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Our 4th Anniversary!
I also had quite a scare yesterday. Last night, I had some significant spotting. I called my doctor and after explaining all the details, the nurse said she thought it sounded perfectly normal. She said to call back immediately, though, if it returned (it finished up this morning) or if it was accompanied by cramping or painful contractions. So far, no sign of either, so I'm feeling better. But boy was that scary, seeing blood for the first time in months.
On an unrelated note - and this is kind of graphic, so stop reading now if you are squeamish about "girl stuff" - I think I've begun to lose bits of my mucus plug. For those of you not familiar with what this lovely part of pregnancy is, it's quite literally a glob of mucus that helps keep the cervix closed for most of pregnancy. Some women lose it little by little, others all at once. The good news is that if what I've been seeing is indeed bits of plug, then I may be beginning to dilate just a tiny bit! It could also mean nothing at all, but I prefer to think it means I'm starting down Labor Road. :) Not that I want her to show up just yet, but if this were an indication that I might deliver at week 37 rather than week 40, I'd not complain! I have a doctor's appointment next Wednesday, so I might get an internal then that would confirm or deny this suspicion, but they also might hold off until my 36 week appointment. I won't be too disappointed if I don't get one - I've heard they're significantly less than pleasant - but it sho' would be nice if I could find out if we're making any progress.
Finally, we did another belly pic last night. We thought that would be a nice way to commemorate our anniversary. To think - next year we'll need a babysitter!!
Our 7th "Anniversary"
Well, on a totally unrelated note, it was a pretty rotten weekend. Friday night I ended up in the ER until 4 in the morning. To make a long story short, starting mid-afternoon on Friday, I had a pain in the left half of my collarbone/lung, that at first I thought nothing of, but got increasingly worse. By early evening, it was painful enough for me to do a little research to find out if it might be connected to the pregnancy, even if I couldn't fathom how. Unfortunately, I found out that the pain COULD be symptomatic of a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot in the lung, which can be fatal and which pregnant women are at an increased risk for. So although I felt like I hypochondriac, I called my doc. He said my symptoms didn't sound intense enough to warrant fear of an embolism, but that if it got worse, to go to the ER. Well, fast forward 4 hours and the pain was worse and not responding to Tylenol, and a nurse on a local ask-a-nurse hotline said my symptoms were bad enough to indicate going to the ER, although an embolism was still unlikely. So at midnight, off we headed to the ER, where all tests confirmed I didn't have an embolism (probably just a badly pulled muscle), but we were stuck there until 4 am. And the next day was an ND football game that I was not about to miss, as it may very well be the last ND game I ever go to. So Nate and I got very little sleep, but we did enjoy the game. Needless to say, though, we crashed at 9:30 that night!
That was the only real drama of the weekend, but I had a miserable night last night, too. Last night was the first time that being pregnant has interfered with an entire night's worth of sleep. Sure, my aches and pains make it more difficult for me to fall asleep most nights, and I always have to wake up to pee at least 5 times I night, but I haven't lost an entire night's sleep before. Usually, it's just the initial attempt to fall asleep that is difficult, but I always drift quickly back to sleep after my bathroom breaks. Not last night. First, it took me even longer than usual to fall asleep. My wee little daughter had hiccups and I was having horrible pains at the top of my stomach. Even my last resort trick of trying to sleep sitting up in the recliner didn't work. I eventually drifted off, but then each time I woke up to pee, I ended up with a new ache to replace the old one that made falling back asleep very difficult. First it was my tailbone, then it was my hips, then it was my shoulders, then it was my ligaments. To top it all off, I ended up having an AWFUL nightmare right before I woke up that ruined my last little bit of sleep. I'm dying to get a good night's sleep tonight and pray that last night was the exception, not the new rule.
As I mentioned before, I have my next doctor's appointment on Wednesday. I think it will be the last of my "in and out" appointments, where all they do is weigh me, listen to the baby's heartbeat, measure my fundus, answer my questions, and send me on my way. After that, I start weekly visits and...gulp!...internal exams. Not looking forward to that, but I am excited to find out if I'm dilated or effaced at all. There are exactly 14 days left until she is considered full term, and as soon as those 14 days are over, I will be rooting for this little one to make her grand entrance!! I just can't wait to meet her, as well as to own my own body again. :)
Such a Busy Week!
Well, to start where I left off, my last doctor's appointment was fine. I was measuring 35 cm, and the acceptable range was 32-36. My blood pressure was still spectacular at 104/60 and my weight stayed the same. Her little heart was thumping away beautifully, so there's not much more we could ask for. I have my next appointment tomorrow, when we will find out if I am dilated or effaced at all. Please, please, please let me have made some progress!!
