Two good things!

First - Santi comes home today!!

Second - My mom finished his crib set just in time for him to arrive home to! I finished washing it and put it in his crib last night and snapped some photos because I am in love with how it turned out! This is so special and something he'll keep forever, as I still have my baby blanket my mom made me! Here are the photos:

New photos

We had a long day at the NICU today but loved spending time with our boy. :) When we got there he'd just eaten, so he was sleeping. So we took turns holding him and just staring at him and watching/listening to him while he slept. Something tells me he is going to be like his mom, as he's very vocal, even when he's sleeping. He also loves having his arms out when he sleeps so he gets very dramatic with them, stretching and sometimes taking his little arm and hand and pointing it straight up, then letting it fall limp to the bed.

Here are some photos we took and a couple the NICU nurses took - they are in love with him and took 38 photos of him this morning. They have ID photo cards they take the photos for but they were so enamored with him (they said this, not us) that they couldn't stop because they kept getting cute shots out of him. :) So they are giving us a CD with the photos when we leave on Monday. But they were nice and printed out two photos to give to us today.

This is Tito's favorite that the NICU nurses got (that we've seen so far)...
a VERY hungry Santi! :)

Posted today...this is the most up to date entry:

I'm home now. Got home yesterday afternoon. I'm exhausted and in pain and trying to rest. My brother came home with us to help out around the house. Tito is exhausted and the stress of the past two weeks hit him this morning when he woke up with a stomach bug and was sick all night. He went to the doc and they said they think it's a bug he could have picked up in the hospital. So he's been sleeping all day, poor guy.

My closing of my incision went as well as can be expected yesterday morning. I was in a lot of pain from them removing the tape on the dressing (is there something that says they have to put the tape right at the top of the sensitive part of your skin down there on the hairy part so you end up with a free bikini wax??) and then getting the local put in was a bit rough too. Nothing compared to what I've been through, but still, added onto it all, it wasn't fun. I also ended up with some tape "burns" because my skin is sensitive, so I'm dealing with patching those up now too.

I cried saying goodbye to Santi in the NICU. It was very, very hard knowing we're 20 mins away now rather than a floor. But we went down today so I could breastfeed him and drop off some pumped milk. Then we had to go home since we were both feeling so crappy. We just came home and slept all day while my brother cleaned for us which was so nice.

Santiago is doing awesome. They are slowly weaning him off of his sugar supplement and his IV fluids so that he can be taken off of them successfully next week. They also FINALLY named his infection. It's a strain of bacteria called bacillus cereus, which is super rare in infants. In fact they mostly only see it in adults and it causes diarrhea in adults. But I had nothing symptomatic of that. So they think it was on my skin and somehow made it into my body and then crossed the placenta. The good news about this is that the antibiotics they have been giving him have killed it. And that he doesn't have meningitis. :) We are SO happy about that.

He should still be released on Monday, and then we'll bring him home. We can't wait. Also, he will have his circumcision done on Thursday and we promised him that would be the last little bit of torture for him for awhile. We didn't want to wait too long for fear it would be more painful as he got older.

Pumping is still going well and I've been able to average between 3.5 oz to almost 6 oz per pumping session. And the nurses have said we're keeping up with his demand and he's only had to have one bottle of formula (which we ok'd since there was no way I could get in) since we left. I'm happy with that, and that our little guy is a voracious eater!

Hopefully my next update will be of Santiago coming home! I can't wait to type those words... :)

Originally posted on March 21:

I'm still in the hospital..hoping to go home tomorrow. They have to close up my c-section incision though because they kept it open because of the hematoma and second surgery, and they didn't want to have to do a 3rd one if they didn't have to. So I've had a wound vac and dressing on it since Wednesday. My doctor actually suggested I could go home today but I opted to meet with him tomorrow to see if he'd close up the wound here in the hospital rather than in the clinic like he was suggesting (um...yuck.) Plus, if we went home tonight, we don't have a breast pump yet (it was on backorder when the lactation consultant ordered it for me and it's supposed to arrive tomorrow) and the lactation consultants only worked until 12pm today so we couldn't get a rental pump. And I don't want Santiago to have to have formula (we've been feeding him exclusively breast milk either via breast feeding or in a bottle since my milk came in on Wednesday morning and now he really doesn't like the formula, which we are happy about and want to keep it that way since we want to exclusively feed him breast milk at home.) So I'm going to talk to my doc about the plan tomorrow. They had to change my dressing yesterday and it was more painful than the original procedure they did to drain the hematoma initially. Plus it set my recovery back a few days since I was ok walking before the changing of the dressing and now I'm sore and stiff all over my belly and legs and can't bend down without pain.


