even though his head is already engaged in the pelvis he's still able to kick me up in the ribs.... long legs! He didn't get that from me....

36 weeks + 2 days

So I've been looking up natural induction techniques on the internet that you can start trying at 37 weeks (which I will be this coming Saturday) and I'm really thinking about doing some! I'm going to talk to the midwife tomorrow at my appointment and see what she thinks. They're doing my Group B strep test tomorrow. Half of all women have this bacteria "down there" which isn't harmful or anything, it's completely normal, but if you do have it you need antibiotics when you go into labor because it can make the baby sick. So, not really a big deal either way. They're also doing the pelvic exam (......can't wait......) to check effacement (how thin the cervix is), dilation (if it's opening up at all) and his pelvic station (where he's sitting above or below certain points on my hips). So, that shall be exciting! I always love pelvic exams..... But if everything looks good tomorrow as in he's sitting right and I'm at least 40% effaced I think I'm going to start trying some of these methods and hope that they'll bring labor on maybe a week or a week and a half sooner! I wish it was warmer outside. I've been really energetic and I want to go for walks but even though it's sunny and gorgeous it's only about 10 degrees right now. Boo. Walking is supposed to be really good for getting the baby positioned and helping him drop even further. Not too much longer left to go! So exciting.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Energy? This can't be right...

Hmm.... Am I dreaming? Because I can't actually be awake and motivated to do the dishes and vacuum, there's no way. It's crazy! I am definitely taking advantage of this newfound energy because I have a feeling (and if I'm right) it's not going to last for very long. I think I might be having my last little energy spurt. You're supposed to have it about 2 weeks before you deliver. That would explain my obsession with tidying everything today and organizing my room and it's almost midnight. I am like the energizer bunny. I have a big list of stuff to do. I just don't want to stop! I kind of like it. I wish it lasted longer. Maybe I'll get lucky =) Looks like I won't miss my energy burst after all. Now if I can just maintain the clean-ness up until I bring baby home, that'll be amazing!!!! Wooohooo. I feel like I had 5 redbulls. I am ready to go!

********************************************************************

36 weeks + 0 days

Childbirth Classes && 9 months preggers!!!

Well, well, well..... I don't even know where to start. Sam and I woke up bright and early to get ready for our all day event. Got to the hospital at about 8.30 when our class started. I had some pretty high expectatioins for today, apparantly. There were 9 couples there. I was the furthest along out of everybody!! That was kind of cool. I felt special. One of the women there was due a month after me and she was bigger than me. She's going to have fun with that! We got a booklet and a bunch of handouts at the door and they had some muffins and juice out. I mowed down a couple muffins.... =) Delicious! Then we started in. The woman teaching the class is a labor/delivery nurse at Sacred Heart Hospital (where we were at). She was nice enough and everything, but all the information she presented was just random. It had no focus, whatsoever! She did a couple demonstrations with her "uterus"; which was actually a knitted cap that held the baby. That was interesting to see in person, but.... nothing special. There was a birthing video... OMG YUCK. I had to look away. No way in hell (excuse my language!) that I am EVER using a mirror or something to see the baby come out. Nooooo way. EW. I thought my delicious muffin was going to be making a second appearance. Luckily Sam and I have been watching our childbirth video (which is way better) and we were one up on all of the people in the class. Some of the couples were even middle aged, probably young 30's and we knew more than they did. Actually, we were the ones asking / answering questions. On the breaks it was funny because all of us prego ladies headed straight for the bathrooms. There was a nice little line going. Anyways. At about 12.15 the class was going to take the lunch break and we were done discussing all of the medical information. I'll let you in on something... from that entire morning and uselessly presented facts I didn't learn a thing. We didn't learn WHEN to call the doctor/midwife, when was the best time to have an epidural (she was very, very vague), where to go when you came or anything! So Sam and I got in the car and we were going to hit up Taco Bell or something and get his phone charger and we both decided that we were wasting our time. And we really were. The rest of the day was breathing exercises and the hospital tour; both of which we had already done. The whole set up of the class had no structure. I was so disappointed. To top it off Christopher had been moving all morning and had my intestine or something pinned down and it was really hurting. There was no way I was going to be sitting on the floor doing mock breathing exercises (that we already knew how to do) with a stomachache. So we went out to eat instead at the nice little Mexican restaurant and then I came back to the apartment and took a nap. I am so tired today. I actually just got up 15 min ago! Tonight Sam and I are going to finish watching Laugh and Learn About Childbirth. That's the video I was talking about. It's a recorded childbirth class, just like what we went to. I get alot more out of the video. Instead of just telling you random things it says stuff like "6 signs of labor". Then you learn what they are and repeat them. That is going to be more useful than anything we learned today. But hey, we got free muffins!