I had my second shower on Saturday, hosted by Erin, Mom, and Nanny, and it was really wonderful! Aunt Cindy, Tara, and India were able to make it in from Indy and several of my school friends attended, too. (My friend Amy was supposed to make it but got SCREWED by Delta Airlines. They screwed up her booking but wanted her to pay $1200 to get on the flight they were supposed to have booked for her in the first place, so she and her daughter Avery were unable to make it. Moral of the story: don't ever fly Delta!) We had a great time. Mom and Nanny cooked up a storm of course, and Erin made the cutest favors and put up all kinds of cute decorations. (We had the shower at our house.) We played some games, ate lots of food, and then opened gifts. It was great! The theme of the shower was for people's gifts to reflect what they "imagined" our baby might become in the future (inspired by our John Lennon nursery theme). The funniest response to the theme was my friend Margaret's gift. She bought us the diaper pail we had registered for and reasoned that our daughter would probably end up being an academic and would therefore be "full of shit." We all had such a laugh over this!! We got lots of other wonderful gifts, too - too many to list them all! But suffice it to say that I could go in to labor right this second and we would have everything we needed to feel comfortable when we brought her home. We now have all of our necessities, not to mention more cute clothes, toys, and books than you can imagine! This is going to be one spoiled little girl. :)
Sunday, Mom helped Nate go pick up the glider and ottoman that Nate's mom generously purchased for us as a gift. We found a great leatherette glider and ottoman, so we picked that one and put our order in. Unfortunately, it was too big to fit in either of our cars, so Mom and Nate went and got it in Mom's Mountaineer. Nate put it together that night, and now I have some place comfy to sit and dream in when I hang out in the nursery. Before, I was using a folding chair draped with a blanket....I like this much better! :) It's really roomy and has nice padded arms and even a little magazine holder on the side, which I imagine will be really useful when I'm nursing. I just can't wait to get her home!
My week so far has been busy yet relaxing and quite uneventful. It's Fall Break this week so I am using the week to get as much sleep as I can. I've slept about 10 1/2 hours every night so far! It feels soooo good. I only wish I could store up some of that extra sleep to help get me through the rest of the semester and those first weeks at home with a newborn. During the day, I've been working on schoolwork, trying to get ahead on a paper I have to write, and then in the evenings, Nate and I have been finishing up our Christmas shopping. We're almost done, and I hope we can wrap everything that we have so far tomorrow night while watching TV. It's really nice to know I won't have that hanging over my head with a newborn around.
Well, I think that gets me pretty much caught up. I'll try to pop in tomorrow afternoon after my appointment and give an update on that.
WOO-FREAKING-HOO!!
So those of you coming to the tailgate on Nov. 2, look out...you could POSSIBLY get to meet our baby girl! Mom is praying that at least I don't go into labor AT the tailgate. She'd prefer before or after, thank you very much. :)
OK, I'm off to just go sit and glow for awhile. :) I know I need to come back down to earth, but it makes me happy to know that my body is, for once in it's life, doing what it's SUPPOSED to!
The Adventure Begins
I woke up in the morning with my hips KILLING me. I've had some hip ache prior to this, but always just when I was in bed. Well this was persistent pain that made walking difficult. Then I noticed that I was having a lot of (TMI here - don't read if you're squeamish!) discharge that seemed to be more of my mucus plug, and it was tinged with pink. I know spotting is normal after an internal, but the spotting had stopped the night before and I wasn't sure if it was common for it to resume or if this might be bloody show. Add in the fact that I was also having far more contractions, albeit painless ones, than I've had so far, and I finally decided to call my doc, just to be sure. They thought it sounded suspicious enough to warrant a visit, so off I went. Well, I got ANOTHER internal (not really painful, but sure not fun) and the doc thought I might have progressed a tiny bit so he sent me off to the hospital to be monitored. I really thought it was going to be nothing, but wouldn't you know, I was actually having some totally painless contractions! In fact, I had progressed to 3.5 cm, I was about 50% effaced, and she's at -2 station (on a -5 scale, not a -3 scale). Since I'm not yet 36 weeks, they said they would prefer she not arrive just yet but also that they wouldn't AGGRESSIVELY try to stop labor. So they gave me a shot of terbutaline (um, ouch! thank goodness it only stings for a minute, but then the icky jitters and racing heart last for about an hour) to stop the contractions, but if it hadn't worked, they probably would have just let me deliver.
Well, it did work, so they sent me home with strict instructions to stay off my feet and keep well hydrated for the weekend. I was pretty disappointed, but by the same token, I know it's for the best that she cook at least a few more days. I think the worst thing is that, prior to Thursday, I was quite accustomed to thinking I wouldn't deliver until at least 40 weeks. But now that the time table seems to have shortened dramatically, a month seems EONS away, and yet I know I could still conceivably go until 40 weeks, so suddenly the thought of 4 more weeks of pregnancy is daunting rather than ho-hum. So please say a prayer or cross your fingers or send positive vibes or whatever that she shows up as soon as it's safe and not a day later! :)
On an interesting side note, ever since returning home, she has been a wild child. First, she got hiccups, which so many women think are cute but which drive me crazy! (I suppose that's mostly because she gets them at night and it keeps me up.) Then, she started pressing on my belly so hard, I was afraid a muscle was going to tear. She woke me up doing the same again this morning. I've come to the conclusion that since they closed off her original escape route yesterday, she has now resorted to Plan B: tearing her way out directly through my belly!!
That being said, I've decided to start keeping a daily log of all my possible early labor signs, both as a way to amuse myself in the future, as well as to provide an outlet for my current obsessing. Click here for my "Is This Labor?" page.