Ally’s Pregnancy Journal

Wednesday March 22, 2006

We went to bed early Tuesday night but come 1:30am I was awake and could not get back to sleep for more than 10 minutes at a time. Come 3:30 we were both up and I brought Bryan into work for 4:45 and I went right to work from there stopping for an egg mcmuffin, hash brown and an orange juice and was at work just after 5am. I emailed my boss to let him know how early I was in and to see if I could leave a bit earlier than the 2:30 I had planned for my OB appointment. I got some work done and left the office at noon. I drove into Cambridge and met up with Bryan. We decided to go for Bento boxes at a Japanese restaurant we really like and then headed towards Newton-Wellesley Hospital where my OBs office is located. We ended up arriving an hour early for my appointment but when I went to check in and let them know that I was early. They said they would see if they could fit me in earlier, sure enough they called me in to do the usual pee on a stick, weight and blood pressure. The stick for glucose and protein looked the same as usual. We got to the scale and it showed a 4lb gain since Friday – since most pregnant women, including myself usually loose at this point they knew it was water retention. Though when they took my blood pressure and they did it twice they found it was much higher than expected and since my blood pressure was pretty much the same throughout the pregnancy it was a cause for concern. They lead us into the room where we waited for my doctor. She was her usual chipper self and said she was a bit worried about the blood pressure with the 4lb gain which usually means I am retaining water and they were worried about me going into toxemia and having PIH – Pregnancy Induced Hypertension. She asked how we feel about going into the hospital tonight. To which we explained we pretty much had everything in the truck already “just incase” So she sent me right up to the maternity ward.

Before we went up to the maternity ward we called our moms and Kate to let them know what the deal was and that the baby should be here within 48 hours. It was 4:30 by the time we went up they got us to a room pretty quickly and we happen to get one of the larger ones with the tub (though I may not end up being able to use it since they will be doing pitocin and an epidural. The nurse Des was really nice, we went over all the questions about my medical and pregnancy history and she drew some blood so they could check for the hypertension, put a line in so they could use it for an IV later and did some checks. During her questions and checks Bryan went to the house to pick up more clothes for him as well as my laptop so we could watch DVDs and I could put in my journal entry about the birth. The labs came back clear so they did not have to worry about going right to the pitocin tonight. At about 9pm they gave me Cervidil to help ripen my cervix and tomorrow morning I will be getting the pitocin.

After having to lay on my side for 2 hours I was finally able to eat at 11:15 and while he was out Bryan had picked up a meatball and Italian sub down the street so I had a little of each and they gave me Ambien so I could sleep. Just after midnight they helped me up so I could go the bathroom and brush my teeth. Bryan got all comfy on the cot to try to get some sleep himself.

Thursday March 23, 2006

Today is the baby’s due date and I was out till about 4:30am when I woke up with some pretty bad contractions. After about a half hour of trying to get comfortable Elaine my overnight nurse decided to take out the Cervidil and then allowed me to go into the Jacuzzi tub to help relax me. Bryan got up and gave me a back rub with a pressure ball while I was in there. It really helped with the back pain I was getting with contractions. Once out of the tub I sat on the birthing ball till about 7am when my morning nurse Barbara came. She let me know that Dr Konig would be in soon and that she would do an internal then they would start pitocin. First they wanted to hook the monitor onto me for 30 minutes. They found that I am having contractions every 3to5minutes, my cervix is 1-2cm and 80% effaced. She decided not to start the pitocin right away since my body seems to be doing the job on its own. Just after 8am they started a penicillin drip. They will be bringing me up some toast so I could get something in my stomach but no smoothie for me which is what I was looking forward to.

The day wore on and so did the contractions. They upped the pitocin slowly over time and to help with the contractions the birthing ball came in handy again as when the contractions came so did the pain in my pelvis and my lower back, some of it shooting pain – this was the baby pushing down and hitting a nerve. Just before 3pm they checked my cervix again – I was only 2-3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. Barbara, my nurse at the time let me know that the doctor may want me to go home for the night and then have me come back in the morning and start the process all over again. She let me know the doctor was delivering another baby but would be in after to check my cervix again and then go from there. 4pm came and the doctor was still in delivery, though I think they had mentioned it was now another baby, I didn’t mind waiting since I knew those moms were more important right at that moment. Des my evening nurse, who I had also had the evening before came in to let me know the doctor would be in soon and to go over the options the doctor would talk about. One of those options was a c-section but I made it clear to Des that I would rather go home and let nature take its course than go through surgery if I didn’t have to.

Just before 7pm Dr Konig came in, checked my cervix and verified that I hadn’t progressed since 3pm so she explained that she was going to take me right off the pitocin, we would see if my contractions continued on their own and go from there. There were two options she gave me since she knew I didn’t want to go the c-section route, one was to use Misoprostol, a cervix ripening drug overnight and see if that helps or to go home and come back first thing in the morning. A few minutes later at 7:07, after the doctor and nurse left I had Bryan snag a wipe to wipe the lube off down there since I couldn’t reach and it. Well before he even got the wipe down there I asked him what he was doing and next thing I knew my water broke. Poor Bryan was right there and said he heard the pop, all I felt was the gushing! I asked him what color it was and all he could say was there was something brown and red. I had him run to get the nurse since I was worried the brown he was talking about was merconium. Bryan came back with the nurse and they were amazed. She wanted to make sure it was definitely my water since I had tested Group B Strep positive and that meant I was not going to be able to leave the hospital since I would have to remain on antibiotics to prevent the baby from getting it. She went to get some strips to test the liquid but the test didn’t come back positive. I told her I really had to go the bathroom and her and Bryan helped me get there since I was hooked up to an IV. I sat down and went – they had been collecting every urination since they like to make sure my body is still doing its job and when she saw the thing fill to 800cc she said there is no way my bladder was holding all that in, plus it had a pink tinge to it so we knew it had to be – sure enough it tested positive!