Other than that, I am officially 9 months pregnant today! WOOHOO. You know what that officially means????? Next month I won't be pregnant?!? WOOHOO. I'm pretty excited. As much as I do like being pregnant as far as feeling him move, all of the other stuff is getting a bit old. Especially the getting up at night 4-5 times to pee. So it'll kind of be bittersweet. I'm getting a little more nervous for labor & delivery just because I am technically full term now which means it could start virtually any day now! I'm thinking within the next couple of weeks. That's just the vibe I'm getting. But I could be wrong. All of his clothes are washed now. I got him some more onesies and some a few pairs of pants. We also have all of his bottles now and I just have to sterilize them. So as far as getting ready goes, the only thing we have left to do is vacuum his room and then rearrange my room so the bassinet fits next to the bed. I might actually start that tonight. I think I have been nesting the past couple of days. Yesterday for sure anyways. But that's about it here! Probably going to go make some dinner.

Is it almost over?

I am feeling extremely ready to be un-pregnant. I mean, the kicks and rolls are fun and adorable but I am so uncomfortable. I feel like a moose... with legs. I am definitely in the Lovin' Sweatpants Stage of my pregnancy. For some reason, I thought for certain I would be exempt from this. "Nah, I'm not going to get to that point. I'll still love wearing my cute maternity jeans and tops...." NOT! The jeans are itchy. The band digs into my tummy. My cute maternity tops make me feel like a bubble. Hellooo sweatpants! <3>

Last night I actually ended up going to bed early and in my own bedroom! Hooray. I have a feeling when I start going into labor it's going to be at night. That's when my Braxton Hicks (practice contractions) occur the most and are the most "painful". Basically just imagine somebody hitting your thigh and giving you a charlie horse -- when your leg gets rock hard? Ok. Take that feeling and apply that to your belly / uterus or whatever. That's the best way I can think of to describe a Braxton Hicks contraction. Last night he decided to kick me so hard and his foot got lodged somewhere between a couple organs. OMG. It felt like my insides were on fire. That one really hurt. I've been having quite a bit of pressure and the insides of my thighs are cramping up. It's kind of exciting because that happens in the last couple weeks of pregnancy so I know I'm getting ready for everything! It's also sort of scary and daunting in a way. Labor's just around a corner and pretty soon all the baby clothes will be filled! I am having a hard time imagining it. I almost feel like I'm going to be pregnant forever, even though I know that's not going to happen. It's definitely a weird thought. Like, is this actually going to happen? Somehow it feels like a dream.

But anywho. I've been trying to record him moving, so far, NO GOOD. Doesn't want to cooperate. Apparantly they're supposed to slow down a couple days before labor. I'll be excited for that. He's a crazy little acrobat! My whole belly is just one big wavepool. Sam saw it move last night. He's saw Christopher just do little kicks and spurts before, but nothing major like this. It was a good one. Christopher just literally rolled over and my whole stomach changed shape. It morphed. haha. Whenever I tried to show Sam before the little bugger would be shy and stop moving. What a turkey =) Well, I'm going to move my bed and get the bassinet in my room. don't worry. The bed's light, it's just an airmattress on top of the frame and it has wheels so I'm all clear to move it! I'm psyched. I love changing my room around

****************************************************************************

35 weeks + 4 days

Can't believe this weather

It's * snowing *. * I * can't * believe * it *. I * thought * the * snow * was * done * for * the * year *?*?!* But * NOPE * ! * I * guess * the * warm * and * sunshiney * weather * last * week * was * just * a * teaser *.

