Full term excitment... achieved!

Whew! Today we have reached 37 weeks.

The OB appt went well yesterday, although incredibly quickly! Nothing has gotten worse since last week. The ultrasound was fine, BP was fine and I have not gained any weight either. (I find that just weird). My care has now been transferred back to my midwives and since we have reached the "full term" portion of this pregnancy I am feeling pretty good - well mostly.

I spoke with my midwife yesterday to find out what all this transferring and stuff means. I am still on "light duty" but I can try to do a few things now but I am not allowed to be a "hero". So no vacuuming, I can drive a little, I can help with the laundry but I should not be doing all the lifting etc. So I am still in the same boat but going into labour now is not as much of a crisis as it would have been last week. My midwife says she wants me to keep the baby in until 38 weeks - to which I said "What?! This is the longest I've had one of these in!" I have honestly gotten to the point where I dont know what to do with myself.

This is a new experience for me physically. I admit my body really hurts now. Yes, all of my "full term" friends are probably saying "well that's what the rest of us have to do!" So I'll deal with it. LOL! These third babies really do throw us for a loop as I was warned. I have to admit though, over all, this has been the nicest pregnancy so far. I hope it ends well too.

On another upside I have managed to get 3 knitting/crocheting projects done this week that have been waiting and waiting! Yay for small blessings. :) I am now working on my first "soaker" (for those of you who cloth diaper). It is going well.

Thank you to all our friends and family who have stepped in to help us out, manage the kids, do housework, keep me in check, make sure I nap, make us meals and check in on us. We're still going to need you even after this baby comes but thank you for making sure we are taken care of. My sister arrives tomorrow for the next changing of the guard. Thank you everyone!

We'll keep you updated with what is going on here as much as we can.

Preterm excitement... again

What a week...

On Monday I started having contractions in the car on the way to the appointment with the midwife. Well at least I was headed to see the right person! Things got more uncomfortable and we all decided after an internal check that we should all go to the hospital to the childbirth triage. I have been very fortunate to have such great midwives each time I have been pregnant.

We got to triage and started to get monitored. I was seen by an OB and was attached to all the necessary equipment. I admit I was a little nervous at the prospect of going into active labour at this point in the pregnancy again but figured well I've done it twice before so what the heck.

While we were in we had a scare as well. The baby's heart rate suddenly dropped from the 150s to high 70s. All of a sudden I had everyone in my little room contorting me into different positions, I was given an oxygen mask and they brought in the portable ultra sound. Baby came round and everything has been fine since then. No explanation as to why that happened but we are glad that we made it through. This incident sparked talk of emergency c-section and I was given a catheter so I did not have get up any more. The contractions were not stopping and were regular and getting more intense. Drew and I were moved into a labour and delivery room where I was too be monitored for four hours and have my own personal nurse. :) The contractions were still regular. I wasnt allowed to have anything to eat or drink for that whole time which was rough since I had not eaten since 2 pm and it was now 11 pm!

We made it through the 4 hours without incident and with no progression in dilation of the cervix. As a result I was in a lot of pain in my abdomen, back and other areas where things had been “poked and prodded”.

The next day I was told that I would be staying at the hospital for observation for 24 hours. They called this a “forced rest”. I was able to meet with my midwife that morning too. My care had been transferred to the OB the night before and it will stay that way until the birth is over. I had a day of fetal monitoring, resting, served meals (yay!), tests, antibiotics and a visit from family. By night time I was a little bored and very anxious for Drew to come by so I could have someone to talk to. Through all this baby was doing excellent and the OB was very happy with the monitoring.

That night I was able to get a few hours uninterrupted sleep until I had a reaction to the antibiotics. We got that cleared up and I was able to get back to sleep.

After breakfast the OB came to see me to tell me I could go home after a few more tests. She then told me that I was to be on “light duty” at home. Which, when clarified, meant bed rest without the bed. I also was scheduled for an ultrasound that morning. I got some more pictures!

So here we are with members of our families taking turns being here for a few days to look after the kids and kick my butt if I try to do anything. I didnt actually think this rest thing was going to mean much until I tried to lift a bottle of juice (it was the BIG bottle of cranberry) and went into contractions. I now see that this is serious and have decided to do what I am told.

