D-Day!!!

Here we are. 40 weeks pregnant and no baby yet. We had big hopes for a baby last night with a full moon and everything but no baby. Actually it was a teaser. Around 10:30pm I started feeling things, but nothing progressed enough and by 2am there was nothing.

Now I'm just tired, sore and crabby.

I wouldn't usually reveal 'feeling anything' because "some people" call and ask about it which doesn't help. Sorry, it's true.

Things are definitely not as planned, not that we thought they would be. Back in June when we found out we were expecting this baby we never would have dreamed that it would be in the 40's and raining on our due date. Very odd. Yesterday Demand and I went sledding down our hill (Because that's what you do the day before your due date.) But 90% of our snow is gone due to the rain. No sledding today. We all went to the gym last night. I thought of going back again today but I don't know if I feel like it. Maybe Demand and I could head to a mall and walk around.

My other complaint is that we were supposed to get a package in the mail yesterday and of course it never showed up. How is it that two days ago a package can be three states away and yet it leaves the warehouse in our town 8pm Sunday night and can't get here until days later??? The package has a new baby carrier I ordered and I want to play with it before baby comes.


Hmmm, I'm starting to think that I shouldn't blog before I've had coffee. Maybe I'll update later.

39 weeks!!

Ok, I'm laughing in one picture (Because baby was moving and it was grossing Obscure out) so I have two
pictures.

 

 

Lame!

Yesterday my doctors appointment was canceled and moved to today. I luckily had the know-with-all to check my messages yesterday as I pulled out of the driveway since it's a good 20+ minute drive to my doctors, so I didn't waste my time.

So since my appointment was today and I'm more or less 39 1/2 weeks pregnant and I won't have another appointment until I'm past my due date, I caved in and let the doctor check and see where I was (some people don't know that internal checks are optional). Lame. Same place I was at 37 weeks. See this is one reason I don't get checked every week. If I have my appointment next week I'll be three days over due. SOMETHING better be a bit different by then.

We should be too surprised though. I mean dilation can mean nothing, at least it's not a good indicator of when you'll go into full labor.


Demand is starting to spread false rumors about baby. Apparently she told the child care woman at the fitness center that I had had the baby already and then she told another Bible Study mother that I was having a girl. Eh, that's what you get when you ask a 2 1/2 year old. She has changed her story though. For months she was saying boy and now it's all girl. I have a feeling it has to do with finding out only a girl can wear dresses like her.

For as adorable, sweet, loving, and pure as it is I'm getting really sick of Demand smothering baby with affection. I can't walk past her without her lifting my shirt and kissing, hugging (roughly), or talking to the baby in my belly. And as always her hands are freezing. This baby has no idea what it's getting into.

Right now we're hoping baby comes tomorrow because it's Saturday and works for everyone. Other than that we're thinking Monday. Two reasons (1) full moon, lots of babies born on a full moon and (2) one of my friends is saying a novena for me that ends on Monday.

Other than wondering if 'today is the day' life has been same old, same old. I have started to only plan meals for a few days at a time. I don't want to have fresh food for a week of meals only to have the food go bad because I went into labor. Tonight was easy. We don't eat meat on Fridays so it was just cheese pizza, tomorrow we have a 'couples with young children dinner' through our Church, and Sunday is dinner for Grandpa's birthday. (Sunday is also our 9 year dating anniversary), so at least there won't be too much cooking needed this weekend.

Tomorrow is Mr. Sloth's morning off. I mentioned before how it was his morning last Saturday but since I was still kinda sick and he had to do a good deal of parenting while brewing beer I gave him a bi-week. He's 'supposedly' getting up early to work somewhere (a library I guess) and Demand and I will hang tight here. I'm hoping to do a webcast with my parents (they don't know that yet) because that always takes a lot of time and little energy for me, and then I bought a bunch of Pillsbury pre-rolled cookie sheets so I thought Demand and I could just cut out some cookies, bake them, and frost them. I actually hate making cookie dough and this way there's no mess other than decorating. I'll bring her table and chairs downstairs which she loves.

