39 weeks

And we're back from the doctor's office. I was so hopeful that we'd have some progress, but alas, Wren is apparently very comfortable where she is and it looks like she's following her big brother's footsteps. Evan wisely decided to decline playing our fun guessing game of "how much have we progressed" so while I was hoping for 3cm and 80%, I was quite let down. At least someone is comfortable. ;)

Blood Pressure: 130/60
Weight: +3 (total weight gain = +19 pounds)
Heartrate: 168bpm
The belly is measuring at ?? weeks ***
Dilation = 2cm [still]
Effacement (thinning of cervix) = 40% [still]
Station = -1 [but he said he was being generous with that - boo!]

***So we never found out how big my belly was measuring. This is how the conversation went when Dr. C was measuring me:
  Dr. C: "So remind me, you are due on Saturday?" (he puts away the tape)
  Me: "No, on Monday."
  Dr. C: "And how much did Oakes weigh?"
  Me: "8 pounds, 2 ounces, but you are scaring me... how big am I measuring, anyway?"
  Dr. C, chuckling: "Remember that boys typically weigh more than girls."
  Me, as he steps out to get the nurse for my cervical exam: "But you're avoiding my question..."
So we never found out, but I am hopeful that he's not telling me for my own peace of mind :)

Also, I'd like to think my 8lb weight gain in the past two weeks can be attributed to my swelling that has popped up. Speaking of swelling, we got to go to the hospital on Sunday morning as I was incredibly swollen on Friday and Saturday night and also had two instances of vision issues last week, so my doctor had us go in for a stress test (or something like that) where they just monitored me and the baby: heartrate for baby, contractions, and also my blood pressure every fifteen minutes. My blood pressure readings were 128/80; 124/71; 123/69; 115/72. All was good, but it truly wore me out as I was emotionally drained afterwards.

Dr. C also told me that he was a little more vigorous on the cervical exam to sort of strip my membranes, but not really. He said I'd be coming off the table if he did it fully and that if I make it to 41 weeks, we may just be experiencing that!

So we have a busy week this week - tomorrow is Evan's staff baby shower at school and mine is on Thursday. We also have my school staff party tomorrow night which we're planning on going to if all goes well.

39 Week Belly Shot:

Sleepless Nights and Inconsiderate Subs

Well, Friday turned out to be a much better day, contraction-wise!  I drank water like a fish on Thursday afternoon/evening and into Friday and I think that helped tremendously.  Unfortunately, my feet are the most swollen they've been during this pregnancy and I think that my water intake from here on out will have to just about double in order to keep me comfortable with both the swelling and to ward off braxton-hicks contractions. But like I said, Friday was a breeze in the contraction department and I hardly felt any all day long. I like to think that Thursday was just nature's way of helping my body prepare for an upcoming labor.

On a more stressful note, I got a phone call yesterday morning around 10am at school from the substitute they had hired for my maternity leave saying that she could not do it anymore as she just accepted an interim at another school to start in January. I literally wanted to cry when I hung up the phone. Here I am, 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant and with all of my maternity plans written with this lady in mind, and she cancels on me!?!?!!?!?!? 

By lunch, I was in the principal's office (still in shock, mind you) and was pleased to know that in the two hours since my principal had found out, she and the secretary had already hired a new substitute for me and the one they hired is absolutely WONDERFUL! I'm still really pissy about the whole cancelling thing by the first sub but there is nothing I can do about that and being pissy won't help either. My new sub came by after school on Friday and I gave her my maternity leave notebook and showed her around the room briefly -- afterall, she could have to come in as early as Monday, depending on Wren's schedule. Again, she's fabulous and I really think that things like this happen for a reason and this just means she's a much better fit for me, my students, and my grade level.

Well, it's only 4:15am on Saturday morning right now (I can't sleep, again).  I'm trying to creep around the house quietly in order not to wake my sleeping beauties, but Evan has already woken up and come to check on me to make sure everything is okay. I think I'm going to try to head back to bed in a bit and see if I can't force myself to get some more sleep, and if not, I'll go downstairs and try wrapping Christmas gifts until it's a reasonable time for the rest of the world to wake up. I'd really prefer the sleep!

