Week 38

I just completed week 38, which means it's sooo close now!!!  After my last post in which I mentioned having some real contractions at work and how I hoped that they wouldn't be a daily occurrence from then until delivery... well OF COURSE they had to get even worse the very next day!  On Tuesday morning at work I was in tears from the pain and there was no way to fake my way through those contractions.  It was like the worst cramping ever (yes, I know they'll be worse when I'm in active labor) and shooting pains down my thigh which made it impossible to sit OR stand.  I'm sure the thigh pain was from the baby pressing on a nerve.  I asked if they could get a PM substitute for me and the secretary began working on it, but in the meantime, one of the other staff members was able to take over my class until a sub could arrive so I could leave earlier.  On my way home, I called the doctor to see what (if anything) I could do about the pain ad they asked me to come in at 1:30.  I am positive that I'm the laughing stock of the whole doctors office at this point and they all probably roll their eyes when they see my name come up in the appointments.  But what am I supposed to do?!  I figure that's what they're there for... to help me through my pregnancy and monitor my pain!  Anyway, I saw a nurse practitioner who said I was effaced about 70% but barely dilated a fingertip.  She said my pain sounded like early labor contractions and that the only things I could really do would be take a warm bath, take Tylenol, etc. 
I already had an appointment scheduled for the following day with my midwives, so I went and explained my work situation... that I was having to leave so often for pain or problems, that I couldn't really focus on my work at this point and she wrote a note for me to discontinue working.  Luckily, it should work out that I do not have to return at the end of the year and still keep my job and benefits.  It feels like an enormous stress has been lifted off my shoulders now that I only have to focus on getting this baby here!  I didn't even realize how stressed I was about work until I finished up everything there.  I went and met with my sub on Thursday evening to explain some last-minute things and I've been e-mailing her with other little things that have occurred to me, but man I feel sooo much better (mentally and emotionally that is... the painful contractions are still happening)!
On Thursday I had the last appointment with the specialist and he found the amniotic fluid levels were up a little bit (good news!) and he just wanted me to get at least another week in with this baby inside so she can put on more weight since she's still pretty little.  I wonder though how accurate these weight estimates are.  I always hear they can be a pound off either direction.  Watch me deliver a 9 lb. baby after all this concern about her size!  I hope not because then she won't fit into any of her newborn sized clothing :)  He did mention that it'll be best if my water doesn't break on it's own since I don't have too much in the first place. 
This morning around 5:30 I woke up to go to the bathroom and when I got back in bed, was having some horribly painful contractions about 8 or 9 min. apart, but after a couple of hours, they went away.  I'm a little worried that I won't know when the right time to call the hospital will be!  They say to wait until contractions are 4 min. apart, lasting at least 1 min. each, for at least an hour.  Well, how likely is it that the contractions will actually reach those times?  I mean I'm picturing it to start off far apart and get closer together, but what if they go from 8 min. apart to 3 min. apart and feel very intense?  Then do I call or do I wait to make sure they do that for at least an hour?  Who knows!  All I know is that I don't want to go in to the hospital only to be told I need to go back home because I'm not dilated enough.  I keep reading stories (on message boards) about women who have been having horribly painful contractions all day long, they get to be 4 or 5 min. apart, they can't talk or walk through them, but they get to the hospital and are sent back home because they're only dilated to 3cm.  They probably already have a poster with my name and picture up behind the check-in desk at the hospital saying "Do NOT admit this lady unless you can see a baby already coming out!" 

