truth

Here are some sad truths about my life right now:

 

1. If I wake up before 9 am I'm going to need a nap. Like turn into a walking zombie and Justin orders me to bed type of nap. 

2. The only section of Pinterest that I browse anymore is food. Seriously. I will take all of the desserts please?

3. I sit down to eat and it takes forever because there's no room. 

4. A lot of times when I burp, I'm pretty sure it's vomit. 

5. My stomach moves on its own accord. Obviously it's Ollie, but it's freaky looking. 

6. It's New Year's Eve. We were invited to two parties. I did my hair AND make up and now I'm laying in bed too exhausted to move. We might rent a movie. I can't wait for what we have coming in 2014, and I can't wait to not be pregnant. It's going to be so much more fun having this little guy on the outside than in. 

On that note I'm hungry, but nauseous and not really hungry. This is so confusing. 

Lady is loving bed rest. 

christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone, and it just got me more excited for next year when I have my little guy with whom we can enjoy the holiday.

Justin's family was here from Monday evening until Thursday morning and all we did was eat.  Seriously.  I'm fairly certain I gained back whatever weight I've lost in the last couple weeks and we have spinach and artichoke dip and mint brownies to thank for that.

Christmas eve was wonderful.  We ate all day and then everyone went to church [while I took a nap...] and then we ate some more and opened presents.  The little one is already spoiled.  He got the cutest rocking elephant to go with his elephant themed room.

And the whole family got t-shirts with our guy's name on them.  It's completely by accident that I fell in love with the name and it also happens to be the name of a brand of farm equipment that J's dad used to sell in their family farm equipment shop.  Needless to say, Grandpa is pretty excited.

I haven't worn real pants in days.  Don't judge...

30 weeks

We made it to 30 weeks!  Cross that off the list.  It feels so good to have another week under our belts.  Our midwife appointment was this morning, and she basically told us that as long as nothing changes we're good to go.  Good to go meaning I'm not really supposed to work for the next 6 weeks and I'm supposed to be waited on and not do too much.  But no real need to worry that Baby Boy will come before 36 weeks.  What a relief.  I was so nervous before the appointment that I was nauseated and had a stomach ache.  She put our minds at ease.  Plus the little guy measured good and was kicking around in my belly.

Although I feel a little useless not being able to go to work for the next 6 weeks, and fear that I'll be EXTREMELY bored, I'm relieved to have the time to just rest and cook this guy.  Not sure my co-workers see it that way, but seriously, who cares about work when your little human needs you?  The midwife said we can talk about my going to work after I hit 36 weeks, but that I don't necessarily have to.  We shall see... I'll either be bored or wanting to earn a little more money since I sure won't be making any during this leave!

And now I don't know what to do about grad school.  I have about two weeks to make a decision.  Goodness knows what I'll decide on that one.  For right now I'm just going to enjoy the lights on my tiny 2 foot tall Christmas tree.  And wish that I didn't scarf down two Christmas cookies...  The in-laws come in town tonight and I'm excited to get our modified Christmas off to a start!

Happy Christmas!

Lady believes that since we're supposed to be taking it easy, she's allowed on the couch again...  It's hard to say no when she just wants to snuggle.

My text from my own personal Scrooge at the grocery store.  Please note, I do not take offense to the phrase "calm your tits."  I started that one.  Should stop soon before the kid gets here.

no news

Is good news. Right? And I'm hoping the slight increase in contractions today doesn't trigger anything. Yesterday was a really good day, contractionwise. I don't know why today is worse. Maybe it's the 5-9 inches of snow we're about to get. According to the radar though, we might not get any of it? 

I've been doing nothing these last couple days. For one because being up and about triggers stronger contractions, and for two because I'm so absolutely exhausted. I woke up today at 8:30 and then took an hour and a half long nap later. I've done nothing all day, but could fall asleep in a second. 

Luckily for me, unluckily for my mom, we had a little ice storm on Thursday night that delayed her leaving until this morning. It was nice to have her here an extra day. She was so much help and made so much delicious food. We'll have left overs for at least another day or two. 

Tomorrow we were supposed to go to Justin's grandparents house for their big family Christmas celebration, but we have been strongly discouraged from traveling [the midwife said "I can't tell you not to go, but I recommend that you don't."] obviously we're taking the safe route. I hate missing out on the celebration. Then we were supposed to go to spend Christmas in his hometown and then travel to a cabin. No one wants me to give birth in the black hills however, so we changed our plans. Instead his family will come here on Monday night and we'll have our Christmas low key. I'm already working on the menu [that I'm not really allowed to help prepare according to J and his mom] and we decorated tonight. -Ahem- "decorated" being used loosely. 

