Fire Drill - How Fitting!

Eric and I went to my Doctor's appointment together today. They announced a fire drill right when we got there and the fire department said that everyone had to walk down 5 flights of stairs. The receptionist looked at me and said, "You don't want to do the stairs, do you?" I said that I didn't mind, but that I'd like to use the bathroom first. Instead, she had Eric and I go into the examination room and wait until the fire drill was over. That was nice of her.

I told my doctor that I'd been having contractions everyday since Thursday and that last night they woke me up and were painful so I started timing them. I realized they weren't anything serious once I timed them so I went back to sleep. She said that another woman this week had a similar story and when she checked her, she was 5 cm dilated, so she walked her over to the hospital and broke her water and she had her baby that afternoon. (Eric got a worried look on his face at that point because of all the work he has left to do this week). So, I said, "Well, I won't be that dilated." She said, "Why can't you be optimistic?" I said that I didn't want to get my hopes up because it makes time take longer and that I'd been telling people it would be nice to have him on our anniversary, the 17th. So, she checked me. I was 2 cm dilated, but soft and stretchy. She said, "You're not going to have this baby on your anniversary, and I'll be surprised if you make it until your due date. But we'll see."

After the appointment I asked Eric if he was worried that we'd have the baby today when she told that story. He said, "Slightly, but it would be ok." Then he said it would be better if we had him on a Friday. :) So, let's hope for this Friday, 6 days early, or else next Friday, 1 day late.

My next appointment is on Monday next week. So as she left the room, I said, "See you Monday." And she said, "If not before."

Then when we came home, my mom and I put up all the ceiling insulation in the garage. It took us about 2 1/2 or 3 hours. She took a picture of me up on the ladder because she said we might not believe our own story later that I was working hard at 39 weeks pregnant. A friend is coming over tomorrow to hang the ceiling drywall for us. Then we can get our drywall inspection on Friday. (We passed our framing inspection at the beginning of the week).

The thing I'm looking forward to the most is seeing what Dorian looks like. Eric and I have a 75% chance of having a brown eyed baby, and a 25% chance of a green or blue eyed one. I wonder what it'll be. I wonder if he'll have Eric's cheeks like Tristan. I wonder if he'll have that fatty upper lip that Eric has. I wonder what his little personality will be like. I wonder... everything.

Not Yet, Baby!

I posted on Friday because I've had an increase in phone calls, emails and text messages since I've been nearing the end of this pregnancy. People just wondering how I'm doing (which is a cover for, "is the baby coming out yet?"). :-) So I decided to increase postings to 2 or 3 times a week until the baby comes out. (And Eric has an i-phone now, so we can post to the blog from the hospital when the baby's born).

HOWEVER, I hope that the baby waits a while longer to come out. Tristan turned 4 today. He has a well-child doctor's visit tomorrow morning. Then we have a Bible Study to go on. Then we have our framing inspection tomorrow afternoon. And we have our meeting tomorrow night. So, tomorrow is out, Dorian! Tuesday would also be inconvenient because of other appointments... actually this whole week would be inconvenient. I really hope he waits until the 8th to be born. I like the idea of October 8th. The 8th month and the 8th day. Maybe he'll really like octagons and octopi too. It's ok if he's late too. Maybe he'll be born on our Anniversary, October 17th. Who knows?

I have been having contractions everyday though. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and today I've had them off and on and several in a row for some spells. That's how it works though. You just keep having them until one day they don't stop, they get consistent and then things get going.

It's quite unbelievable to me that there are only about 10 days left until the due date. I'm beginning to outgrow all my maternity tops. There are 3 or 4 shirts left that fit and don't look like I'm squeezing into them. Then there are another 3 or 4 that I will still wear, but the poor shirts aren't very happy when I do. And people squint when they look at me, in fear that a button will fly off and shoot them in the eye. :-)

Contractual Contractions

At this week's doctor's appointment, nothing had changed. I didn't have any contractions between last week's appointment and this week's. My doctor predicted that she will see me next week at my scheduled appointment. I'm glad. I'm not ready for this baby to come out yet.