Within minutes the contractions kicked into high gear, the nurse knew this was my body doing it since by that point it was 7:30 and I had been off the pitocin for a half hour and the effects don’t last that long. I was having a hard time not tensing up during these contractions and if you really want your cervix to dilate the worse thing you can do is tense up. I said I would take the epidural at any point now! Des, the nurse explained that they could not give me the epidural yet since it could slow down the contractions, they really wanted to see me dilate first then go for the epidural – so Des said as soon as Dr Konig got back she would talk to her about giving me Nubain to help with the pain. Just after 8pm Dr Konig came and said she was surprised when they called to say my water broke and ordered 10mg of Nubain for the pain and 50mg of Vistaril to help prevent me from getting nauseous from the Nubain. She also ordered that not long after the other drugs were administered I should be put back on Pitocin to make sure the contractions keep going strong.

A few hours wore on and the contractions kept getting stronger and stronger so they finally agreed it was time for me to get an epidural. At 11:11 the anesthesiologist came and by that point I now had Ileana as my nurse. She tried to get Bryan to sit in a chair when they did the epidural but I explained I needed his hand to squeeze incase I had a contraction through the procedure and I didn’t want to tense up or move during it. I also made sure the anesthesiologist knew I did not want to know when she stuck me, just as I told the nurses when they had done my IV catheters and when they took blood. She asked if I was sure and when I explained that I would tense up if she told me first she seemed to be ok with it since they don’t want you to tense up. They had me sit on the bed with my feet hanging over and lean over a little bit. I relaxed as much as possible and they gave the local to numb things a bit then they put in the catheter for the epidural. I had 2 contractions during it but was able to focus the energy into squeezing Bryan’s hand; unfortunately the nurse noticed that Bryan had given me his left hand – the one with a wedding band on. He commented how I was squeezing it harder than he had ever felt me squeeze before. They immediately had me lie back down and within 10 minutes the epidural had taken effect and my legs felt so heavy. All the pain had gone away except for the pain in my lower back area but that pain was so much easier to deal with than I had been going through.

At 11:35 they checked and my cervix was 3-4cm dilated and 90% effaced so they kicked up the epidural so I could get some sleep and I could further dilate. I was still waking up during the contractions but in-between I was knocked out. Bryan was unable to sleep at all during this time so watched me go through the contractions.

Friday March 24, 2006

4:05am they checked me again and I was fully dilated, so they turned up the epidural even more so I could labor down and declared I would be pushing in about an hour. That hour went by so fast and I felt like I had gotten so much rest.

5:20am the nurse was going to have me start pushing. I had asked if she was going to dial down the epidural and she said “Only if you have issues pushing” so right then I had her setup the mirror they had in the room so I could see how I was pushing. She had me give a few good pushes and was very happy with how I was pushing – I have to say the mirror helped because not only was I able to see how I was progressing with each push but it also gave me a focal point – the baby’s head – which we saw after just a few really good pushes. Dr Konig came in and was very happy with the progress and they had me keep going. I kept having a hard time because of the back pains I was feeling and she explained that the baby was still “sunny side up” meaning her spine was up against mine. A few pushes later the head has really started to come out and then she explains that the baby was turning – this was the weirdest feeling I had ever felt and Bryan was in shock as he was able to see this! The nurse was great with this as well encouraging me to push and Bryan was involved as well… he had one hand holding up my foot, the other would help support my neck when I leaned forward during a push and in-between contractions he would make sure I breathed properly. They ended up putting an oxygen mask on me in-between contractions so the baby would get extra oxygen.

6:21am – after just an hour of hard pushing out came the head and then the rest of the body and the doctor announced “It’s a GIRL” and right on my chest they brought her – and right then and there we knew she was definitely Claire Abigail Muriel! As I had asked before they did not clamp the cord right away but the doctor started working on delivering my placenta. The nurse cleaned off the baby and assessed her while she was on me and it was unbelievable how great it felt to have her in my arms. After a couple of minutes the doctor explains she needs to clamp the cord because there was a problem and I said it was fine since I felt it was long enough. She clamped the cord and Bryan cut the cord. They then whisked off the baby to the other side of the room where the heat lamp was to further clean her off and Bryan went over to watch them get her weight, which was 6lbs 12oz and do the 5minute apgar test. During this time 4 extra nurses came in and they feverishly worked on me with the doctor, they put in a second IV catheter on my right hand and pumped me with pitocin, dialed up the epidural even higher and gave me a bunch of other meds to help stop the bleeding since they were having problems controlling it and the placenta was coming out in pieces. I was having a hard time understanding what was really going on and hearing Claire cry all I wanted was to try to bring her to my chest to feed. They explained that I still was not all set and then it hit me – Bryan had come over to check on me and the look on his face told me – he was scared seeing all this blood pour out of me. I told him to go be with the baby, told him he should get some video footage of her – it wasn’t about the video footage – I was worried if I kept seeing his face like that I would start to panic, which is the last thing they needed me to do! Once they were done cleaning her off they had Bryan sit in the side chair with her and I had the nurse take a couple pictures of him with her since I had an IV in each arm and they would not let me do anything.

They were finally done getting things under control with me – Claire had no issues so they didn’t have to do anything to her other than the routine stuff like the Vitamin K shot and the eye ointment. I on the other hand had lost a lot of blood, had a 1st degree tear, 7-10 internal stitches and many internal lacerations from her turning so far down in the birth canal.

7:15 they brought Claire to me and she had her first feeding and Barbara, or day nurse we had the morning before gave me some pointers, she wasn’t on very long but getting her to breast early are what many moms recommend to help get the breastfeeding process going. The next few hours went by quickly…. my OB stopped by to congratulate us and to see how I was doing, she actually commented about how big Claire’s head was and no wonder I had all that pelvic pain, that and she looked pretty long. Not long later the pediatrician who was covering our ped’s office came by to measure her and to check her out – she is 20 inches long and her head circumference is 35cm – she definitely is long and has a rather long noggin but she is so slender that is why she is only 6lbs 12oz.

