Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Symptom spotting...like a mofo!

UGH.  I am 38 weeks and 3 days today.  I think I had my bloody show this morning.  If you don't know what that is, I'm not gonna 'splain it because it's grody.  You can google it.

But then while I was blow drying my hair, I also felt this tiny trickle on my thigh and thought it was a drop of water from my hair that happened to land right there, but then when I wiped it off, I noticed it was pinkish.

So then I thought my water was breaking, but that it would come out in trickles the way it does when the baby is blocking the bag and only your hindwaters break.  So I waited at home for a half hour longer than usual to monitor and nothing else really happened.  No more trickles.  Only the same mild contractions I've been having on and off for the past few days anyway.

So who freakin' knows.

Today is Leap Day.  February 29, 2012.  I think it might be kinda cool to have a leap birthday, but also maybe a little sad.  I don't know.  I would find it special, nonetheless, so if it happened today, I would be cool with that. 

Anyway, my mom's been working on this quilt for months, and I finally received it in the mail yesterday.  We picked out fabric together and I told her I wanted a monkey and an elephant.  How AWESOME is this?!  The outer edge looks black and white in the picture, but it's really gray and white.  It matches the room really well, and I think Tyrone's gonna love it forever since it's from his halmuni.  :-)

Note to my girlfriends:  Momma Hwang has offered to make quilts for your future babies if you'd welcome them, so keep that in mind!

**EDIT:  TMI update, just went to the bathroom and there is more bloody show.  progress?  i hope so!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

The Baby Room

It's finally done!  Well...for the most part.  I still have to hang a mobile (once it arrives), and organize just a bit more, but whatever.  I've done all I can for now.  Here are a few pics!

Tyrone has already accumulated seven pairs of shoes.  He takes after his mommy.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Making progress


I had a midwife appointment this morning, and while she was giving me an internal, she goes, "Oh my!  Holy moly, wow..."

I was like - WHAT?!!

She says, "Your cervix is very, very thin, and you're dilated around 2-3 cm now.  So whatever you've been doing, keep doing it."

YAY!!  I think it's really close, guys...really close.  She told me there's a straight shot right to the head and she was feeling the baby's head as she was checking me.

The only sucky thing is that she confirmed he is sunny side up which is supposed to make labor horrendous and concentrated in your back.  Apparently, it's much more painful this way.  BUT, I'm staying positive as there are no absolutes in labor.  Who knows, maybe Tyrone will just slip right out and I'll barely even realize it. 

One can hope!

In the meantime, I've watched two very helpful DVDs about calming newborns and how newborns communicate.  I very much recommend them:

-The Happiest Baby on the Block
-Dunstan Baby Language

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Puffy


Swollen feet, exploding out of my shoes. Ouchy!

Cravings for crap food


I have no idea what's come over me today.  After several weeks of decreased appetite, today I've really outdone myself and it's only 4:30 pm.

Breakfast:  McDonalds!  This is the second time I've had McD's breakfast in a decade and the first was during first trimester.  Sausage Egg McMuffin (no cheese - blech, I HATE American cheese), hashbrown, OJ.

Lunch: Panera Thai Chicken Salad and half a bag of potato chips.  Ok that's not that bad, but I wasn't even that hungry.

Snack:  Just polished off a packet of M&Ms.  Last time I had crappy kid-candy was during Halloween.

What is going on with me?  I would like to think that my newfound interest in shitty food is a sign of early labor.  Hah.  Riiiiight. 

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Bump Watch - 37 weeks






Jeez, I am so humungous.  Although it's strange, you can't see much of a difference in these pictures,  but apparently the bump did grow 4.5 cm from 34 to 37 weeks so it's definitely bigger.  I'm also getting many more comments lately about how I look ready to pop or how I must be due soon.  Honestly, my back is breaking.  This part of pregnancy is pretty shitty.

V and I went to dinner on Friday night and as we were putting our coats on getting ready to leave, the maitre'd looks at my belly and goes, "Soon we're gonna have to get a bigger table!"

I know, SO RUDE.  But I wasn't offended because he was so tiny and cute and old and had an Italian accent.  Really old school. 

