Anna's Pregnancy Journal

It's been great coming home and staying home for lunch every day! Today I started training my replacement, she's really nice and I think she'll do well. They surprised us with a little party including an almond/apricot tart that was incredibly yummy! Plus they gave me a Borders gift card, so I'll be sure to pick up some more baby books.

Yesterday I had a doctor appointment, and it turns out that I'm not dialated but a Little Bit Effaced! Woo hoo! Hopefully we'll get this little one out soon, I am so ready. I am just so excited. I can't wait to meet him!

My back is starting to bug me so I think I'll lay down for a bit and watch some TV. Did I mention how nice it is to stay home??

Had a doctor appointment on Monday with my first internal, no dilation or effacement or anything. She could feel the head of the baby, but my cervix was still way up there. I guess I'm not too surprised since the contractions I've been having are more of the tightening and not pain. Another appointment on Tuesday so we'll see what happens by then.

I'm so freaking irritated. My back hurts me all the time, bending over is nauseating. My husband is getting all testy about me asking him to do things, but it's not like I can do anything. I can't wait until I can move again so that I don't have to argue about things like laundry and picking stuff up off the floor. But for now I guess I just have to deal with the tension.

After today and tomorrow I'm through with full days at work. Next week I'm down to half days every day. Looking forward to that, but not looking forward to driving all around. I don't even like to drive anymore :( With my luck this baby will be induced 10 days after my due date. Why can't he just come now??

Well, the baby is now full term which means I have begun the "COME ON OUT!" chants. I had a doc appt on Thursday and she decided not to check me for dilation or anything since I haven't really had painful contractions or cramping or anything. I have had a bajillion of the braxton hicks guys, but I dunno what they do in terms of helping with dilation.

Anywho, only two more weeks of work, and my doctor wrote me a note saying that she wants me on half days my last week. I'm all over that! It's getting close and we're at the stores like nuts trying to buy everything we need.

Now all we need is baby!

So yesterday I had a bit of a scare. It was a normal day at work, maybe a bit more physical because I was up using the paper cutter and putting up a bulletin board, so I was on my feet a bit. I went to the bathroom, one of many times, and all was good. I walked back to my desk and a minute later, I felt fluid. Ran back to the bathroom and I had indeed leaked a reasonable amount of fluid. I freaked out and called the nurse, who told me to just keep an eye on it. Nothing else happened the rest of the day, nor today - so hopefully it was just the normal stuff. Very scary though.

Today I had a doctor appointment, again. Did the Group B strep test, so we'll see how that turns out. Everything seemed ok with blood pressure, baby heartbeat, etc. so I guess it's just the waiting game. We just want another 2 solid weeks, then he can come whenever he wants. Just hold out for two more weeks, baby!

Just got back from the doctor with great news, my baby boy is head down! This explains all the movement we've been feeling, I am so thrilled. Plus we got to double check that he's a boy. His growth is in the 49th percentile, seriously how much better can you get?

And most importantly (hehe) I got the ok to go on our trip tomorrow! We're headed to the beach for a week, and I can't express how excited I am to have seven days to relax!

Lots of good news for a Friday the 13th! *knocks on wood* :-P

We had our doctor appointment on Friday and learned that our son is sitting with his bottom in my pelvis and his legs pointing up towards his head! We've got some work to do to turn him around, but he's got 8 weeks so I'm not too worried...yet. He looks great in terms of size and everything. My weight gain is up to 25 pounds now for the pregnancy, BOO! I'm going to be so huge, if I'm not already... Anywho it was kind of scary because our OB was really busy on Friday and the nurses kept shifting everyone around in the rooms. We were first put in a normal room and then put in a room with a fetal monitor, and we freaked out. Luckily it was just a space issue and not a we're worried about your baby issue. Still caused heart palpitations, though.

I'm feeling huge. I'm feeling tired. I'm feeling lots of kicks and bumps from the baby. Only 8 weeks left!

So much to write about, but decreasingly available time to do so. Anyway, this weekend we headed over to the in-laws to celebrate my SIL's high school graduation and have a little baby shower excitement. The graduation was nice and relatively short, but I missed the first half of musical entertainment as I was busy occupying my 3 year old cousin (in law? CIL?) It was a good time but I was pretty exhausted after a mere 40 minutes of shhhhh-ing. I guess I'll have to develop a tolerance. Anywho, my SIL was as lovely as ever and had great parties. Unfortunately I missed the 350 person teenager party (maybe fortunately? not so sure) but I made the 90 person brunch, and that was great. Mmmmm egg, mushroom & ham strata. Twice a year is enough for me with that, but wow was it good. We finally got to watch our VHS tape of the baby, and my OB-Gyn FIL confirmed that it's definitely a boy! Yaaay, time to wash all the blue clothing.

I had another doctor appointment and it was fine, except that I gained a bit more weight than I wanted to. I'm up to 21 pounds for the pregnancy, with 11.5 weeks to go. At a pound a week, that's about 31.5 pounds and I don't want to have gained that much :-( Lately I've been sticking to salads for lunch after all the baby shower food. No more chocolate cake. On a positive note, I took my second 1 hr gestational diabetes test and I passed with a 124! They said 140 was the highest to be ok, so I super passed! I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.

