LoloPrego!

Week 40: Baby is Here!!

The wait is over...and it was SOOOOO worth it!!

Martin William Sos

Born November 19, 2009  at 5:31pm

8 pounds, 2 ounces

20 3/4 inches

Week 39: Exactly!

 
My due date is in exactly 1 week! Any guesses on when he's actually going to get here? 

Final Nursery Pictures

 

Click below to see all the nursery pictures (they are on my Facebook page but you don't have to have Facebook to see them):

Nursery Pictures

Week 38: 4 cm!

Baby size food reference: length of a leek

 

I had an exhausting week at work and I was starting to feel like I was done and ready to have this baby and be on leave. I didn’t do any jumping jacks but I definitely felt more of my “crotchal pains” this week and hoped I was more dilated. I had heard sometimes that when doctors check you it makes your water break so despite my reluctance to encourage him, I told the doc not be scared to “get in there” during my check this week.

 

 

“Well, you’re at 4cm and 75% effaced,” he said. “I’m on call Sunday night….but I’m not sure if you’ll make it till then!” Okay, buddy, I’ve heard this line before but this time I was starting to think he was right. During the labor class, the lady in the video was cleared for an epidural at 4cm so I knew most people just didn’t walk around that dilated.

 

 

This could be it! Stay tuned…..

Week 37: Still 3cm!

Baby size food reference: watermelon (what?!)

 

At least I have my bags packed and ready to go! Having the doctor scare us the week before was probably the best way for us to get everything together. But now what do we do?

By the way, Mike and I went out to dinner almost every night!

 

 

Month 9 Baby Bump

Are the horizontal stripes helping or hurting this situation?

Week 36: I'm Dilated!

Baby size food reference: Crenshaw Melon

This was my first appointment with the doctor where he was going to check and see if I was dilated at all. The nurse asked me a bunch of times if I had experienced contractions yet, but really all I had felt was the tightening of my belly--Braxton-Hicks contractions, not painful--and also the new term I made up called “crotchal pain” (this will be published in medical glossaries of the future). I really didn’t think that I was going to be dilated at all because I hadn’t felt anything too painful at this point.

 

Until the doctor checked me.

 

I guess the cervix is located somewhere near my lungs or tonsils because that’s seems to be where he needed to go to get an accurate reading. “Are you sure you haven’t felt any contractions yet?” he asked. “Are you sure you can get the length of your arm out of me now?” is what I wanted to ask but instead I just said, “I don’t think so.”

 

“You’re dilated,” he said. “3 cm!” I know that at 10 cm the baby is coming out so to be a third of the way there definitely felt like a lot. The doctor seemed really excited and said, “I’m on call this weekend, I might get to deliver him for you!” Whoa. “You mean you think I could go into labor this weekend?” I asked. “Maybe,” he said. The nurse told us that some people stay at 3 cm for a month but I couldn’t believe how surprised the doctor seemed by how far along I was. I kept him in the exam room for awhile asking all my questions from the birthing class in case this was the last chance I had for questions before my baby came.

 

A lot of the pregnancy books say that women go into “nesting” mode before they give birth and it’s a natural instinct. I think “nesting” mode is more prompted by the fact that it’s a month before your baby’s due date, you haven’t really gotten stuff ready, and you’re freaked out that you could go into labor any second—and I hadn’t even taken my breastfeeding class yet! When we got home that evening Mike said, “Let’s go out to dinner, it might be our last chance to go out.” I responded very nicely with “You’re smoking crack if you think we’re leaving this house tonight when I have so much to do!!!!”

 

I washed baby clothes. I vacuumed. I finished work paperwork. I packed my suitcase. Mike started packing his suitcase. On Saturday I took Kelly to Babies R Us and we went down every aisle….I asked her what she used when her daughter was an infant and about $200 later I felt much more ready to sustain a baby’s life in my home.

 

Saturday ended, baby didn’t come. Sunday, baby didn’t come…..and so on…….

Week 35: Baby Classes

Baby size food reference: honeydew melon (still?)