She doesn't know what she's doing tomorrow but she knows it's with me and that it's special. It's the only way I got her to go to up to bed. Mr. Sloth and I went out for a mini-date after dinner. We just went up the street for dessert. We couldn't have been gone for more than 45 minutes, but it still counts as a date. I brought back my left over "White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Torte" which Demand spotted right away. "CAKE!!" I let her have a few bites before the bed-time breakdown began.

Since I'm no longer in public I think I'll change back into my comfy clothes for the rest of the night. Hopefully our busy weekend plans either act as Murphy's Law and we go into labor or we're busy enough to forget.

Take Two

Today I'm officially 39 weeks, but since we don't know when this one is coming out it doesn't mean too much. Yesterday Mr. Sloth and I both woke up with a feeling that this one is hunkerin down for another full week so we may be here a while. Afterall, Demand was five days late. That's 10 days from now.

Life goes on as planned.

I was able to roll out of bed a bit early today in hopes of being ahead of the game. I think it worked, but I'm sure how the result is supposed to look like. I spent forty-five minutes to myself downstairs and when I went upstairs I could hear Demand reading in her room. (Oops! Forgot to have the monitor on) I tried for ten minutes to get us dressed and ready so we could head to Mass (I love the Feast of St. Blaise) but finally had to concede that it was too late. Demand was excited to be dressed before noon though. We split left over cake-cakes (pancakes) with blueberry syrup. I don't remember much of what Mr. Sloth did but he left the house around 9am. Demand and I then assumed our old play and clean routine.

After cleaning a bit of the downstairs I decided it would be a good idea to attempt to re-bath Demand while I picked up the upstairs. Re-bathe, you ask? Well Sunday Demand didn't have a nap and even though we were at Sidekicks' house for the SuperBowl with people and food, Demand wanted to go home. I told her that if we went home she had to take a bath and go to bed. She said, "Ok". Well then.

On the four-foot walk home she told me it was a nice party but did express her disappointment over the lack of cake. We went straight upstairs and started her bath. She was in serious need of a cleaning so I let her soak a bit, but about seven minutes in I heard the dreaded words. "Poop. Poop."

Ugh.

So I took her out and put her on the toilet while I drained the tub. She really wanted her bath, but after waiting five minutes in the nude Demand decided she'd rather have her jammies on (code: let's just go to bed).

So her bath Sunday was a failure. So today we tried again. Three minutes into the bath I heard. "Poop, momma."

Seriously?!

I had JUST washed out the tub. So I drained the tub, cleaned the tub, and refilled the tub. It's a good thing I was in a pleasant mood today I guess.

After lunch Demand and I played grocery store for a while before she suspiciously agreed to naptime. We had a tight schedule though as the whole Sloth family was heading to the dentist around 3:30pm. Demand of course was sound asleep when it was time to go so we had to do the unthinkable and wake a sleeping (and adorable) child.

She was not pleased.

She did fall asleep in the car though. Demand was nervous which isn't like her, she loves the doctor and the chiropractor, perhaps she was picking up on Mr. Sloth's nervousness. When I told her this morning that she was going to the dentist and the dentist would look in her mouth she said, "Where's my daddy?". She often says this when she's hesitant about some of my choices. It's quite funny.

The appointment went well though. I may have broken a few records though. I'm apparently the "most pregnant" patient our dentist has seen and while Demand and I waited for Mr. Sloth to finish I gave her a sucker for going potty. How many parents give their children suckers AT the dentists office??

No shame here.

So that was our Tuedays. Tomorrow we teach CCD and to be honest I'm hoping I go into labor first because I'll have both 9th grade classes which means 12 ninth grade boys. AND Mr. Sloth had them last year so I know how bad it could be.

C'mon baby!!

Blah!