Week 36/37

Again, I'm a bit behind!  I'm 37 weeks now, but will post about last week's happenings along with this week... Wait a second... there's not much new to report from last week!  Well, we did get some good news from my doctor appointment on Friday.  It looks like Baby has gained some weight and they're estimating her to be 5 lbs. 13 oz. now.  My fluid levels stayed the same from the previous week as well, so nothing alarming there :)  I actually felt relatively good last week considering the Braxton Hicks.  I am NOT a fan of having those!  I think I've gotten pretty used to having them although when they're lasting all day at work, it's still extremely difficult to focus.  Today I began having some pretty painful cramping and lower back shooting pains while at work.  It felt like contractions (the actual kind) but they weren't consistent enough to time them.  I wasn't having any other symptoms along with them either, they just came and went throughout the day.  Now I'm hoping that this won't be a daily occurrence for the next 3 weeks!  I know, however, that it very well could be.  I am very curious about whether I'm dilating or thinning at this point even though I know it's not a good indicator of when labor will begin.  I just wonder because she's been "dropped" to zero station for at least 3 weeks now (I think a bit longer actually) and I feel so much pressure that it's crazy to me that nothing else would be happening!  I visit the doctors on Wed. and Thurs. this week again, so maybe I'll be checked at one of those.  Now that Baby is full term, I'm more than ready to meet her!  I am so glad that we don't have to worry about a her being a preemie at this point and having to stay in the NICU.  She should be as ready to go as I am :)  Whenever we have the weekly ultrasounds, she's always doing her "practice breathing" and swallowing, so that's good news as well.

One other thing off my plate now is parent teacher conferences.  Yay!!!  I am so glad to be done with those for the year since I scheduled them early on purpose.  I met with the parents of 20 of my 25 students and sent home written reports for the others that requested it.  We also finished up the state writing assessment (thank goodness!!!) Now I just need to stay on top of my lesson plans and have them done a week ahead of time each week so that a sub can take over at a moment's notice.  Writing lesson plans a week ahead of time is much harder than it sounds because things just change so much on a daily basis!  When I think I can get through a whole math lesson in one day, it can suddenly stretch out to 2 or 3 days if kids aren't getting it as well as i would like them to.  And it's to the point where we're starting a couple of new units and so it's like I'm going to get these units started and a sub will need to finish them, but it would almost be easier if a sub could start these units to make it less confusing for them and the class.  Work stresses me out!  I'm stressed mainly because of the planning and trying to make things as easy as I can for the sub when she comes in.  At least I have an awesome sub lined up who will be able to take over and do things just fine.  I just feel bad leaving things confusing for someone else. 

Well, if I have any new interesting news from this week's doctor visits, I'll post again... I'd love for my next post to have news of Baby's arrival, but I'm sure I'll have to wait more than a week for that one :)

Baby Shower

I mentioned that I had a great baby shower thrown by Sean's family last weekend.  Here are a few of the pictures...

End of the Road Belly Photos :)

Week 35

Week 37

Week 35

Week 35 wasn't too eventful (thank goodness).  Don't get me wrong, I still had contractions constantly, but I didn't have to go in for any "emergency" appointments!  Actually, we had 2 snow days last week, so it was very nice to be able to lie down all day long for 2 days.  It started snowing on Monday afternoon and I had an appointment with the specialist at 2:30, so I left school at 2 to get there on time.  Little did I know that my car had already iced over completely, so I spent about 20 minutes scraping it before I should even leave the parking lot!  Thankfully a very nice mom of one of my students pulled up and helped me scrape as well.  When I finally got to the doctor (at almost 3), we were expecting him to tell us if Baby had gained some weight.  When we asked, he said, "We didn't measure that today... we'll do it next time."  OK we BOTH heard him say 2 weeks ago that he would definitely want to check again on the weight in 2 weeks.  So now he's putting it off until later this week.  I did find out that I'm not dilated or anything yet though. 

This weekend, I had my baby shower that Sean's family threw for me.  It was great!  We got lots of good stuff and it was nice to see everyone and hang out for awhile.  It was actually a double baby shower for Laura and I, but she couldn't make the trip up from Kansas City because her puppy baby was in the emergency hospital :(  Luckily, everything turned out OK, but I missed having her there.  Now Sean and I need to get going on shopping for the other necessities that we don't have yet.  Diapers and wipes being the top priorities!  We don't have any of those yet!  Hopefully we can start stocking up now.

