THE story, Part One

Sorry for the temporary leave of absence ... we've been a bit busy these past two weeks. The reason? This man...



Yep, Little G decided to make his grand entrance one week early! I guess he had had enough of all of the smack I was talking about him on this blog, so he decided to stick it to me. Literally.

I woke up, as usual, in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I went back to bed and reached for my phone. I heard this strange faint popping noise and then felt a small gush of fluid. My first thought was, "Huh, that is weird. I JUST went to the bathroom, so I don't think I peed my pants." However, I wasn't entirely convinced that my bag of water had really broken because it wasn't a huge tsunami AND it seemed impossible with the Little Man still being positioned so high up.

Nonetheless, I didn't really think I had peed my pants because: (a) I had just gone to the bathroom and (b) I haven't peed my pants since childhood. What is one to do in these situations at 4 a.m.? Get a second opinion! I called my sister, hoping she would be awake since she has a newborn. Thankfully she wasn't awake but did answer my call. :)

After hearing my story, she thought it was my bag of water. I felt better since now I was ruling out that I hadn't wet the bed, but now it was starting to seem surreal that I might actually be having a baby (!) within the next 24 hours.

My mom must have heard all of the movement from downstairs (side note: we were still staying at my parents' casa while our house was construction zone) because she came up to make sure I was okay. Without explaining why, I asked her to smell the wet spot on the sheets. She couldn't smell anything, so I officially ruled out urine as the culprit. Thanks, Mom, for being a good sport and smelling the bed sheets at 4 in the morning.

I then started calling R repeatedly because as luck would have it, he had gone over to our house that night to move things up to the attic and had crashed there. He was not answering his phone, so in the meantime, I was packing my hospital bag (yeah, I know I should have already done this...) and calling the nurse line to see if they thought I should check in.

The doctor on call recommended that I head to the hospital, and R finally answered his phone and came to get me. It was still very surreal knowing that the next time I would come home would be with a baby. Eeek!

We got to the hospital and got checked in. I had to change into one of their glamorous gowns and they did a test to confirm or deny my water breaking assumption. The first test came back negative, which of course made me feel like an idiot and at the same time disgusting for peeing in my pants. They did a more thorough test and that one came back positive (woohoo!). Besides the embarrassment of thinking that peeing in your pants = your water breaking, I would have NEVER lived that one down and would have endured endless teasing from my family. Thank you Baby Jesus that it wasn't the case.

The doctor then checked to see where I was at and decided that I should have pitocin since I was only 1.5 cm dilated. I had already made up my mind to have an epidural if I ended up going the pitocin route, and although I was a little bit disappointed I wasn't going to try the "au naturale" route that I had envisioned, I knew I would be a lot more comfortable getting the good stuff once things really cranked up.

My labor pretty much went like this:

7 a.m. - 1.5 cm dilated, got pitocin to speed things up
9 a.m. - doc broke my water, since I was only slowly leaking and the bag was still intact
10 a.m. - 3 cm dilated
11 a.m. - 4 cm dilated, got my epidural
2 p.m. - 10 cm dilated and ready to push! Everyone was very surprised with how fast I progressed. I guess my body reacts kindly to pitocin.

One of my good friends was asking me what the contractions felt like, and I really had a hard time remembering the pain. I have heard before that you block out the memories of the pain post labor, and I guess what they say is true! I remember them being A LOT more uncomfortable laying down than sitting up, so I chose to get out of bed and sit in the rocking chair. I kept my eyes closed throughout most of the labor process so I could concentrate on my breathing and not on the pain. Once I got my epidural, I was restricted to the bed but couldn't feel anything. Some positives to that, but also some drawbacks.

More on that later...

The Waiting Game

It seems as though Baby G is perfectly content where he's at. At this week's appointment, he still hasn't dropped enough to schedule an induction. I have mixed feelings about inducing - part of me wants to wait until he comes on his own because I will have a MUCH better chance at trying to go natural, sans meds. The other part of me is willing to induce because the longer we wait, the bigger he gets (he's predicted to be over 8 lbs), and because it's just nice to know exactly when he will exit my body.

