Isn't She Lovely!

Well, two days after my last post I was in the hospital being induced! We went in on the evening of J's birthday to get things going. I didn't have enough amniotic fluid anymore and my blood pressure was starting to creep up so we scheduled the induction at 38 weeks. The next morning contractions were really intense but the little one's heart rate was not tolerating the stress. She was having what's called late decelerations. In most cases this is due to "uteroplacental insufficiency". It's a dangerous situation if it is allowed to continue, and if the baby doesn't come out it can cause a serious loss of oxygen. So 18 hours after we checked into the hospital we made the decision to get her out via c-section. The little one was born on July 29th at 2:45pm.



Here's the very tired momma after the c-section when I finally got to hold my baby. Somehow the epidural traveled up to my arm and face so for a while I was numb really high and couldn't hold her.



Day before we went home from the hospital in mom's favorite piggy pjs.



On the way home!



She's now three weeks old! Being a mom changed everything, from the very first minute. It scares me all the time, but I've never smiled so much. I have four more months home with her and I plan to enjoy them as much as possible. It's hard work, keeping a baby alive, more than I ever could have expected. The days fly by so fast I can't even believe it. I'm sure the challenges will just keep coming, but I'm already starting to know her better. One of these days I'll possibly even feel comfortable taking her out of the house on my own! I'm getting there, slowly.

I will be starting to keep a password protected blog to post all the updates about the baby. If you would like to be added, just send me your email address, either as a comment or on facebook or to my email address. I just wanted to let everyone know that mom and baby are doing great. And dad couldn't be more proud (or more helpful, he's the best!)

What I'll miss...

About being pregnant? This is a question I read online all the time, and I always laugh. Miss about being pregnant....hahahahahahaha! But there are a couple of things I might miss. I'll miss her moving and grooving in there, when she's not bruising my ribs. And I'll miss blaming all my food desires on her ("the baby wanted the ice cream. I had to have it")

But seriously. Am I done yet?

I see the finish line....

Inching so much closer! As of now the kiddo is full term. She can come at any time and be ok. I prefer sooner, so we'll see. She's already over 6 and a half pounds. Which is plenty if you ask me. So hopefully soon. We got her room ready and I even took some pictures!



That's pretty much my favorite seat in the house. Gotta love the glider. The dresser was a partially finished mess we got for $5 but was made of good wood so J refinished it to match the crib. I think it looks great! What you can't see is how completely packed with clothes it is! She has more clothing than I do!



Here's her cute crib and bedding. I suppose once she's in it, and leaking all over it, it won't look as cute, but I like it lots right now!



We also got the bathroom fixed up. Not that she'll be using it anytime soon, but we seem to like the monkey theme so we're going with it.



Yes, I know she won't have teeth to brush for some time, but come on, how can you not get the see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil monkey toothbrush holder?



And, last but not least, J's very favorite outfit for her. Even though it probably won't fit her until long after the regular season!

Speaking of finish lines, J crossed his first half marathon finish line at the end of June! He ran the Slacker half marathon in Georgetown. He even kept his time under 2 hours! Not too bad for not training!



Well, I think that's enough for today. I have today and tomorrow off from the clinic, so I'm just trying to keep myself busy until either the baby comes or it's Friday. I hope everyone is having a great week!

I'm still here!

And still pregnant. And still studying. But the good news is the end is in sight on all counts. I'm taking my boards on Sunday, and after that I will post pictures of the baby's room and our little herb plants we're growing this year. J has had the whole week off, which has been awesome, and we've cleared a lot of clutter so that it actually looks like a 3rd person might fit into this house in the near future. My practice scores are creeping closer to where I won't be calling J in tears when I get the scores back. I'm spending this month doing some elective work with my OB, so I'm sure I will be constantly thinking about the day that I go in to the office and don't come home without a baby in tow. But, that will come after boards on Sunday.

Boards, boards, bored

I have officially moved my test back to July 11th, and it's truly as late as I feel I can take it without going into labor during one of the blocks. Though it might make for a great story, probably won't make for a great score... I took a practice test on the weekend and I'm still not quite where I want to be for this test. The problem is, I have other rather pressing things on my mind that make studying more than a little difficult. Why would I want to stare at practice questions when I could be refinishing the baby dresser, buying those last minute things that I haven't gotten around to yet, putting shelves into the closet, packing the hospital bag, reading the mounds of books I've accumulated on labor and infant care, making frozen dinners that can be easily reheated after we have her, etc.

I would be less freaked out if I felt like this kid was going to term. But somehow I just know that is not the case. I've been having some seriously painful contractions, disturbingly often recently, and not only does it make it hard to concentrate (or sleep or anything productive..) but it makes me worry about getting this test done before we have a kiddo. Yikes.

Not to mention that she's definitely "dropped" and now I truly understand the uncomfortable pregnant woman. Blah. I'm just a little stress ball right now, and hopefully I'll get it together this week so I can relax a little. Anyone have any tips?

PS. The application for residency opens this week. Not that it's stressful or anything....

33 weeks

I don't talk about my pregnancy too terribly often on public forums. It's just kind of a private thing, and frankly, not my favorite experience ever. But I thought I would update folks about the little peanut. She's doing great! Had an appointment this morning and she's wiggling around as usual. As of right now she's about 4.2 pounds (seems shockingly big to me!). My doc thinks she'll probably get to about 7-7.5 pounds by the time we have her. He also thinks we won't make it all the way to the due date, but of course doesn't have a crystal ball and can't really predict when she'll make the grand entrance! I'm ready to start a pool soon, so let me know if your interested! J thinks she'll come on July 26th since that's the date I was assigned to for my meeting with the dean to go over my dean's letter for residency. I think my doc thought there was some dramatic irony in that, would be about par for the course in the past 7 months! I'm just hoping for the end of July so I have all of August to spend at home with her. But, she'll come when she wants to. One can dream though!

As for me, I'm getting to the point where I can't really sleep. I fall asleep no problem but I'm uncomfortable and wake up often. She's super low now and it makes my hips pull apart which is not super comfy. I feel bad for J since I wake him up as well. But I have lots of time to rest today. So it's good. I'm really more rested than I have been in the past year, and a lot less stressed out. Overall, things are good. Now I just need someone to walk one of the pups so I can just handle one of them. It's so beautiful outside and I want to enjoy it. I feel really lucky that as of now, I really feel happy in the heat. Everyone has been telling me how miserable summer will be, but I've always been the type of person who is more comfortable in the heat than in the cold, so I'm just happy I can wear nice loose clothes and enjoy the Colorado sunshine. So far so good!

Happy

Things that make me happy this June:

-I actually took a bubble bath in the middle of the day yesterday, just because I could!
-It poured down rain yesterday with the sun shining. Summer is wonderful!
-Studying for this set of boards is infinitely better than the last time around, and I feel good about learning a lot in the past year
-My dogs are great company! They love me even when I waddle.
-I am already finding time to meet up with old friends. So great! One of these days I will get my big belly to Golden and revisit my favorite places. Then it will really be a perfect June!
-The house is starting to look like a 3rd person is at least on the way. Scary, but exciting!
-I baked cookies on Monday, and they didn't turn out like big puffy pillows for a change!
-I have made and eaten my weight in pasta salad in the past week. I do not feel bad about this. It is delicious.
-It's farmers market season, and the big guy is great company. He's such a ham when we go to all the stalls, everyone has to pet him. He's great, and never pulls me around. I don't think I could so much stop him anymore so at least he's good on the leash!

June makes me happy. It's gonna be a great month!