Today I have not been very productive because I just feel crappy!  I've had a headache since I got up this morning, I didn't sleep much last night, and I just feel totally worn out.  Baby is still tossing and turning in there though and it feels even lower now than before (is that even possible?)  While lying down today, I did manage to get some lesson plans done for the week and put my conference folders together.  I'm holding my parent-teacher conferences this week since the school won't be doing them until mid-March.  I'm not looking forward to the super long days and it's probably not quite what the doctor had in mind when she told me to spend my evenings lying down!  But I can't really get around this either.  This will be a LONG week and then just a few left before the Baby arrives!  I wish I knew when exactly she would be arriving...

Week 34

I actually am 35 weeks now, but I'll post with the "happenings" of week 34.  I had another appt. with the "less desirable" specialist doctor on Monday.  He didn't seem to be checking for much that day because it was too soon to see if Baby has gained weight since my last appointment a week before.  They did do an ultrasound to check heart rate and movement though and she had a good heartbeat, but wasn't moving AT ALL!  They had to eventually bring out a little buzzer thing that kind of vibrated and buzzed loudly over my belly to see if that would make her move.  She did a little, but still not as much as they wanted.  When the doctor came in, he asked when I last ate and I told him I had eaten lunch around 12.  (I left school for my appt. at 2).  "THREE HOURS AGO?!  Three hours is TOO long for the baby to go without food.  I know that while you're teaching it's hard to take care of yourself, but you really need to be eating something every couple of hours."  OK... so there's another thing I am apparently doing wrong.  He decided to hook me up to a monitor for a fetal stress test after they gave me some juice to drink.  That supposedly showed that the baby is doing fine (although Sean and I really didn't know what was going on during the test).

On Thursday at work, I started having Braxton Hicks contractions that were long-lasting and a very steady 3 - 4 min. apart ALL day.  I waited until after lunch to call the doctor just to ask what I should do about it since sitting/standing/walking/etc. weren't changing anything.  When the nurse called back, they asked me to come in right away.  So yet another frantic afternoon making sure someone could cover my classroom (so glad for supportive staff members!) and a speed-demon drive all the way back out to the doctor... they checked and I'm still not dilated, but they hooked me up to monitor the contractions and sure enough I was having around 5-6 per hour (of course I was lying down while being monitored so they has slowed a little since earlier that day).  Since the contractions weren't causing any changes to the cervix, I was sent home with instructions to be "done as soon as the school day is done".  So I am supposed to leave work as soon as I can at the end of the day and stay off my feet once I get home at night.  On Friday, I had the same issue though of constant contractions all day long!

Friday after school, I had my staff baby shower which was awesome!  I got some great things for Baby and enjoyed visiting with co-workers outside of school.  This weekend, I washed all of her new stuff and put it away.  I also got to put some sheets on her bed and get the changing table set up since we got the changing pad and cover for it.  It's looking cute in there!  Now we just can't wait until we have a baby to put in there, too! 

Tomorrow I go back to the specialist to measure Baby again and see if she's gained enough weight.  I have been really loading up on protein like he suggested, so I hope she's gotten bigger!  I'll post later this week to tell how things go.  I don't have an appointment with the midwives again until next week, so hopefully I won't have any reason to go in and see them until that point!