I'm jumping out of my boots to see what the midwife tells us on Monday about everything. 

And now, the most pathetic pitbull. 

Lady did NOT want to pose in front of the tree. 

Helping wrap gifts. 

She thinks it's rough being pregnant too...

on my mind

There's 39 days until I hit 35 weeks pregnant. It's so bizarre after having my goal date be March 3rd to all of the sudden hoping we can make it to January 27th, and even better February 3rd. After yesterday, that seems like an eternity. I contracted fairly strong last night for quite a while but was able to fall asleep and then they calmed down. 

I used to be worried about bringing a teeny month old baby to my brother's wedding in April. Now I'm praying that he'll be only a month old. 

Justin put me on bedrest today... He said no getting up unless I need to eat or pee and my mom agreed with him. They don't care that I've read articles and studies that show bedrest doesn't necessarily work for prevention of preterm labor. Not going to lie, my contraction strength triples when I'm on my feet. 

Lady was cut out for bedrest. She's sleeping next to my knees [after a hearty attempt to share my pregnancy pillow]

And finally, I've been reading on how to avoid preterm labor naturally, so these are the steps I'm taking to try and help:

-Upping my protein intake

-drinking a crap ton of water. I think I had 108 oz yesterday. 

-continuing on my magnesium supplementation. I take 800-1200 mg daily anyways. 

-continuing with Epsom salt baths, since Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate and that's what they were threatening to give me at the hospital. 

-adding more vitamin C to my diet. Thank goodness it's citrus fruit season!

-taking 1000mg of calcium daily which I read can lessen contractions. 

-drinking kefir to improve my bacterial flora overall. This goes along with my daily probiotic. I read an article that said people with celiac disease have less probiotics in them so I'm trying to ramp that up. It's also been found that not having the proper vaginal flora can cause preterm labor so I'm not taking any risks. 

-upping my fish oil intake to 2 caps per day. Ew. But I read it can help prevent preterm labor. 

-and finally, relaxing. Trying not to stress or be anxious because that automatically makes the contractions worse. 

Hopefully this does the trick and I carry my little guy to March 10th if that's how long he feels like cooking!

whirlwind at 29 weeks

Never when I took this picture on Monday morning did I imagine that I'd be in the hospital 12 hours later in pre-term labor.  

I'd been having contractions on and off since last Thursday, but I figured I was just tired/dehydrated/worked myself to hard.  So I would lay down.  On Monday at lunch I was talking with a co-worker and mentioned my contractions and she said "call your doctor, NOW! I didn't realize I could have contractions at 24 weeks and I ended up in the hospital in pre-term labor."  That scared me so I told myself if the contractions came back, I'd call.  I let Justin know my plan.  By about 1:30 pm they were back with a vengeance.  According to my contraction timer app, I had 9 in about 30 minutes.  Red alert!  I went and told my boss that I was calling my midwife and I'd keep him updated.  Sure enough they sent me straight home from work and told me to lay down.  If I had more than 6 in an hour to call back and then head straight to the hospital.

I chose not to count the 4 I had on my way home and started counting once I was laying down in bed.  In 40 minutes, I'd tracked another 9 contractions, as I reached for my phone to call the midwife, the nurse called me to check on me.  I updated her and she said go straight in, I'll let them know you're on your way.  

We got to the hospital pretty much empty handed.  I brought my insurance cards, but that was it, never imagining I'd have to stay over night.  I figured they would monitor the contractions, maybe give me an IV bolus of fluids and send me on my happy way.  Boy was I wrong.  I was put on the monitor [which baby G hated] and was immediately given two big glasses of ice water and instructed to "drink these right now!"  So I chugged them down.  Then the IV went in, just in case I wasn't getting enough water in.  This was after I had already had 2 liters of fluid to drink during the day, and based on my urine sample, I was pretty darn hydrated.  All of the sudden the doctor comes in, which confused me because I'm a midwife patient, and she checked my cervix.  Luckily it was long and closed but she could feel baby's head low in my pelvis so she ordered me to start nifedipine sublingual 4 doses in 2 hours and then ampicillin intravenous every 6 hours plus two betamethasone shots for baby's lungs to mature in case he decided to come early.

That scared me.  Seriously?  We're already at the steroid shots for lung development point!?!  Then they told me if my cervix changed at all, I had earned myself a one-way ambulance ride to the University of Iowa two hours away from here.  I diligently took my sublingual nifedipine, even though it tasted like a combination of burnt sesame seeds and cough syrup.  I received my antibiotics.  And I took the shot like a champ [False, I took it like a baby.  That shot burns for about 20 minutes after you get it and then remains achey for hours.] 

