Baby Shower

Tonight was my first baby shower. My girlfriend Kim hosted and we had a wonderful time. The turn out was good, about 25 ladies; we ate cake, drank freshing citrus-ie punch and enjoyed each other's company. For those of you who could not attend, you were dearly missed. Enjoy the photos!

The cake was designed to look exactly like the napkins and plates - so cute! And it was absolutely delicious! The same bakery that made my wedding cake made this:

For the record, I am 35 1/7 here:



One of my best friend's, Jamee, bought me this super-chic designer diaper bag...she spent way too much, but I love it!


All those who attended (and some who didn't) were more than generous in their gift-giving:



This shelf that is shaped like a canoe was also a gift (the things on it were gifts too, but they aren't for sure staying on this shelf):

Just as a side note: I finished painting all of the fish in the nursery!

Quick Update

At the doctor's appointment today everything went fine. I didn't do the version and I felt really good about that decision.

We did have the ultrasound which is still showing our little guy in the frank-breech presentation. He's just happy as a clam in there. According to the measurements, he weighs 6 pounds (+/- 1 pound)!! That's huge for 35 weeks! I'm hoping he's more on the 5 pound side of things, but if he really is giant then it means less weight to come off of my tushy in a month.

During the ultrasound when my doctor was measuring baby's head, I noticed he was taking a long time;

"What 'cha looking at?" I asked.

The reply: "Um, did either of you have particularly large heads when you were born?"

We both said that we don't recall ever hearing that our heads were huge...(I knew where this was going)...

"Why?" I asked, knowing what he was going to say.

"Let's just say, it might be better for you if this baby doesn't turn around."

Great. My kid has an abnormally large head - he better be freakin' brilliant. We have another ultrasound next Monday; the plan is to keep an eye on him for a while and see what he decides to do. We'll keep you all posted. Other than that, everything is great. The nursery has three more fish on the walls, I don't have to stay on bedrest any more and we're just going to let mother nature/my stubborn child run the show. Kreat and I are getting really excited for his big arrival.

Yellow-Belly Chicken

So, my doctor's appointment is this evening at 1615. I'm going to go, do my ultrasound, see just how fat I really am... blah, blah, blah - all the usual stuff. Though, after much contemplation and a large dose of reality (I'll explain) I'm not going to try to turn my rotten, stubborn child today.

Although I've been on bedrest, I had to work Saturday night (1900-0700) in the NICU. My doctor said that as long as I took it easy and sat down a lot that I could go in. So I did. Low and behold, one of my babies, who was delievered two days prior, was the exact same gestation as MY baby. This was a little creepy. I have seen a ton of babies in the NICU; some of them have been 26-27 weekers weighing in at just over a pound and others have been 38-39 weekers who are big and fat, but are having some troubles. But this time, it was weird - I looked at this baby and thought to myself, "That could be my baby," referring to the fact that if we tried to turn him today and something went awry, that is what my baby would look like, essentially.

I thought about it during the whole shift and all day Sunday. I just can't do it. Not at this point. I would feel too guilty if something happened. I know that I'm getting closer and closer to my due date, but I just can't try to turn him today knowing that there is a possibility that I could deliver him today.

So we are going to sit tight and see what my baby wants to do. In theory, he could turn on his own; if he does not (I'm not counting on it...plan for the worst, hope for the best) then we'll go from there. But today, we're going to have a lovely doctor's appointment, see our son, take his measurements - I wonder how big he his, because I feel enormous! - and leave him alone. We'll keep you all posted.

Down For The Count

Okay - I'm 34 3/7 today which makes me realize that I'm going to be having a baby, like, really soon. I'm not quite sure that I'm "ready" for that, but I feel relatively "prepared."

I've had some time to think about the prospect of becoming a mother, lots of time, actually...because I got put on bed rest.

Wednesday was like any other day for me - I got up, ate cottage cheese and a piece of peanut butter toast and finished it off with a cold glass of cranberry juice (lately, that's all I want to eat for breakfast; weird). I immediately started into the hustle and bustle of painting more fish on the walls of the nursery; a daunting task but one that I enjoy. I turn on the radio and totally tune out the stresses of life while I stencil brightly colored fish on my son's walls. It's been pretty therapeutic for me amid the other stressors I am dealing with.

