Ally’s Pregnancy Journal

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!