November 17, 2010

• Still here and still pregnant

  The past few weeks have been a roller coaster of busyness and end of pregnancy. Four weeks ago I went in for a normal appointment only to have the doctor tell me that she thought baby girl was breech and wanted me to come in for an ultrasound the following week before my appointment.  I tried to convince her that baby girl was indeed head down, there was no way based on movement that she could be breech.  The doctor didn't listen and insisted on the ultrasound, which showed that she was indeed head down as I had thought, was definitely a girl and that my fluid was low.  This then resulted in a very long appointment including two visits with the doctor and a non-stress test to see how baby was doing.  Baby was fine and I was put on a week-by-week basis for determining if baby was going to make it to her due date or be induced early. I tried telling the doctor that there was no way baby could come before the first weekend in November because I was on team for Cursillo and I was NOT missing that.  He basically had a "let's see" attitude but didn't seem too hopeful.  As we all know now, it's two weeks past that and I'm still pregnant.

  So for the next two weeks I went for ultrasounds and non-stress tests, all of which showed baby was/is fine and my fluid levels looked better.  So Cursillo came and went and was wonderful and I made it through without having the baby.  I've had two appointments since then and since the fluid levels look good they've decided to just let me keep going unless something changes.  That brings me to last weekend when I think I finally decided that I was ready to have the baby; normally I love being pregnant, but the last few weeks are always hard with what seems like continuous contractions that lead to nothing.

  Friday night we went to Ultreya which was great fun and very busy with women from the weekend which made it even better.  After getting home and getting the kids into bed I started having contractions 7-10 minutes apart.  Nothing big, but they were there and timeable, so I stayed up a little later than Brad and finally decided they weren't getting any closer or strong so sleeping was probably the best option.  I slept alright, no major contractions, but I woke up exhausted and my abdomen was tired from contracting all night.  I spent Saturday trying to keep busy with errands and stuff around the house, all while the contractions kept on like the night before only by mid-afternoon they were 3-6 minutes apart, but not overly strong. I finally took a nap, my body was exhausted and my back was killing me.  This continued throughout the afternoon and evening and finally at 9pm the contractions stopped all together.  I slept better Saturday night and Sunday had no contractions at all.

  Monday morning started out normally, no real contractions or anything, but by night I was back to doing what I'd done Friday night.  So off to bed I went only to be woken up several times with contractions.  Tuesday morning between 5 and 5:30am the contractions were back and this time very painful, close together and not just the typical braxton hicks I'd been having.  After about 3 hours of strong contractions that were at times right on top of each other I called the doctor and they had me come into the office. Brad called into work and brought me down only to find out I was only 1 cm and 60% effaced and sent home to see if labor progressed.  Well, as you can probably tell...it hasn't.  About 5 hours after the contractions started, they stopped and have been essentially stopped since then.

  The roller coaster that makes up the last few weeks is enough to drive me nuts.  Is the baby coming?  Is this really labor?  Are the contractions going to stop?  Up and down, day after day.  This is when I start getting impatient and really ready for baby to just arrive.  I've never been early and still have 8 days to go, but I've never had contractions like this as early as this time, so I've been hopeful she would decide to come early.  I have another appointment tomorrow and we'll see what they say, but I'm not hopeful that it will be anything other than a routine appointment and I'll come back the following week.  I still have a week to go before her due date so I figure in all honesty I have about 10 days to go, possibly 14.

  This has given us a chance to pick dates and weight guesses for baby girl which was fun for the boys.  We'll see who is closest.

  • 2:03 pm
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