Well I kicked off the weekend with a bizarre illness which made an other wise busy weekend even more full. We didn't think much of the illness at first. In fact we thought it might be early signs of labor. Thursday night I was dizzy and nauseous. Because I'd had a doctors appointment that day I knew my blood pressure was good (normally ridiculously low it was average being pregnant).Friday morning Mr. Sloth woke up around 7:30am and said, "Bad night, huh?" I then revealed the full extent of my now full blown illness and the chaos began. Mr. Sloth had to put on his "Mr. Mom" cap while trying to work full time as well.

Around 9:30am he had arrangements made for the Demand until nap time. Luckily, we're prepared for baby's arrival so all Mr. Sloth had to do was grab her already packed bag and head to a friends house. Mr. Sloth brought Demand back for nap time, she of course didn't fall asleep and when I heard her at the gate in her doorway saying "Momma, where are you?" I had no choice but to have pity and release her. Of course it was then she revealed to me how full her diaper was. Luckily I hadn't "been ill" for over an hour and I was able to change her lovely gift of a diaper. While we watched a show together I decided it might be a good idea to call the doctor and head to the hospital for some fluids. Mr. Sloth being only minutes away headed over and started to get Demand ready. After a sequence of phone calls our trip was put on hold indefinately, but we got a call from another volunteer babysitter and off Demand went until dinner.


Oh, and if you haven't caught on yet, it wasn't pre-labor I was having I was just sick. The "medical team" speculates food poisoning, but we can't find a source seeing as not only was no one else sick in the house but Demand eats directly off my plate 90% of the time (whether I like it or not) and she didn't seem phased in the slightest. I do have to say, that starting labor off that way would have been awful. I don't wish that upon anyone. Pain I can handle, nausea...bring the drugs. I also had to accept that whatever way we were prepared for labor/delivery/baby wise was as good as it was going to get being sick as I was, if it was early labor. To make matters more difficult every piece of laundry in the house was dirty so the one pair of pants that fit me were at the bottom of some pile. Between that and the six comfort baths I took that day I gave up completely on clothes. I knew I was feeling better when I felt compelled to put a shirt on.

Honestly the rest of the night is a blur so I can't share much. I do know that Mr. Sloth and I slept apart hoping to each get a good nights rest. We did.

When I woke up feeling better Mr. Sloth was elated because it meant he could have his morning off as planned. However, after a few hours, I realized I may have pushed myself a bit and crashed for a 2 1/2 hour nap and Mr. Sloth's morning off was spoiled. He even had to put Demand down for a nap. I've offered him next Saturday off since I was sick the equivalent of three days last week making his life twice as difficult.

So we're down to a week until my due date, but if you consider that Demand was five days late I could still have a good two weeks left. Ugh. But at least now we have the car seat installed and most everything else prepared. I should probably stop using baby's bed as a catch all for laundry so as not to smother our child upon their arrival.

Demand is beyond ready for baby's arrival. It's sad to say that I'm a bit sick of her lifting my shirt to kiss, rub, hug, poke my belly. She can't walk past me with out talking to baby and showing some kind of physical affection which usually involves cold hands and the touching of my belly button, a very big NO-NO in my world. I don't mind people touching my belly. In fact I encourage it, but the first thing I say is "DON'T TOUCH MY BELLY BUTTON". My mother quickly learned her lesson with this issue, then again she's the only person not to ask but just to dive right in with the genie rub.

I guess that's it. Unless our night gets interesting I suppose I'll be writing again tomorrow.

A Quick Review

Let's just do a quick review of things not to say to a pregnant woman especially close to her due date.

1. "Are you still pregnant?" (or variations of, ie "No baby?")

Let's think about this people. A woman in her ninth month of pregnancy walks into a room. It should be fairly obvious that a birth has not taken place.

2. "Somebody's ready to pop." (or any variation of the size of the pregnant woman)

I don't find offense in this myself although I can completely understand how one would.

3. "You know it's going to hurt, right?"

