39w6d...Induction Day!

Well...todays OB appt was definitely an eventful one!  I was planning on begging the doctor to induce me soon because I've gotten so uncomfortable, and I'm so ready for our little guy to be here!  When the nurse did the customary belly measurement today my belly had actually gotten 2cm smaller since last week.  The rule of thumb is the belly should measure roughly 1cm for each week gestation.  Last week was spot on measuring at 39cm.  Today I was down to 37cm.  I also mentioned how every time he moves it's gotten painful, which I just attributed to him getting bigger and running out of space.  I did have to laugh at the doctor's first comment when she walked in to the room.  "Why are you still pregnant?"  I told her if she only knew how many times I'd asked myself the same question.  I then asked how much I had to beg to get an induction scheduled and she said we could definitely talk about getting things moving.  YES!  We talked about the smaller belly size and I mentioned to her how painful it is when the baby moves now.  She said it could've been one of two things, either the baby moved way way down or my amniotic fluid was getting low.  She did the routine internal check and I was pretty much the same as last week.  1.5cm and 70%effaced.  She did say his head was lower though, which would account for some of the low pressure and pain I'd been feeling, but she wanted me to have another ultrasound to check the level of fluid around the baby.  That would determine how quickly I would be sent in for induction.

The sonographer told us that they want to see the amniotic fluid between 10 and 20 (ml I think...but I'm not positive) They start to get worried and hurry in to the induction if it's 5 or less.  I was very close to that "worry" stage at 6.2.  While she was doing the scan my phone rang and it was the scheduling person from the OB's office calling to tell me that they had my induction set for 6pm tonight.  We all got a good laugh about getting a phone call from the OB's office while I was still at the OB's office.  So anyway, the sonographer talks to the doctor to make sure that I don't need to go to the hospital before 6 tonight.  She came back and said that the doctor was fine with waiting until this evening, no need to speed up the time, so here we go! 

Baby K should be making his grand entrance tomorrow!  And just for good measure, here is the LAST belly shot before heading to the hospital!  Here's hoping that everything goes smoothly, and that it does not end in a C-section.  :o)

39w6d - Induction Day!



39 Weeks!

Well this one isn't quite as late as the last two, so that's an improvement!  6 days until his due date...and the big question is when will he arrive?!?!?  I'm more than a little anxious you could say.  I'm very fortunate in that I honestly don't feel all that bad for being 9 months pregnant.  My hips are sore and it's becoming VERY difficult to sleep comfortably, but compared to how a lot of women feel at this point, I really cannot complain.  I'm really just anxious and excited to finally meet this little guy.  It's hard to believe that our journey to parenthood started two years ago.  Christmas of 2009 we decided to start trying and here we are, Christmas 2011 and our little miracle is finally going to greet us.  I guess you could say I have a good reason to be anxious and excited.  I think anyway...ha!  No matter how anxious I am for this little guy to arrive, there is definitely a part of me that will miss being pregnant.  Once we passed the hurdle of GETTING pregnant, BEING pregnant has been a breeze.  I can already tell I'm going to miss feeling him move around inside and watching my belly dance all over.  When he's sleeping and not moving around I actually miss the feeling of movement, and it typically starts again soon after.  I'm not quite sure how I'm going to feel about it when I know there won't be any more movement until Baby K 2.0 is on his/her way (which won't be for a while...)  I feel like his birth is going to be very bittersweet.  I absolutely cannot wait to meet him, but I will miss feeling his movements all the time. 

Matthew is more and more anxious about it by the day as well.  On Monday he passed the final industry licensing exam he was required to have for his job, and as soon as he was done he told me I was free to have the baby at any time.  He's been so funny trying to think of ways to help me induce labor too.  For a guy who at one point in time swore he was never getting married or having kids, he's turned into quite the family man :o)  I think it helps that we're having a boy.  He tries to hide his excitement over the things that he'll be able to do with the baby as he gets older, but I can tell he's already dreaming about backyard football games, basketball in the driveway, cars, etc.  It warms my heart to see him so excited.  Now if only his son would kick it into gear and get a move on already! 

