Practice Labor?

After having my membranes stripped yesterday I was been having some cramps and a few slight contractions. Sometime in the middle of the night the contractions picked up in  intensity enough to wake me up at least once an hour. While I was laying in bed this morning they started to come more regularly and surprised me with how uncomfortable they were. I got out of bed and tried bouncing on my ball and the contractions kept coming, about 7-8 minutes apart.  I had some breakfast and decided to go for a walk with Zero. Do you know what happened on my walk? The effing contractions slowed down....a lot.  Tjey all but stopped and it was then that my doula told me it sounded like I was having practice labor. Dear Lord. I only pray this doesn't go on for days. I took a wee little nap and unfortunately it was during the Gold Medal Women's Soccer Match but at least I was awake for the finish! I'm still contracting and they're still requiring to breathe through them but it doesn't look like I'll be having a baby today. The bright side is that I've heard all this practice labor helps prepare my body better for the real thing and can make active labor faster. I sure hope so because I'm starting to psyche myself over whether or not I will really be able to handle the real thing.

Just Kidding!

I woke up this morning and noticed some pink tinged liquid on my pad. I didn't get too excited but then the contractions started. Again, didn't get too excited. I had a feeling it might be labor but I was leaning more toward probably not. I tried going back to bed since, you know, you're supposed to rest as much as possible during early labor. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. After about an hour of pretty steady contractions I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom and guess what? The contractions stopped after clearing out my bowels. Lovely.  i continued to have some menstrual-like cramping though.  The on-call midwife told me that I could either come in to L&D to get checked out or I could wait until the clinic opened and see my midwife. Since the contractions had all but stopped and I was leaking minimal amounts of pink fluid I decided to wait to see my midwife. I gave my doula a heads up, Mike and I packed our last minute items in our hospital bags just in case I was admitted and we headed to the clinic.

She explained that the fluid I was seeing was just regular discharged tinged with blood from my cervix thinning--hooray for effacement! The EPO must be doing something because I was only 30% last Friday and was 60% today so something is definitely going on. We will not talk about the two pounds I managed to gain between now and then. What the fuck?  I'mgoing to say it's water retention since I'm all swollen again. Yup, that's it. My midwife also commented that baby must have dropped because I was measuring smaller. Mike commented yesterday about that and I guess he was right! I felt kind of dumb going in for something minimal but I didn't know what was going on. After a friend had a baby less than an hour after her water breaking I figured I'd better play it safe. I'm glad I went in. I'm still just 1cm but I'll take it. She stripped my membranes again and it was definitely way more uncomfortable this time than last week and I've been having some intense cramping/random contractions since then as well as more pink discharge. Hopefully our baby girl will be making an appearance before too long!!!

I have been going stir crazy just sitting at home and wondering, "Is today going to be the day?" so I decided to get out of the house today. I headed to a lavender farm with my doula and another friend and her baby and while I was having some difficult walking and bending and had a brief encounter with a snake on my foot, it was really nice to get out of the house. I picked a bundle of lavender that I'm going to dry and give to my midwife as a thank you gift--she always smells like lavender when I see her so I figured she'd like it. :) I also go some white chocolate lavender fudge that is deeeeelish! Now it's time to track the contractions that I'm having, put my feet up and rest because getting up at 0500 does not suit me.We're in single digits now, people!

Lavender bundle and white chocolate lavender fudge!

38w5d pregnant in a field of lavender

37 Weeks

From IVF bloat to big baby bump--look how far we've come!

How big is baby? 

 

Symptoms: Aches and pains all over. Dry mouth, hungry all the time, fatigue. Fun end of pregnancy stuff!
Total Weight Loss/Gain: +38.5
Maternity Clothes: Yup. Though I'm running out of things that fit. I snapped the elastic in on of my shirts today. Way to make a pregnant girl feel good!
Sleep: I miss it.  Baby girl must be pushing on my bladder because I am up every single hour some nights!