Just after 10am they move us from the delivery room into the postpartum room. For some reason I had all this energy and I so wanted to take a shower but the nurse let me know that it was too soon and she wanted me to drink a lot first. She also said till they verified my blood pressure was stable she was going to leave in the second IV catheter in my hand just incase. We then took a short nap before making calls to family and friends. We called Bryan’s mom first to let her know and told her she could come by any time after 2pm. We went to call my mom next but just as we put down the phone from talking to Bryan’s mom, my step-mom Sue called – it was amazing how she called when we really hadn’t even been in the room an hour, it was great getting to talk to her. Since this was Friday morning I decided to call my mom’s cell since I didn’t have her work number on me and I knew her home voicemail was having issues, unfortunately I got her cell voicemail so I left a message there. We then called my friend Kate who was going to let the rest of the girls know the details.

Around 11 after having a lot of water I wanted to go the bathroom so her and Bryan helped me get out of bed and onto the toilet but since they had put an ice pack down there, when I went to take it off it made a mess and I begged her at that point if I could just take a shower since it would be easier to clean up. She gave me a hard time about not staying in too long since it could make me dizzy so I made sure to be really quick and even finished before she left the room. Boy did it feel good to have a shower after being stuck in a bed for days! I was then back into bed and since Claire had woken I wanted to try to feed again; sure enough I got her latched on with some help for 20 minutes.

Bryan’s mom and brother came around 2:30 and stayed till just about 5pm. Around 6pm my friends Sheila, Kate and Mary stopped by for about an hour and the rest of the night was pretty quiet – I tried to feed her as much as possible and sleep in-between. During the night they came to take Claire just before I attempted to feed again so they could get a weight on her – she was down to 6lbs 4oz, which is normal for all babies as they loose the water weight from being in the amniotic fluid. Almost every feeding I seemed to need help feeding her as she had problems latching and each nurse was so helpful and each had tips that helped me – I learned that not all tricks work every time… Bryan’s analogy – it’s like playing fish – you have a bunch of cards and keep trying to play ones you have.

Saturday March 25, 2006

This day was a blur, First thing in the morning one of the doctors covering my OB’s office stopped by to see how I was doing and checked my uterus, just like the nurses did so many times when they came to check my blood pressure and temp. Our pediatrician stopped by to take a quick look at her and talk to us a little bit and had a few questions. Bryan’s mom stopped by from 11 to 1pm, our friends Ellen and John stopped by with their kids Bobby and Jenny – they happen to stop by as I was feeding and I was amazed at how comfortable I was feeding in front of them – not like they could see much since Claire was already attached to me, but just how they either didn’t seem to notice or care made me not care. Once Claire was done feeding I had Bryan take her so I could cover as he took her so Ellen could hold her. It was so cute seeing Bobby and Jenny look at her. The afternoon was pretty quiet so we spent much of it sleeping and trying to feed. A few hours later Bryan’s friend Chris stopped by to say hello and I decided to take a shower while the boys looked over Claire. Not long after Chris left we went to a breastfeeding class that one of the lactation consultants was giving since I knew at that point I could use all the help I could get. We went to leave Claire in the nursery for the first time since we had been there – it was strange to know so many parents left their baby in the nursery and the nurses would just bring the baby out when it was time to feed. I figured I wouldn’t sleep the first night anyway so I would rather that first night be in the hospital where I have help of so many nurses! The class was great and I was able to get some of my questions answered since some of the nurses had conflicting information they had given me and I wasn’t sure which information was better to keep in my head. That night my dad, my step-mom and little sister Rachel stopped by to see the baby. I loved seeing how comfortable my dad was with a newborn, he went right into showing Rachel how to do the football hold and when he did this football player maneuver I had Bryan take a picture because it was just way too funny! Rachel looked quite comfortable holding Claire and she looked pretty excited to now have a little niece – I say little since her other niece is 6 months older than her!

Sunday March 26, 2006

Early in the morning they took some blood for the mandatory tests and we had them do the optional tests since they don’t take any additional blood for it anyway. When she got back I tried to feed her but had a really hard time again and the nurse was great about really helping me out. After that I was wide awake and so looking to be able to go home, it was really starting to feel like being in a bio-dome and the bed was not as comfortable as the one I knew I had waiting for me at home! That morning our pediatrician came by to check her out, he brought her to the nursery to do this – when he came back he let us know that she was still weighing 6lbs 4oz and that she was maintaining her temperature wonderfully so not to dress her in any more layers than we wear and that’s when I asked him about her going home outfit and agreed with me that it was one layer too many. We then got a visit from a few more nurses to check me out and then the covering OB stopped by to check on me, gave me a prescription for a pill I could be on while breastfeeding and also explained some information about the MMR shot I needed – come to find out one of my vaccinations as a kid either wore off or did not take and since they couldn’t give it to me while pregnant they would give it to me in the hospital before I left. Molly, our final nurse in the hospital – who we had had the morning before as well was great in answering any questions, gave the shot, and even gave me an extra pack of which hazel pads since my other ones were running low. We left the hospital just before noon and were excited about getting home. At home we spent the rest of the day napping and feeding Claire – Bryan was great and would change her diaper or at least check before each time I fed so he really was up with me each time – we figured he could do this while he is not working, when he goes back to work I won’t be waking him up.

We had such a hard time this first night as we had set our alarm for 3 hours just incase she didn’t wake on her own, then gave her an extra half hour and she still wasn’t awake to feed. We tried to wake her and nothing really kept her awake – no face cloth, stripping her down to her diaper, changing her diaper, tickling her belly as the nurse showed us, etc. After about an hour on and off of this (since they said to wait a little between each so we don’t completely wear her out) she finally latched on and ate pretty good. This was very upsetting for us since they said she should be feeding every 2-3 hours and she had just gone 6 hours without eating.

