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March 31, 2004
No creative titles here, only cherry limeade cravings… (3-31-04)
Where to start, where to start? Time is still flying by, and as usual I can’t quite seem to get a grip on it. It’s just such a slippery thing, how sometimes a minute seems to take forever but then a day is gone, poof! And another, and another, and just like that a month has passed. Tomorrow it will be April, and only 25 days will remain until my due date—whatever that means, LOL! :)
So, let’s see. I am 36.5 weeks pregnant, and I can’t believe that I have reached the point where the baby could really, actually come at any time. Sure, I don’t honestly expect her until May, but many babies are born at 37 weeks so I suppose anything could happen. I find myself pondering this quite a bit, as any woman in her ninth month of pregnancy is prone to do. As my discomfort increases and my sleep decreases, an early baby is certainly beginning to sound tempting! But really, I want to make it to 40 or 41 weeks and I’ve said all along that I think this baby will be late. Since Aden was born by induction at 41 weeks and 6 days, it is hard to imagine that this little girl won’t be at least a few days overdue. And honestly, as impatient as I was for him to arrive, I really liked having a late baby. He was so alert, his motor control was great, he slept well and ate well… it really seemed that having a little extra time made a huge difference in his development. So hopefully there will be about 4 more weeks before her arrival. And I also reserve my hormonal pregnant right to change my mind about that at any time, LOL!
Obviously the pregnancy is the top thing on my mind most of the time. I had an appointment with my midwife on Saturday and everything is going great. Fran spent a lot of time palpating my uterus to determine exactly what position the baby is in, to the point where I was getting a little nervous she was going to tell me the baby had turned breech. First she would start at the top of my uterus and work her way down, and then she would shake her head and concentrate even harder and start at the bottom and work her way up, feeling for any bumps or movements that would help her decipher the baby’s position. Finally she said that the baby was still head down, and had me feel the difference between her head and butt, and also the sharp bump of her shoulder down near her head. The head down position was also perfectly verified by the location of the heartbeat. :) Fran said the baby has developed quite a nice round bottom, which is great because it means she is putting on fat just like she should. She also said that the baby doesn’t feel overly large, just a nice average size. All of my other vitals were great too—my blood pressure is low, I’ve gained about 22 pounds, and I only have the slightest bit of swelling, although it is getting worse on the hotter and muggier days. Fran complimented me on how well I’m taking care of myself, which was funny because I don’t feel like I’m doing nearly as much as I should! But it made me feel good nonetheless.
My two biggest complaints right now are ever-increasing pelvic pain and the lack of sleep that results from it. I’ve been using a homeopathic gel called Traumeel and it does a great job of relieving my pain or at least making it bearable during the day, but it’s just not effective at night. Last Tuesday night I woke up with every movement, and finally at 1:30 a.m. I just sat up and started crying because sleeping felt like such torture that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I felt so miserable contemplating 5 more weeks of this! Poor Derek tried everything to make me feel better but nothing helped. I was finally able to go back to sleep as long as I lay on my back propped up by lots of pillows and didn’t try to sleep on my sides at all. The next few nights were more of the same, with me just dreading going to sleep and feeling miserable the entire time. Thank goodness for Fran, though, because she recommended taking skullcap tincture before bed to help with the nerve aspect of the pain and to help me sleep deeper. It has made a complete difference! I didn’t know much about homeopathic remedies before this pregnancy but now I believe in them wholeheartedly. I’m sleeping better, only waking up every so often to go to the bathroom or tell my husband to quit snoring (LOL) and then falling back to sleep easily. I think I’ll be able to make it the rest of the way now!
And one last thing on my “I love my midwife and she is a complete goddess” tangent… At our last appointment she presented Aden with his very own measuring tape, just like hers, so he can put it in with his tools and help take care of me. If you’ve been reading along you know how interested he is in this pregnancy and how much he loves to use his tools to check the baby, so this was such a sweet and thoughtful gesture! Aden was absolutely overjoyed. :)
Aden is also doing great and wanting to talk about the baby more and more. One night I told him he was a cutie boy, and he said, “When the baby comes out of your tummy, she will be a cutie baby!” Another night he was playing and I asked him for a hug, and when he ran up to me he snuggled in and told me I was his best friend. Aww… He is just such a wonderful little guy! And I have to brag about one thing, because this really impresses me. Aden often gets up between 6:00 and 6:30 in the morning, or pretty much as soon as it is light outside, no matter how dark the curtains in his room are. Sometimes this makes for a really tired mama, but most days he comes in to tell me good morning and then goes downstairs and plays for hours! He gets his sippy cup of milk out of the fridge, plays with his trains, and eventually turns on the TV and changes it to the right channel to watch Sesame Street at 8:00. He likes me to get up with him then, but if I’m really tired he’ll go back downstairs and play for even longer. These last few mornings as I’ve been trying to catch up on sleep, he’s let me sleep in until 9:00 or even later. That’s 3 hours of entertaining himself and he’s only 2 ½! I am *so* lucky!
I’m still trying to get a lot accomplished around the house, but my energy is decreasing so I’m not sure everything will be done before the baby comes. The nursery is completely done, down to the little tiny clothes which have been washed and put away in the dresser. Aden’s room is also done and it looks so much more grown-up now (sniff, sniff). All of our birth supplies are together, the towels and linens have been baked, and a phone list is by each phone. The kitchen is still not complete—the bottom cabinets are not painted, the ceiling is not completely painted, the trim and baseboard are not up—but hopefully I’ll have one last spurt of energy and polish it off then, and maybe get the bathroom painted while I’m at it. Well, I can dream, can’t I?
Derek and I met with our doula for our first official meeting last week. That’s probably a little late but since she’s also one of my best friends we didn’t really need to have a lot of “getting to know you visits.” :) She and Fran will both be here again on Sunday and then my mama friends are having a shower for me later that day. I’m really looking forward to Sunday! Hopefully I will post another entry soon about the shower, or (more realistically) I’ll put a quick update on my TTM board. That’s also where I’m planning to post if labor seems to be starting or if there is any news of any sort. And please stop to check out the message I posted yesterday, it has a link to my latest belly shots and the house pictures I put up on our website yesterday.
I’m really craving a Sonic cherry limeade but instead I’m going to go rustle through our cabinets one more time in the hopes of finding something good to eat. Probably a lost cause… I may have to drive to Sonic yet. Why don’t they deliver? More importantly, why isn't my husband standing at the door, keys in hand, jumping at the chance to go buy me one? LOL! Anyway, have a great week and Happy April Fool’s Day tomorrow!
Tara
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