Edited: I went back to bed and slept until the glorious hour of 7:30 this a.m. (thanks, Oakes!) so yay for sleep :)

Braxton-Hicks, anyone?

So last night was a terrible night of sleep for me. From 1am until around 4:30am, I was up 3 times to pee and was probably up another 15 times just trying to roll over and get comfy. Yet my 3 trips to the bathroom didn't really result in a lot of pee so that was super frustrating for me. Obviously, I felt pretty crummy this morning after a night of tossing and turning, then when I was driving into work I realized that my "not feeling so great" feeling this morning was due to some contractions, and I can only assume that this is what was keeping me up all night last night. I started timing them and they were about 30 seconds long and around 2 minutes apart. So after letting all of the appropriate people know, I went on with my day like normal and didn't let the kids know what was going on. They weren't that bad, especially compared to the serious contractions I know will come later on, but they certainly weren't comfortable, either.

Other changes I've noticed: I didn't get heartburn once today, which is really abnormal and makes me wonder if Wren has dropped. Apparently with a second baby, this generally happens just prior to labor, so we'll see if it's all something I'm imagining or if it really means something.

And here we are at 8:30pm, still with some Braxton-Hicks and exhausted from no sleep last night. Evan and I took Oakes on our "last date" to TCBY just like we did the night before Oakes was born, I packed my hospital bag, and Evan installed the carseat. So I guess we're ready for anything, but we'd really prefer for Wren to wait just a little longer to make her debut, even though we are ALL excited to meet her!

38 Weeks

So we're back to reality from a long, much needed break. Our family thoroughly enjoyed the cabin and the stillness that it provides. Being at a place that isn't my house for a few days is a great way to make me relax (Evan always says I can't sit still so this gave me that opportunity). We also got to see all of Evan's family and Oakes got some play time in with his cousin. And to our surprise we also ended up stocking up on clothes for sweet Wren. Aunt Amy gave us a nice gift box with quite a few outfits and Uncle Dustin & family gave her a super-cute stuffed animal and some sleep outfits. We came back from the cabin on Friday afternoon so I was able to do the laundry and get all of her outfits in her drawers. I also went to K-Mart and picked up some roller shades which were super-cheap. I figure we'll try putting up one shade and see how it goes before we unwrap and tackle the rest. That will undoubtedly be Evan's job over the next few weeks. :) And to end our weekend, we took Oakes to the doctor on Sunday for another round of antibiotics as he has another ear infection.

We had our 38 weeks appointment today and it was quite the disappointing one. Not much change cervically and a five pound (!!!) weight gain -- must've been all that great food I was eating over Thanksgiving! I was really hoping for a little more dilation, even though I'm also hoping she waits until her due date to arrive, so I guess I can't be please either way, huh?

Blood Pressure: 104/62 [much better!]
Weight: +5 (total weight gain = +16 pounds)
Heartrate: 156bpm
The belly is measuring at 38 weeks (I'm 38 weeks)
Dilation = 2cm [still]
Effacement (thinning of cervix) = 40% [still]
Station = -2 [still]

38-week belly shot

Oakes, kissing Baby Wren

Happy Thanksgiving!

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving!  So much to be thankful for in our home...

Evan and I didn't have to work today, so we went ahead and sent Oakes to school and I enjoyed a much needed massage (Evan gave me 2 of them for my birthday and I'd already used the first one a while ago). I also stopped by my doctor's office to get my bloodwork done and it turns out they had made a mistake and I didn't need to do any bloodwork for my thyroid as my levels are fine. Not a bad mistake to make, if you ask me! After that, I headed to Hallmark to pick up a baby album for sweet Wren. I figured we should get that before she arrives so that we can get those cute foot prints done at the hospital.

We are at the cabin now and are enjoying the quietness out here (but also enjoying access to the internet!). Evan and I plan to do some of our National Board work while we are here so we each brought along a "bag of good intentions" and are hoping to actually open that bag at some point over the next few days. :)

Sonja had a wonderful surprise for us when we arrived - a basket full of goodies for Wren! I took some photos to share and to hold you all over until we have another belly shot next Monday (speaking of which, that's also when our next doctor's appointment is).

