My due date came and went with very little fan fare. Actually, now that I think about it, ”very little fan fare” is the understatement of the century. It was just so anticlimactic. No baby, no contractions, just more days of work and waiting for this little person to make her debut. So, now, we’re just waiting in limbo.
I went to the Dr on Tuesday and he basically said, “Let’s do an ultrasound and if everything looks good let’s give her another week.” So, I went down, got my ultra sound and baby is looking good so she has free reign til next Tuesday when we will do another ultra sound to decide if she gets another week or is getting evicted early. Obviously, I’m still hoping she comes out before my next appointment on Tuesday.
So, here we are 4 days after my due date and I have tried all the old wives tales: walking, sex, spicy foods, drinking cold water, and wearing myself out but nothing seems to be working. I’m starting to think she is teaching a me a very early lesson in parenting; you know the one where I resign myself to just getting comfortable waiting—waiting on her to arrive, sleep, wake up, eat, pee, poop, ect ect ect.
I think Baby Elizabeth is letting me know something very important; I may be the mommy but she is the boss!
This morning I received a note from one of my non parental friends about why am I so anxious to get The Wee One out. Her exact words: “Isn’t your life so much quieter and convenient without that crying poop machine on the outside?” I suppose the short answer to that particular question is: yes, of course it’s “quieter” and “more convenient” to keep her on the inside but how dare you catorgorize Baby Elizabeth as nothing more than a crying poop machine! (Clearly my hormones have gotten the best of me.) Which got me thinking about how I felt about pregnancy before I was actually pregnant and I realized—I knew very little. (And I probably owe my friend an apology as I’m totally not the type of person who lashes out at people for not being in the same place in life) so I thought I would list a few things that I never thought about BEFORE I found myself in the throes of pregnancy:
This baby is growing bigger by the day and the bigger the baby gets the less and less room there is for other things; like food and you know, my vital organs.
I want to meet this tiny person. Sure, she might poop and cry but after you spend 9 months changing everything about your life and lifestyle to accommodate this tiny idea growing inside, the anticipation of meeting her is all consuming.
I need to know what this baby LOOKS like–I’ve been envisioning her for 9 months. I’m ready to see if she ended up with straight hair (please please let her have straight hair) or unruly curls that I will need some sort of tutorial on how to properly care. I want to know what color her eyes are and if she will have my nose or daddy’s. I mean, it’s amazing how much you can love something and not have any idea what she even LOOKS like….it’s unbelievable.
I miss being able to do the simplest tasks. Like picking up my underwear and being able to roll over in my sleep. Somewhere around 30 weeks (or 7.5 months for all my non parental friends) I turned into a turtle and the simple act of rolling from my left to my right became impossible. And since my arms usually fall completely asleep it normally takes a good 2-3 minutes to wake them up, then go to the bathroom, and then settle in on the other side.
At around 35 weeks (8.5 months) by belly started getting bigger than my body is consciously aware and I started bumping into people and things. Hugs get more complicated and you just generally feel large and not so much in charge.
I’m ready to eat the stuff that I love. Somehow Baby knows just the foods that make me happy and can ruin them without notice. You like lemon cake? Acid reflux so bad it will make you hurl. Pork chops? Oh, they taste like hot dogs. Chinese food? Don’t even think about it? Meat on pizza? Hello cold wash cloth wiping the puke off your face. It’s the weirdest thing in the world…these pregnancy eating idiosyncrasies.
The list could go on but I do have some work to do today so I will leave you with the primary point of this post: Stop judging me. I’m ready. Let’s do this Baby Elizabeth!
