Tuesday, September 28, 2010

False Labor!

I had some false labor last night

So, I'm fairly sure I had about 8 hours of contractions yesterday. The first 4ish hours were kind of questionable to me because it was really just me noticing more fetal movement and sometimes noticing that my entire stomach had gotten really hard. There was no real sensation to it, certainly no pain. At least, the first several hours were like that.

After a few hours they got uncomfortable, but still not painful. But they were intense enough that it became a good idea to finally pack my birth bag. I had to stop and breathe every so often while walking around and collecting things.

I will say that it was really hard to try and time the contractions. They were fairly indistinct as it was, but Sprat really didn't like them, so he'd respond by moving when they were over and stretching out, causing various parts of my stomach to be hard because of the bones behind them.

At no point did I think I was in real labor, but I looked at it from a cautious angle and spent the time getting ready in case real labor did start. I went to bed because that seemed to make sense. When I woke up a few hours later to pee I did have another contraction, but they've stopped this morning.

Hopefully this means my uterus is getting nice and strong and labor will be easy and straight forward.

What an adventure!

Monday, September 27, 2010

Last monday morning at work in 2010!!

Could this really be it, my last Monday morning at work this year?

I keep thinking I'm ready to have this baby already, but I think I'm just misdirecting my real desire. I think what I really mean is "I can't wait to stop coming to work while pregnant". I maybe just need to take a break from work in general. I don't know how most people do this year in and year out. Three weeks off a year would be fine if I could take it in one block every year and still be able to take the odd day here and there too. But I feel overworked and drained. Burned out.

So three months of maternity leave sounds just perfect, and being so close is making me antsy!

Sprat can stay in for another few weeks, that'd be great, but Mommy would like October to be here NOW.

My last thought of the morning: I don't mind it when people call me mommy. It's something I need to get use to. :)

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Progress!

Progress!

As of today:
I'm full term
The car seat is installed
I've finally ordered a bunch of diapers (will be here on Monday)
I bought a breast pump
I got a diaper genie
The cradle mattress is here
The cradle sheets are being made
All newborn to 3 month sized baby clothes have been washed
The mural in the nursery is going along brilliantly, but will require at least 1 more session

And I've gotten too big for many of my maternity clothes, and most of my shoes. =P

Days Pregnant: 264
Days to go: 16


Wednesday, September 22, 2010

I am happy, but I had a sad morning.

So which is sadder:

A) I spent ~2 hours yesterday making cupcakes. They turned out cool, I'll post a picture eventually I hope. But then I brought them into work in my new, clearly ineffective cupcake carrier, and they ALL fell over.

or B) When I went to pick them up and right them (keep in mind, the frosting got EVERYWHERE), one fell out as soon as I opened it and first hit my jeans and then fell on the floor, frosting and all. And I don't have a washing machine, and we don't really have an ETA for one. "Early October" is all I know.

Sad morning. Cupcake tragedies, left and right.

Monday, September 20, 2010

Walking Dead

I am so tired.

So very very tired.

I was tired in the first trimester from growing a person. Now I'm tired in the last month from growing a person, waking up every 2-3 hours and being unable to get enough sleep. I think I got 5.5 hours last night. That may not sound like an exhausting level, but I need more than that as a normal, functional adult.

Now I'm getting scared about having a child. When I'll need to wake up with the same frequency, but tend to someone else. I will be able to do it, I have no fear of that. But during the daytime when I'm suppose to be functional, who knows. Now I'm REALLY glad I will have help for the first 6ish weeks.

Zzzzz.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

This seems like a totally ridiculous time to be posting this...

Two of my friends from high school are pregnant. One is due about 2 weeks before I am and the other about 5 days after. That's just insane to me. How did I get to 8 months pregnant before I learned this? I guess the answer is that I haven't seen either of these women in years and I don't stalk facebook enough. But seriously, we're all having boys and it's just crazy to me how life works out.

In any case, pregnancy is motoring along. I'm a lazy bum and it's getting to Eric who is trying very hard not to complain at me about being pregnant, and does a very good job most of the time. I'm just about at 1 month out and it's crazy to me. There is still a lot to do, but the list is shrinking! The mural for the nursery will be started this weekend and we'll probably install the car seat soon after that. I'm having a friend make me cradle sheets and I'm going to pick out the fabric for that today! We're interviewing pediatricians next week and we've identified a few day care possibilities to check out in the next couple weeks as well.

I'm sleepy.

Days Pregnant: A lot
Days to go: A month

Thursday, September 9, 2010

I'm generally a confident person. It results in me being self assured, and rarely admitting to weakness or situations where I'm not sure of myself.

When people ask me if I'm ready for this kid, I usually reply that I don't have a car seat yet, but overall I'm pretty good.

I'm fairly sure that's a lie. I am the youngest, I've never babysat, never fed an infant a bottle, never changed a diaper and I don't know how to interact with little people. My boss brought his 3 year old grand kids by my office today and I was kind of deer in headlights. I mean, I know I'll learn as I go, and that there's some sort of maternal instinct that will kick in, but really, I'm kinda terrified. Or at least, unprepared.