Those were snowflakes, by the way :) Kind of having one of those days. I've been a little moody and just kind of down. Which is no fun. Had the APPLE appt today. That went well. We watched a video on newborn care. I learned that newborns get acne? What the heck. Poor kids. I thought that was only for teenagers. And they also get funny little white bumps on their noses, which you are NOT supposed to pop. I think I might have a problem with that. I have an obsession with popping things. haha. I hate zits, etc... But the video was pretty interesting. I actually learned alot from it. Like how exactly to give a newborn a bath before you can put them in the water and their skin heals and their little belly button thing dries up. Stuff that I hadn't really thought about before! Babies are so cute though. The lady doing our appointment today was very funny. Nice too. She called the lactation consultants "nursing nazi's".... ha! I got a kick out of that one. But she said they're really nice and not to be worried. Sooo breastfeeding. Yeah. Going to give it a try and see how it goes. To be honest the only reason I'm really doing it is because you're uterus is supposed to contract faster and you lose the baby weight sooner. That might be a tad selfish, but it's the truth! I was always intending on pumping and stuff because it's better for the baby. We'll have to see. I'm just going to play it by ear. I won't be super disappointed if I just end up pumping and using bottles. I think bottles are cuter anyways. And then other people will be able to feed him and not just me! So that's how that's going to go!

Dad came up today and brought me some baby stuff. I had a wall hanging made for Christopher's room.... it says "BABY". Each letter has a different "block" (it's made of cloth) and there are blue and yellow rubber ducks on them. Really cute! I also got some homemade burpcloths and blankets for his room, and dad bought a rocking chair. Which is going to be nice for late night feedings...

Well.... I am going to make some supper. Kind of late but, oh well! Annnnd, dad also brought a large air bed. So I don't have to sleep on the dilapitated crappy airmattress in the living room any more that deflated in 2 hours. That's where I've been for the past month and a half. It's a queen size airbed so we took my mattress off (it's too hard to sleep on) and put it on there. OMG. So comfy. I'm excited to sleep in my room tonight! Woohoooo

4-1-1 on Baby

Gender : Boy
Name : Christopher Michael
Age : 33 weeks + 2 days
Due Date : March 21, 09
Approx. Current weight : 6.5 lbs
Nursery Theme : Blue / Yellow Rubber ducks!!
Personality : Shy. I think he's going to be a lil shy because whenever I get the camera out to record him moving, he stops. And he also stops moving when anybody else puts their hand on my belly.

<3 + Burn = heartburn

Hola. Feeling pretty much 100% better. Completely over the flu! Yay. Went to bed pretty early last night, for me anyways. Woke up at 5 a.m. though with really bad reflux again. So I paced the apartment for 20 minutes and got a little glass of water, then went back to bed. I have to sleep with a few pillows supporting me and keeping me upright, otherwise that makes it worse. It blows waking up to that. Other than that though everything's good. Staying away from spicy foods and chocolate (specifically fudge brownies.... I found those made my reflux act up). I think I'm learning how to get it under control. Downloaded Laugh and Learn About Childbirth. It's actually pretty good. The instructor is funny and it's not boring to watch. Hopefully Sam and I will be 1 up on all of the other people in our Childbirth Saturday class which is coming up this Saturday. 8 1/2 hours we're going to be there.... AH?! But I figured that'd be better than dragging it out for 4 weeks. I would be less motivated to go. Since we already toured the hospital and are watching this video, if this Saturday just seems like re-run info we're going to head out early. I think I've pretty much prepared myself and we won't need to stay if it's all just repeated stuff; and I think people have gotten by without going to any sort of childbirth class whatsoever or reading any books. I figure we'll be just fine.

Other than that. Not much else to report! I'm finding my wardrobe less and less attractive lately. It takes me 20 min just to find something to wear that I'm comfortable in. I feel like a whale =( Shamu for sure! haha. I guess that's normal though considering I'm almost 9 months pregnant! I don't feel as big as I thought I would. I always envisioned myself being just enourmous when I was pregnant. I mean, sure I've got quite the belly, but I just always thought I would be larger. Maybe you just adjust to being pregnant though. haha. I'm sure if you were to strap the belly that I have now on an unpregnant me I'd go into shock! But yup. Downloaded Baby Mama to watch.... I love that movie. It's so cute. On a less positive note my hand's still tingly and numb. That won't go away until after delivery. It's caused by all the extra fluid and stuff in my joints that it just presses on the nerves in my wrist and makes my hand tingly all the time. It's alot worse when I'm driving (probably not good!). Sometimes my entire hand goes numb. But I can still move it, just not feel anything. Pretty weird feeling. Well, I suppose. Gotta get the darn dishes done. Ugh. My dad's coming tomorrow and bringing the queen size air bed so I will be able to sleep in my bed again! YAY!! We're going to take the hard mattress off and put the air bed on my bed frame instead and that's what I'll have til the baby gets here. It'll be much better than the piece of crap airmattress we have now that's stationed in the living room and deflates within 2 hours of sleeping on it. Ick.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