So it appears Baby Elizabeth is going to camp out until she is evicted…or so it feels. When I had my doctor’s appointment last week he was shocked The Wee One was still cooking. He was sure she would have made her move since I had been ‘thinning’ so quickly. Unfortunately, we are embarking on yet another week of cooking the baby/working. Sure, I’m technically only 39 weeks but something inside me (and the doc) said she would come early—which doesn’t appear to be the case…
In all honesty, I’ve really been fine. Not too uncomfortable or miserable. The 100 degree temperatures have subsided and all in all I’ve been holding up pretty well. Everyone has been asking me when I’m taking off work and my standard response has been, “if I can work, I want to work. I’m not wasting any time off before Baby arrives.” But then this morning, I was standing in my closet trying to determine what I was going to wear to yet another week of work (another week I was planning on spending cuddling with our new addition) and I was trying to decide if I could get away with wearing yoga pants and at that moment a light bulb went off—THIS is why women take off early! I’ve always been pretty good at getting dressed for work. I like getting dressed up and being around people but today all I wanted to do was be comfy—not my usual self. I opted for capris and a cute shirt but if Baby Elizabeth makes me work next week too; my co-workers might be seeing me in yoga pants….
So, yesterday was my 36 week checkup. And everything is looking great. Baby Elizabeth is growing right on target and I’ve been feeling pretty good. When the doc checked for “progress” I was kind of surprised to hear that I’m 60% effaced and dilated 1 cm. What?!?! The Wee One might be making her move…
Other than that, there is not too much to report. We all ready and waiting! And it sort of sounds like she will be here sooner than later!
For some reason blogging has fallen way down on the ole priority list. And the longer I go without blogging, the harder it is to get back into it. It’s not that I haven’t had anything blog worthy to write about; I think I’ve just been a little bit overwhelmed with life. Baby Elizabeth is due to make her debut in a few weeks and it seems like there are a million things that need to be done. I have a new job and A LOT less time on my hands.
A couple weeks ago, my Mom, Sister, and two besties threw me the most lovely baby shower ever! I felt incredibly loved and and lucky to have some many people in my life that understand just how important this new addition is to our lives. I really do have the best family and friends. My mom has spend the years storing and keeping all the important stuff from my childhood…all the way down the onesie I wore home from the hospital. I can only hope that I will be organized enough to do as many things for our little girl as my Mom did/does for me…
After the baby shower my mom and sister came over to help me organize all the new baby necessities. I loved having them here. (I’m also sort of surprised at how much I LOVE folding baby clothes. I HATE doing laundry but knowing that those tiny pink clothes belong to our little girl make folding them bearable if not enjoyable. Perhaps Baby Elizabeth will wake an organized OCD version of myself that has long been repressed whilst throwing my underwear in a drawer and then rifling through them while I look for the perfect pair each day.) I know everyone was here to help ME but it felt like they were here for Baby Elizabeth and that made my heart all melty. I can only hope that Miss Elizabeth and my mom are as close as I was to my Grandma. My Grandma and Grandpa were a HUGE part of my life and I look forward to the day she is old enough to let my Mom paint her toes and follow my Dad around in the yard…maybe not at the same time but you get my point!
Anyway, we have a few weeks to go and I’m so ready to meet our little one…I hate waiting.
Last November I received an email from “M” (I’m not exactly sure how she would feel about being on the ole blog—I kind of think she would be fine with it but given the sensitive/private nature of this post, I’ll just call her “M” for now) announcing her interest in helping out on my AAKC Committee. She started coming to our meetings and was immediately someone I could count on for help with just about anything….I loved her instantly.
After a few months of working AAKC events together, we started giggling and talking about other stuff. And that turned into phone calls and then we started going to lunch and somewhere along the way we became actual friends. Today we went to lunch. And it was as if M knew exactly what I needed; she spent her entire lunch hour telling me about the ins and outs of her labor and delivery. (Our conversation might have kicked off with me trying to explain just how scared I am for the actual birth of Baby Elizabeth; I may or may not have watched a couple episodes of “Baby’s First Day” this morning and was more freaked than usual.) M told me all the embarrassing stuff, the painful stuff, the amazing stuff, the surprising stuff and the stuff no one tells you. She was so open and shared many many words of wisdom. Sure, I have friends with babies and sure, they tell me stuff. But this was a full on frank conversation about lady parts. About what ACTUALLY happens; not vaguely supportive things like, “it hurts but you’ll be fine” or “the pain is totally worth it.” She told me exactly HOW it hurts, WHERE it hurts (during and after) and tips to keep me and my lady parts feeling better in no time—you know, things only a real friend has the interest or time to explain. And now, I’m a lot less worried. Sure, I’m still painfully aware that getting the baby out is not going to be fun or pleasant but I suppose I can stop worrying about who exactly brings the dynamite (the doctor or the baby) and if my lady parts are going look (or feel) like hamburger when it’s all over…
So, this season is not only bringing a baby but an invaluable new friend as well!