My parents and sister have been in town for Christmas.  Mom and Dad are planning to visit the rest of the family tomorrow and will come back with they get the big important phone call.  My sister is staying with us, and will be going to the hospital with us as well.  She's starting school in January to be a midwife, so after A LOT of begging on her part, and a slow concession on our parts, we agreed that she could be in the delivery room when he's born.  After Lamaze class I think Matthew decided he might need some assistance being my support.  He's not sure if he can be helpful as long as would be needed.  I don't know what he's complaining about...he has the easy job!  If only I could tag someone in to take over dealing with contractions for a while.  Wouldn't that be nice?!?!  Well here is this week's belly shot.  Will it be the last one taken before the hospital, or does Baby K have other plans?!?!  I guess only time will tell :o)  Let's hope it's the former!

39 Weeks!

38 Weeks!

Well I'm definitely late with this post!  I got so excited about the maternity pictures that I forgot to post the weekly belly shot.  It was taken on the right day, just not posted before now.  No harm no foul I guess.  It's not nearly as fun as the maternity pics anyway.  haha! 

My appointment last week was some good some frustrating.  The midwife was feeling all over my belly trying to determine the position our little guy was in.  She was having a hard time confirming he was head down, so she asked if she could do an internal to try and feel the head.  I had no problem with that because he SHOULD'VE been head down and I definitely wanted to know if he'd flipped.  He'd been head down since our anatomy at 21 1/2 weeks.  If he'd flipped then I was going to flip!  Thankfully she determined that yes he was head down still.  The reason she had trouble determining that from the external exam was because his head is so low.  That news made me happy!  She said it's very low and I'm thinning, but didn't give me a percentage of effacement.  Then she told me I was barely dilated at all, so I'm taking that to mean a fingertip like the week before.  That was the frustrating news.  I had REALLY hoped to have been at least 1cm by that appt!  She told me to do figure 8's on with my hips on the birthing ball to continue to encourage him to go lower into the pelvis and engage.  Let me tell you that's harder than it sounds! 

It must be doing something right though because every time I work on it I start having some Braxton Hicks contractions and the baby starts moving a lot, so there has to be some benefit!  He's also dropped some more.  I changed fro bed last night and noticed that my belly's shelf is becoming more and more sloped now.  Matthew definitely agreed that it's getting lower and lower.  Unfortunately it's harder to tell with a shirt on. Well anyway, on to the pic of the week, that is only 4 days late...oops!  :o)

38 Weeks! 

Maternity Pics

So I'm a few days late in posting again.  Surprise surprise.  haha!  I was so excited to get the electronic copies of our maternity pictures today!  We used a local photographer named Megan and she did a great job!  I know several people who have had her photograph their newborns.  We are planning to do the same once our little man makes his grand entrance, but also couldn't pass up the opportunity to get maternity pictures taken!  All the pictures were taken right after I hit 36 weeks to make sure I had a nice round preggo belly.  I think we accomplished that.  He's definitely a little basketball  :o)

After everything we'd been through for this little guy, I really wanted to document everything we could.  Sophie even got in on the photo shoot action!  Since the pictures are way more fun than my random rambling, here they are!  Enjoy!

I just love black and white photos! 

I LOOOOOOOVE this picture!

Sophie Bug!

Last photo as a family of three :o)

So much love for this little guy and we haven't even met him yet!

37 Weeks...Full Term!

What a milestone we've reached!  Baby K and I are officially full term!  Any time he decides to come it is safe now :o)  While we do want him to hold out a little longer it makes me really excited to think that he really could come at any time! 

Since I hadn't made a lot of progress by the time I went to the doctor on Monday I decided to try to do something to move the process along.  I have a large exercise ball that I've been sitting on, rolling and rocking my hips and bouncing on it.  It's supposed to help open the hips and pelvis to make room for the baby to drop and engage.  Call me crazy but I swear it's working!  Tuesday was the first night I decided to try it and when I changed for bed my belly was noticeably lower than when I got home from work.  I'm planning to spend around 15 minutes each evening on it, and hopefully it helps and I'll have made some more progress by my appointment next Wednesday. 