Santi will be home in a week, so we'll be spending every day at the hospital feeding and visiting. I can't wait until we're at home and back to "normal"...he's doing well, responding to the antibiotics and doing a great job of eating (he eats between 80 and 100 cc's per feeding every three hours and sometimes has a snack in between feedings. :) The docs are still culturing out his bacteria to find out what it is. There is still a possibility it's listeria. Another possibility is staph in his bloodstream. And the final possibility is meningitis. They have been giving him an antibiotic that treats meningitis from the beginning (as well as it treats listeria.) They did a spinal tap and there were elevated white cells in his spinal fluid. But it didn't culture out as meningitis right away. So when they get the results of the listeria culture, apparently they'll know if it's also meningitis. This is all so scary and confusing for us. And the possibility of meningitis is scarier. But the good news is that if it was meningitis ever, he's been on the antibiotics for that since day 1.

He's out of the isolette and in a real basinett now. Open at the top just like he'd be in in my room with me. He's on a great schedule, feeding and diaper changes every three hours. But if the nurses can't feed him right away he'll stir and fuss a bit and then soothe himself back to sleep.

And to top off our week, the other night, I woke up at midnight to Tito talking to a nurse I didn't know in my room. He was walking around confused and the nurse kept telling him he needed to go to the ER. I was so out of it I had no idea what was going on. He kept walking in and out of the room and the nurse kept telling him to go to the ER. He asked her "Can't someone go with me?" And I think he meant me...so I called him back to me and asked him what was wrong. He said that he had woken up and wasn't able to breathe and was gasping for breath. I asked him if he thought it was a panic attack and wanted me to go to the ER with him. He said no. He went down and got checked out and they said that they thought it might have been a panic attack. Since he had a lot of stress going on (Santi being in the NICU, me having the second surgery and him seeing me writhe in pain for 5 hours straight before being rushed into emergency surgery) that it could have been triggered by that. The other thing they suggested was that it was sleep apnea. So they referred him to his primary care doc for follow up. He went to the appointment yesterday and they agreed it was sleep apnea. I mentioned he'd been snoring a lot more lately, and that it was worse when he was on his back. The doc looked at his airway and said that it was really small, and most of the time people who had really small airways were really large people, of which Tito is not, so he said it may just be a rare case of sleep apnea in a smaller person. So he's got to set up a sleep study where he'll spend the night in the hospital and be observed. Then they'll talk a plan. For now he's sleeping on his side to help it.

Repost from another journal, originally posted on March 19:

Update on me: So I made it through the night with no major complications, which I'm happy about. I've been up since 6am and been pumping or breastfeeding every three hours. I've walked around a bit, gotten to take a shower, and am working out some of the kinks of being so stiff and sore. I got both of my IV's out thankfully so I'm starting to feel more human. I feel pretty miserable overall when I first move. But after that it's ok. My incision is hurting quite a bit and I hate it when the nurses sometimes decide to press on it. Coupled with the lovely wound vac I have and I'm really sexy right now. :)

Update on Santiago: They grew out his bacterial culture even more and now they aren't sure it's Listeria. They think it is in the bacillus family, and all they have ruled out is that it's not Anthrax (good to know!) In doing some research though, the bacillus family also causes Staph, so I'm wondering if that's what it is. Additionally, they were saying today that it could have been a contaminated sample but they are still treating him anyway since he was so symptomatic. His blood sugars are currently staying up on their own and his body temp is 100% regulated on his own. They are constantly saying that he's a "big boy" and he's basically charmed all of the NICU nurses, which we don't disagree with since we're pretty in love with him too. :)

My doc said he thinks I can go home Sunday or Monday. In the beginning when the baby was doing well, he was going to release me earlier and get my blood thinning med levels stabilized at home. Now, since the baby is in the hospital, he knows we'd rather be near him and not have to visit everyday, so he's keeping me in and adjusting my levels so that I'll be therapeutic when I go home and hopefully we won't have too long away from the baby.