On the bright side, I don't think waiting to have kids any later in life would have made me more prepared or less terrified. So, yeah, in 5ish weeks, here I go!

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Please get some scholarships

I'm currently making arrangements to go to my 5 year reunion at my college. I will be paying off my student loans for the next 10 years. And yet, today, I started to think about the saving I need to do for my child to go to college. Apparently I grew up sometime in the last x months/years. Not only am I ready to be a parent (ok, that's mildly questionable, but I don't have a choice, so I'm claiming it), I'm thinking to 18 years in the future when Sprat will be going off to college and how we'll pay for it.

Wow.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

One interesting thing to me about pregnancy is that any parent feels like they can talk to me about it. I'm sort of amazed at how the farther along in pregnancy I get, the more people feel comfortable talking to me, even if they don't really know my name. At least at work.

Most of the time, this is pretty awesome. I'm a social person who is slightly shy, so once conversation is initiated, I'm pretty happy. But this also backfires. There are people at work that I don't really like and I'd rather not talk to who now feel like it's open season to talk to me. And about semi-personal stuff too. I daily hear that I must be close and it's gotta be uncomfortable to be me now. Actually, I'm doing pretty well and I still have more than 5 weeks. I should be at work for the next 4. Plus, I'm giant, but I've seen way bigger people and I may still grow a ton. I'm not really complaining, more just commenting that people are funny.

Although I will say that I didn't get enough sleep last night and my first interaction with people today was with a group of people that I'd rather avoid at work. Someone looked at me and asked/informed me if/that I must be getting close now, and I just glared at him and told him that I'm not a morning person and to try that comment again later. The group of men just laughed and all said that they remember their wives at this stage. I'm not usually a bitch, and I think I've been really not-moody all things considered. I think women get cranky toward the end of pregnancy because people just say really odd things to them. Men in particular. They just look at me like "oh man, you're going to get so much worse." Pfft to you.

I suppose I have been warned of this. And I hear that it only gets more intense when you actually have a baby. From what I've been told, babies belong to the world and I need to be cool with that. I'm glad I'm a mostly laid back person. :)

In any case, I'm still doing well.

Days Pregnant: 244
Days to go: 36

Monday, September 6, 2010

Pregnancy is ok

I have a friend who just had a baby via surrogacy. She really hated being pregnant. I'm not sure about what quite went wrong with her pregnancy (besides the obvious that it ended 3 months early, but their kid is just fine several years later). But I thought I would comment that I don't really mind being pregnant. I need to whine about stuff a little mostly so that when I'm too worn out from painting for 2 days and doing a FULL day of shopping Eric understand when I'm too lazy too do stuff. But on the whole, I'm healthy and doing great. I think it's that health thing. Not having any complications (normal weight gain, fine blood pressure, no protein in my urine) makes pregnancy way way easier. I means sure, after a day on my feet they swell up HUGE, and I don't have any kind of serious stamina for stuff, but pregnancy is treating me well. I enjoy feeling Sprat wiggle around and in general life is good.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Excuse the profanity.

Holy crap this pregnancy got rough! I enjoyed 2.5 blissful weeks thinking I wasn't going to have awful symptoms and then everything hit at once. I'm exhausted, nauseous, not interested in eating, run down (presumably from the not eating), having issues falling asleep and so not enjoying any of it.

Oh yeah, and I'm still in charge of a 9 month old. Thankfully Eric has stepped up and taken up some of the slack, but I'm worried what's gonna happen when I go back into the normal week tomorrow. I don't know how I'm going to manage to get through a workday or through a day at home with the munchkin. Add to that, I'm trying to wean and so I need to be feeding him more food and nursing less (which is convenient since my milk supply has dropped since I got pregnant) but I have no energy to feed him and I'm so overwhelmed.

Pfft, this pregnant with a little one thing is tough! Yeah.

Six weeks pregnant now. Maybe more, I'll probably find out the results of my blood draw tomorrow. And I'll make an OB appointment tomorrow, I have the referral now.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

This and that

I'm starting to feel the drain of waking up at 6:30 every day. I'm particularly tired today. Even after going home early on Monday and napping.

I have one more month at work. My goal is to make October 1 my last day until the week before Christmas (where I plan on working 1-2 days, just to get the 6 days of holiday).

I'm getting all of the arrangements for my family visiting worked out. It's a long and drawn out process because even though I started asking these questions months ago, flights are just being booked now. It's complicated. But I think it'll work out.

I'm getting some grief from my mother and my mother-in-law about my SERIOUS lack of childbirth prep. One wants me to go take Bradley. The other wants me to do Hypnobirth. I think they're both right, and that I do need to be way more prepared than I currently am for the birth, but I also think that if I spend my extra energy taking care of myself and unpacking my house I'll be a lot better off. The baby will come out of me one way or another, and I'll be under medical care regardless. I'm also incredibly stubborn, so if I think I'm doing this naturally, that's probably how it's going to go. It may be hard on me, but if I come home to a chaotic, still boxed house, I think that will be harder. Moral of this story, bad childbirth class plus moving 2 months out was the wrong combination. Also, I need to find a pediatrician.

On a high note, that new bra that I bought last week really does seem to be comfortable. I am glad I finally found something that I like well enough.