40w1d & progress update

Made it to my due date yesterday and he's still not here.  I've been super busy the past few weeks especially since my parents arrived on the 27th.  So, this post will be a bit of a 'thought vomit' one but I thought that I'd give all my readers an update.

• Blood pressure is still good for this stage of pregnancy at 118/78 but I'm a bit bummed it is so close to normal ... because my blood pressure is always on the low side.  But that is to be expected.  
• Still technically working and was in the office Friday.  People seem to think I'm nuts but when I explain I don't want to come back from mat leave too close to New Years' 2013 they get it.  
• Had 10 days off over Christmas and New Year's and went back on January 3rd.  That's the earliest I've EVER gone back to work in the new year.  Felt really weird.
• Finally got some decorating finished but I had to stop because my parents were about to arrive.

• Had a really weird Christmas Day.  I had a nap in the afternoon and didn't do much of anything at all.  
• I got all my cookies made but have one more batch sitting in the fridge.  Didn't manage to get the pies done so unfortunately my mom had to make them.  
• Had Christmas meals on New Year's Even and New Year's Day.  Felt a lot more like Christmas after that even though I missed out on the usual stuff and seeing my niece and nephew back home.  Next year will be better including for my sister who spent 3 hours in the ER because of a wacky serious eye infection that was progressing really fast.  Merry Christmas Eve to her!  
• Finally met my primary midwife now that she is back from leave.  Feels really weird to meet her so close to delivery but it can't be any worse than going to the hospital and getting some random OB, right?
• Parents arrived on the 27th and we've been busy since.
• The baby's room is ready to go now that we've gotten the finishing touches in.  Dresser and rocking chair are ready.  Thank you Ik.ea!  One bookshelf needs to come out and moved into the other bedroom up front.
• My house is being fitted with all kinds of shelving, all over the place.  My townhouse will have the best shelving in the suburb, I kid you not.  ;-)
• Cloth diapers are washed and ready to go thanks to my mom.  She didn't realize they should be dried between washes but luckily I caught that after the second wash and they got fluffed up nicely.
• Have 2 types of cloth diapers to try out - Indian prefolds and some microfibre ones made at a local baby store.  My mom has offered to make me more microfibre ones if she can find out what is in them.  That would be awesome!  
• Tons of freezing rain here since the week before Christmas including 2 days on which I had midwife appointments.  Made it out to the clinic no problem by driving responsibly.  ;-)
• Unfortunately, tested positive for Gr.oup B Str.ep.  Really not happy about this because I'm allergic to penicillin and clindamycin.  My only option is vancomycin and that's nasty stuff.  So, we're going to see how things go and if there are no warning signs we're going to do this without antibiotics.  Fingers crossed my water doesn't break before going to the hospital.
• Changed the hospital I'm going to because of GB.S results.  I'm now going out of town.  Pre-registered last Wednesday and it felt a lot like going into my home town hospital except the old one was multi-storied and this is a more recently built 1 storey building.  Will be a longer drive but I think we'll get excellent care there if we need to be in more than a few hours.

And now for the progress update:

• At my midwife appointment on Wednesday I was 2 cm dilated with little effacement.  While I've been told that is good for 39 weeks I was a bit bummed I wasn't further along.  Met the brand new student midwife who is working with my primary.  She will be at my birth and I think that will be her first one in this practicum so exciting stuff for her.  
• Had cramps Wednesday night.  My mom wanted me to come upstairs for just a few minutes (she's an organizing junkie ... no appearance on hoarding for her, ever!) and that turned into 45 minutes.  And, of course, it was during the only show that's been on TV worth watching in the past 2 months and wasn't repeated until 11 pm that night.  I repeatedly told my mom I couldn't keep doing stuff because I was crampy.  So I finally stopped at 9 (after missing 45 minutes of the show).  It didn't stop until about 11.  Apparently my mom thought I meant my legs were crampy.  Um, no.  I've never had crampy legs in my life even with a nasty flu.  I meant contraction type cramps.  Decided to stay home Thursday just in case.  I didn't want to try to find out how to get home while having contractions if that happened.
• Spent a lazy Thursday at home and felt much better.  Baby was very active that day since I was relaxing.
• Went to work Friday and had more cramping, particularly in the morning.  Getting stressed out about new stuff coming up at work and inability to get things on my list done before going on leave.  Taking Monday off because I'm too tired to work more than 4 days a week.  
• Noticed something a little different about the discharge yesterday morning.  Wondered whether it was a bit blood tinged but it might not have been so I didn't think too much about it.  Went shopping and when I came home I had bloody show and my mucous plug had definitely started to come out.  Yay!  Progress!  Had difficulty falling asleep.
• Overnight, not much to report.  Bloody show and mucous plug continuing to come out.  Had major discomfort after getting back to bed after going to the bathroom at 3:30 and 8 am.  Took about 1/2 hour to go away. 
• This morning I had some bright red show and got a bit worried about it.  Got my mom to check ... yes, very lovely, but she's used to working with bodily fluids and tissue so it wasn't weird for her at all.  She thought it looked like a clot or maybe some mucous.  Decided to wait and see.
• Show turned brownish again so put off call to midwife.  Then it turned a bit red again so called my doula.  She said this was fine and as long as the bright red stuff wasn't more than the volume of a light period I was fine.  
• Baby has been quiet today after a very active night.  He's definitely moved from his curled spot to bum out behind my belly button.  This is starting to get really uncomfortable, especially when he moves.  
• Continuing show this afternoon.  Spent most of it on the couch because every time I'm on my feet I get really uncomfortable.  Baby is definitely much further down than he was on Thursday.  The ultrasound to check where his head is and fluid levels (because my m/w was a bit concerned) probably won't be necessary because I think he's really far down now.  
• Likely to use my TENS machine tonight just to make sure I can get some sleep.  
• Feeling what is likely mild, erratic contractions.  It is hard for me to tell because I usually get extremely painful menstrual cramps and what is simply uncomfortable for me is really painful for someone else.  