Monday March 27, 2006

This day was such a blur – she had made a turn from her 6 hour stretch to feeding just about every hour for most of the day, though a few of the feeds were only a few minutes long! She also had quite a bit of gas so we had to start using the mylicon to help alleviate the gas. So much for the number of diapers equaling the number of days old as we had almost a dozen diaper changes that day and in the morning her stool turned from the tar like merconium to the grey pupon very loose stool. We spent much of the day trying to sleep in between the feedings as the night before had worn us out. We had talked to Bryan’s mom who said she made us some food so we agreed the best bet for us would be to just bring Claire over to her house after the pediatrician appointment. At one point Bryan went to pick up some newborn Huggies diapers and a few things at the grocery store but also came home with a gift for me. I opened the bag and sure enough there was the little Ralph Lauren nautical dress we saw a few weeks ago at Children’s Orchard that we both loved.

Tuesday March 28, 2006

This morning we did not have the same stretch we had the night before as every 2 hours she was up looking for food, though this meant we did not get a lot of sleep we were more welcoming of this than the long stretch from the morning before. We had an 8:45 pediatrician appointment and so after her 7am feeding we slowly started getting ready for the appointment and get her into her infant car seat. We got there and when they came into the waiting room they said “Claire” to which I said no at first – then realized they were talking about our daughter, oops guess I will have to get use to hearing others call for her name! We went in and they weighed her – she weighed in at 6lbs 7oz – this is 3 oz up from Sunday morning’s weigh in. The doctor came and did a quick check over on her and I mentioned the little bit of yellow in the sides of her eyes. He said he would do a blood test on her just to make sure. We also brought up the span of time between feedings – he said if she wanted to go 5 hours overnight without feeding it was ok though to make sure she gets enough during the day. He also reminded us that till she is 14lbs and 3 months there is no such thing as spoiling her and that a schedule might not really be able to be done till around this time as well. He also recommended that she sleep in our room in a bassinette till she is sleeping through the night – well this is good since we don’t have a separate room for her right now and that is exactly where she sleeps is in a bassinette next to my side of the bed. Then came the blood test – the assistant came in and wrapped this little heating pack around her foot and had it sit on there for 5 minutes, then came back and used this little device to put a prick in her heel then squeezed till the little vile was full of blood. I had never heard her scream so loudly and so much, though he said this helps him get the blood out faster. Once we ended up needing to change her diaper, they were really good about this and told us to stay in the room till we were all set.

Before we headed to Bryan’s mom’s we stopped at a bagel shop – Bryan ran in while I sat in the back seat with her and fed her. All that excitement at the doctor’s office I’m sure made her hungry. We then headed to Bryan’s mom’s. She was excited to see her again though we left her in the car seat since she was sleeping. We then all packed into the truck and headed to Babies R Us to pick up some smaller clothes for her since so many swam around her neck we really wanted her to be warm enough at night. We didn’t spend too long on there since we really wanted to get her home and we were getting pretty tired being our first day out. After dropping off his mom we headed over to Cindi’s Jewelers since Bryan and I had talked about a 5year anniversary/my 30th birthday/new mom/mother’s day gift for me of being a ring just like my wedding band to put on the other side of my engagement ring. The night before though I had mentioned instead of being 5 diamonds on it like my band if we could kind of turn it into a mother’s ring and have our birthstones on each end with Claire’s in the middle and 2 diamonds in-between each birthstone. He really liked this idea so he wanted to make sure Cindi knew so she could get us a proper quote. While we were there we also saw this wonderful pewter baby cup so we agreed to get one for Claire with her full name and birth date on it. Not too long after we got home we got a call from the doctor’s office – he said the tests came back a little on the high side and they wanted to test again the next day to make sure it was going down not up. That afternoon she turned into a feeding machine and wanted to feed pretty much every hour, this was definitely a change from the day before and a welcome one at that. I was pretty sore from getting up and down so the rest of the evening we spent in bed.

Wednesday March 29, 2006

This morning we did not have the same problem with her going too long as she was up no later than every two and a half hours. We got her up and dressed and headed to the pediatrician’s office once again for the blood test. When we got there we met one of the other secretary and assistant. This one asked us if we had received one of their bags, to which we were like “Bags?” and so she gave us one of the bags they give out to new patients – the cool thing is it is a backpack diaper bag, which we felt we would get so much use out of compared to the other diaper bags we had received. They were quick with the blood and we were on our way. Since we were already out we figured this would be a good time to enjoy the beautiful day so after getting bagels again at the local bagel shop we headed over to Old Navy with our gift certificates to pick up some pants for Bryan and see if they had any little girl stuff on clearance. Before we headed there we went to Babies R Us since the Huggies diapers we had bought seemed to get blown out every time and so we wanted to pick up some Pampers Newborn. While we were there Claire got hungry so I decided to check out the Mother’s Room that they had. I was pleasantly surprised to find a couch, a glider and a changing table. It was nicely lit and very quiet. I had got in there just as another mother was leaving so I had the glider all to myself. After a while 2 other mothers came in to feed and change their kids and it was nice to get to chat with other moms a bit while feeding and burping Claire. At Old Navy we decided to try out the Snap ‘n Go one of my friends let us borrow since her daughter was too old for an infant carrier now and we found it easy, light and because it had a big basket underneath we didn’t need a carriage. Bryan didn’t find pants but he did find some great cargo shorts and I found a few clearance things as well as a few newborn outfits that seemed like they would fit Claire. After we strolled over to Starbucks so I could get an Iced Venti Decaf Carmel Macchiato. Before we headed home she wanted to eat again so I fed her in the truck. The back windows have such a dark tint I felt comfortable feeding her in the back seat knowing there was no way anyone could see us. Since we were hitting the highway to go home I recommended to Bryan that we stop at Boston Baby as this was the 12 week mark when they said the chair would be in no later than this date. We arrived there surprised to find the parking lot empty and then noticed a note on the door saying “Temporarily Closed” and then said to call a number for customer service. This number rang off so we got a little concerned and called information to get the numbers for the other locations and sure enough they had the same message and one rang off. We were troubled by this but since we paid with our credit card we knew we should make some calls when we got home. When we got home we went to their website and called the other number – all either rang off or had the message about calling customer service. We then googled them to see if anything came up and sure enough we found that others were in the same predicament we were and that the Attorney General was already investigating them as well. We called our credit card and sure enough they credited our account with the money and let us know they would be doing an investigation. We really felt bad for those who paid with cash as they couldn’t do the same thing we did. From our day of walking around I think I had overdone it and was quite sore so I took a shower and headed to bed early to try to get some rest and relax a bit.