Thank so much to our family members rearranging their lives to come here and for our supportive friends making time to come over and help all of us out. You guys are a blessing from God and we wont forget that.

I'll try to post when I can but I wont be taking phone calls or answering much email until I start feeling a bit better. Thank you for all the good wishes and prayers.

We have a new gestational record! I am now 36 weeks! Never before achieved... and since this is the last pregnancy not again... yay! :)

something new...

Sooo I have been having a pregnancy experience that I havent really had before and it is causing me some... well... distress? feelings of self conciousness? People are staring at me when I go out. Not me but the belly! I have often wondered what it must be like for a large-chested woman to have that happen in public... it doesnt feel too good when your are a large-bellied pregnant woman. Kinda feel like saying, "hey the boobs are up here". Maybe it is because it is summer time and we arent wearing jackets or anything... but geez people. Oh well...

Our little bud...

Some pics of our little man... awww he's gotten so big. And he speaks almost entirely in complete sentences now. He is still working on pronunciation but hey as long as we understand him great! His newest thing is to tell you when you have taken something of his. "Daddy took my dummy out of my mouth! Daddy hid it! Where did my dummy go?"

Baby's room: before pics

Here is a pic of the wall paper that was under the chair rail! Sorry I'm just not a wall paper kind of person. Luckily the walls were all primed before the wall paper went up so getting it off wasnt too bad. Thanks to my mom for helping us get the rest of the backing off the walls when she was here a few weeks ago!

I cant find the pics of when the wallpaper was still on the walls but here are some just after we took the wall paper off. It was only on the top half of the wall and was a nautical theme. The bottom was painted dark blue and to separate the top and bottom there was a chair rail along the middle. The chair rail caused us a lot of grief getting it off as it damaged the walls. Some of the nails used to put it on were huge!

Baby's Room part 2

We'll be painting out all the trim. This is the painitng "in progress" shot.

The paint is on the walls and done! We chose a nice green for this room. Not too dark and not too light. Nice and clean and gender neutral! We had to wait a bit longer than we thought to get the trim done. Some of it took 4 coats (by choice due to location). The tape is off and we are going to set about vacuuming, cleaning up, hopefully shampooing the carpet, then it will be furniture time. I'd like to put something on the walls but seeing as we dont know the sex of the baby it will have to wait. Drew has put a lot of time into getting this room ready. He put in some really late nights and is very tired. He did a fabulous job. You cant even tell where that damage from the chair rail was it is so smooth!

New baby's room

We have moved the kids into one room to make way for our new arrival. Drew had to do alot of work on this room to repair damage that resulted when we took a chair rail off the wall. We also had to fill all the holes in the walls from almost 30 years of picture hanging and shelves. The room used to have a nautical theme complete with wall paper and borders. That has all been removed now. Thanks to my mom for getting a lot of the backing of the wall paper off the wall when she visited!

I cant find the before pics but if I do I'll try to post them later. Currently the room is primed and the trim is up. Drew should be ready to put colour on the walls soon! I am so lucky to have such a talented mate!

Reading time...

Reading is one of the kids favourite things to do. It is amazing that Lilly will be going to school and starting to read on her own in the next couple years... *sigh*

thank you for wonderful gifts!

At the end of the season the PCRC we attend has a BBQ lunch for all the families that come to the centre. As always it is quite busy as there are a lot of us that use the centre. The kids have a great time, so do the parents and the workers are great to us. This year they went step further and had gifts for all the kids. The kids were allowed to go in and pick a gift to take home. That was such a nice surprise, so not expected!

Lilly went in and contrary to her usual tastes she decided to pick out a baby doll with all the pieces! She wasnt coerced or anything. So she now has a baby who has been getting a lot of attention since it came home ( it is a girl baby). Lilly has been practising taking care of the baby, feeding, nap times, walks in the stroller. She's getting ready for the new "real" baby to come home! So sweet and very compassionate.

Aidan picked out a transport truck that transports cars. He has now figured out how the whole thing works, even how to get at the motor by lifting up the hood - which I cannot do by the way.

The nice thing is that both kids are sharing the toys and taking turns! Lilly gets a "truck fix" for a while and Aidan gets to walk the baby in the stroller for a while!