We waited to see what happened.  Justin went home and got a few essential items since it was clear we weren't going anywhere for the rest of the night.  I continued drinking and wasn't allowed to eat anything, not that I was hungry.  Though my contractions continued to carry on throughout the night at 1-3 minutes apart, my cervix stayed stubbornly closed and long [good girl!] and eventually baby moved up out of my pelvis [good boy!] I barely slept since I was worried, and was awoken every two hours for medicine or alarms going off.  

Come morning my cervix still hadn't changed, but neither had the contractions.  The goal was to take my 10:30 dose of nifedipine, thankfully in capsule form and no longer sublingual, and see if the contractions got worse if I got up to walk around a little.  I was off the monitor for an hour and made my grand trip down the hall about 20 feet to the ice machine, to the bathroom twice, and I folded two sweatshirts and a pair of leggings and put them in my overnight bag.  Then I sat up in bed and ate my lunch.  

They came in and put me back on the monitor and after a couple of minutes, everyone was in my room [doctor, midwife, nurse] "what did you do while you were up?!?" they asked me.  So I recounted and everyone was upset.  I had gone from having irregular contractions every 3-6 minutes apart [not including the teeny contractions that we all decided to ignore] to having mild to moderate contractions every 45 seconds.  I was distraught and immediately laid my bed down to rest.  Thankfully that did the trick and they calmed back down.  When Justin came to see me after work and I set my bed up slightly, they came back again so down I went.  

Luckily they calmed again and by 10:15 pm I was on my way home.  It was a full moon and I think they needed my room and felt better about the fact that we live so close to the hospital.  I was given strict instructions that if the contractions got stronger or if my water breaks to call back immediately and come in, duh... 

This whole ordeal has been a shock to our system.  I'm off work until after the new year and have an appointment on Monday to check on everything and to discuss my going back to work options.  The doctor said at least until after the new year, but the midwife was thinking more like not going back until I reach 35 weeks pregnant.  I'm not on bed rest, just rest.  No working around the house, just sitting.  Naturally someone that would love to nest is having a hard time with that.  My mom is coming down today to help out for a couple days and keep me company.  We were supposed to go to Justin's family's for Christmas and then up to South Dakota to a cabin that his parents rented for a few days.  That's not happening anymore, because I don't feel like giving birth to a 30 week old baby in the Black Hills.  I feel awful that we've ruined everyone's Christmas plans.  But we'll just have to adapt.  And keep our fingers crossed and prayers prayed that this little guy stays cooking for at least another 7 weeks, but even better if he goes longer.  Goodness, has being pregnant been an adventure so far!

Drinking my ice water.  For the record, hospitals have the BEST ice water.

The bottom line of bumps is my contractions.  These ones aren't even close to as frequent or strong as they got.

This little peanut had to sleep overnight in the garage, and then Tuesday morning was dropped off at the vet to be boarded for an unknown amount of time.  She was heartbroken, but the vet was so amazing and boarded her for free and gave her a free bath.  I'm so grateful to them!  Justin told them what was going on [they didn't even have a spot available for her!] and they said to bring her right in.  Apparently the vet had her baby 3 months early so understood the stress and scary times we were going through.  It makes me tear up every time I think about it.

growth curve

Baby Gross is right on the growth curve.  Today he measured at exactly 28 weeks!  He also had a good heart rate and thoroughly enjoyed the blood glucose screening test.  He's still partying hard working off all the sugar.  

Good news!  I passed!  I don't have to do the three hour glucose tolerance test!  I didn't throw up the sugary stuff!  And I didn't pass out.  Whew!

Also Ina Garten is making chocolate truffles.  Yes please?

The doctor I saw today said that if anyone tells me that I look too big for 28 weeks, I should tell them they're wrong!  I compared last week's picture to this week's... There's a definite growth.  See?

snowy sunday

With nothing planned for the rest of the day, I feel like I'm winning this Sunday. I have a pit bull sleeping like a human in the bed next to me. A little, squirmy boy growing like a weed in my belly, and absolutely no plans to cook anything for dinner.

It's currently snowing to beat the band, but Lady and I are too cozy to care. I'm sure she'll care later when we send her outside to pee, but right now she looks like this:

She has a talent for tucking herself in. 

I'm craving Asian inspired noodles I just decided. What do you think is the liklihood that Justin will take me to the walmart for hoisin and to peruse their maternity section? Oh I'm not proud of that last sentence. Moving along...

