Officially Full Term

I did it! Somehow, baby T and I did it! We made it to the 37 week mark and officially full term. My doctor couldn't be happier and more surprised about it.

Yesterday was an eventful day. I woke up to what I thought was my water breaking. It turned out to be my mucous plug coming out. Sometimes they came come out kind of watery. I was asked to go to L&D to be monitored. While I was there, the rest of it kept coming on out. I was also starting to have regular contractions. But nothing that led to anything. And since my water, truly did not break, they eventually sent me home, telling me they hoped to see me back in the next day or two. I hope they are right about that.

Tomorrow is my next checkup with my doctor. I am going to see what his thoughts are. Originally, not knowing how long my body could hold out, he had talked about induction after I was full term. Now that my body is showing signs of being ready I am going to ask if I can at the very least start walking more to see if that helps to jump start anything. Maybe he will want to induce himself like he had said earlier. I will know more tomorrow.

I have had friends lose their plug and go into labor 24 hours later and one exactly 2 weeks later. So far I am about 36 hours later. The nurse did say the longest she has heard of, was 2 weeks past it coming out. At least now, I have some sort of countdown I can go by :0) There is a light at the end of the tunnel. A truly miraculous one, since our son is full term and will be able to go home with us!

Completing unfinished projects

Having time off work has been nice. I have been able to work on some of the projects I started when I was on winter vacation. I have completed the first of many that I had started. It is a scarf for my step-father. I had started it back during Christmas, hoping to get it done pretty quickly so that he could wear it during the colder time of year. Now it is summer where he lives and will be over 100 each day. I don't think he will be needing it for some time ;0) At least he will have it ready for when the cold weather does return.

It has been a long time since I knitted, so I am very happy with how this turned out. My next project is to finish crocheting a baby blanket for a friend. I was on a roll last night and then ran out of yarn, so off to the store I go. Then I need to start quilting a baby blanket for my sister. We found out a couple of weeks ago she is having a baby girl and we are very excited for her! I really love the pattern I found. Finding fabric is the harder part. There is so much to choose from, I am having a hard time picking out colors and themes I like. If it turns out nicely, I will have to make that one for all the kids in our family.

I have started the countdown

I went in for my weekly appointment on Wednesday this week. My doctor is checking me for dilation each week now. I am close to 1 cm dilated at this point. I have heard of some women staying there for a while and some women moving pretty quickly. Only time will tell which one I end up being. I think T is nice of comfy, so I am predicting it will be a while.

But the time will be here before I know it, so now I am trying to finish up some projects before I run out of time.

Yesterday, one of my best friend from college had her baby girl. Congrats Andria! We are very happy for you.

Baby coming?

I had an appointment today that turned into a little adventure. The babies h/b was a little too high so they hooked me up to a monitor for about 5-10 minutes. It didn’t go down so they sent me to the hospital. My OB said it could have been due to him being so active and moving a lot while they were trying to take his h/b, but he wanted me to be monitored in labor and delivery just to be on the safe side. If it didn't go down, I would deliver via an emergency c-section.

I was there for about an hour and his heartbeat stayed in the normal range the entire time. The interesting thing was that I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes and didn’t even feel any! They were surprised because some of the spikes were nice and high. I hope that means I can handle pain well :0) One can dream! LOL The nurse laughed at me when I told her my hopes of being able to handle them easily if I didn't feel these.

Anyway, after a while the nurse called my doctor to give him the report and he said that I could go home. By the end of the monitoring the contractions went down to every 10 minutes so they were slowing down. Although, they did say they wouldn’t be surprised if I deliver in the next week or two.

Here is the really good news!! I have made it to the point, that if he is born now, the chance of him going into NICU is only 1% now. They think he is about 5.5 pounds. I am really happy about that! The other good news, he is still head down so my chances of a normal delivery are still good. Now I just have to monitor movement and contractions. I will still go in every week to the doctor unless I go into labor and then I will go to the hospital. Starting next week they will check me for dilation. It probably won't be much longer now. At least I hope so.

Dr. Appointment Today

Went in today for a checkup. Our little man is sticking in there. The good news - he is still head down and most likely will stay that way since I am running out of room! YAH! I am having a lot of pain in my tailbone which my doctor said is a result of my pelvic bone starting to spread in preparation for the baby coming through. I am also having a lot of braxton hicks contractions. These two things are a sign my body is getting itself ready, so he thinks little man could be here in 2-3 weeks. Although he said he wouldn’t be surprised if go even longer than that, because I am doing so well. Only time will tell. I go back to see him in 2 weeks so here is praying I make it to that appointment!

According to what my doctor told me today, a baby born at 32 weeks spends about 2-3 weeks in NICU on average. Every day you are pregnant past 32 weeks day 1 is one less day the baby is in NICU. Since I am past the first day of 32 weeks, I have now reduced the stay by 3 days. If I can make it at least 2 more weeks the likelihood that T gets to go home with us dramatically increases. That also gives up a good time difference between birthday party's each year :0) Miss E and Mr T are going to have birthday's close together.

Maternity Leave

It's official... I am now on my maternity leave. Baby T is doing really well. My OB and specialist told me that the hardest part would be weeks 20-29 and making sure the baby stayed in. I was going to the doctor often, on limited activity and praying for the best. Well the best has happened. I am now at 30 weeks. Even though the baby is viable at this point, it is a lot better for him to stay in as long as possible for developmental reasons. For that reason, I have been taken off work. My doctors want me to relax during the day. Hopefully the reduced stress on my body will help T stay in there a little while longer. I would like to make it to 35 weeks. That's the farthest my specialist as seen a woman with this type of uterus go.

Miss E celebrates her first birthday soon. We cannot believe it has been a year since we brought her home int our lives and hearts. She is such a wonderful baby. She is walking all over the place right now. Its so fun to see! She is also in day care and really enjoys spending time with other kids. We are really looking forward to her first birthday party. I told T he has to stay in until after the party :0)

We got a chance to celebrate birthmothers day with her BM. We made a photo album of miss E's first year which she really liked. It was good to see her again.

Adoption Day

February 18, 2009 - Adoption Day for Miss. E.

Six family members joined my husband and I to go before the judge to finalize the adoption of our little girl. It was a great day! The judge gave Miss E a stuffed teddy bear for her finalization. The ceremony itself took about 20 minutes and then we headed to lunch. We are officially her parents and through with the adoption process. From start to finish it took about 2 and a half years. It was well worth the wait!!!

She is 10 months old right now and doing beautiful. She is about to start walking on her own any time now. She has taken a few steps on her own between daddy and mommy, but still loves to walk around that coffee table. That is fine with us, she can take her time. She talks up a storm these days too. Our favorite words are mama and dada. We also love it when she stretches out her arm to reach for us. It is so wonderful to be recognized in their eyes.

We can't believe that in 2 short months we will be having her first birthday party. Where does the time go???