On a sad note I'm no longer wearing my wedding ring set :o(  I guess I should be glad I was able to make it 8 1/2 months with it.  A lot of women don't even make it half this far, but I had really hoped to not have to take it off.  Matthew has been very worried the whole pregnancy that I'd get it on one day and not be able to get it off.  It's been getting progressively tighter, so I'm not surprised that I can't wear it now, but still disappointed.  Sunday was the first day I didn't wear it.  I probably could've forced it on, but there again, I didn't want to get it on and not be able to get it off.  I was able to wear it to work on Monday, but Tuesday I was back to needing to force it on, so I've just decided to leave it off for the remainder of the pregnancy and the first few weeks after delivery.  Thankfully I have some other rings I can still wear, so I don't look like a knocked up unwed mother.  It just feels so strange to get ready for work, put my jewelry on and leave my wedding set in the jewelry box.  Hopefully it doesn't last too long post delivery! 

Well on a happier note, here is this week's belly pic.  I don't know if you can tell in pictures or not that the belly has dropped.  It's definitely easier to see with a bare belly, but I'll spare you that view!  He has been a wiggly little guy this afternoon.  I really will miss that feeling after he's here.  It's so fun!  Well here ya go...37 Weeks - Full Term!

First of the Weekly's

Well today was the first of my weekly appointments!  I can't believe I'm at this point already!  It doesn't seem possible really.  I was hoping that the doctor would tell me that I've started to dilate and thin a bit.  I guess you could say things have started, but we're not talking about much progress at all.  I was technically less than 1cm.  Oh well, at least it's not fully closed still.  Hopefully by the time I go back next Wednesday there will be a little more progress made.

Baby K is moving further south though.  I woke up this morning and my belly was noticably lower than when I went to bed last night.  Around 2:30 I woke up to use the bathroom and was awake for the next 2 hours.  Baby K was moving all over due to the contractions I was having.  He didn't enjoy being rocked and rolled apparently! 

Well, here's hoping that the time I'm planning to spend rocking and bouncing on the exercise ball this week will help increase the progress!

36 Weeks!

Well I'm a few days late in posting again...surprise surprise.  ha!  I think it's safe to say that Baby K has dropped a bit.  This week's picture definitely looks lower than the last few!  Let's hope so!  I've been feeling a lot of lower abdominal pressure in the last week or so with some sharp pains occasionally as well.  I've heard that can mean dilation and effacement are starting to happen.  I hope so! 

My first internal check is tomorrow.  I'm hoping for some good news from the doctor.  I know that it doesn't really mean much this early on, you can be dilated and thinned for several weeks before labor actually happens, but I still think it would make me happier than if they tell me I'm still closed and not thinned at all.  We'll see!  I'm having more frequent Braxton Hicks contractions and they're stronger than they used to be.  Hopefully that means that our little man will decide to make his entrance before my due date :o)

I do know that I'm TOTALLY over being at work right now.  There are moments when I'm tired of being pregnant, but mostly I'm just tired of being at work while pregnant.  The thought of 12 more work days can almost move me to tears sometimes.  My patience is gone, my motivation is gone, and I'm exhausted before I even get to work.  But enough of my complaining. 

On a happier note, we had our maternity photo session this weekend.  I can't wait to see the pictures!  Sophie even got to partake in it!  The sneak peek picture she put on her Facebook page is so cute!  I can't wait to see the rest of them!

So I guess before I start complaining any more, I'll leave this week's token belly shot and the pic from our maternity shoot.  I can't believe how little time is actually left with my pregnancy.  Time really does fly when you're having fun! 

Enjoy!

36 Weeks!  

 

 

Sneak Peek!  Maternity shoot 12.3.11