Again, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

A beautiful blanket that Sonja knitted for Wren. She had her name embroidered on a patch and then knitted the patch to the corner, almost like a postage stamp. I absolutely love it!



Some crib sheets, and a bunch of sweet clothes.

Sonja had chosen the center outfit for Wren a while ago as she saw it at work.

A great basket for storage and it was full of diapers, lotions, a bottle brush, pacis, and soap.

37 weeks

Ooooooohhhh... Wren has been feeling like she's doing little corkscrew twists into my pelvic bone this week. Not too comfy. But - I have been sleeping much better and that's a huge plus. So I'll take the random twitches of pain for sleep. And heartburn? With Oakes it was only at night; with Wren it's in the mid afternoon each day. She'd better have a head full of hair. On a really really positive note, I've schedule my last prenatal massage (a 2-part birthday gift from Evan) for Wednesday morning and I am soooooo excited for this.

We got our confirmation from the hospital last week and are now good to go as far as not having to fill out paperwork between contractions. We also got news that since I'd been participating in nurse phone calls through my insurance company throughout this pregnancy, they are waiving our co-pay for the hospital! Whoo hoo! This makes me actually kind of like my insurance company right now (I won't hold my breath, my rates will probably go up again next year to pay for this, but for now I'm happy).

Appointment was today and I am negative for Group B Strep, which is good. I also have to go back in on Wednesday for another blood draw for a follow-up on my thyroid. I'm not sure if this is standard or not as I thought I was finished with all of my bloodwork, so I'll ask on Wednesday and will keep you all posted. Now for my stats:

Blood Pressure: 122/60 [we had them measure this before I stepped on the scale :)]
Weight: -1 (total weight gain = +11 pounds)
Heartrate: 168bpm
The belly is measuring at 37 weeks (I'm 37 weeks)
Dilation = 2cm :D
Effacement (thinning of cervix) = 40% (still)
Station = -2 (Dr. C said it wasn't -1 yet, but it also still wasn't necessarily -2)

Here are the "37 Week" belly shots:

For kicks, I got this photo from Dan last night. It's a photo of toddler Evan holding infant Dustin (I think). Can you tell who our sweet Oakes resembles? And can you tell who Evan resembles? I'm pretty sure Oakes knows exactly how he'll look over his lifetime now ;)

And a last sweet family shot. We went to the Biltmore Estate on Sunday (gotta get some good use out of those yearly passes!) and decided to try to take a family photo in their kitchen garden. If you want to see the rest of the photos (Oakes even pet a goat!) go to our picasa site: https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos?tab=mq#photos/105260897615925465755/albums 

Nursery is f.i.n.i.s.h.e.d. (kinda)

We're about 98% done with the nursery.  WHOO HOO!!!!

We took the day trip down to Ikea last Friday and picked up our last things for the nursery, and after a few days of perfecting things, finding places for things to go, and doing some loads of laundry we can comfortably say that we're done.  All I have to do is sew on a few embroidered flowers onto the two red pillows and we need to look around for some light-blocking shades.  So that's the missing 2% and honestly if it doesn't get done before Wren arrives, I'm totally cool with it.

Here's a view from the double bed. This is the crib that Mom and Dad are loaning us until they'll need it in June when Tina moves out and takes their crib.

So this view seems a bit overwhelming with all of the color, but it's really a lot calmer in person.  We built a lot of the room around the rug and I absolutely LOVE the rug.  The bunting on the wall was added last minute but it totally works.  As for the duvet cover - it's way colorful and busy but will look great in here temporarily and will also look great in Oakes' room.  So while it's busy-looking in there now, it will be a LOT calmer in a few months when Oakes gets the bed and the futon moves in here (which is a dark frame and a cream cushion).

Another view but from in front of the closet door.  We ended up buying the door hanging thing like Oakes has because I love the one Oakes has SO much.  It's insanely handy when I'm cleaning up at night and need to remember to put something in Oakes' room in the morning.  So I just drop it in one of his pouches and it's right there when we go to wake him in the morning.

And a much calmer view from the double bed looking at the window seat and closet.

So here's a quick photo of me that we took yesterday.  I don't like that all of my belly shots on here are me in my yoga pants and dark tee, so I decided that I needed one of me in one of my cuter work outfits.