So, after all that I'm thinking this guy is going to arrive sooner this week than later.  And I'm really hoping before Thursday because my dad has to leave to go back to work.  Bummer.  So my fingers are crossed I go into labour soon and with all the progress I've had over the past couple days I'm sure I'm more than 2 cm dilated now.  That makes me very happy!

Anyway, took the last set of belly photos, or what I think will be the last ones, today.  So, here you go:

I should have taken more photos in the bathroom ... better light from the south facing windows to use the camera without the flash.

Just checking in

Nothing new to report.  Everything seems to be going along just fine.  I passed the 6 week mark and am really grateful to get this far this time.  Every day that passes I'm so happy that I haven't had any bleeding ... so happy to just get through another day pregnant. 

I'm still very anxious about my ultrasound on Thursday.  I just want everything that is supposed to be there to actually be there.  I know I have no control over this but I really hope I don't get unlucky two pregnancies in a row.  I'd be devastated. 

I'm slowly realizing that I can't do the things I normally do partly out of exhaustion and partly because this pregnant body can't, or shouldn't, be lifting heavy things.  I am 99% sure I'll be getting an IK.EA crib and I also need a few more things from the store, namely some bookshelves so I can move the books out of baby's room.  I can't lift the boxes any longer so I think I'm just going to have to order everything and have it shipped.  Once it is in my house I can take everything apart box by box, piece by piece and move them individually. 

I've sort of had to give up on my yard for the year.  With the water ban in place until August 1st I can't really plant trees or shrubs this year anyway.  But I'm cutting back on the number of flower pots I will plant.  I have set out 2 smaller pots out front so my yard doesn't look like a complete disaster compared to my neighbours'.  I picked up some impatients today but I'm not entirely thrilled with them.  I'd wanted the New Gui.nea ones but I didn't see them anywhere.  I'll keep looking but if I find the NG ones I might pick up a few and use the little impatients as filler.  If not, I'll just use what I have and pick up a couple other things to throw in there. 

I've noticed that I'm getting back pain and pelvic pain when I sit or lay in certain positions.  I had some really seriously sharp cramping yesterday.  It may have been as a result of how I was sitting or moving because it did improve when I moved.  But it did take a while.  I think I need to invest in a good body pillow already.  Any recommendations for me? 

5 weeks

I made it to 5 weeks today, 2 days further than last time.  So far so good.  But I have to say the progesterone ooze gives me the willies.  Every time I feel it I think I should go check to see if I'm bleeding.  No bleeding, not even a little speck so I'm not complaining. ;-)

I got the call for my 1st ultrasound.  The receptionist called it my 1st OB ultrasound.  I like the sound of that.  My appointment is Thursday afternoon with a follow up right after with the head of the clinic.  I'm really hoping that this little bean is where it supposed to be and what we are supposed to see shows up.  Until the ultrasound I just have to hope this is progressing normally and that there is a growing embryo in there rather than a blighted ovum. 

The green feeling hasn't come back yet but my sense of smell is still heightened.  Food doesn't taste the same.  Even if it doesn't turn me off food isn't as tasty as it used to be.  Except for salty food.  I can always eat that without a problem.  I'm definitely tired but I can't say it is any worse yet than the fatigue I usually suffer from.  It just seems to hit earlier in the day.  My eyes have started feeling tired at noon.  And I feel tired at a normal time in the evening - I'm a night owl.  And I got tired after my shopping excursion today.

The other thing that happened today, a bit disconcerting I have to say, is that I got some serious cramping after lifting some heavy things at HD.  We have a water ban in our neighbourhood as the city works on replacing the water source to our suburb.  The main failed about 50 years early.  So I have ordered a rain barrel and need something to place it on.  Queue the cinder blocks and large paving stone.  Picking up 2 blocks and 1 stone, placing them in the cart and then my car trunk was enough to set off a lot of cramping.  Way more than I've dealt with so far.  I've forbidden myself from this kind of activity from here on out.  Someone else is going to have to do the heavy lifting.  This is one of those times I really miss having a guy around the house or at least having my parents live nearby. 

Everything seems to be fine, though.  I run the bathroom often enough to check, it seems. ;-)  No bleeding and the cramping has subsided.