I've had the preggo brain lately too, though. At the graduation, I commented to my FIL that "This orchestra doesn't have a string section" to which he replied "that's because it's a band" Given that I've played in both string and full orchestras for the past, um, 13 years? That's a bit inexcusably silly for me to comment :) I also spilled some lemonade all over the cafe yesterday, and today I sent David a link to some glasses that I liked and forgot to include the link. Oh well, nothing too tragic, I guess I'm just a little preoccupied with the fact that I'M HAVING A BABY IN LESS THAN 12 WEEKS.

Holy moly, I am excited!

This week has been crazy busy, and driving 25 minutes each way to get to an evening water aerobics class hasn't helped...or has it? Aside from the drive, I LOVE WATER AEROBICS. It's so relaxing, the water is so warm, it's like a nice 60 minute conversation with 10 new friends - all with the same main interest at the moment - BABY! Very well worth the drive and $35/mo...I hope to continue this throughout the pregnancy.

I checked in with my physical therapy guy and he was very pleased that my pain has been better managed through exercise and stretching. Again, I'll keep this up and hopefully stave off any other back pain trauma.

I had another doctor appointment on Monday, with my actual OB again. I like her a lot, she is very thorough and to the point with my questions, and I feel like I can trust her. This is SO important! We heard the heartbeat again, nice and strong! She looked over the ultrasound photos again and said "this is just what we want to see, he looks great! She also said that I'm doing great with my weight gain (14 pounds so far) and should keep up the good work. My father-in-law, the OB, also says that I'm doing a good job with being healthy. This has motivated me to not purchase any more ice cream this week and to stick with fresh strawberries for dessert. If it means that I only gain 25 pounds during the pregnancy, then giving up the ice cream is well worth it! That's my goal, we'll see how close I get.

Another goal I have is to complete my pre-pregnancy scrapbook before my bestest friend Andrea comes over for the baby shower over Memorial Day. This will let me clear out the nursery of crafty stuff, and start getting set up! So I'll have most of June and half of July to work on the nursery, I want to be completely done and ready by my Week 34 trip to North Carolina (I am Insane).

Anywho, I am so excited and so happy, but just SO TIRED. I wonder if I'll ever get what I determine to be "enough sleep" ever...again.

Ok, lots and lots has happened since the last update, so let's get crackin'

First of all, we had the ultrasound at 18w 5d and learned that we're having a baby boy! We're very excited and very happy! All seems well with the little one *knocks on wood* Since then we've bought a few cute blue clothing items, along with some child sized hangers so everything is up in the closet.

We went to visit the in-laws for Easter and had a great time. We went to Babies-r-us and seriously spent 3 hours looking at the assortment of cribs and bedding sets and strollers and carseats, oh my! Child raising is expensive, as we suspected.

I bought a few books from friends hosting parties, so we've begun the educational training. I've already read a few to the lil boy! Also David's parents bought us a baby swing that we already set up! It was quite the adventure. We are getting really excited!!

I've been feeling ok with some on and off back problems, so hopefully I'll go see a physical therapist soon. Otherwise I'm growing ever so slowly, and noticed some new war paint on my belly after Easter. I guess that comes with the territory.

Every day that passes, we get more and more thrilled. We rock the baby swing, and pat the belly. Some day soon our family will grow, but it feels like it already has :-)

Today we got to meet the doctor, and I was so very happy - because I really liked her! After all that trauma about deciding over different doctors, I wish I hadn't asked anyone in the first place. Anywho, she was great and very to-the-point and informative, which is exactly my kind of style.

Turns out I'm a big NO on the gestational diabetes. I couldn't be happier about that!! My weight gain was a little high - I'm up like 7 pounds since the last visit about a month ago, not good. But thankfully my doctor didn't talk about that. We discussed getting me some physical therapy for my scoliosis issues. Then also I got to hear the heartbeat again...we're down at 140 bpm instead of 160 bpm like last time, guess it's growing! Next time is the SONOGRAM! So happy!

Anyway, just a little update to say that both the baby and my uterus are growing well!

So, things seem to be straightened away with my parents and friend. This is a good thing, I have enough things to stress me out in my daily life instead of worrying about things with people thousands of miles away. I apparently need a synonym for things.

The huge news in baby-land is that we had an appointment on Thursday of last week in which we Heard The Heartbeat! It was about 160 bpm and sounded like a little helicopter. I talked a bit with the nurse practitioner who was giving my appointment, and she was very "well, things are probably not going to be the way you want" As in, "well, we'll *try* to get you to see your doctor every other time you're here, but sometimes that won't work" and "how are they supposed to know their vacation schedules by now?" and "you'll get to have one sonogram and maybe you'll get to have another, it's up to us you know" and "you want to meet more than one doctor? No One Has Ever Asked Me That Before" So, clearly I was very "Are you kidding me? Quit treating me like an ignorant first time mom, thank you very much." Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled with her. And if I have to see her the majority of my visits, that doesn't make me very happy. If my doctor has the same attitude she does, well, I'm not sure what I'll do. Probably cry. That seems to be the overemotional reaction I have to most things lately.

Anyway, most of the first trimester feelings I've been having are subsiding. I don't have that weird pit in my stomach anymore, and I'm back to eating huge servings of my favorite food (pasta with tomato sauce and cheeeeeese!) I have a bit of a sweet-tooth lately, and the abundance of Valentine's Day candies and cupcakes available are not helping. On an unrelated note, it seems that I have gained about 6 pounds. This is a bit high, so I'm going to need to curb the sweets sometime soon. Sometime.

Also, as related to the subject of this post, I have been at the heights of crankiness. I feel really bad for my husband. I am just a big jerk lately. Hopefully I'll get over it soon, I think the sub-zero temperatures have something to do with it.