I went to write down today's date and nearly had a heart attack. Sprout is due to make her debut in exactly 1 month! But then, will we have to wait a full month?? Or will she follow in her sister's footsteps and take her sweet time and make it more like 6 weeks?! Ahhhhh!!
I forgot all about this phase of pregnancy. The realization (okay, really it should be the word FEAR) that I could literally go into labor at any moment. You'd think that with this being baby #2, I'd be a pro; but reality is you can't go by last pregnancy timeline because each babe makes their own debut decisions! My experience with labor/delivery was AWESOME with Bean. I was induced at 10 days over, all pain went away with the epidural, and she was out in just over 6 hours of labor. Can I hit the labor/delivery lottery twice?! I am completely terrified of going into labor naturally (like water breaking, logistics of what to do with Bean, how much time from that happening to getting to the hospital is needed, etc). I'm trying to just focus on the day to day and not let my mental thoughts get too crazy.
I went through a really rough week about a month ago. My heartburn flared back up and I had to spend a few nights "sleeping" on the couch in a sitting position. Those were a couple of miserable days, but things have seemed to have changed. Maybe she's dropped or just found a better position, but heartburn is back to being managed with medicine -- whew! Sleeping is OK - still have to get up a lot at night to pee and switch positions, but I'm able to fall back to sleep quickly.
I guess I've entered the "nesting" phase. I simply call it - WE HAVE A MONTH TO GET STUFF DONE! Nursery is all ready to go, baby clothes and items are all cleaned and ready to be used, and all I really have left is to pack our own hospital bag. But since the hospital is 3 min from our house, I'm not too stressed with that task.
I remember with Bean, thinking that I'd go early; but then she was 10 days late. I keep reminding myself that any signs I see/experience now that could point to labor doesn't mean anything. I currently have lots of contractions throughout the day and have had a couple of evenings with them spacing out and being time able. I even had some in the middle of the night that woke me up and I couldn't sleep due to them. I timed them and they were 5-6 min apart and lasted a couple hours. But then they just went away. Doctor said next time that happens, at the hour mark, I just need to go to the hospital -- yikes!
I had another night this week where they were timing 5 min apart, around the hour mark they started to space out more towards 7 min -- whew! When they are time able, they are more just tightening (Braxton Hicks), but I've been having some more random ones that get to be more intense than just tightening. I"ll have to freeze in my spot and just focus until the feeling passes. Poor Steve is beginning to freak out. When he finds me frozen in spot he immediately jumps into, "ANOTHER ONE?!"
I had my first progress check this week. Those contractions are doing something because progress is being made! I again remind myself that progress doesn't mean much. With Bean, I was 2 cm at 39 weeks. With this baby, I am currently at 2 cm and just hitting week 36. Does that mean anything?! Probably not. Only thing is that my body is remembering to do it's job and prepping for baby expulsion - ha! From here on out, I'll have weekly appointments to check progress and make sure everything is still looking good!
(I am sucking at keeping up with these belly shots. My last picture was at week 29 -- oops! I'll *try* to do weekly photos for these last few weeks. I mean, how hard is it to take 4 more belly photos, right??)
(Bean wanted to be in the picture, too.)
(This photo makes me laugh. Because of my thyroid condition, I had to have an additional ultrasound at week 32. Everything checked out fine, and it was nice to see baby girl again - and yes I confirmed that it is still a girl. The tech kept commenting on how much hair the baby had. She finally took a screen shot and labeled the photo with "Hair" on it. I've talked to several friends and even other nurses about this picture and no one has ever heard of a tech documenting hair on an ultrasound. I say it's because she wants to document the human about to birth an ape! There's an old wive's tale that the hairier the baby, the worse the mom has heartburn. I'm a believer in that tale!)
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