Tito has been amazing throughout all of this. Being that he has to run back and forth between me and the baby in the NICU (thankfully only 1 floor apart), he's been the one who has to change a lot of diapers alone (he's been volunteering for this), checking Santi's temps, feeding him if I can't get up there, holding him, spending time with him and going to rounds to hear his prognosis. I'm truly amazed at how wonderful he is as a dad. In the beginning he was nervous about holding Santi, breaking him, patting him too hard on the back when burping him, etc. Now, after only 4 days, he's so good at everything! When he holds Santi you can see the love in his eyes. He helps me get Santi into place for breastfeeding since it's hard for me to move around much with my incision and all of my equipment. When I'm holding Santi and breastfeeding him, all I do is stare at him and watch his little face. He will essentially instantly fall asleep after latching but keeps feeding. He then decides when he's done and will "pop off" and lay his head to rest on me. And then I just stare at him more and more. Sometimes I'll look up and will see Tito looking at us and smiling. He said he loves how patient I am with Santi (since he's going right now between bottle feeding with formula, breastfeeding and breastmilk in a bottle so sometimes he's a little frustrated when he first starts to latch on me but once he gets it, he really gets it.) :)

Other than that, we're just waiting for all of us to come home and for things to return to "normal" life with our baby. We're hoping that will be very soon.

Repost from another journal I have...this all happened last week:

It's been a rough 24 hours here for me. I went upstairs yesterday to spend time with the baby and on our way down started having severe sharp pains. Got back to my room and laid down, and for about 5 hours was in severe pain - they were trying to tell me I had gas pain or needed to use the restroom to relieve the pain, so I got up to try and almost passed out. They took my blood pressure and it was 73/33. Then my doc came in and said that it wasn't anything anyone had told me it was and that I had a huge hematoma underneath my skin where they'd done the c-section. So they rushed me upstairs as I was literally screaming in pain, and did a procedure to help drain the fluids. They ended up taking out 300 cc's and then wrapping me tight with a pressure band which didn't help to stop the bleeding. So they did an ultrasound and discovered that I had an artery that was bleeding. So I ended up in emergency surgery to repair that. I had a rough night as well after the surgery because now I am having random muscle spasms in my chest because of the fact that I was tensed up in pain for 5 hours straight.

Tito is busy going back between staying with me and seeing the baby since I can't go up there anymore for the time being. It looks like I will be in here for another few days longer than expected. I currently am bed bound because I've got a wound vac for my incision spot and I need some blood transfusions (had two yesterday because I lost so much blood and now need at least one more today.) Couple that with the muscle spasms and not being able to see my baby, and I'm not in great shape.

In other news, I woke up this morning with pain and realized my milk was coming in. So I was able to pump with Tito's help and we brought up about 50 ml of milk to Santi for him to eat this morning. I am so happy that my body is cooperating because he's been on formula and some of my colustrum but no milk. So that made my day!

Santi is doing better - healthier, strong, has a great grip, and is a voracious eater. :) Tito's been feeding him and changing him and holding him and I hope I can be up there tomorrow to do the same.

What an experience this has been but we are praying for no more complications and no more bleeding for me!

So they got the blood cultures back and he has an infection in his bloodstream. They think basically it's something I got that couldn't help, and didn't affect me because I have an immune system, and he ended up getting it when it crossed the bloodstream. They are thinking it's listeria, or in that same family. They are currently ruling out all other things though, including meningitis, so the poor guy had to have a spinal tap done this afternoon. The plan is to put him on a 14 day course of antibiotics and keep him in the NICU and then we can take him home.

The good news is that he's regulating his body temp and somewhat his blood sugars now. I've had a lot of chances to go up and just hold him, attempt to breastfeed, etc. He latches so well, like a little pro! We're breastfeeding or pumping every three hours to stimulate my milk to come in. Nothing yet, but we'll continue to pump when I go home and bring that milk with us for him to have. Right now we're opting for an occasional bottle but they are giving him the Dextrose, so that helps give him some "food" for now. We're also trying to stay away from the paci at this point just if we can.

I am feeling better. This is a very trying time for us as a couple, and it's hard to look and see your husband upset and cry when he's normally so strong. It's hard to see this little boy who is so helpless. But we're feeling confident in his docs and their decisions. And that he'll be fine once he's done with the antibiotics. I can't believe he's only been here a little over 24 hours - he's so amazing and we're so in love with him already. Tito's getting diaper practice, and I'm getting my breastfeeding practice. I'd have to say the best moment today was nursing him and then holding him skin to skin in the NICU for over an hour. All I could do was stare at him and stroke his hair, his hands, etc. I felt like I could fall asleep like that and almost did! :)

I was able to walk around our unit today without too much pain. I'm eating again, and the pain is tolerable. It's hard not to be able to use your abs for anything. I'm tolerating the pain with only Tylenol at this point, which is good because I don't really want to be on narcotics. They're thinking I might go home Thursday or maybe Friday.