We had childbirth education yesterday. Allllll daaaaay. And it wasn't a complete waste as I previously expected. I got to say hello to the big whirlpool tub that I'll be visiting in just over 12 weeks. I wanted to hop in yesterday. Tomorrow I have my one hour glucose test and I'm so nervous I won't pass. I don't think I have gestational diabetes. I just don't want to have to take the three hour one and everywhere I read says this isn't an accurate test. Ugh. Dumb. 

I have nothing else really. Here's a little photo update. 

The wonderful pregnancy pillow finally came in the mail. And it's so good. 

Photographic evidence of insane growth in 5 days time. 

And we found this at the hardware store baby section today. It's pretty hilarious, but completely inappropriate. 

miscellaneous musings

Whilst I cooked two dinners tonight [productive!], random thoughts flitted through my head and each one seemed too profound to not share.  

First of all, lime juice makes my rocking world go round.  Especially since being pregnant.  However, every time I cook with it I just want a margarita.  Or a key lime pie.  Or to be somewhere classy in a drop-waisted silver dress adorned in sparkles and sequins drinking a gin and tonic.  And I don't even like gin and tonics.  But, oh they make me feel classy, and drop-waisty.

Next I would like to point out that there seem to be two schools of thought on tater tot casserole [hotdish if you're a true Minnesotan].  There's the green bean school and the corn school.  I say that segregation is not a part of my soul, so I combine the two.  However, I never, EVER add cheese to my tater tot casserole.  Not adding cheese to stuff is a part of my soul.

Let's visit next, the "to-do" list I made for the week.  It's a great and mighty list with lofty goals and easy goals.  I believe in adding super easy goals to my "to-do" lists in order to keep my spirits up.  For example "water plants" was one of my items.  I failed to do that last night [forgot] and felt helter skelter all day because of it.  Those puppies are watered now though and I can't wait to cross that off the list.  Also on the list was research my thoughts about vaccination for my infant and send it to Justin.  I did that, but still don't have a decision made?  Anyways, it got crossed off the list.  Also I added "set up doula appointment" because I did that, so ha, crossed off.

Which brings me to how I'm feeling pretty granola lately.  And saying that makes me really want granola.  Like, reeeeeally want it.  But I'm excited about this new, crunchy period of my life that is sure to be filled with cloth diapers, grassfed beef in my freezer [a half of a cow that I've lovingly named Betsy and cannot wait to tell the butcher just exactly how I want her prepared.  Sorry dear Bets...], and hopefully, a lovely little garden next summer from which I'll can and preserve the fruits and vegetables of my labor.  Baby just gave two solid kicks that I'm taking to mean as "I'll help, mom" and not "Screw gardening I'm afraid of bees!" which is something that I know about.  Hopefully they'll leave me alone.  

I should be switching my laundry because "laundry" is also on my list, and I'm unwilling to cross it off until it's done, but alas, that sounds like a lot of stairs.  Which leads me to point number 87 in my random blathering about things, when I build a house it's going to be awesome.  Main floor laundry is a must.  Also a three car garage.  Wow.  Those are really my only two necessary items.  Justin and I spent the whole weekend looking up floor plans and dreaming about someday.  Maybe someday.

I had to take a drug test today for my master's program that starts in January.

Taking drug tests makes me feel guilty.  Also, I offered too much urine.  You're welcome drug tester lady!

Am I absolutely crazy for starting my master's two months before my baby is due?  You know what?  Don't answer that.

christmas card

We took about 900 photos tonight to try and get the perfect one for our Christmas card that I had to order TODAY!  Hello Cyber Monday deal on Vistaprint.  Hello Procrastination.  We meet again.

We finally settled on this one

It's only medium, but we'll take it.  I couldn't figure out how to fix Lady's possessed eyes/there's only so many hours in Cyber Monday.

Our other Cyber Monday Purchase?

The car-seat we've been eying was 50 dollars off!  I wasn't expecting that, but jumped all over it.

Cyber Monday is way better than Black Friday.  That is all.

dogsgiving

We were at my parent's house for thanksgiving, however I have barely any photographic evidence of it other than pictures of dogs. So that's where we are.

I ate so much I think I gained two pounds in one weekend.  Plus the belly definitely doubled in size [slight exaggeration] between Wednesday and Sunday. To start off the week, I've been awake since 4. Hooray!......

Here's to hoping that if it snows today, everyone remembers how to drive. And baby boy would like to contribute a few wiggles and some karate chops. Happy Monday. 

[side note: my phone autocorrected chops to chips and now guess what I want.]

Also, 27 weeks!