Thursday March 30, 2006

These days seem to fade into each other as we are only getting so many hours sleep. We hadn’t heard from the doctor at all yesterday so we figured his “no news is good news” philosophy applied here as well. We spent some time getting a little cleaning done around the house when Claire slept and not long after 3 my cousin Elizabeth and our friend Laura stopped by. It was nice to see them and they came with gifts for Claire – some of the cutest outfits we had ever seen for her – one may be what we end up putting her in for Easter! They were not able to stay long but it was nice getting to see them and for them to meet Claire. The mail came and so did our announcements and photos from the hospital, we were so excited and we spent the rest of the night cutting the photos to size and putting them in the announcements.

Friday March 31, 2006

Today Claire is a week old, it is amazing how time flies! Claire spent most of the morning cluster feeding but in-between I finally logged onto work email so I could set my out of office so people knew I was out and reply to any necessary emails. I was able to squeeze in a shower since we were heading to my Aunt’s house so she could see Claire. We stopped at the post office on the way to get Bryan’s work paperwork sent out. My Aunt was so excited to see Claire and we spent a few hours catching up with her and telling her about the birth. We left there and headed home. That evening my cousin Tris stopped by with her son Benjamin, who is 3 months old and Jonathan, not sure what she describes him as since they are just like a married couple just haven’t gotten married yet (they own a house together and had Benjamin together and they have a great loving relationship, just haven’t gotten around to the vows yet – though I’m sure in time they will as they are so wonderful together!). It was amazing to see how big Benjamin had gotten and for them to get to see Claire. We always enjoy spending time with them and it was great getting to catch up since we hadn’t seen Tris and Benjamin since my shower and hadn’t seen Jonathan since just after Christmas. They also came with an outfit for Claire – this really cute purple one that came with a hat!

Saturday April 1, 2006

Claire actually had a two and a half hour stretch, one feeding then a three and a half hour stretch this morning so we felt so rested when we woke up but because she fed so often once she woke up we didn’t end up getting out of bed and showering till sometime after 10am. We finished putting the bows on the announcements and got the photos for the grandparents into the frames we picked up. Around 3pm Bryan’s mom showed up with fixings for dinner as well as a gift from a co-worker of hers (2 really cute outfits for Claire, one being this little jean dress that will look soo cute on her!). About an hour later my mom and my niece Hailey came. This was the first time my mom had seen her and it was so great seeing her with Claire. She really is great with little babies and we had a wonderful time catching up. She and Hailey are soo happy and so much of that has to do with George coming into their lives as he is such a positive influence and so loving to both of them. You can so tell that Hailey and my mom are happier than I had seen in years and they both feel and look great. After a few hours they left and we started cooking dinner while Bryan’s mom held Claire. I also made sure to send his mom with a thank you card for her co-worker so we didn’t forget to get it to her. Today Claire spent most of it feeding every hour but it was great since it gave the grandmothers a chance to burp her after she fed and then spend some time holding her. Claire even had a good span of time that she sat there with her eyes open, this was the first time I had really seen her eyes open for a period of time other than when I’m feeding her.

I think I will be closing this journal and will keep an update through Claire’s photo page at http://claire.thepikes.org

1 day till my due date - can’t believe it is here already!! I guess my body can’t either as I got no sleep last night, we went to bed around 9pm last night since Bryan had to be to work for 4:45 this morning for an upgrade of part of their network so we figured I would just bring him in to work and go to work from there - well it is a good thing we did this because I was up from about 1am on - between the baby having a blast rib kicking and a few contractions, along with the pelvic pain getting worse I only fell asleep for a few minutes here and there! It is a good think I decided to come into work though since I know I will be exhausted at the end of the day today so I emailed my boss to see if he is ok with me leaving around noon (I had already planned on leaving at 2:30 for my doctor’s appointment, so this is just a little earlier) I think when I get out I may also call and see if I can squeeze in a little earlier of an appointment with my doctor. If not we are going to see about installing the car seat and taking it to be “inspected” during that time in-between - I’m going to print out a list of a few places we can go to have it done!

It’s amazing to think that I have been pregnant for over 9 months now and any day we will get to meet this little pike of ours. The other thing that amazes both Bryan and I…. when you look at a newborn you think tiny and oh so fragile, yet this child kicks and punches and pushes around causing me more pain than I have ever felt inflected. Sometimes a warm bath helps calm the baby down but many times it does nothing. Many of these Bryan has felt just by putting his hand on my belly - though sometimes that causes the baby to maneuver to kick his hand off of it’s territory. I know from talking to friends that this is no where near the end of the pain and no where near the height of the pain - labor will bring on so much more!

This is where I worry about how much longer the baby continues to grow in me - the longer it “bakes” the bigger it gets (don’t you wish that were the case with muffins). This also means the harder it will be to push the baby out. I really would rather not have a c-section so this is such a hard point to come to - if we wait it is better for things to progress naturally but waiting means the baby gets bigger which means the odds of me being able to deliver the baby get smaller.

Tomorrow afternoon is my 40week OB appointment and hopefully I have dilated more and at that point I think they are going to setup a game plan. I may even request for her to “Strip the Membranes” go to this link if you want to read about what that means www.childbirth.org/articles/strip.html. My cousin had this done the day before her due date and the baby arrived 2 days later. Since I am dilated this may be a good option for us - though we will see what my doctor has to say tomorrow. Though we had agreed that Bryan no longer needed to come to the appointments since he has owed time so he can leave early one day I figured this may be the appointment he should come to just incase!