Yesterday, Tristan and my mom and I went for a walk that was supposed to be just around the block. Tristan decided that he wanted to go to Christian Green's house. So we went ahead and walked over there... no one was home. I was pretty much having a constant contraction for the whole walk, there and back. Then all night I was having contractions, not painful, just annoying because it's hard to sleep when your whole belly is a rock hard boulder. They've stopped now. Hooray!

We got approval from our electrical inspector today. We'll have the framing inspection on Monday. Then we'll be able to finish the inside! Woo-hoo! The only other thing hanging out there is the continuous footing that we have to pour. We're hoping to have a weekend work party sometime in October where all our friends that have volunteered to help can come and help us dig the trenches. (We might hire it out, but we haven't decided for sure yet).

I've packed my hospital bag, just to have it ready ahead of time. Eric has been working day and night trying to finish some big work projects before the baby comes. I filed my birth plan and DPA with my doctor and enrolled in the hospital's bloodless program in case of emergency. Dorian's car seat has been installed in our car. Tristan likes to pretend that baby Dorian is in it already and he talks to him while we drive around. At the meeting Tuesday night, he got upset halfway through the meeting because he forgot to get "baby Dorian" out of his car seat and bring him into the Hall with us. :) So, we're prepared just in case the baby comes before the due date, but we're hopeful that he waits until October 8th.

The Oven Timer Popped!

Only 2 1/2 weeks left, and my oven timer has already popped! That's right, my innie bellybutton is now a-stickin' outie. Dorian had quite enough of the poor button and booted it out. =)

The doctor's appointments are every week now. This week there was 70% effacement and 1 loose cm dilation. So what does that mean? Not much. Some people have complete effacement and 4cm dilation for a couple weeks before the baby's born and others do it all in one day. So it tells us nothing about when Dorian might come out. But it does tell us that the contractions I've been having have been doing something. That makes me happy, since it's all got to happen before the boy can come out anyway.

Eric and Mom were both out of town most of this week. It took a lot of energy to be Tristan's only playmate and keep up with life during the week. I went to sleep at Tristan's bed time and woke up at Tristan's wake up time, and that seemed to help. Now neither of them is allowed to be more than 30 minutes away from me until the baby is born. =) I'll have to tell them that!

Here are some pictures of me halfway through the 9th month of pregnancy, taken just moments ago. The belly is BIG, so beware.

Living by the Moment

Wow, look that baby's nose is almost touching the finish line!

This week we had our child-friendly hospital tour, and Tristan was not excited that we left the hospital with the baby still in my belly. In fact, he's been very impatient lately. Thursday, I said, "Tristan, put your hand right here and you can feel the baby move." He stood defiantly and said, "I don't want to feel him move. I want him to come out of the belly so I can see him." Then Friday he came running up to me while I was sitting on the couch and grabbed onto my belly and said, "Dorian, come out of the belly so I can see your cute little face!" And he has repeatedly asked me how much longer it's going to be. I was telling him 4 weeks so many times that when I said 3 1/2 weeks today, he said, "No, Mama, you're supposed to say '4 weeks Tristan'."

I rearranged the living room one last time since my last blog post. It's so nice. Eric and I set up the pack-n-play in the living room in front of the never-used fireplace. We put the baby chair and all the baby toys inside it and covered it with a green baby quilt of Tristan's. Then we hung a new green and white crocheted baby blanket that some one made for Dorian over the front of it. Then we put some other green blankets and monkey blankets into the changing table part on top. Tristan's toys got reorganized under the window in the corner. And the couch got pushed back up against the wall. So the living room feels big and uncluttered again. I know this means nothing to those of you who didn't see it before, but trust me, this is a vast improvement.

We got our building permit on Friday. Hopefully we can get the electrical and framing inspections done this week. My mom and I have been working on getting things ready for that out there all weekend. I probably looked pretty silly with my 9th month pregnant belly and my Skil saw out there cutting plywood shelves for Eric's closet. The baby didn't seem to mind the noise, but Tristan did!