Week 33

Another eventful week here at the Miglini house!  Let's see if I can even begin to keep it brief...  I had a scheduled appointment with the midwife on Monday this week after school and I brought up some concerns I'd had about the number of and length of the contractions I'd been having whenever I'd been on my feet at school or out running errands.  A new thing that started though was some awful cramps down low and a feeling of pressure along with the contractions.  She did an exam and ran some tests to see if there was any bacterial infection (there wasn't) but thought it might feel like the cervix was thinning.  Since this could be a sign of preterm labor and she wanted to ensure that I at least got to the 34 week mark, she ordered me to stay home the following day and she scheduled an ultrasound (again) to check on the cervix (see if it was starting to thin out) and any other signs of preterm labor.  So I went in the next morning for the ultrasound and luckily, the cervix was measuring normally, but she noticed that I didn't seem to have much amniotic fluid (sound familiar from 2 weeks ago?!)  If you remember form an earlier post, I had a fluid measurement of 7.3 which was a little low, and another one 2 days later measured at 13 (normal range).  Well, now it was 6.  So she sent me back down to the midwife and she was now concerned about a high slow leak of amniotic fluid and told me I would need to stay home from work for the rest of this week with everything that had been happening.  She sent me to a high risk OB upstairs to determine whether or not there was, in fact, a slow leak.  So I went to that appt. and had another ultrasound.  They measured everything and looked at the placenta and cord.  This time (only a few hours after the previous ultrasound), the fluid levels were 11. Apparently, it can change depending on who does the ultrasound.  I am not sure why THIS particular doctor's measurements are the only RIGHT ones, but that's basically what he said.  (What, so he was saying that the ultrasound techs. downstairs in the same building with lots of experience are dumb and don't do their job right?)  Anyway, he said everything looked good and asked me what problems I'd been having.  As I started to explain about the contractions, cramping, and pressure, he interrupted me to tell me, "Oh well that's normal because the baby is low."  Well... my midwives have known for a couple weeks that the baby is very low already and were still concerned about how much discomfort I'd had.  After an exam to make sure there wasn't a leak of fluid (that came back negative), he went on to say that he's very concerned about the baby's weight.  She's 4lbs. 3oz.  He then informed me that I am not eating well enough and need to load up on protein to help her gain some weight.  I asked him about how he felt about me working even with the problems I have every afternoon at school and he said it was no big deal - that I could just sit more.  (Duh! I sit as much as I possibly can already, but hello, I am an elementary school teacher!)  Needless to say, I left this appointment extremely frustrated because I didn't get any answers about the pain I've had (except that it's not preterm labor which is good news) and now had something totally different to be concerned with.  I checked back with my midwife and asked if she could write a note to allow me back to work since this other doctor seemed unconcerned.  She asked how I felt about it and since I'd rather save as many sick days as possible for after the baby is here, I told her I'd prefer to work and just take it as easy as I can.  So she wrote me a note and I went back yesterday.  Then today, I was feeling awful from the moment I got to work and ended up taking the afternoon off.  I'll go back tomorrow though.  I just can't seem to be on my feet at all without starting to have at least 4 - 6 contractions every hour that last quite awhile.  While I'm having them, it's impossible to concentrate on anything else because they can get so uncomfortable and make it harder to breathe.  That doesn't mix well with trying to teach 25 fourth graders!  Maybe next week will be uneventful... we'll see!!!

Week 32

Week 32 has been full of SNOW!  Let me rewind first to last week which was eventful (not in a good way).  I had a 3rd (yes, 3rd) attempt at a 3D ultrasound on Tuesday last week and the tech. kept mentioning that it didn't seem like I had a lot of fluid around the baby.  I asked her to measure it and she measured 7.2 cm.  (I think it was measured in cm anyway...) 

On Wednesday, I had a scheduled appointment with the midwives and mentioned the 7.2 measurement.  She said that they like to see it at 10, so I was advised to really focus on hydrating (which I felt I had been anyway) and that we would schedule another ultrasound in 2 weeks just to measure fluid amounts.  So I made the appointment and went on my way - drinking plenty of water over the next 24 hours. 

The following day, back at school after Christmas break, I was working in my classroom when I felt a significant gush of fluid... gross, but true.  So at lunch time I called the triage nurse and let her know what was going on and to call back as soon as she could.  I wasn't too worried, but more was just wondering what I should or should not be doing.  She called back quickly and asked me for more info. about what was happening and said she'd get back with me once she had talked to my midwife.  So ALL afternoon we were playing phone tag.  My phone would vibrate in my pocket, I'd make up some quick excuse to run out of the classroom real quickly, only to answer my phone just as she hung up.  Finally at 3:30, she got a hold of me.  Of course 3:30 is also when I had an important parent meeting scheduled that I really needed to lead.  Well at 3:30, the nurse said that I needed to come in immediately for an emergency ultrasound!  AND I had to get there BY 4:00!  So I grabbed my things and stopped the principal and explained what was going on (while bursting into tears) and he assured me that they could hold the meeting without me and let me get going. 