So things are still a bit crazy, but we're hoping the antibiotics help and we'll be able to take him home in about a week and a half. And we finally uploaded some more pictures!



Welcome to the world Santiago!




Getting weighed



Daddy and Santi



Mommy and Santi



Tiny baby footprints!



First bath



Getting his hair washed



Bath time



Me and my boy... :)

So, in going with all that has happened, once again, things haven't gone as planned. The c-section went fine. Epidural didn't hurt at all. The baby was out in a quick amount of time, looking healthy with good Apgar's, etc. He has a TON of hair that is brown/black, and what we think is some red in his eyebrows. He has Tito's nose, my lips, my eyes, both of our eyelashes (long!) and my eye color currently (green/hazel). He weighed 6lbs, 15.3oz and is 19 inches long. He's beautiful and I'm so in love with him already. We attempted some breastfeeding after he was here, and he latched right on like a pro, and had no trouble. He got his first bath and hair wash and brush (there is seriously a head full of hair on this little guy!)

After all of that, they moved me down to the post partum floor. He had had some lower temps when we were up in recovery, so they had me do skin to skin contact with him. I normally run cold, so they allowed Tito to sit with him. Once we were downstairs, they wrapped him up and put him in the bassinet. He slept a bit, then was acting like he was hungry, so we attempted to feed him. The nurse came in to check his vitals and noticed he was shaking a lot. Moreso than just shaking while you stretch. I mentioned he'd done it upstairs, so they decided to test his blood sugars. They did and they were 20 (should be above 50.) So they brought in some forumla to give to him to get them up. (He didn't like that at all...was going in too fast, and he was having a hard time with it but he did eat a bit.) Then they came in and checked his sugars again and they were lower. So they decided to give him some sugar water. At this point, the nurse took over feeding, and the pediatrician on call came in. They tested his sugars again and they were still low. So more pediatricians came in and said that they needed to get him up to the NICU because he needed an IV and to get his temp up. So Tito went with him (at this point my brother had arrived right in the middle of all the chaos, and was the poor person who got my emotional, crazy, hormonal crying after seeing my baby wheeled away to the NICU.)

The doctor came downstairs afterwards with Tito and told me they'd put him in an isolette, given him an IV, etc. They were suspecting that he either had an infection, or that he had some issues with one of the meds I'm on for my blood pressure (Atenolol) which they said can sometimes cause low blood sugar in babies. So they planned on keeping him 12 hours to watch him.

Throughout the night, his blood sugar dropped again so they increased his IV dose of Dextrose. The doc came down to talk to us and said they were still thinking infection or medication issues. They were waiting for some blood cultures for 48 hours to see if it was an infection but gave him antibiotics just in case. They said if he wasn't able to maintain his blood sugars with the level of Dextrose he was getting that the next step was to get him a central line where they could give him a higher dose without it being abrasive to his veins in his hand where the current IV is.

We had told them we wanted to try and feed him whenever we could, so they called us at about 11pm and went up and spent 2 hours with him, feeding (although I don't know what he was getting, but he latched great, and then spent 10 mins on one side and 20 mins on the other side) and holding him. We came back to the room, and slept about 3 hours, when I got up to take some pain killers, get weighed, and attempt a walk around the unit (made it one lap and then almost passed out because I hadn't eaten anything all day because of the surgery, so I'd only had Jello and apple juice and also have a really low resting heartrate in the 40's and 50's (which is normal for me, but combined with the no food, probably contributed.)

At 5am, Tito went upstairs to see Santi while I was sleeping. He got to hold him, because his body temp has regulated and is maintaining. He also got to change his diaper. :) Then Santi was rooting so Tito came downstairs to get me to see if I could feed. I'd just (an hour before) pumped to stimulate so of course when I got up there, he wasn't getting anything out, but he did latch for a bit. Then he was just sleepy, so I held him skin to skin and spent some time with him.

At this point, they are treating his low sugar seriously, because it can cause neurological damage if left too low. They are still thinking if it's the meds I took that it will work its way out of his system soon. Another option they mentioned was that his liver might not be creating the brown fats needed. So they're working on checking that as well.

We were pleased with how he looked this morning (body temp good and stable, alert, looking around, and has a good strong cry, heartrate, etc.) and now we're just waiting to talk to the docs after their rounds this morning.