At about 1300 I started getting really terrible, sharp pains in my belly. They would last for maybe 30 seconds to a full minute and would then go away. Then they would come back. They weren't predictable, so I cast them aside as me being dehydrated. I filled up my Nalgene bottle with ice water and kept painting. The pains kept coming. I only stencilled three fish (it takes about an hour a fish, then about an hour to clean up...) and I called it a day because I was so uncomfortable. I headed into the kitchen, ran a load of dishes, and stared intently at the browning bananas on the counter wishing that they would magically turn themselves into banana bread, "I'll make it tomorrow," I said to myself. Another pain shot through my abdomen, stopping me mid-walk from the kitchen to the living room; "I need to rest," I said to Lola.

By 1830 the pains were still coming in an unpredictable pattern, but not easing in their intensity. I called my girlfriend Kim, a NICU RN/mother of three, and ran the day's events past her. "Give it an hour and if there's no relief, call your doc." That's exactly what I was going to do, but needed moral support. At 2000 I paged my physician and told him what was up.

"Are you sure they aren't contractions?" he asks me...
"I think they are, but I don't know. I've never done this before. You tell me." I reply. (My doctor and I have a great relationship - I never feel like I have to hold back my true personality with him; I'm pretty blunt).
"Alright, I want you to come on in [to St. Mary's] and get put on the monitor. Let's see what we've got here. I'll tell the girls you're coming."

So, I find Kreat and very casually say, "You might want to get dressed, and I'm going to jump into the shower. We have to go to the hospital." Keep in mind that Kreat has been so nonchalant about this whole "my wife's pregnant/I'm going to be a dad" thing, and for the first time, I saw a little fire in his eyes. He did not flip out or fly into a panic, but it certainly got his attention. I was glad to see that he wasn't a robot.

We got to the hospital and I must admit, it felt a little funny to be a patient. The entire staff that was on that night are very good work-friends of mine, which was great because I know them and I trust their abilities, but it was kind of weird. I got changed into the ever-so-lovely gown, peed in the specimen cup and laid down. Kreat asked me why I didn't just hook myself up to the monitor, which I could have done without problem, but I was there as a patient, not as a nurse.

Rachel came into the room, greeted me with a big smile and was very professional. She asked me what was goin' on and why I came in, what other symptoms I was having, etc. She hooks me up to the monitor and there I laid for about fifteen minutes. The whole time, I'm reading my own strip and making commentary to Kreat, "Baby looks great. My uterus looks like crap." I showed Kreat what I saw and confirmed it when Rachel returned - "You're not dehydrated [they can tell from when they dip my pee] and baby is looking really good, but you have one irritable uterus that is really liking to contract."

She had the small ultrasound machine with her to check placement of the baby. Before she even started, I told her what we already knew, "He's totally breech. His head's right here [I put my hand on my belly under my right breast]. He's been there since I was 21 weeks." We took a quick look and there he sat. Happy and breech. Nothing new for us. She hooked me back up to the monitor and left to call my doctor. I was able to avoid a cervical check - because I begged and pleaded to bypass that at this stage - and here's what was determined after Rachel spoke with my doctor:

I'm not really in preterm labor, but I'm have lots of preterm contractions. The bad thing about that is because baby is breech and these contractions are so frequent (I first noticed them about three weeks ago...) that baby is being wedged into my pelvis in the breech position, which does not bode well for a vaginal birth, or for the fact that we were going to try version (a manual technique to try to turn baby into the vertex position) at 36 weeks. However, these contractions are muddying up the whole thing.

So, because my son is a turd and is already making the rules around here, my version appointment was moved up to Monday 07/28, which is 35 weeks, because the more time I spend contracting with him breech the harder it is going to be to move him. I left the hospital with bedrest and bathroom priviledges only. That sucks.

Another problem we face is that version is not without possible complications. Three things can happen with aversion:
1) my water can break
2) I can abrupt [my placenta can tear away from my uterus]
3) I can go into labor
None of these are very good things to have happen at 35 weeks. And there is no guarantee that my baby will turn around; it's about 50/50.

So, if one of the above mentioned things occurs, I go to emergency C-section and deliver a healthy, but premature, baby who will spend like 3 weeks in the NICU.

If none of the above mentioned things occur, there's still a chance that baby will not turn. In which case, I get scheduled for a C-section, because babies are not meant to be born vaginally when they are breech.

However, there is the chance that none of the above mentioned things will occur, baby will turn, and I will have him vaginally. We shall see what happens.