35 weeks + 2 days

35 Weeks

Technically I'm a day late, but I've been sick for the past few days and yesterday was just the pits. Had the really bad flu =( For VALENTINE'S Day... which I'd been looking forward to for a couple weeks. That sucked. Felt sick the night before. Went to bed early. Woke up at 4, sat in the bathtub til about 5.30. Started throwing up. Was in there until nearly 7. Woke the neighbors up. haha. That was a little embarassing, but, they had it coming. That's for the nights when they were drunk and puking all night. At least I had a good excuse! I felt really crappy. Throwing up is just the worst. For me, it's the worst thing in the world. I'll admit it even. I can handle anything but throwing up. I just start bawling. Probably the most pathetic person in the world! haha. But whatever. So then I threw my contacts in and went in the kitchen and Sam had left me my Valentine present there from the night before =D That made me feel better. He made a card.... it's so cute. It's the best card I've ever gotten. I just love it. And he got me this big, soft super adorable Valentine puppy. It's name is Corpsegrinder. Yes. I know, but there's a story behind it. To make the story short we were answering questions on Yahoo and somebody had a joke question of "I want to name my daughter Corpsegrinder, but my wife doesn't like it?" We thought it was hilarious. Don't worry, I'll call it CG for short. It matches the other lil teddy bear he got me. It's name is Basher. Wow, I have some menacing stuffed animal names!!! But that was really sweet. So me and CG cuddled on the couch all morning. Sam made me chicken broth and saltines all day. So much for the romantic dinner! But it's alright. We made up for it today.

Week 35. Ah! It's going by so fast. I was worried I wasn't getting enough nutrition the last couple of days, with not being able to keep anything down. So I'm glad I got to eat more today. So far so good. Been having problems though with heartburn. Really, really bad heartburn. I am going to ask the midwife on Tuesday about it. I think mine might actually have crossed the line into acid reflux / GERD. Which wouldn't be that abnormal, it happens during pregnancy. Especially the last few weeks when the baby's pretty big and everything's really squished. On top of being sick even when I do get food down I can only eat so much. Then within half hour of eating it just burns and sometimes it's bad enough where that alone makes me want to puke. I have to wake up every couple hours during the night to grab a yogurt or something otherwise my stomach starts to get so hungry that I get heartburn from that. Ugh. I've been pacing around the apartment, literally, at about 4 a.m. because it helps relieve it. Light walking does some good after sleeping or sitting for so long. I'm thinking about maybe walking down to the end of the hall and back, but the floors are so creaky I don't want to wake anybody up. That and I'm paranoid I could be abducted by creepy apartment people. haha. I know, I'm so strange!

Anyways. What else is new in the last week.....? Hm. Ahhh yes. I washed all of his baby clothes from newborn up to 6 months and his little blankets. They're so adorable but a PAIN IN THE ASS. . . for some reason his clothes don't want to dry right! It's insane. And I of course don't want to shrink them. I was getting so frustrated. I ended up doing all of our laundry for about 3 hours. The wash room was really really warm though. I had to open up the window! My hormones give me hot flashes something horrible. I feel bad for Sam some days when he's in sweats and a sweatshirt and I'm in a tank and shorts with the windows wide open and the porch door open and its only 20 out. haha. That's been improving. I also had a couple break down moments the past week. Hormones.... yet again. That and I haven't been feeling the best. But other than that, nothing else to report for what to expect for week 35. Really nothing's changed. Baby's getting bigger. It says he probably weighs on average 5 lbs 10 oz..... which means Christopher probably weighs like 6 1/2 lbs! haha. 18 inches (on average). Crazy. There's really an 18 in 6 1/2 lb baby all balled up in my belly? It's just nuts looking at my belly and thinking that. He has to be so uncomfortable. And then there's that daunting question..... that baby has to come out... where?? And it's going to fit.... HOW??? haha..... ahhhhh We'll just see how that goes. It's like a time bomb. I'm just counting down the days!!

P.S. Yes Man = Hilarious movie. We loved it.