Best Moment This Week: Meeting with my doula and addressing my fears and anxieties about birth. I feel so much better now and I am pumped to have this baby!
Gender: GIRL!!!!
Movement: She's still very active and seems to be hanging out all on my right side. I'm constantly getting poked and kicked in the ribs.
Food Cravings: Cinnamon toast and cinnamon toast crunch
Labor Signs: I am declining cervical checks for now since they're not really a good indicator of when I'll go into labor anyway. I do have some occasional contracting and cervical pressure. My pelvis just feels so incredibly heavy. 
Belly Button In or Out? Depending on her position it's either a slight outie or big outie.
What I miss: Walking without looking like a little old lady. I have to shuffle to the bathroom in the middle of the night and it's so hard getting out of bed!
What I am looking forward to: The moment I meet our baby girl. It's so surreal that it could happen at any time now. After everything we've been through. I hope someone is available to take a picture of this moment because I want to remember it forever.
Next Appointment: 3 August--38 weeks.
Milestones: Full term!!! Her organs are fully functional and her lungs are mature enough that she now has permission to come out.  I'm totally expecting her to bake a few more weeks and I definitely want her to come when she's ready BUT I hope she doesn't take her sweet time because I really don't want to PCS 3,000 miles two weeks after having her, you know? Oh and I'm GBS negative, which means I can labor at home as long as I want to now. Woot!

I created a baby pool for fun--click on the banner to enter your guess on when Baby H. will arrive and how big she'll be! 

  

Oh and Happy Olympics, everyone!!!

34 Weeks and Running the Gauntlet of Family

For the first time in almost two weeks I have the house to myself. As Mike said last week, we've been running the gauntlet of family. My parents were here for a few days before their Alaskan Cruise, Mike's brother and his girlfriend were here for the week everyone was on their AK cruise and this past weekend we had my parents, my sister's family and my brother's family here post-cruise. We had a house full of people for the 4th too--it was exhausting! The last of our family left this morning and I immediately followed it up with a four hour nap! I guess baby H. and I were really needing the rest. Even though my family helped tremendously with the cooking and cleaning while they were here, I was still exhausted most of the time. My feet and ankles swelled to shocking sizes and I felt like a tick ready to pop. I think Mike and I are really ready to just relax, do a few last preparations and spend some quality time together before our baby girl arrives. The car seat has been re-installed (took it out to tote our family around these past few weeks) and we need to pack our hospital bags but I have to say I think we're pretty ready for our little girl to come into the world! The goodbyes weren't so hard this time because I know I will see most everyone in a few months--with a baby in tow!

I was reminded repeatedly why we have chosen to keep her name to ourselves until she's arrived. My mom kept asking if we were going to name her "one of those weird names" and actually guessed the name without realizing it. So, I guess she's going to be named something weird. Not weird to us! Hopefully once everyone sees a beautiful pink baby attached to the name they will keep their opinions to themselves. Has anyone else dealt with family name drama?

I have to say that I am getting pretty darn umcomfortable and retaining water like crazy. I drink at least 100 oz. of water a day and it doesn't seem to be helping. I feel like I'm even starting to get the 'pregnant face' and I can't say I'm crazy about that. 

How big is baby?

Symptoms: I'm officially a waddler! My dear big brother was making fun of me--I almost punched him. I'm guessing this means that baby girl has dropped into my pelvis. Stretch marks have also made an appearance on my belly but aren't super bright red, thanks to Bio Oil. I also have stretch marks in places I didn't know you could get stretch marks. Scary. My feet and ankles are swollen and very painful all the time now. Even my old reliable flip flops from Old Navy are tight--ridiculous.
Total Weight Loss/Gain: +35
Maternity Clothes: Yup. Though even some of them are too small or becoming uncomfortable.
Sleep: I can't complain too much. My body pillows keep me pretty comfortable but getting out of bed is a different story.
Best Moment This Week:
Gender: GIRL!!!!
Movement: All the time. I had a dream that she's going to have really long legs--which probably explains why I'm feeling her trying to stretch me sideways all the time!
Food Cravings: Blueberry pancakes.
Labor Signs: I've been feeling more cervical pressure and lots of braxton hicks. Hopefully it's just false labor though and she stays put for a few more weeks.
Belly Button In or Out? It's a slight outie now.
What I miss: Being able to walk like normal person without swelling like a hippo.
What I am looking forward to: Meeting our baby girl and seeing how Mike is as a father.
Next Appointment: 13 July
Milestones: She's the size of a butternut squash. At less than two months to go, she weighs in at about 4.2 pounds to 5.8 pounds and measures about 17.2 to 18.7 inches.

33 weeks, 6 days. My bump and Puget Sound

Baby H and I enjoying the frigid water of Puget Sound--felt so good on my swollen feet and ankles!

 

Just the three of us. Love this picture!

Summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest! Like my pool? :P

Vegan Red Velvet Cupcakes for 4th of July! Yummy.

Grill Master.

The girls. My sister in law has almost 12 pounds of babies in her now!

Waiting to see Joan Jett and the Blackhearts-- they put on a USO concert on post! It was awesome.

Uncle Mike showing Ben the Kiowas

Cutie Gabrielle in Uncle Mike's Stetson