Good News

My appointments today went very well. The OB still has me set for 7 AM Monday for my induction to start. He seems to think this could be a very long process ("good thing we're starting Monday. We'll have all week then".) I'm hoping to prove him wrong and get this labor thing done with quickly. Baby was VERY active for the NST today, so it didn't take very long. After that appointment, we went straight over to the specialists office for my last biophysical profile test and a growth scan. Passed with flying colors! And, the best news (I think) is that the baby is measuring RIGHT on. He is in the 50th percentile for his gestational age, and the weight estimate is 6 lbs. 15 oz. Although these are only "estimates" this news makes me happy! One of the risks with gestational diabetes is that baby will get too large, and this does not appear to be the case with our little guy! Yippee! The other really good news from the appointment? My fluid level was way up! I was measuring at about a 14 (it was 9 last friday). All in all, things look great and this is great for everything to be looking good for Monday. The funniest part of the morning was when I walked into the specialists office after the ultrasound. He says "you're still pregnant? I thought you were visiting with your baby or something!" (He was on vacation the last 2 weeks). The man did NOT think I would go this far and was all smiles and happy that I made it here and that induction is on Monday. I feel like I finally did *something* right with this pregnancy! It was touch and go for a while, but in the end, I shocked them all! :-)

Now, it is supposed to get up to 106 degrees here this weekend, and I'm sweating just thinking about it. How on earth are TWO whole days going to go by fast enough, when now all I want in the world is for it to be Monday so I can meet my BABY BOY??? I can't wait!

P.S. There is no internet at the hospital, so I can't guarantee a timely announcement on here when he is born. Perhaps I'll teach mike or Mom how to update this weekend so they can post something!

Mark your calendars!

Monday at 7 AM I go into the hospital to start my induction. Please please please pray for a healthy and FAST (!!!) delivery!!! :-)

Wow. I am going to give birth in FIVE days~(give or take...apparently induction CAN take a while.)

Picture blog!

(If you click on a picture it'll make it bigger to get a better look. I don't recommend doing this if you see the pregnant lady in the photo. The belly will take up your whole screen!)

Don't ask how I got up off the ground...it wasn't pretty. :-)

The completed nursery! We love it! (yes, we know we need to hang something above the dresser- just have to figure out what!)

quick update

Sorry to be brief, but I'm not feeling well today. Just wanted to report that there will be no baby tomorrow. We decided to wait until July 1st, when I will be 38 1/2 weeks. Since my sugars and BP seem to both be stable, and sometimes the gestational diabetes can make babies lungs a little less mature, the plan is to wait until then.

So...we will have a July baby afterall! If nothing else changes, that is!

And so it goes

I may or may not be having a baby at the end of this week :-) Very specific, I know. Imagine how I feel.

The OB yesterday, in all his humor, says "I think we'll pull the plug and end all this nonsense this week". My bp is slowly creeping back up, while my blood sugar is creeping back down finally. That's typical for me I suppose. Take care of one thing, another thing goes wacky. So, I did some labs yesterday and will do yet another 24 hour urine today. Thursday I go back to the OB and he was going to try to schedule induction for Friday. I don't think I'll know for sure until the appointment on Thursday. The good news is thursday marks 37 weeks, which is considered full-term!!! Because it's full term, and because I'm a messy patient, he thinks it'd be better for everyone to deliver. So....I shall keep you posted.

Happy Father's Day

I wanted to make this it's own post and say Happy Father's Day to all the awesome father's out there!!! Obviously there are a few who need to be singled out:

To my dad. He is the best father out there and I am happy he's MINE! :-) Can't wait for him to meet his new grandson.

To my father-in-law. He obviously has to be recognized for raising such a stand-up son. Boys turn out to be good men in large part because of how their parents raised them, and I am thankful to have such a "good" man in my life.

To my husband. I have not witnessed him holding his son yet, but he has already proven that he will be an excellent father. I cannot wait for this child to be born so I can see him in action as a daddy.

And to all the other special father's out there. Thanks for loving and taking care of your children.

I am blessed

I have the best group of friends and family any one person could ever ask for. I honestly have always felt this way, but yesterday I was completely slapped in the face with it. Let me set the scene:

I'm in the bathroom drying my hair. Mike comes in and hands me the phone (with a funny little smirk on his face) and says "it's for you". I look at caller id and it's my best friend, Rose. After a little small talk, and her convinced I'm saying "dying my hair" and wanting to know what color (yeah, THAT was a confusing conversation), I'm told "well, today's your baby shower". Huh? Mike then tells me to go in the living room, where there is a pile of boxes and streamers all over the place. So, surprise to me! I had a baby shower yesterday. Who was in attendance? Me, Mike, and Boss. Yup. My sneaky friends and family threw me a long distance shower. Apparently they sent out email invitations to a group of loved ones and people responded. They sent gifts to Mike's work and he snuck them home on Friday and snuck them in the house in the 5 minutes I was drying my hair. I am living in a town on the other side of the country, where I know NO ONE, pregnant and on bedrest, and I have never felt so loved as I did yesterday morning. It was overwhelming that (a) they would think of doing this for me and (b) that so many people sent their love. I truly do not know what to say other than THANK YOU to everyone for making such a special, special day for me. I know Rose had a lot to do with it, she is truly the sweetest person out there for many reasons other than this event. I'm not positive who else, but I understand Chrissie, Carrie, Mom and Mike were players in the sneakyness as well- they all called me yesterday to send their love my way- so thanks to them as well. And really, thank you to everyone! Mike took pictures and I will post a few when they are on the computer.