    Mike and I took 2 classes at the hospital called “Baby Basics.” Here are my top 10 takeaways from the classes:

1. “Skin to Skin” contact is a new theory where if you put the baby directly on your skin for the first hour of life it helps regulate the baby’s body temperature and start the breast feeding process—it seems really cool and I like that I would have an hour with the baby before all the commotion begins!

 

2. Apparently when babies are born they are covered with a cream-cheese like substance called “vernex.” They also might have little red birth marks called “stork bites.” Much more scientific.

 

3. When babies are born they are given an “Apgar” score which judges their reflexes, coloring, etc. I wonder if my baby’s first grade will be a precursor for his academic future. The teachers said anything over a 7 is good, but I’m pushing for an 8-9……my baby will be above-average or I will send him to boarding school to learn how to have better coloring, dammit!

 

4. Babies lose weight after they are born and the goal is for them to return to birthweight in 2 weeks. My goal is to return to pre-pregnancy weight (minus 10 pounds) as soon as possible. Which brings me to………

 

5. Breastfeeding is a great way to lose weight. Regardless of how awkward it may seem to have a baby using your boobs as food, it’s also awkward going to the gym 4 times a week so I will strap on an i-pod, feed this baby, and it looks like a win-win to me.

 

6. We got a “poo chart” for the first week of the baby’s life (don’t worry, I won’t scan and post here…unless you want me to!). Let’s just say what we’re going to see in that diaper may be more traumatizing than the birth itself!

 

7. You can only give your baby sponge baths until their umbilical cord “stump” comes off. I think we’ll call him “Stumpy” until it’s real bath time.

 

8. If your baby projectile vomits it doesn’t mean they are Exorcist Baby.

 

9. Speaking of poo and projectile vomit, the teacher said the best tip she got from someone was that she always packed an extra one of her shirts in the diaper bag too!

 

10. For anyone who attended my shower, I can now say that I am a successful swaddler and if Elmo will give me another chance, I’d be happy to swaddle his stuffed butt the right way!

Week 34: First Labor Class

October 8, 2009

Baby size food reference: honeydew melon

Based on the commentary I made during my 33^rd week entry, I’m not going to go into detail on this one. However, I will say these 3 things:

 

1. Yes, they showed the video. Yes, my blood pressure went up.

 

2. Placenta—didn’t know about that one. Ew.

 

3. 10cm is pretty damn big! Which is actually a relief.

Week 33: Mopping with Caution

October 3, 2009

 

Baby size food reference: cantaloupe

 

I’m starting to get to that part in the pregnancy where any woman who’s ever had a child likes to tell me all the details of their labor. It doesn’t matter if they have a 2-month-old or a 40-year-old, these women remember everything. Swollen ankles, mucous plugs, water breaking, good epidural experiences, bad epidural experiences (majority are these), and a slew of other tidbits of information that I really wish I could press a button on my forehead and forget.

 

 

    One thing that I heard from many people was that the day before they went into labor, they mopped their floors. Well, Mike and I have been watching that Hoarders show on AMC the past few weeks and if any of you have seen that show, you know it makes you feel a little dirty and makes you want to clean (if you don’t understand what I’m talking about, don’t worry about it).  Anyway, I got out the mop and got some soapy water ready, and all I could think during my floor mopping experience was, “please please please don’t go into labor!” I took a lot of breaks and mopped really carefully, and I can now report that no, I did not go into labor the next day!

 

 

    I told my mom about this scary mopping experience (scary because I feared inducing pre-term labor) and she said, “Lauren, the reason those women were mopping is because you get this big burst of energy before you give birth!” Oops. Well, damn, if I would have known that part of the equation I wouldn’t have been worried at all! It took me like 3 hours to mop the downstairs and I took about 5 snack and rest breaks.  I guess I need to pay better attention to all these labor stories from now on. But if I don’t hear any more labor stories, I’ll make due with my own experience.

 

 

    Please check back with me in 5 years and find out how many pregnant women I’ve told my own labor story to, as I know despite my above comments I will be doing it!