Archive for the 'pregnancy' Category

Harvest Moon (A Labor Story)

h1 Tuesday, September 30th, 2008

Alright, here it is people, the nitty gritty, blow by blow of the hours leading up to the birth of our beautiful baby boy. Proceed with caution – there may be more information than you want. 

Saturday:
40 weeks & 3 days pregnant

I really needed to get out of the house, so when we were invited to hang out at the beach while our friends surfed, I jumped all over it. We packed up a quick lunch, took the dog and spread a blanket on the sand. It was so relaxing and I’m glad we did it. It was there that via my Facebook iPhone app. I found out our friends John & Angel had their baby that morning. I was initially pretty jealous because that was her due date and I had already gone well past mine. It wasn’t fair. I was ready to no longer be pregnant, and most of all I was ready to meet my baby.


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Due Date Confusion

h1 Friday, September 12th, 2008

I had always had 2 different dates in my head as to when this baby was due. Looking back I’m not sure if I got the Sept 8 date only from a baby website, or if an actual medical person also told it to me. The other date I was given was Sept 10, and that is the date that the midwife is going by. SO… I’m only going on 2 days late now, not the 4 as originally thought. Which all in all I guess doesn’t matter much. It at least gives me more time before they medically induce, which is good. I was just so attached to the Sept 8 date for some reason. Gotta let it go!

Today I have someone from Sapana Acupunture (in Berkeley) coming over to induce me. The midwife yesterday gave us the go ahead to get started on that. At this point in the pregnancy, the concern is that the placenta might be running out of nutrients and wearing thin, and the sac running low on amniotic fluid. So early next week I have an appointment to determine how everything is holding up. They will do this through fetal heart monitoring, and ultrasound. We are all hoping that the baby comes before that appointment. 

My friend Houston had a dream last night about Sept 13. Although he has been pushing for a Libra (Sept 23 can you believe that!?), 9/13 = good strong mexican power numbers, so he’s on board with that. I could do Sept 13! And with the acupuncture, perhaps I will!

Due Date!

h1 Monday, September 8th, 2008

40 weeks.

Today is officially the baby’s due date. So far today, no baby. I did however have a single contraction at 5:43 this morning. It hurt way more than I thought contractions were going to. I waited up for another 45 min or so to see if there was another one, then fell back asleep. So either I slept through some more contractions, or that was it for this morning.

I just ate some granola with fruit and the baby is squirming away. Hopefully he’s practicing his entrance speech or something useful to being born.

Here is a morning pajama photo of the belly on its due date:

Baby is fine

h1 Thursday, September 4th, 2008

Eye yi yi, what a day!  

I woke up today with what felt like a flu, and I’ve heard that could be an early sign of labor as long as it wasn’t accompanied by a fever. I already had an appointment with my midwife today so we trotted on down there. I was kind of excited, thinking perhaps baby is on the way! Not quite. For one, no dilation, and two, I did have a fever. 

This was the first appointment Dallas came along for. Before, there seemed no reason to interrupt his day for the 10 minute quickie visit, but now that I’m close to my due date it seemed a good time for him to at least meet the midwife.  Also there might be more interesting stuff going on this time. 

Upon the normal listening to the baby’s heartbeat, the midwife determined it was a tad irregular – ups and downs, so she sent me across town to the hospital and up to Labor and Delivery so they could monitor the fetal heartbeat on a proper machine.  We waited an hour for a room to open up.  I guess it was an abnormally busy day with some emergencies thrown in for good measure.  The waiting was freaking me out a bit. It was hot everywhere (as I had a fever and its in the 90’s here), but it was absolutely unbearable in the tiny waiting room, so I stood in the hall. I’m not a good waiter – very impatient and worried about being forgotten. 

Eventually I was hooked up to the fetal heart monitor for about an hour when it was determined mother and baby were just fine.  phew!  So that is super good news, but a long day.

They apparently needed 20 consecutive minutes of data.  That was interrupted a couple times, once by the machine running out of paper and once when it stopped detecting a heart beat because the sensors moved. It made me realize how little I’m looking forward to being at the hospital. For some reason everything seems to slow down in a hospital, and there are always so many different people in and out. Now I’m starting to see why people do home births.

Looks like the waiting continues.  I was hopeful yesterday that the baby was coming soon, but now I’m pretty sure there is quite a bit more waiting involved.  Boo.

Today was a good dry run though.  We realized some things:
- car should always be fully gassed up
- car seat should be in the car (not the house)
- labor or complications could start anytime (not just at home in the evening while watching tv)
- wallet should always have at least some cash in it

and extras would be to have my suitcase packed in the car with my birthing ball, snacks, robe, etc.but without that stuff i’d still be fine.

Oh, and after an hour or more in air conditioning and eating ice my fever and flu like symptoms disappeared. Perhaps I was just overheated?  No one knows. Now I have no trouble justifying going to the corner store for a popsicle. Mmm, sounds good!

39 Weeks

h1 Monday, September 1st, 2008

39 Weeks.  

The days just keep ticking by.

Yesterday I thought I was never going to be able to make it another week (much less 3), but today I feel like it might be possible. Everyday is different. Today I even organized crafty supplies and cleaned off my desk. I also got started on a new screen printing design. I’ll post it tomorrow once the screen has dried and I can print something. 

I still haven’t packed my bags. For some reason I keep putting it off, like its wasted energy or something. Its difficult to even know what I’ll need as far as clothing. I think I might just be happiest in a hospital gown for a few days. Then as long as I have my baby and my toothbrush, I’m good to go!

37 Weeks!

h1 Monday, August 18th, 2008

37 weeks

36 Weeks

h1 Monday, August 11th, 2008

Today is 36 weeks! Pretty exciting. We are getting down to the nitty gritty now. We waited a bit long to hire a doula, but we still have a few options. We are setting up meetings with them now. Aside from that, I am pretty sure we are ready. We at least have all the “stuff”, and what a lot of stuff it is! I realize we didn’t have to get it all before the baby comes, but it just seemed easier to have it off my mind and to be able to not leave the house for the next 2 months, if thats what fancied me. 

Things to do this week (baby related):

Pack my bags, make sure the car seat fits in the car, take professional pregnancy photos, finish doing baby laundry, hang decorative robots

According to Baby Center

“Your baby is still packing on the pounds — at the rate of about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. He’s shedding most of the downy covering of hair that covered his body as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that covered and protected his skin during his nine-month amniotic bath. Your baby swallows both of these substances, along with other secretions, resulting in a blackish mixture, called meconium, will form the contents of his first bowel movement.

At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term.” Yay!

 

Getting Bigger!

h1 Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

35 1/2 weeks


post dinner photo (tired and stuffed like a christmas pig)

Post Dinner

h1 Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

The restaurant printed up a couple menus just for us…

The meal was delicious, and I somehow found room for 3 courses and glass of Navarro Vineyards Gewürztraminer grape juice. 

The Creamery

h1 Monday, July 21st, 2008

 

On Thursday my aunt and uncle visited us. We went to Bi-Rite Creamery and had some of their delicious ice cream. It is mostly organic and freshly made on premises. I had one scoop each of Salted Caramel and Honey Lavender. Â