Well, it's back to "How are you feeling?" questions all the time again. My new answer is, "... blah, blah, blah, at the moment, but it depends on when you ask me." Which is entirely true. For example, today, I felt GREAT when I woke up this morning. Then I did so much work today that I felt EXHAUSTED and pained in some muscles for a few hours after dinner. Then after sitting on the couch talking to my friend Chrissy for a couple hours after dinner. I was able to get up and transfer a sleeping Tristan into his bed and then all I felt was HUNGRY. So I ate, and now I feel GREAT again. But then there are days when I'm so full of baby and whatever else that I can hardly move. Tuesday night it was all I could do to go to the meeting and sit in a chair in a dress for 2 hours without whimpering. I tried to jet out of the door before anyone asked me how I was feeling. There are days when I sleep most of the day, and others when I hardly need any sleep even at night. It's weird. I really hope that I'm having a good, high energy day (like today) when I go into labor. And I hope it's during the day, and I hope there's no traffic. Maybe I'll get one of those 3 wishes. :)

It's the Final Countdown

I'm 4 days away from being in THE 9TH MONTH of pregnancy! In some ways it has seemed like this pregnancy has zipped by; this whole year has zipped by. But, I have been pregnant ever since the beginning of January and I'm ready to be done.

I've been having contractions weekly, but not daily yet. Last Friday I had them all day long and it wore me out by the end of the day. I thought that meant that the baby was moving down into the birth position, which typically happens around the 35th week. However, today I read that babies don't usually "drop" in the second pregnancy until you're in labor. So I guess they're just practice contractions to get the uterus warmed up for evicting my little tenant.

The baby shower was a success despite the rain in the morning. The day turned out to be quite nice. The grass was too wet for a 3-legged race, but we did play "Don't break the water" in which we all walked across the park with water balloons between our legs trying to be the one to get the furthest without soaking ourselves. Eleven-year-old Madison won that game by quite the long shot. We also played "Bible Trivia" and "Guess how Much this Stuff Cost". There were plenty of beverages, and I didn't hear any complaints on the amount of food. I know I ate well. And there were tons of gifts! Little Dorian is all set for when he first comes out. There are a few more items we need to get, but they aren't things we'll need right away. He's going to be a very well-dressed little chap. Lot's of people were very thoughtful and got Tristan a gift too so that he didn't feel left out.

Tristan and his Grandma Nana went home to Oregon with his Grandma and Grandpa Knauer after the baby shower. They were gone for 3 days and 2 nights. That was a first for Tristan. I was explaining to him that Eric and I were staying home and he asked, "But who's going to take care of me?" I told him that he would have 2 Grandmas and a Grandpa to take care of him. He said, "Well I think kids need a mom or a dad to take care of them." I agreed that usually that is the case, but that for a few days Grandmas and Grandpas could handle things. He agreed to go and seemed to handle most of it quite well. He doesn't like going to sleep without Mama reading and singing to him... but he couldn't stay awake indefinitely. He also seemed to enjoy his first Amtrak train ride home. It was a good trial run for his being away from us for about the same amount of time when we'll be in the hospital next month.

It was an amazing break for Eric and I. We got a lot accomplished the 2nd and 3rd days. I think we were in shock the 1st day... I mostly slept that day. One of the things I got done was the drawing revisions for our permit application. So that's all turned in, and after talking to the guy that reviews the drawings and comes out for the inspections, I am pretty happy with how things are turning out with this. Nothing that we've done has to be undone, and that's a big relief.

Well, I can still eat full meals without too much trouble. Although I've been getting nauseous when I don't eat often enough, just like the first trimester all over again. I've been getting weird muscle spasms in my right leg, and last night awoke to an excruciatingly painful cramp in my right calf. My outcries of pain woke Eric up and he helped stop the cramp. It's the same leg that keeps feeling like it's falling out of the hip socket from time to time. I don't know if the baby is pinching something or if I'm not getting enough of some nutrient or if I'm not getting enough exercise. Something ain't right with that right leg.

Most of my cleaning projects are done now. Only 2 left that I can think of at the moment. Otherwise, it's just the daily life with extra naps until the littlest Knauer arrives.