Lastly, our dear friends Chrissie and TJ (for those of you who need reminding TJ is "Reverand" TJ who married us last year) are having their baby this week!! Chrissie will be admitted tomorrow evening to start induction and hopefully be holding her very special little boy sometime on Tuesday. I truly cannot think of two more deserving people and know with certainty that they will be wonderful parents. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers for a healthy, safe (and quick!) delivery.

With a belly this size, who could sleep?

Well, it's finally here. I am at the point in pregnancy where I can't do a darn thing to get comfortable at night. Don't get me wrong, lack of sleep and discomfort have been my two best friends for a while now, however last night I realized it is just NOT possible to get comfortable. Left side-no. Right side- no. Pillow here, pillow there. Ouchie. Side note, it is also quite possibly comic relief to watch me TRY to get up from the chair or couch. Seems like it takes hours.

Mike had to go out of town for work today and will return tomorrow night. He was also gone Monday night. It's lonely when you sit around all day by yourself and then also have no company at night! Boo! He was pretty funny though- before he left he lectured my belly (well, ok, the baby) to "stay in there until I get back." We have a good baby, I know he'll listen to daddy. Actually, if I haven't mentioned it before, baby is quite calmed by daddy. He can be in there driving me completely bonkers with hard kicks and wiggles, and all Mike has to do is come over, put his hands on my belly, and give a little pep talk. Calms him right down. (ahem...I think we have a winner for who will have to put him back to sleep in the middle of the night.)

OB appointment yesterday went well. Baby continues to rock the NST's. My doctor refers to me as his "problem child"...it's an endearing term, really. Yesterday he was walking from his office with a little piece of paper in his hand. He is on vacation for a few days starting today and I think he was making notes for the on-call docs. Anywho, he shows it to me real quick and it's got "Problem children" written across the top and he tells me, "see? you're my number 1!" Aww, how lucky am I? In the appointment he mentioned how happy he is that I will be 36 weeks this week and that once I get to 37 he'll probably consider ending my misery (his words, not mine) and inducing me. He just thinks will all the issues I have it would be better to just get baby out of there. Sounds good to me. SO, hopefully at my appointment next week (Monday) we will discuss this further.

My blood sugars (knock on wood) have been lower the last 2 days. Perhaps the medicine just takes a while to work, I don't know. In fact, today it got so low it was too low- I got all sweaty all over and shaky and really bad feeling. I was pretty sure this was what "low" felt like, so I check my sugar and sure enough. I downed 1/2 a coke (ok, not the healthiest, but it was there) and I was good to go within minutes. (Note to self: now that the medicine appears to be working better, do NOT skip any snack times.)

I had yesterday and today completely off, so I am loaded up on 3 girly movies to keep me entertained. Just finished 27 dresses. Cute movie. Fun and girly- perfect for a woman on bedrest. :-)

so cute

This is what I did when I was bored in the hotel. I posed the dog with her stuffed monkey- he he. We bought the monkey for her at Walmart and it was love at first site. We had to retire the monkey last night after she pulled all the stuffing out. Rest in peace little monkey.

I can't believe I'm showing you this...

Per request (Kelley!), I am posting this picture of me. It was taken today in the backyard- 35 weeks 2 days pregnant. I would like to take this opportunity to say to Kelley "see, I told you so". It's hard to be a cute pregnant lady with a belly this size!

Fabulous!

My appointments yesterday were so much better than they've been lately. First off, bedrest and water has done wonders for both my fluid level (up over 11 now!) and my BP. I have been in a downward trend with my BP for about 3 weeks and it's now looking really nice (I still take meds for it though). My blood sugars continue to be high and climbing. He increased my dose for a third time, and we'll see if this makes my body produce more insulin. I get frustrated with it, because it's so much better for the baby at birth if it is under control. If mine is still high, then it increases the chances of his dropping too low after birth (because his body is right now producing a lot of insulin to keep up with my sugars). It also increases the chances of him being quite large! So, I would really, really like to get this sugar thing controlled for a period of time before giving birth.

I flat out asked the OB yesterday "so, I know it's hard to predict, but will I likely go to 40 weeks?". He answered with a very quick NO. But then explained. As soon as my cervix looks like it's getting ready, and I'm past the "fullterm" week of 37, he will likely induce me. I'm ok with that. I no longer have worries about him being born too early. Phew.

We had our tour of labor and delivery yesterday and did all the pre-admit stuff. We were both very satisfied with this hospital and feel good about delivering there. The rooms are pretty large, with a jacuzzi tub in the bathroom (for pain relief). I will labor, deliver, recover and stay in the same room the whole time. They allow baby to come out and be put immediately to me for breastfeeding (this is important to me). They then take baby to the warmer (right at the foot of the bed) to check him out and do whatever they need to do (in my case, this will include checking his blood sugar). Hopefully he will then just be ours in the room for the duration! We do have a few things to think about as far as IV vs. formula to control his sugars, if need be. There are pros and cons to each, so Mike and are going to discuss and decide which we would prefer to try first. Again, I'm hoping this isn't an issue, but better to be prepared.