We are now down to single digits if he comes on his D-Day. Most first babies are overdue, but most first babies also drop and get "in position" 2-4 weeks before they arrive. He has been head down for weeks, but he is still "floating" and not far enough down. At first I was disappointed after my appointment because it seemed that there wasn't really any progress since my previous check-up. Then I had to remind myself that he will come when he is good and ready AND that I should be thankful that I even have the wonderful pleasure of carrying him around.

I will confess that I have been feeling guilty lately when I come across other blogs of women who are so desperately trying to get pregnant. I also know of several people struggling with fertility issues, so when I have any frustrations that are indeed trivial I have to give myself a big kick in the pants and come back to reality.

Dear Baby G,

I cannot wait to hold you in my arms and to kiss your sweet face, fingers, and toes. I cannot wait to watch you with your daddy and to see what kind of man you grow up to be. I cannot wait for all things BOY. I cannot wait to be a soccer mom, to watch you play with Oliver, to take you camping, to see your smile ... this list is endless. I have known my whole life that I have always wanted to be a mom and that day is about to happen soon because of you.

I cannot wait.

Love,
Mama

To sleep, or not to sleep...

I definitely believe the last few weeks of pregnancy are nature's way of preparing pregos for the many sleepless nights to come. My pregnancy has been a breeze up until this point, and I now completely understand why so many women induce!

If I am not kept awake by reflux (TGFTums), I am tossing and turning from side to side, getting up to use the bathroom, or being awaken by contractions or by the little man doing his own tossing and turning.

I am very thankful that this is the brunt of this pregnancy and that there are only 2 more short weeks to go until the big D-Day (if he comes on time!). Last check at the doctor confirmed that I am still dilating and contracting (as if I didn't know about the contractions.. hehe), so progress IS being made. We talked briefly about the possibility of inducing, but Little G needs to drop before we can officially set up an induction. R is sitting on ready for his son to get here. Me ... some days, like yesterday, I am SO ready for him to leave his baby house, and then other days, like today, I am content with him waiting just a bit longer so that we can finish up our projects.

The house is finally coming along and should be done in the next week and a half. I will be so glad when we can get settled in and organized!

I am making the trek to school tomorrow to set up my classroom for my LT sub. I took this past week off after summer school, the car accident, and moving out of my apartment just to rest and relax. Now that Little G's arrival is quickly approaching, I know that I need to get my room prepped and ready - not something I'm looking forward to doing with my big belly, but it needs to get done! Such is life!

The best news I have since my last post is that Little Z is here! I am SO excited for my sis and her fam. Once again, she made childbirth look easy and delivered another beautiful baby. I can't wait to watch Little Z and Little G grow up together! Little Z was only 7.1 pounds and as of last week, Little G was estimated to be 7.25 pounds already. Looks like we win that category - not exactly the category I was looking to win. :)

Pretty soon we will have similar pictures of our little man ... crazy!

When it rains, it pours

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

This just hasn't been my week. Well, it hasn't even been a week since the chaos began, so I am crossing my fingers that all of the "fun" is over and done with.

Saturday afternoon I had lunch with one of my besties and dropped her back off at our apartment. I was then en route to mi casa when a car decided to come over into my lane. He was either not paying attention or didn't see me because I had to swerve to avoid hitting him as he took over my spot in my lane. That is when my new Santa Fe met its doom.

Guard rail - 1
Big Momma - 0

To top it off, the dude didn't even stop! No one stopped! It all happened so fast I was in complete and utter shock. I got out, checked the damage to my poor car (it was not pretty), and attempted to drive back home as home was less than a couple miles away from the scene of the accident.

