Maybe yesterday's walk helped just a little

I started having contractions last night around 9pm. Brian and I were sitting by the fire when the contractions started. They were only lasting about 20 seconds max, but they were moderately intense and close together. I was getting excited because I thought we were starting the real deal. After 10pm nothing happened. I felt crampy and my back was sore, but I wasn't having any more contractions. The only thing that seemed to have been accomplished was that the baby moved down. His butt was now at my belly button. I was tired, so I decided to go to bed. I woke up a few times in the night from sporadic contractions, but again it was nothing to phone in about. I woke up extremely nauseous today, and everything from my belly button to my vagina was sore. I decided to take a long bath. The water helped with the soreness, but the bath seemed to excite the baby. He started moving around quite a bit. When I got out of the bath, I was hit with a 5 minute period of lightning crotch which prohibited me from moving at all. I just sat on the toilet lid and breathed through it. The pain only let up a couple of times and the relief was momentary. As soon as I was able to I got up and started getting ready. I thought "this is it!" It wasn't. I've just been taking it easy around the house. Nothing new to report other than some more spotting and a sore back.

Made some progress

I had my weekly appointment yesterday. The doctor said I'm now 2cm dilated 75% effaced and still -2 station. According to her, I'm ready and Dino is ready but we just need him to come out. I ate some spicy food last night hoping that would kick start the process (I'll take any old wives tale at this point). All it did was give me heartburn all night. I went on a long walk this afternoon and that seemed to be helping for awhile. My back was aching and the baby kept settling lower. I had a couple of small contractions too. Alas, when I got home the only thing that happened was a good poop. I guess I should be thankful, but I'm not. Maybe if it was diarrhea, which to my understanding is a sign that your body is cleaning itself out for labor, but it wasn't. *Sigh* Too bad we don't have any stumps to dig up or broken cars to push down the street. I guess I'll have to settle with doing laundry and emptying the dishwasher for manual labor.

Here's a couple of diagrams that help explain dilation, effacement, and station:

Still no baby : (

I know we're only 37.5 weeks, but I'm getting impatient. My body keeps sending mixed messages about when he will come. I've had a lot of back pain, cramping, painful contractions, nausea, increasingly leaky boobs, missing mucous plug, effacement, dilation, a low baby (who keeps pushing himself lower)... and still nothing. I don't want him to come early if he's not ready, but my body keeps telling me that it's almost time. It's hard when my doctor and my body are telling me one thing but another thing is happening. I'm tired of being pregnant and I just want to hold my baby.

The booger that came from within...

I lost my mucous plug this morning. It was a nasty little bugger, or should I say BIG bugger? We went to a dinner party last night and I was having some contractions and big movement from the baby while sitting at the table. I think all the activity has opened me up some more and jarred it loose. Or maybe it was from my internal exam yesterday. Although the exam didn't feel nearly as uncomfortable as the first one, I guess it still could have irritated things. Either way, I lost it.
I'm 1cm dilated, 50% effaced and at -2 station. My OB was saying that my body is reacting to this pregnancy much more like it were a second pregnancy rather than a first. That's wonderful for me because hopefully things will run smoothly for the natural birth. We got back the results from my Strep B test and it was negative. Hooray! That means I get to labor longer at home and I don't have to get a Heparin Lock when I get to the hospital. No tubes or IV's for me. I get free movement!!!

My mother-in-law threw my last baby shower this past Saturday. It was so much fun and I was really impressed with the job she did. Hardly anything was bought off of the registry because almost everything was purchased from the registry at the last two showers. It was a fun surprise to see what people came up with on their own. Chris' friend is an OB nurse and she put together a mommy goody basket with a Sitz bath and Tucks Pads. I was so excited. The day you open a Sitz bath and Tucks Pads are are elated about it is a day when you know your life is changing!

My body is doing great, Dino has everything he needs, and his room is ready. Now we just need a baby...

He's coming early!

We saw the doctor today and had our final ultrasound. The baby looks perfect, as usual. The doctor commented on how fat the baby's cheeks are while he was eating his little baby fist. He's too big now to get a full picture of, so we had to settle on a partial profile. She also got another shot of his "manly bits" and with gaping eyes proclaimed to Brian that there is no mistaking this baby is a boy and he should be a proud papa. Brian immediately fist-pumped the air. I'll never understand the pride associated with the size of male genitalia.

I had my vaginal exam as well today and was thrilled to find out that I'm already one centimeter dilated and the baby is head down. He's far enough down that our doctor could feel his head. She told us that he won't wait for his due date and she expects him to come two weeks early! Yay! He's also currently about 6 lbs but is expected to be about 7lbs when he is born.