Yesterday a co-worker invited me to be friends on The Facebook. Now usually, I try to avoid being friends with people I work with on FB for various reasons but mostly because some things are best left out of the office. Sure, I have no qualms about blogging for complete strangers, acquaintances, and lord only knows who else but work people? Not so much. (Don’t roll your eyes, I know my logic is dumb—ANYONE could find and read this blog but for some reason, I’m thinking the majority of people I’m not interested in sharing my life with have better things to do than track down my tiny corner of the interweb : )
Anyway, I do like this particular work friend so I decided to peruse my status updates to see if there was anything incriminating on there (you know, like taking off at 3 or complaining about things that shouldn’t be complianed about) before I accepted and do you know what I found? I’m Baby Elizabeth obsessed. I cannot stop talking about The Wee One.
I always thought I would be the type of mother who stayed the same. The mother that would have a little one and my outlook and priorities would stay pretty similar. But I’ve already turned into the mom that can’t think about anything else. Her movements mark my day (I fully enjoyed feeling her hiccup on cue for 3 straight hours yesterday) and it’s apparently obvious that I can barely talk about anything else….
So for all you readers that miss the snarky comments and ridiculous stories, the only left to say is this: My name is Jillian and I’m obsessed with my baby.
I sure hope her activity/sleep schedule now is not indicative of her schedule when she finally arrives because this is what Baby Elizabeth has been doing to to me all day:
Oh, I can’t believe I forgot to put this late night conversation in my earlier post. Last night I was totally cuddling with Hubs INSTEAD of my body pillow for once; we were spooning with my belly on his back when I was woke up:
Me: Wait, What are you doing?
Hubs: I’m just rolling you over
(I’m a lot like turtle these days)
Me: Why? I was sleeping sooooo good.
Hubs: Well, you’re a furnace and it’s hot
Me: But I was cuddling with you
Hubs: I’m sweaty and Baby Elizabeth keeps kicking me in the spine.
Me: You’re complaining about baby kicks?!?!?!??! Oh brother. You know that’s how I sleep every night? Right?
Hubs: Yeah, I wasn’t complaining. It was totally special. It’s just hot.
Me: (rolling over to the body pillow and probably rolling my eyes as well) Suuuuuuuuuuure.
I’m thinking Hubs might be a prime candidate for one of those preganancy suits….
This week has been sooooo much better than last! I got the results from my 3 hour glucose test and I passed with flying colors! Our baby furniture is being delivered tomorrow AND I was able to sneeze without crying because my butt hurt—we are on a pregnancy up swing :)
Over the weekend my Mom and I decorated the wooden letters for Baby Carter’s nursery. We went to Michaels and picked out a million different kinds of sparkles/ribbon. They turned out so good! They are super girly and I want to post pics but since we’re keeping the name a secret; posting them is next to impossible. Baby’s name is rapidly becoming one of the worst kept secrets and I’m starting to think we should just tell. Also, when someone mentions her by name it makes my heart melt–so maybe we will share her name in the coming weeks.
The nursery is coming together nicely. Mom has been coming over during the day to touch up the trim, paint Little Miss’ closet and just touching things up in general. Sure, I’m going to be a mom but I think that “Mommies Touch” is something that comes over time and my mom definitely has it. Oh, and my favorite part? She’s been doing laundry!!!!! (There is just something about laundry, washed with love by your mom that makes it so much better than when you do it yourself.)
So, with the painting complete and the furniture being delivered I’m hoping we can get some serious decorating on this weekend! I can’t wait! I’m as anxious to see how the nursery turns out as I am to see what our sweet baby looks like….
