38 Weeks!

How many Weeks? 38 Weeks, it feels like just yesterday I was peeing on stick and freaking out because Dufda was in Jordan not answering his phone.

How much weight gain? 40 lbs, I am not sure where it is, but I hope it all comes out with this baby.

How Big is Nugget? About the size of a pumpkin, and lord knows I couldn't find a pumpkin in the middle of winter.  He won't get much bigger from now on, but his brain is said to still be growing.

Best moment of the week? Finishing the nursery!  You can check it out here.

What about those rings?  My carpel tunnel is so bad that I feel like I don't have any fingers.  I really miss my diamonds, though.

Early Labor Signs?  Definitely felt one contraction yesterday.  Just one so no big deal, but at least my body is practicing.  I have a ton of pressure and definitely some pain, I hope it means he is trying to break through.

Awesome Pregnancy symptom of the week?  Seriously with the night sweats!  I sleep on the couch under a window because I am so hot and still wake up as if someone poured a bucket of water on me.  I will not be sad to see these go.

Miss Anything?  Control, at this point you have no control over anything.  You are just in it for the ride.  You make this nursery that you don't know when you will use it, you install a car seat as part of the waiting game and you have bags packed for an event that has no time scheduled.

Food Cravings?  Ice Cream! I should stop, I have gained about 4lbs in a week, but oh well, me, Ben and Jerry are enjoying it too much.

Looking Forward to?  My little man.  I wanna know what he will look like and most importantly, if he will fit in his cute coming home outfit. 

Dufda Quote of the week?  Anytime I look like I in pain he asks, "Are you having birth?"  Not giving birth, having and I think it is hilarious although sometimes annoying because every second you are in pain at this point.

Pregnant woman rant of the week?  So I am very pregnant and I see a lot of people throughout the day. These people are separated into categories. 

The closet OB/GYN:  You are 37 weeks pregnant, don't babies come at 36 weeks?  You haven't dropped yet, you probably won't give birth for another couple of weeks?.  You don't look big enough to be 37 weeks pregnant are you sure the doctor gave you the right date. You look like you can go into labor right now.

Then there are the people who have no sensor:  I couldn't see you from the front, but by your waddle could totally tell you where pregnant.  (From same women when she saw my face)  You look like you are over this whole pregnant thing. (a.k.a you look like shit)  You look comfy today. (a.k.a you look like shit)

Then there are the idiots:  37 weeks...that's the first trimester right?  Have you felt the baby kick yet?

And not to mention the small talker:  Are you pregnant?  What are you having?  How far along are you?  When are you due?  Do you have a name?  Well when I gave birth I wasn't left with a butt hole, was in labor for 57 hours, had to have a C-section because the baby couldn't fit, nearly died of blood loss, gave birth in the elevator of a jail, was given the wrong baby from the nursery, oh the list goes on at the ridiculous stories that people tell you.

Last but not least, there are the people I freak out by not giving birth in a hospital: I work right around the corner from Magee Women's hospital.  Basically, if you are giving birth most likely you will end up on their conveyor belt of laboring mama's.  Every time someone walks into my job, they remind that it is just around the corner.  1.  If I go into labor, I have plenty of time as a first time mom to get to my care provider,  I will actually be driving home most likely to labor at home for awhile before even thinking about or being permitted to come back to the city.  2.  I am not giving birth at Magee.  I started to tell this to people, but have gotten such a bad reaction that I have given up and just nod and agree.  I was trying to explain to a women that I was giving birth in a birth center.  It was down the strip and is staffed by a slew of wonderful midwives.  Her response:  Well I am sure nothing too bad will happen.  Seriously?  Too bad.  I wanna smack some people.

Midwife Appointment:  So, my appointment this week did not turn out the way it usually does.  I go there and they had not scheduled the current appointment that I was there for, nor my following appointments for the month of February. I was kind of pissed because at this point in my pregnancy, I think I know how the system works.  When we get into the appointment, the midwife has to go over all the things that can cause a transfer.  I want nothing more that to avoid the hospital so I am trying to ignore all of these bad things, because I believe that fear hinders progress in labor.  She then takes my blood pressure and it is very high for me.  She does the exam and retakes the pressure and it is still high.  I then have to do a urine sample to check for protein.  She does find trace amounts of protein in my urine but says that is typically normal.  She rechecks the blood pressure and it has not gone down.  I have to schedule a blood pressure recheck for Friday to make sure I have kept it down.  She does send me home with a list of things to call her for that could be pre-eclampsia related.  On a positive note, I was GBS negative, so there would be no need for an IV during labor.  This was super important to me because delivering at the birth center I wanted to be connected to nothing.

I go home that night, obviously shaken.  I am trying to calm myself down and make sure that I am able to lower my blood pressure.  I fall asleep and am woken up by a very consistent pain in my right side.  The same pain that she described that I would need to call for.  Instead I stayed awake from 2:30-5:30 with this pain, who knows why.  When I woke up in the morning I decided that I should call just in case.  By the way, today is Valentine's Day.  The midwife on-call was the same one that checked me the day before.  She told me that she would meet me at the hospital immediately and be prepared to have a baby today.  We have no car seat in the car and nothing packed, even though she told me to complete this during the first appointment, I still didn't listen.  So we set off to the hospital.  When we get there, I realize why this place is my worse nightmare.  They immediately hook up an IV and strap you to fetal monitors.  I can tell the baby hates this because he keeps kicking the monitors.  Luckily when I got there I was able to see my blood pressure on the screen and calm myself down.  I think that everything had gotten me so worked up that I just needed reassurance that I in fact didn't' have high blood pressure and the reason why it was so high was me thinking about being stripped of the birth I wanted.  We had to wait for the blood work to come back to in sure that my liver was functioning properly.  We then had a wildly romantic meal at Mcdonald's and went to pick up Coco's ashes.  Yes, that was my Valentine's Day, be jealous.