I talked with our doctor about doing a natural childbirth. She was completely supportive and said that I was in perfect condition to go that route and she had no doubt I would be able to do it successfully even though I hadn't done any classes to prepare for going natural. I'm in perfect health and shape and have had a flawless pregnancy. After not even flinching during the vaginal exam, she said I would be amazing during a natural birth. I explained to her my reasons for wanting to go that route, and she said I had my facts straight and was in the right mindset. It was really a relief to hear all of that from her because I was scared I wasn't going to be prepared enough. I came home in the evening to find a thoughtful email written to me by my cousin which answered a lot of questions I had for her regarding going natural. It was just another boost to my confidence (thanks Brandy!). I know I can do this and I'm going to do this. That's really all there is to it.

I still have a lot to do before the baby arrives: get window treatments, find area rugs, pack my hospital bag (I keep procrastinating), find a nursing bra that is comfortable, get some PJ's for the hospital, finish unpacking the upstairs, catch up on laundry, and I'm sure there's more and I just can't think of it now. The most important thing is the baby's room, and that is done, but for some reason that doesn't seem like enough. I want EVERYTHING done! 14 days (give or take) left to complete everything. I'm ready!

Au Natural

After getting a lot of information about different drugs and interventions given during labor, delivery, and postpartum, I've decided to go natural. I'm a little bit scared, okay maybe a lot scared, since I'm jumping on the med-free ban wagon a bit late in the game. We didn't hire a doula or midwife and I feel like we are completely unprepared for a natural birth with the information we have from our birthing classes, but I figure women gave birth for thousands of years without preparation or meds so I should be able to do it, right? None-the-less, I'm searching Google, Youtube, and books for any information I can get my hands on. I guess I'm hoping that some knowledge is power and will translate into a more confident Me when labor begins. More confidence=better success at going natural in a world where medicating seems to be first option recommended by so many doctors.

Brian has offered me extra incentive for going natural that will hopefully motivate me. Yes, I'm lame for actually seeing it as an incentive, but here it is anyways: Brian says that if I am able to go completely natural I will be allowed to groom his crazy eyebrow hairs whenever I want to for the rest of our lives. He's got a few hairs that are completely out of control and I've only managed to get him to agree to having me trim them a few times. Those few instances were after months of pleading. Sometimes I can't help but stare at them. It reminds me of the Austin Powers mole clip.



So, as I said the extra incentive is really ridiculous but completely motivating. Those hairs will be mine!!!!

Another note worthy happening...today is Mother's Day. While I don't consider myself an official mom yet, I did get some mother-to-be cards to celebrate the day. My father-in-law surprised me with flowers yesterday and Brian had flowers, a balloon, a couple of cards, and some muffins for breakfast set up for me this morning. I went to have lunch with my mom and grandmother and my step-dad bought us each a corsage to wear during lunch. It was nice to be recognized, but I don't for a second think that I deserve to be celebrated yet. Sure I'm about ready to have a baby any day now, but I haven't experienced any of the real sacrifices of motherhood yet. The sleepless nights, barf shirts, trips to the doctor, constant concern, etc. etc. have yet to be part of my every day life. Next year I will be a real mom. Today I'm just a mom-in-training.

I'm done being pregnant.

I'm officially ready for Dino to get here. He's dropped over the past couple of days and has been using my ribs as leverage to push himself further down in my pelvis. Between the cats meowing to wake me up for food (they don't like their new diet regimen/eating schedule), peeing non-stop and getting beat up from the inside, I've hardly gotten any sleep. I know I'm in for sleepless nights in a few weeks, but is it too much to ask for sleep before the baby makes his debut? Standing is uncomfortable because it makes my feet and back hurt. Sitting is uncomfortable because it makes my sciatic pain worse and I've got a baby head wedged between my pelvic bones. Lying down sucks because my acid backs up into my throat. I can't win. I'm over this, but I know baby Dino needs to brew a little longer. For him I'll hang on. I'm 35 weeks along today with only 35 days to go until his due date. I'm praying it goes by fast.

Heading down

Our little one was super active last night, and when I woke up this morning he felt like he was sitting really low. I haven't felt his feet in my ribs yet today, so I'm hoping all the evidence combined means that he's moving head down. We have an ultrasound at our next appt. to check his positioning and effacement and everything else. Only 38 more days until he's scheduled to arrive. We can officially say that we're having a baby next month. If he decides to arrive 8 days early, then we'll be having a baby this month. I can't wait to meet him.