After dinner, we went to this party at an Irish pub in midtown to celebrate the screening of one of his short films, and we played a game of pool.  I must have looked so ridiculous.  A bowling ball balancing on the edge of the pool table, cue behind me, trying to be smooth and accurate with my shooting.  Riiiight.

Anyway, these pictures make it look like it's gotten higher, not lower though... eh, who knows!?

I thought I might be in labor this morning.  For the past few days, I've been feeling period-like cramps and braxton hicks at the same time, on and off.  And during the night last night I could feel tons of braxton hicks, and then this morning, I had the menstrual cramping thing with a super tight belly for like, maybe 2 minutes.  All I could think was CRAP!  But Vitaly's leaving for Florida today!

Anyway, they stopped, and now I'm just sitting at work trying to drink lots of water and not walk around more than I need to. 

So, the days I can NOT have a baby: 
-February 21-23
-March 1-4
-March 12

Otherwise, I'm good to go!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

My pelvis is good! - 37 weeks

Full Term!!!

I've had only one reservation about childbirth, and that is the fear of c-section because I don't have what you call "birthing hips."

Seriously. My body from the front is so funny looking right now. They say your hips spread when you're pregnant, but mine dont look like they have at all. I literally just look like I stuffed a ball under my shirt and my hips are narrower than said ball so it's a little wonky.

But at my 37 week check up yesterday, my midwife did a pelvic and internal exam and the first thing she said was, "You have a good pelvis."

I was so shocked, and pleasantly surprised! She assured me that I shouldn't have any issues delivering vaginally - at least not due to a narrow pelvis. This is THE best news I could have gotten. But it gets even better!

I'm dilated 1-2 cm. Baby's head is engaged at -1 to 0 station so he's gotten in position. And my cervix is effaced 50%, meaning it's softened and thinned out about halfway.

We are well on our way!

Also, I was a little concerned at my last appointment that I was measuring kind of small, but my bump grew 4.5 cm in the last 3 weeks, so it's all good. :-)

The ridiculous part is that after an incredibly slow Jan and Feb, V all of a sudden has a bunch of gigs lined up - and we really need them. So hopefully Tyrone won't decide to make his appearance this week bc V will likely be in FL. Yikes!

Hang in there lil one!

Monday, February 13, 2012

36 weeks - 9 months

For those of you who aren't counting, I'm officially 9 months pregnant!    Counting is all I do these days.

We got the crib up over the weekend and it really hit me that there will be an actual baby sleeping there - maybe even within the next 2 weeks (if I'm lucky).  It became very, very real.  But I didn't bug out, like I thought I would.  I just kind of stared at it and it made me really excited!

But I also realized that I've been reading so much on pregnancy and childbirth, I haven't actually read anything about having a real, live newborn to take care of.  Is it all intuitive?  Will I know know what to do by instinct?  I know I'm supposed to feed him every 2-3 hours, and change him when he's wet or poopy, and burp him after he eats, but beyond that, what am I supposed to know?

My mom and dad are going to try to come and stay with us for a few weeks after the baby is born, and I was kind of annoyed by that before because it's going to be a FULL house in a wee little house, but now I'm really glad.  I think I'm going to want my mommy.

Late third trimester is every annoyance it's cracked up to be.  Starting around 34 weeks all the discomfort started kicking in along with the daily feeling that I am so.over.this.  Sciatica, back pain, loose joints.  However, if it weren't for this chronic cough, I'd still be sleeping ok, so at least I can still hold on to that for now.

Whatever, I'm fed up.

In the words of my husband, "Give me my baby already!"

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Home remedies.

I have mashed potatoes on my chest as I write this. I'm not joking.

And of course, Monty's sitting on top of me because he wants to eat the potatoes.

I stayed home from work today after my 6th consecutive night of getting no sleep due to this horrendous cough. So V brought in reinforcements: my old school Russian father-in-law.

I now have hot mashed potatoes on my chest, vaporub on my feet, wrapped in cotton with large socks, and I just finished a cup of garlic honey tea. These remedies are pretty tame compared to what would be happening if I weren't pregnant.