Bryan has been so great through this whole process and has been to all but 3or4 appointments during the whole pregnancy - much of that has to do with the fact that I try to have them schedule me as late as possible so most Bryan has not had to leave work early in order to join me! A couple he has taken the day off to go to (like the ultrasounds and my first appointment which also happened to include an ultrasound). The only complaint he has is the lack of magazines men would want to look through! I will have to remember to bring a magazine or 2 for him tomorrow!

Other than waiting for the baby to arrive we have continued to work on the apartment to make sure we really are all set - we even went grocery shopping last night to pick up as much stuff for the freezer and the pantry that we could really fit to make sure we have meals for at least the first few days we are home, we are not too worried after the first few days since I’m sure Bryan will want an excuse to get out of the house!

We are very interested in seeing how the cats will react to the baby - the clothes are all in the changing table so they have been able to smell them (or should I say lack of smell since Dreft really has no smell) but sometime soon I have to bring the bassinette up to the bed and see if they are curious and climb into it, it has been out for weeks now so I’m not sure they really care about it, but I’d rather find out now. I know keeping the cats out of our room is not an option since they would whine all night not being able to sleep at the foot of our bed so we shall see what happens. I think Trixie will be afraid of the baby since she is afraid of small children and Timber will be curious but since she is so jumpy she most likely will keep away as well. I only worry about the cats getting jealous when Bryan is holding the baby since they each seem to get jealous when he holds the other one. I’m not worried about the cats attacking or trying to sleep with the baby in the bassinette though since they really love being up on a high spot and the bassinette is just a little bit lower than our bed - plus the foot of our bed has a better view for them to look into the living room!

I’m at work right now and plan on coming to work as long as I feel up to it. I’m hoping to work until the baby comes so that way I have a full 12weeks to spend with the baby. What’s even more exciting is that Bryan gets 4 weeks from his company at 75% pay and he can use sick and vacation time to make up for the other 25% - we both agree that he will use the first 3 weeks once the baby comes and then we would save the last week possibly for the week Hailey and Rachel come to stay with us for the week. I am really excited to have the 2 of them come since by then the baby will be 3to4 weeks old and I will want to get out and about by then - plus the weather is usually nice that weekend so we will be able to go to the park and into Boston for the day and maybe even take a little day trip somewhere. The girls are always great together and I think it will be fun for all of us to do things, I even have passes for the aquarium so we could go there as well one of the days. Since we don’t know what the baby will be like yet we are not setting down any plans in stone other than the fact that we are taking the girls that week and most likely Bryan will take that week off as well since he really enjoys doing things with the girls too and would be able to help with the baby!

Well I’m off to get more work done, I love that I am still working so I don’t have my mind on “when is this baby going to come?” and so I make sure things are taken care of so I don’t have to worry about anything while I am gone!

Friday my boss let me work from home and I was amazed at home much I got done. Late that afternoon was my OB appointment and I was really hoping to talk to my doctor since I wanted to figure out what we could do. By this time the pains had really quieted down but it still prevented me from getting any sleep on Thursday night so I really wanted to see what we could do to get things moving along. When I got to the office I found out she was in an emergency C-section so I would be seeing Dr. Lerner - I have met him before and he was really nice, this would be Bryan’s first time meeting him though so I thought that would be good for him to meet another one of the potential doctors that could be delivering our child (if my OB is not available that is).

I explained what happened the day before and also mentioned that the pains have really died off though I still didn’t get any sleep - he recommended Tylenol PM to help me get some sleep. He also asked if I wanted to do an internal or not since I had one the day before - I figured things could have changed a bit overnight so I had him go ahead - sure enough I am now 1cm dilated - this made me feel better that some of the pain I had been going through since the hospital run wasn’t just the baby! I couldn’t help but cry when I was explaining all the pain - I’m sure that between the hormones and the lack of sleep this is why I couldn’t stop crying. He is soo sweet though - he explained that he didn’t invent this process (talking about pregnancy) and that things are better if we let nature take it’s course, less issues for me and the baby - they know that I really don’t want a c-section unless I absolutely have to so hearing that made me realize that maybe I can deal with this pain a little longer as long as I can get some sleep.

After the appointment we went for boiled dinner and stopped to pick up Tylenol PM. That night I took a dose and actually slept most of the night! It felt so good to get some rest and took it easy most of the morning. That afternoon I purged the stuff in the bathroom since we had more things than storage for so I wanted to go through and throw out anything we wouldn’t use, get rid of some makeup and anything that expired - I filled a whole kitchen trash bag with stuff! I also got everything into our one organizing unit with room to spare!

Saturday Night I took Tylenol PM again but the pain I went through before it kicked in was pretty severe and had a hard time relaxing but eventually they died off again, I was able to get comfortable and to sleep.

This morning I was up pretty early in pain, but tried to relax in bed, not working very well as I have gotten a few really bad contractions but since they were more than an hour apart nothing to start timing yet.

I have my next OB appointment on Wednesday - a day before my due date - that is if something doesn’t happen first - so with the factor of 10 days post due date they allow me to go over that leaves us with meeting the baby in about 2 weeks or less!

I’m going back to work tomorrow as long I can get some sleep again tonight!

Well it was a false alarm!!

I am soo not sure what happened but they were coming 5-7 minutes apart for almost 3 hours by the time we got to the hospital but according to the nurse some of them might not have been contractions since I said a few were not that bad at all - they put me on the stress test for a few hours and sure enough some of the really bad ones that I couldn’t even breath through were the baby

They also started dying down as I was laying in the bed in the hospital and when they did an internal she said I wasn’t dialated at all still - OK I’m not sure how much lower this kid can get without me dialating - it soo feels like it is going to drop out of me when I walk.

We left there and went walking around Babies R Us for a little while to see if things started up again but no luck so we came home - I took a little nap and Bryan is sleeping right now after neither of us getting any sleep last night!

My boss agreed that I could work from home tomorrow if I don’t go into labor, thank god my OB appointment is tomorrow since I don’t know what I’m going to do if this kid really isn’t on it’s way!