My car gave up and the tire went flat, so I called a tow truck to come and haul it to the body shop and got on the phone with the insurance company. They told me the towing company would take 30 minutes. Try TWO HOURS later with me waiting in the heat and starting to worry about Little G as I'm now having slight abdominal discomfort.

I called the after hours line for my doctor and the nurse who took the call said I could go in but would not flat out tell me that I should. My sister, on the other hand, told me that I should definitely go and get things checked out, and R had also requested that I go in. (side note: R had already left for New Orleans for the whole week and I was the only one in my car during the accident)

Soooo the tow truck finally arrives, drops me off at home, and I take R's car to the hospital. The lady at the women's center informs me that I need to walk all the way around to the ER even though the nurse on the phone told me to go to the women's center. Okay, so I walk over to the ER. They get me in quickly and are frustrated (not with me) that I got sent over to them since I should be at the women's center. So I'm then wheel chaired up to the women's center and put in a room for 4 hours hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor and a contraction monitor. As my wonderful nurse put it, I was "banging out contractions." 6 in 10 minutes! Uhhh.. no gracias! I am not supposed to be having this baby right now - R is out of town, the house is no where near finished, AND I still need to move out of my apartment! They finally decided to hook me up to an IV and gave me drugs to stop the contractions. Thankfully I stayed at 1 cm dilated and the contractions slowed way down.

I was planning on using R's car this week while he is gone, but his battery decided to die on me (what is my deal with cars???), so I traded up for a Chevy Impala at the good 'ole Enterprise. The first one they gave me smelled like an ash tray, so I went back today to exchange it for one that I could breathe in. Wow, I miss my car already but it will be 2-3 weeks before it is fixed.

This afternoon I went in for a prenatal massage that must have put my occasional contractions up a notch because I thought I might be going into labor a couple of hours later. Needless to say, R is on the first flight back tomorrow morning and isn't leaving town anytime soon!

While it would be SO easy to have a prego emotional breakdown at any minute, I have to focus on the positives:
-While my car is damaged, I was not hurt, and more importantly Little G is just fine. The air bags did not deploy and he was not impacted although he will probably come sooner than expected now because of the impact.
-I have wonderful insurance that takes care of me and my car.
-While the house is still not finished, I am fortunate to have a house and someone that I love who is paying lots and lots of money to make our home wonderful for our family.
-I have an AWESOME family who has helped so much these past few days helping me move out of my apartment... my mom especially. I could not have done it without them or her.
-My awesome family lives in the same city as I do so I am able to come and crash at their place while my house is getting finished up.
-If Little G does make an earlier than expected entrance, he will be smaller (and probably nicer to my body on his way out) than if he went all the way until his due date.
-Oliver was already at puppy school for round two when the accident happened and will be there for the next three weeks.


Maybe now I can try to relax the rest of this week? :)

Prego charm?

If you know me, you already know that it’s hard to resist my charm. ;) Hehe.

But really, I feel like all women at this point must have the magic powers of the “Prego Charm.” It seems like most everywhere I go people make comments such as:
• When are you due?
• What are you having?
• Do you have a name picked out?
• You must be so hot!
• Don’t lift anything!
• Congratulations!
• Good luck with the baby!

Not only are people asking questions and making comments, but more people go out of their way to hold open doors, stop for me to cross the parking lot, etc. It’s quite nice, I must say!

A couple of the church ladies at summer school told me last week how good I look. I will certainly take those compliments any day since I now feel GINORMOUS. Yep, I’m officially okay with the “G” words because that is how I feel. Big. Fat. Gross.

I find myself tossing and turning from side to side all night long. It’s hard to bend over, sit up from a laying down position, or walk at any pace that is faster than your typical geriatric. All complaints aside, I am still very thankful to have my little guy staying in his baby cooker. 37 weeks is considered full term, so our fingers are crossed he can at least wait it out for another two weeks. Apart from the growing and developing his little body still requires, I need to get his nursery ready, my classroom at school set up for my long term sub, and my apartment that I still have (yet don’t live at) cleaned out all before the big D-day. Needless to say, I will gladly take the big belly as opposed to an early arrival.