He actually came over to do some ancient chinese cupping thing on my back and to put these weird mustard compresses on my chest but he's been advised not to do that on pregnant women.

This morning I also had a couple cups of warm milk, baking soda and honey.

To be honest, it all seems to be working. My cough broke long enough to get two hours of sleep.

It's pretty amazing, and it's nice being pampered by V. He's been a great nurse :-)

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Taking misery up a notch

If my calculations are correct, I haven't been sick in about 7 years.  So I guess I had this coming for some time.  Lord have mercy!

About a month ago, for two weeks, I had a pretty standard cold.  Sinus congestion, a bit of cough, blah.  But it went away.  All of a sudden last Wednesday, the cough came back and with a vengeance!  I am SO miserable.

I've avoided all drugs, even Tylenol, throughout this pregnancy, but I'm so desperate I've been taking Robitussin AND Sudafed (all Dr. sanctioned), and even went to see my GP who prescribed a Z-Pak.  I was going to wait to take it in the hopes that this might be viral, and not bacterial, and would go away by itself, but last night in a fit of coughing at 1 o'clock in the morning, I grabbed it and downed the first two little pills.  So now, I'm on antibiotics as well. 

The worst part about it all is that a few days ago, I coughed so hard I pulled a muscle in my outstretched belly.  So now every cough comes with sharp abdominal pain too.

WHEEEE!  Pregnancy is so fun!

A moment of the glass being half full to round out this bitch fest:  Freaking out that all this coughing might be hurting my little womb resident, I did a quick google search and actually read that it may be preparing little Tyrone for labor contractions, so when they actually do start, he won't experience quite as much fetal distress since he'll be used to all the spasms and tightenings.  I hope this is true...in which case, Thank You Jesus.  There really is a reason for everything!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Tumbleweeds roll through my valley

For the first time in my life, I have cleavage.  This is pretty awesome, except that the bump throws my whole body ratio off.  I'll be looking forward to when the milk comes in and the bump shrinks back down and I have a waist again.

In the meantime, I have noticed that I keep finding little crumbs of food wedged between my camisole and torso.  Or sometimes, between my bra and ta-tas.

Is this what all women with real boobs have been dealing with?  Or am I just a clumsy mess?

The upside is that I ever get hungry on the subway, chances are I can just reach down into my shirt and collect a little snack.  I'll never starve!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Bump Watch - 34 weeks

Whoa.  Ok guys, I remember thinking at 28 weeks I couldn't get much bigger because everything felt tight then.  Understatement of the year!  I was so very, very wrong.  I'm posting 28 through 34 so you can see the difference.  It's crazypants.

To think that I might still have 6 to 8 weeks left kind of makes me want to cry, so I just keep focusing on the fact that I might only have 3 weeks and that makes it all better.  I'm drinking Raspberry Leaf tea (to tone the uterus) once every couple days and taking Evening Primrose Oil (to soften the cervix) daily now to get the process kick started.  And hopefully this little guy won't make me wait too long to meet him.

There's one thing I was really hoping I'd start doing right around now: perineal massage, to lessen my chances of tearing, but I can't bring myself to do it.  You basically have to sit there and massage your lady parts and tug and pull a little bit, sticking your thumbs in  your hoo ha.  I'm not squeamish or anything, and I'm definitely not shy, but I honestly can't see what's going on down there, and I can't reach that far -- even with my unusually long monkey arms!

And my stuff down there is pretty monstrous already and I haven't even given birth yet, so I really don't think V is gonna want to help out with this particular task, and I don't want to ask him either!  How would I know this when I can't see what's happening dowtown?  Well, let's put on our thinking caps.  This is the super fun part about being pregnant.  From what I can gather, camel toe is on another level entirely.  There is constant wetness, it always feels like I either peed my pants or my water has broken a little.  Some of those times, I actually did pee my pants, so it's not that far off to assume.  So basically, the junk is always unfresh!

Also, speaking of pee, I swear it's stankier than normal too.  Like I ALWAYS have aspara-pee, even if I didn't eat asparagus.

In summary, I'm ready for Tyrone to make his entrance...ready to have my body back and end this stanky, puffy madness!