Once I got to the doctor and Sean met me there, they started an ultrasound and of course the fluid measurements looked fine!  Thank goodness they were in the normal range, but man!  What a worry for nothing!  I guess it's always better to get things checked and have them be fine than not to and have complications.  Anyway, I am still supposed to make sure I stay hydrated, which I have been.

Then, this Sunday we got a good amount of snow and they cancelled school for Monday :)  I spent the day cleaning, putting together the baby's bouncer and swing, and getting most of her laundry washed and put away.  While cleaning though, I was getting some pretty uncomfortable contractions.  I have had them quite a lot lately, so I guess I'll just mention it next time I go to the doctor.  In fact, I'm having them as I type this!  Yikes!  They feel very weird and uncomfortable, but not painful.  They sort of make you feel strained to breathe for a few seconds though.  On Monday night, we got another surprise... another snow day for Tuesday!!!  On Tuesday I stayed pretty lazy.  I made adjustments to my registries online and made lists of things to pack for the hospital and a list of things to stock up on for when we are home from the hospital.  That way, I can get a little at a time over the next few weeks so we're prepared. 

Last night we began our Prepared Childbirth class at the hospital.  It's 6 weeks, 2 hours each week.  My favorite part was when she announced that our husbands should be taking 30 min. to an hour at least 3 times per week to massage our backs :)  I could definitely use that!  Other than that, I knew most of last night's material, but it's still good to hear it from someone rather than just read it in all the books I suppose.  I'm sure there will be some info. that comes up that I haven't already read about.

Today I had to go back to school and it was very tiring after so many days off.  Being on my feet all day is hard work now!  Plus bending down to work with kids at their desks and everything is pretty tough.  But man, only about 6 more weeks that I'll be at school it look like!  That's crazy!  Somehow during that time, I have to get all 25 kids prepared and ready to pass the state writing assessment.  That's my main goal before maternity leave.  I also have to hold separate parent teacher conferences for my class since school conferences aren't held until a week after my due date.  I plan on doing those about 1 month from now. 

Hopefully my 33 week post won't need to be quite so long, but a lot has happened in the past week and a half!  I also hope these darn contractions stop happening so much.  I think I've had 3 since I started typing this post.  Well, adios until next week :)

A Few Belly Photos...

31 weeks

31 weeks

30 weeks

Week 31

I thought I'd post more over break, but I've been kind of busy.  Busy getting things done around here.  I haven't quite gotten around to cleaning out the closet in the baby room yet, but we did get all of the wall decorations up!  I'll have to post some pictures later on.  We got the car seat ordered and on its way, registered in the Target store, found a pediatrician, got the Christmas stuff taken down, joined Costco, among many other things! 

Christmas was great, but went by so quickly!  I got some awesome gifts such as a Flip video camera, tickets to Rascall Flatts in January, a few pairs of shoes, some scrapbooking software for when I have baby pictures, a portable hard drive, gift cards, etc.  And the baby got some cute clothes, some feeding supplies, and a giant stuffed panda bear which will be much bigger than her for about 3 years :)  I'm still looking at photographers, but I think I found one that will work.  I'm planning on doing maternity photos as well with our wedding photographer who will do the session for free since we used her for our wedding.  I just don't think I have anything cute to wear for the maternity photos.  I'll have to scour photographer websites to see what looks best on other people. 

In the meantime, I am just now starting to get extremely uncomfortable.  I cannot stay in one position for more than a few minutes, lying on my back is now very uncomfortable, I always feel out of breath, and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting heartburn which is no fun.  But I still enjoy watching my belly move all over when the baby is awake!  I think these next 2 months back at school are going to be tough as far as comfort goes, but if I can hold out till the beginning of March, I'll be so much happier NOT having to worry about leaving the baby for a few days or weeks in May to go back to work.  Even though she'd be with family, I know that I'm not going to want to leave her all day.  I have a few more days left of break and plan to relax as much as possible in that time before things get crazy again!