I do not have much to say about the childbirth class we attended yesterday, so I will leave it at that. Glad we went, but we did not go back for part 2 this morning, as neither one of us felt it was worth me going out for 5 hours for. Hopefully this is not something we will regret, but I feel pretty ok with my decision.

Baby is still moving so much inside me it even hurts sometimes! I do love to feel him though. I still cannot believe he will be here with us so soon!! I cannot wait to meet him!!!!!

Bedrest is....

Overrated. I know most of you think I should enjoy my down time while I can, soak in all this rest, etc, etc. But really, it is completely overrated. I get so annoyed when I want to do something and realize I can't. I have an ongoing shopping list of a million little baby things I still think we need, and have no idea when/if I'll get to go shop for them! I am now the queen of online ordering, and me and the UPS man will probably be on a first name basis by the end of the week. Thank goodness for the trips to the doctor that gets me out of the house! (ok, a little sarcasm here). This week I had/have: Monday- specialist appointment for biophysical to re-check fluid (fluid up a little bit, but still on the "lower" end...I'm in the 5th percentile on fluid). Tuesday- OB appointment for NST (baby is still healthy as an ox; my OB wants me to "just get 9 more days in"...after the 9 days, then what? Not sure, I think he'll just feel better about where I am in my pregnancy at that point). Friday- I will go to the specialist first for another biophysical to re-check fluid AND then go straight to the OB for NST. And how's this for bedrest.....Friday afternoon we go for our tour of labor and delivery at 4, then at 6PM we have part one of our childbirth class. Saturday is all day childbirth class. Hmmm...maybe I shouldn't complain about the bedrest, it seems today and tomorrow are my only all day rests. In any case, I am trying to rest as much as I can and drink lots and lots and lots of water. I'm floating.

Yesterday was my 33rd birthday- oh how eventful this birthday was! (he he, more sarcasm!) (shout out to my birthday twin Erika!!!! Happy birthday to her yesterday as well!!!) I am very thankful to all my friends and family who either called or emailed me or sent cards to make my day special! I have the BEST family and friends a girl could ask for. My wonderful husband had agreed to sneak me out of the house to the movies last night, on the condition that I rested all day leading up to it. Well, I was not feeling well all afternoon and evening, so I decided it was best to skip the movie. Instead he went grocery shopping for me and cooked me dinner. He's fabulous. He also got me the diaper bag I wanted for my gift- I love it!

Well, tomorrow is the 35 week mark. I am so happy to be at week 35!!! There were a few moments where I wasn't sure it would happen, but here I am. I still believe I have more weeks in me, so stay tuned....I just may have a july baby afterall!

He's a mover and a shaker

The last 3 days, my baby does nothing but move. I mean, not a little kick here, a wiggle there. I mean, my whole belly moves around and I can feel him stretching out his body like "what the heck! Can someone PLEASE give me some room in here?!?" Sometimes I even feel a little bad for him because it's like he really wants to stretch out and can't. But most of the time, I put my hands on my belly and think about how special this child is. Just when I worry that my body is failing him, he tells me "hey mommy- I'm fine! Feel me grove?" He is and will be just fine.

To fill you in on how important these movements are- the danger of having low fluid is that there isn't much room for things to float around in there. The worry is that he could sit on his cord, with no cushioning of fluid, and cut of his blood supply. As long as I feel movement, we know he is good to go. Also, so nobody gets too freaked out- I'm not so low yet that it's "danger zone". The healthy range is 5-25 (cm's I think?). I am 6.9 or something like that. So, there's not much in there, but it's not below normal. Obviously they like to have more fluid, but that's all I got right now. Why the low fluid? They aren't sure. It's either the hypertension, something with the placenta (they don't think so), or something completely unexplainable (they're leaning more towards this). There's your lesson in amniotic fluid for the day.

I had a short visit to labor and delivery yesterday. That's where I end up when something out of the ordinary happens on a night or weekend. Yesterday morning I started having some major eye disturbances- everything I looked at was squiggly and moving, for a good 30-45 minutes. The doctor thought everything was probably fine, since I checked my BP and it wasn't that high. But the only way to know for sure is to get checked. So, I go...my BP was great and they just hooked me up to the NST to check on the baby for an hour or so. He was excellent, as always. The funny part was he moved the entire test (and I have to push a button every time he moves, so the thing looked like I was trigger happy). Also, he got the hiccups while I was hooked up and I could feel and hear each one. It was so cool. They say the eye thing may just have been that my BP spiked up high for a short period of time and then came back down. It's apparently not as worrying when it's not consistently high. Phew. And, the nurse was so nice and reassured me that I did the right thing in coming in and being fine, then to sit home and do nothing. If it had been something, better that I be there.

So, now on to my Sunday. Pretty much looks like any other day of the week around here for me!