OK I’m really not sure what is going on now - around 1pm I had a contraction that was so bad - I couldn’t talk for 2 whole minutes, I just sat there at lunch with my friend trying to even let out a breath, all I could do is hold my belly, though that didn’t seem to help - after that 2 minutes it still hurt but atleast I could talk - well I didn’t get another till about 1:30, that one wasn’t as bad..

though now I have gotten 3 - one at 1:57 -2:00, another at 2:08 to 2:10 and another at 2:15(this one had butt pressure too) to 2:17. I called my OBs office and left a message for the nurses to find out how i should be timing them - from when they end or when each start? I hope they hurry up and call me back! I’d hate for this to be false labor but I so can’t go for a walk since I have to wait for them to call -hmmm maybe I shouldn’t have had spicy indian for lunch!

Monday and Tuesday night we finished putting away clothes and getting things organized before the baby comes. It is amazing how much gear we have for camping, kayaking, hiking, backpacking, snowboarding, computers, software, etc - this is why we still have so much stuff in our spare bedroom - and most of it couldn’t go in a damp basement without getting ruined! But considering the amount of room in our apartment I think we are doing pretty good organization wise, just a little left to be done in the bathroom and kitchen (bathroom is more of a go through, organize and purge, kitchen is more of just organization)

Last night and this morning I lost my mucus plug (I won’t go into really what it is since it is kind of gross, but this means that most likely my cervix is dilating). I also got a few really bad contractions but they were hours apart so I am at work today despite not getting any sleep last night since it was so painful. The pelvic pain is the worst I have felt yet and it really feels like the baby is going to pop out at any moment. I also find it strange given the baby’s position how much lower back pain I have been getting.

The baby’s movements are a lot smaller now and harder - these movements hurt more, though don’t really bother me like the contractions last night did! I just love how active this baby is since I haven’t had to worry about how the baby is doing since it is almost always moving, I only go a few hours a day where I don’t feel it.

This morning we officially put my hospital bag and the car seat in the truck (though the car seat still needs to be installed) but with how last night went we both wondered if today is the day so I even put my pillow in the truck, I will just take it out every night till we do go. I also brought the video and still camera but that will come into my work with me and into the house at night since we don’t want to leave it in a cold vehicle for hours on end.

Well we officially have the bassinette and changing table in our room, most of the baby clothes washed and put into the changing table baskets, most things sorted and into totes for stuff we don’t need right away (just have to label and put into the spare bedroom).

Last week I was having sphincter spasms which were coming about every hour or 2 so my OB put me on a suppository to see if that helped, it didn’t really but since that didn’t really help they figure it is the baby getting even lower and putting pressure on that area. Between that, the braxton-hix getting stronger and the pelvic pain getting worse that the baby is coming soon!

Thursday what I thought was going to be them putting back in my crown that came out turned into a bigger issue - they though that maybe I had a reaction to the temporary cement I used the night before and so it irritated my gums, when they figured out it was only when we pushed on the stump of my leftover tooth that is when they became concerned as the doctor said my gums did not look bad at all - pregnant or not pregnant and he so expected worse from the description I gave the woman over the phone. So I reminded him as long as I am double vested they can do an x-ray if needed - he thought that was best to make sure it was not really a problem with a neighboring tooth - he ended up triple vesting me! When he came back he sat down and put the x-ray up on the lighted board - he showed me my root canal and then pointed to what looked like a big bubble in my bone off to the top side of my tooth. He explained that sometimes roots have side roots that they are not able to get to and don’t know about since x-rays don’t usually show them - what happened was that the side root held onto some of the bacteria and furthered an infection - my body has been fighting it for years as it got worse but being pregnant he said my body was concentrating on other things so could no longer hold it back. I ended up having to go to the oral surgeon who performed an apicoectomy (The end of a tooth root can be very complex and sometimes there’s unfilled spaces in this area after a root canal. The unfilled spaces can harbor bacteria and cause a dental abscess. A dental abscess is a small ball of pus surrounded by an area of inflamed tissue. Pus is liquefied dead tissue, white blood cells, dead and live bacteria. Pus is a pale yellow creamy consistency. Patients usually have dental pain from the pressure of the growing pus ball. It’s nothing to fool around with and patients should see a dentist immediately. In the years before World War II and penicillin, it was common for patients to die from a dental abscess.) They prescribed me vicodan and penicillin - to which they had me call my OB who verified it was ok to take both…

That evening while on the vicodan all my other pains seemed to disappear - no spasms, no pelvic pain, no braxton-hix - though the whole time the baby still moved like crazy so I knew the baby was fine.

Friday Bryan ended up taking the day off with me so he could drive me to my OB appointment that afternoon since you can’t drive while on vicodan - I really felt off but when I saw the OB she did another internal and sure enough the baby was a tad bit lower - in-between -1 and 0 station, though still only 50% effaced and no dilation. The vicodan may be effecting that as well for all we know! I also found out that I tested positive for Group B Strep (common in many pregnant women and not something you can prevent getting) but this means if my water breaks I do have to go right into the hospital and onto antibiotics no matter how far my contractions are along.

This weekend I spent a lot of time sleeping - the vicodan knocks me out and I hope last nights dose was my last!

Busy week at work this week as I am trying to get as much done as possible before the baby comes and making sure everything is all set!

As of last Thursday this baby has become a “full term” baby!! This means that from this point on if the baby comes it would not be considered a premie!

Friday was my 37 week OB appointment and I got to meet the last doctor in the practice - she was very nice as all the others have been which really puts me at ease knowing that no matter what I will be getting a. a doctor I have met, b. a nice doctor who I will be comfortable with and c. a doctor that is in line with my doctor (they all are very similar as to how they do things from what I can tell). Though I am definitely partial to my doctor who is always very sweet and nice and a pleasure to talk to but at the same time gets right down to business - no nonsense and always makes time for ALL of my questions. It is funny now though how I really don’t have any questions. This time they did an internal to check on my progress - According to the doctor my cervix is soft and 50% effaced, not dilated and the baby is in a -1 position (no wonder the pelvic pains keep getting worse) so it sounds like this baby is ready to go at anytime. I am not in a rush for that to happen though! No change in the weight and my blood pressure, protein and glucose still look good. So still at 14lbs for the pregnancy - seems so wierd that I will weigh less when the baby is born than I did pre-pregnacy!