What birth, or my fist in your face? I'm confused. In fact, if you feel compelled to start any sentence with "You know..." and you haven't given birth yourself, you should probably keep your mouth shut.

4. Do not use words or terms such as "waddle" or "prego" or anything that implies the mother is looking or acting abnormally.

5. Do not refer to your pregnant wife as a whale when she swims and then go on to make 'blow hole sounds'.

6. Do not complain about how *you* feel uncomfortable or confined.


Just something to keep in mind...

Still here

I'm still here, life has just been taking over that's all.

Part of the reason I've been MIA is that for a good chunk of the last 48 hours I either had a migraine or I was recovering from one. Today though I feel great. In fact I've often thought about it and I seem to feel really good right after a migraine, almost as if you don't know how much pain they actually are until you are done with one.

Mr. Sloth, who is just about done dealing with the needs of his wife, was wonderful though. He massaged me and brought me ice when I asked and arranged to have his mom watch Helen during part of the day so I could recover, because keep in mind a migraine is bad enough, but a migraine while 9 months pregnant is beyond misery. Not only is there only one way to get even a little sleep while *this* pregnant I can't take any medication that would help and I can't load up on caffeine that would usually help. I just have to hope that the one position I CAN sleep in is capable of causing unconsciousness.

It actually felt like a practice round for when baby comes. I got to practice all of my techniques to deal with pain and just like with child birth the pain doesn't go away you just find a way to deal with it...or pass out. I dealt with it as long as possible before waking Mr. Sloth for help and when he couldn't help anymore I took a bath in the dark. It was during this dark bath that I realized this is what it might be like when baby comes. Demand's room is right next to the bathroom and she sleeps with the door open so I didn't want to wake her with light from the bathroom. Afterwards, I moved downstairs, so that my whimpering wouldn't wake Mr. Sloth and so I could in all honesty sleep with the living room door open. For a while I imagined Mr. Sloth finding me outside frozen with my head in the snow in an attempt to deal with the pain, but it was too painful to actually move that far.

Since I would most definitely choose birthing a child to having a migraine, I should be good to go then. Remember; childbirth is a part of nature, migraines are not.

Anyway, I'm better now and my head did not explode.

Demand and I had a packed day. We ran errands all morning; groceries, Target, and tied up some loose ends at Church. (Baptism arrangements, tithing, CCD...) Then it was time for a late lunch. I let Demand stay up a little later before nap time since we had a late lunch. At first I thought it may have been a bad idea but once I started reading her "new" library books in a slow monotone voice she nearly fell asleep in her chair.

As always I told myself I would just nap for a half an hour. Then I begged Jesus for 10 more minutes. Then I promised Jesus I would seriously get up after just 10 MORE minutes. Then I decided I was pregnant and needed the rest.

After an hour and a half nap I was hungry and needed to get up and gorge myself on food I didn't want Demand to see. I ended up getting a lot more than eating done. Demand didn't wake up until 5:30pm when we woke her up (and she wasn't happy about it). She's had a cold for a few days so I think she was sleeping it off.

We had pizza and salad for dinner. I also snuck veggies into the pizza sauce (red pepper, spinach, and sweet potato so I feel it was a decently healthy meal. In the middle of dinner Demand shouted "CAKE!!" remembering that I promised she could help me make cupcakes when she got up from her nap.(At the time of course, thinking it would be at 3pm not 6pm) So after dinner Mr. Sloth headed to the gym and Demand and I had a full evening. We made and decorated cupcakes. I steam cleaned the living room carpet (although it hardly feels clean) I swept up most of the round candy sprinkles that she poured everywhere, I cleaned up a 'potty accident', did the dishes and picked up the playroom and her bedroom all before Mr. Sloth came home from the gym. I think I may have burned more calories than he did, but I did eat a cupcake.

Mr. Sloth is just putting Demand down for the night (9:30pm) but at least the house is clean and I'm not as exhausted as I would expect.


I'm going to have the baby tonight, aren't I???