We celebrated the upcoming birth of my sister’s little man with a baby shower yesterday. As co-hostess with the mostess I would have to say that it went quite well. Having to keep Oliver in the backyard the whole time, though, not quite so well. He didn’t appreciate that and showed his dissatisfaction by barking most of the time. Just another thing to add to his list of “please fix” when we drop him off at puppy training for round two later this week!

This is the last week of summer school – yippee! It always goes by quickly and makes me think that moms who only get 6 weeks maternity leave from work must hate that the time goes by so fast. I have heard that the first 6-8 weeks with a newborn are the hardest so that makes me even more grateful to have until January at home with Little G!

Finally, I will soon be a single mom no more! R comes home later tonight from his trip, and I am happy to have his help with Oliver once again. I love that pup, but it is very tiring for a 35 week prego to be walking him at least 3 times a day in this heat!

Happy Birthday B!

My sweet niece B turned the big 5 yesterday, or as she says, "I'm one whole hand!" She was the first grandchild for our family, and we were SO ecstatic when my sister and bro-in-law gave us the news. They had been trying to pregnant for a while and underwent some fertility treatments before finally conceiving. Whatever they did must have cleaned the pipes because they are soon expecting baby #3 and haven't had any problems since B with getting prego. She must have been the good luck charm!

B is a great big sister (although she does her share of instigating like any older sibling) and will be starting kindergarten soon. She is funny, adventurous, sensitive, smart, and very caring and loving. I can't wait to see how she does in school and what happens in the next five years!

Da* loves you!




Our first picture together!




Silly baby!




Finally a big sister!




One of my favorite pictures of her - check out the pants!




*B couldn't say "Tía" at first so she called me "Da." My fam thought it was hilarious and still calls me Da on occasion. :)

Pregzilla

There are days when I have to take deep breaths so I don't turn into this...




(image courtesy of www.adorableideas.com)

The other day just happened to be one of "those" days. R cautiously approached me and said, "So I've got good news and bad news." I have no idea what he would even say, so I tell him to give me the bad news first. This is how the rest of the conversation went...

R: So you know how I was supposed to go to New York this weekend? (side note: R is going to NY for his God daughter's birthday)
Me: Yes?
R: Well as it turns out, it's actually next weekend. I got my dates wrong.
Me: Okaaay... (and then I quickly realize what this implies)
Me: Ummm you know that weekend is McB's (my sister) baby shower? AND we are supposed to take our baby basics care class on Saturday morning that I already rescheduled because you couldn't make the first one because of something.

And then it hits me. The last little detail, although it's not quite so little.

Me: AND Oliver comes home on Friday, so I will be alone with him all weekend?!?
R: There's nothing I can do...
Me: I need to practice my deep breathing now. By the way, where is the good news in this???
R: I'm going to be home this weekend after all.
Me: (eye roll) Grrrrr

Pregzilla stayed in her cave, but I will admit that it was really hard to keep her there! I informed R that this mental slip up has given me full leverage, aka he cannot complain about ANYTHING for a while. Hehe... I guess we will see how long I can milk that! ;)

Otherwise in the land of Big Momma, things are good. Construction is still steady and summer school is nearing an end. I am back on good terms with iron after switching to a supplement that my sister uses and recommends. This past week we met with our pediatrician for the first time and went on the hospital tour. The pediatrician is great and the hospital L&D rooms are SO nice! Of course I probably won't care where I am at that point, but the rooms are very spacious and new. It won't be too much longer until we are having to check in ... eeeek!

I am getting more and more curious what Little G is going to look like. Or maybe I should say who will he look like? Will he look more like his daddy or more like me? Or will he have distinct characteristics from both of us?

This was R way back when:



And then there's me:




The only things that we have been able to tell from the ultrasounds so far is that he has chubby cheeks and lots of hair!