After the appointment I went to get the truck’s oil changed and ended up needing other fluids done as well - I used the time to finish most of the thank yous - only have 5 more that need to go out which I plan on doing today! I also stopped into a baby store in Wellesley on my way home to check out the different things they had - just so I knew where I would want to go once the baby is born to by some boy or girl clothes and items.

That night Bryan and I worked on getting everything out of our bedroom since we purchased a new bed and mattress on Thursday (got a nice Nature’s Rest Latex foam mattress and a poster bed with canopy). We had been holding off and had been in a full size bed and though we could wait till we got into a house but the thought of having to bring the baby into a full size bed with us for feedings just seemed too cramped so we went to the queen which will be plenty big now and the height is perfect for the bassinette to sit right beside my side of the bed. I also worked on 3 loads of baby laundry to wash everything we will use including the bouncy, swing, infant car seat, bassinet and mosses basket covers - it is amazing how many things we had to wash! I even washed a few of the stuffed animals that we are able to give a child under 1 (some of the stuffed animals we got will have to go on a high shelf till the baby is 3 since some of them say not recommended for children under 3 and some shed). We also put together the bassinette, bouncy, swing and changing table.

Saturday morning we took apart our bed and cleaned out from under the bed. We found that one of our cats has a favorite spot under the bed as it was covered with hair, it took me a while to get it all vacuumed up! While Bryan and his brother left to get the bed and mattress I continued to work on the baby’s laundry as well as some of mine and get it all folded. It is amazing how small the baby clothes are and how you really can’t fold them much! By the time the guys got the bed and mattress back and up into the apartment it was dinner time and since we really wanted the bed setup that night we put part of the bed together, ordered pizza to be delivered, finished the bed and canopy and put sheets on all in time for the pizza to be delivered. We decided to eat the pizza on the new bed since the living room was full of boxes and the kitchen had a ton of boxes in it as well.

Sunday we slept in, or should I say stayed in bed late since I had been awake on and off since 3am as I had a very vivid dream that my water had broken, every time I faded to sleep I would wake up again thinking my water really did break! We stopped for sandwiches at Perks for lunch then headed to my dad’s since it was my brother Evan’s birthday - we ended up getting him a Barnes & Noble gift card since we were not sure what to get him and being a teen we knew he could get CDs, DVDs or books with it. It was nice catching up with my step-mom and her mom and we caught up a bit. I always enjoy going over there since Sue (step-mom) and I get along so well - she really feels like more of a really close friend I can talk to about everything with!

After leaving there we hit the Salvation Army and we happen to catch a truck loading up with all kinds of items and were able to leave our old couch with them. We hit HomeGoods to get new sheets and a comforter for the bed and ended up going to Target to get a new bath mat and some snap tees for the baby. We then went to Bryan’s mom’s to pick up the base for the infant car seat as well as the stroller that the car seat hooks into. We went out with his mom for dinner, stopped by CVS on the way home to pick up the baby things we needed there per the pediatrician and when we got home we were both ready to head to bed and relax a bit before going to sleep.

This week will be a busy one at work as I am trying to wrap up things with our company’s Kid’s Day event, get things started on our Summer BBQ, help the guy taking over my project get up to speed all while trying to get some testing done on my project.

At night I have a run to do at Babies R Us, finish the baby laundry as well as mine, get the bureaus in our room re-arranged, get the changing table and bassinette in there and organize the baby clothes into the changing table. At the same time we are still looking at houses and we are confident we will find one soon as the market is really looking good!

It’s hard to believe I have been prego for 36 weeks, boy the time keeps flying by and any day now we will be welcoming Little Pike into the world. I’m amazed that the baby will be here no later than 37 days from now and we still have not setup sleeping quarters for the baby yet. We are hoping to do some of that in the next 2 weekends.

The pelvic pain is still going strong and unfortunately getting worse, the other thing that has been increasing is braxton-hicks contractions - and now the baby has started to hate them as it pushes out on the belly when the contractions happen. Though breathing has gotten a little better (I think the baby is really dropping now) the baby seems to push and kick at my stomach even more now during and after eating a meal - no matter how big or small.

Today a bunch of my co-workers surprised me with a baby shower - it was so wonderful and they so surprised me - one of the girls who I had not seen in a while since we kept missing each other so a few days ago asked if I could stop down after 2 today - well she emailed me and said her meeting was pushed off a bit so if I could come at 2:15 - well at 2 I get an email that her meeting got out early and if I could come down now - so I went down and she said lets go for a walk and when we rounded the corner to a confrence room I could see balloons - I was soo surprised! about a dozen of my co-workers were there and many had sent their regards since they had meetings - we had chips and dip and cookies and cake! Then got to open presents. They even had little wrapped tea bags that said “Baby’s Brewing” on them - thought they were sooo cute!! I got a moses basket, a lighted mirror to see baby, lots of onsies and outfits, teething rings, a baby album, an easter basket with an easter bib, blankets and baby bankie with a frog head, a lamb, a baby einstein video and a diaper cake, it was soo wonderful! I even got a gift card from many of them so I think we will get our crib with that - guess I’m going to make a trip to babies r us this weekend!

I am still working on the ThankYou cards and had a lot of fun making them - now it is just a matter of writing them all out! Guess I have more to add to that list now!

Today a co-worker gave me a very cute photo frame that holds 3 photos - it is very cute and I can either put it on a shelf or hang it up.

This weekend we hope to get lots of photos taken of Bryan and I together and some cute belly shots since our friend Tim from NY is here and brought some of his equiptment. I think the guys are going to go tonight and find some backdrops or material we can use.