I don't have to do the version; but by not doing it, I get scheduled for a C-section. Period. I feel like I have to give it a shot. I'm not retarded, I'm aware of risks, but like anything else in pregnancy and child birth, there are TONS of risks, most of which the non-medical population don't even know about.

Anyway. That's what's new with us. I'm on bedrest and I hate it. I'm staring at dirty carpet, fighting the urge to vaccum and the even more brown bananas are calling to me from the kitchen. And there are about ten more fish that need to be painted in the nursery...torture. I just have to sit tight until Monday when we'll actually know how this baby is going to make his big arrival.

Nursery Phase II

A week after I began the paint project in the nursery, it's done...the painting that is. As you know, I am a very meticulous, detail oriented person; that explains why it took me one week to paint a very small room.

I started with Costa Rica blue, being incredibly careful to not get any on the ceiling and to ensure that the ceiling was cut in just perfectly. The blue part was the easy part. Next came the base board - I had to mask off the carpet and my beautiful blue walls to guarantee a perfectly clean finish. The taping took forever. So there I was, 33.5 weeks pregnant, scooting around the room on my butt, taping off base board; my legs went numb.

After the taping was completed, I started the white paint. Now, because I am painting over tan with white, it took me three coats of white paint to get the right coverage. That means it took three times longer than I wanted to spend on my butt in the nursery. But it does look beautiful. After the base boards were done, I had to paint the window sill white and the door jam; by this point in the project, my patience was running out and I still had the closet doors, the bedroom door and 40' of chair rail to paint. Kreat could tell that I was getting a little "snippy" - he went to Lowe's to pick up my chair rail and came home with a professional paint sprayer to save my back and wrists from any further strain.

He sprayed all of my chair rail for me (prior to putting it up), the closet doors and the bedroom door - he saved me an easy eight hours of brush painting. It was lovely. After I put the chair rail up, and yes I cut it and everything myself, Kreat helped me hang the doors up, put the blinds back on the window and... TA DA! Phase II is complete, the hardest part is over. Now I need to move the furniture back and decorate the room.

When Phase III is completed I will post more photos. Enjoy the attached - it's going to be really cute when it's finished; for those who don't know, the theme is fish & ocean, which is why I painted it Costa Rica blue...

Lots of Catching Up To Do

In usual slacker style, I have failed to update my blog even though I promised I would after Kreat and I went to Breckenridge. Well, I'm still a loser, but enjoy my photos:

The day we left for Breckenridge we had a 4D Ultrasound (I take it you have seen the images from that). Here's me at 30 2/7 weeks awaiting the big moment (I look so fat, it's hilarious!):


View from our hotel room and the super gorgeous drive through the Rockies:












A few weeks after returning from Breckenridge, Kreat celebrated his 31st birthday. To my surprise, he picked a chocolate-on-chocolate cake; I'm not sure if that's what he truly wanted or if he was just trying to make his super pregnant wife happy - either way, it was delicious.




And as promised, here's my ever growing belly. Pardon the no-makeup look, but I took these on impulse for your viewing pleasure. I'm 33 1/7 today and have gained 31lbs. I know, it's ridiculous. I've come to terms with the fact that I will gain an easy 40lbs with this baby...whatever.






Other than the above activities, not much else is happening with us. I started painting the nursery yesterday. I figured that this is my first baby and I better just do it so I won't have any regrets. Right now, I'm regretting the decision to paint the stupid room. I'm tired, my back hurts and I'm sick of climbing up and down the damn latter every five minutes because the phone rings constantly. I swear, no one calls me when I'm doing nothing but the second I undertake a project that I'm trying to make stress-free and enjoyable - every one wants to talk. No offense to those who have called mid-brush-stroke, I love you all, but you climb a latter fifty thousand times with 31 extra lbs strapped to your butt. When phase two of the nursery is done, I'll post photos.

Summer school officially ended the first week of July, but if you recall, I was going to do a bunch of extra stuff this summer on my own so that I won't have to do it once the baby gets here. So I am currently in the middle of completing 116 hours of clinical time in Labor & Delivery, NICU, OB and Pediatrics. I'll be totally done with all of that garbage on the 26th. Putting the time in isn't so bad, but the 125 pages of careplans, worksheets and evaluations is killer.

There is an end in site! To those of you I haven't spoken with in a while (Susan...Berkley...Cecilie...) know that I love you and am thinking about you. Susan, let me know when you deliver Lincoln, no matter what time it is.

Until next time...