This is not the way we planned this at all...but, life happened, and so we're dealing with it. We are confident that he is in the right hands, and will be fine, and released later this week with me.

We forgot the camera cord at home, but I have one photo I took with my cell phone, so for now, here is our beautiful little man. If you could send prayers and good thoughts for him, we'd really appreciate it. We just want to take him home and snuggle him and introduce him to his "sisters" - the cats. For now we've decided to hold off on any hospital visits until he's better. We're thinking that means anyone who wants to visit would just visit us all when we got back home.

Another update...

As my favorite quote says "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans..."

The Cervidil didn't work. Or, should I say, it worked a little TOO well. After being on it for about 3.5 hours, I was contracting pretty strongly. About two minutes apart, and without any real break during the downtime. And the baby did not like that. It was causing his heartrate to dip into the 80's and 90's. They had me switch to laying on one side, then to the other. Then the doc came in and decided that they needed to remove the Cervidil because it was causing too much stress for the baby. So they took it out, and examined me and there was no real change in my cervix. They finally got the babies heartrate back up into the 140's and things were looking good. A couple more doctors came in, they gave me oxygen, and they said they were going to talk to my doc about putting me on Pitocin or doing a c-section. They all left and the nurse took off the oxygen.

A few minutes went by and they all sort of rushed back in because I was having more contractions. Oxygen went back on. About 5 docs were in here, along with the nurse. Baby's heartrate was dipping again and they couldn't find it and then they pulled out the ultrasound to try and find it. Fortunately, they found it with the monitor and it came up gradually. A few minutes later the docs left, and then two came back in and said they'd talked with my doc and he said that he didn't think putting me on Pitocin would do anything to change my cervix, so they decided the safest thing to do would be to have a c-section. And rather than rushing me in now in an emergent way, they wanted to get me stable, get the baby stable and take me off the Heparin to get my levels down and then do the c-section. So tomorrow morning, at about 6am, they're coming in to prep me for the c-section, and then at about 8:30 he should be here. We're having a low key last night, with Tito eating my dinner (since I can't eat any real food tonight) and watching The Amazing Race. Tomorrow morning, everything changes!

Baby update...still waiting...

Having a baby when you have coronary aneurysms is never the same as it is for anyone else. :) We are still in the hospital. Yesterday was a day of giving me heparin all day to get my blood clotting levels to therapeutic (I'm wondering if it would have been better for me to get the Heparin earlier last week like I'd asked but they insisted I could wait until Friday to get the prescription...they didn't expect me to come in with high blood pressure/pre-eclampsia.) So we hung around all day yesterday. Got to take some naps, rest, etc. The magnesium was really bothering me and gave me a killer headache. They gave me some Oxycodone and two doses of Tylenol that didn't even touch it. So finally last night, since my BP's had stabilized, they took me off of it. And they took me off the baby monitors because our little guy has looked great. So I was able to sleep pretty well last night. They didn't come in and check my vitals until 6am so it was probably the last night that that will happen for awhile. :)

So this morning, my doctor came in (apparently he doesn't work on Sundays but he came in for me.) :) So he said that my blood clotting levels were good, and they were starting me on Cervidil (apparently he doesn't like giving women the Foley because he feels it leaves women open for infection if you're already dilated. I've heard pros and cons on both, but I trust him 100% so I'm going with what he says.) So they just put the Cervidil in about 30 minutes ago. I get it out at 11:45pm, and then we'll see what my progress is. He said he'd do a 2nd round if we needed it. He is making this a slow induction because he really doesn't want to make my heart stress over this. So slow and steady wins the race in our case.

It's all been fine so far. We've been napping a lot, resting, watching tv, playing on the computer (good thing I grabbed it from work before I was leaving...all we need to worry about now is getting it back but my replacement has a computer she can use in the interim.) The worst part so far has been the magnesium, which I'm off now, and the doc who put the Cervidil in (not my doc but one of the attendings)...who had the world's largest fingers, and I think he was going for a record and used all four on one hand to insert the Cervidil. Not pleasant. Although I realize a whole lot more pleasant than what lies ahead for me. We're hoping it works and then they'll start me on Pitocin. They'll keep me on Heparin to keep my blood clotting levels therapeutic, then I'll need to come off of it in order to get the epidural (in which there is a 4 hour window where the Heparin clears my system and I can get the epi) where I will probably be the most uncomfortable of all (although they said that they can give me some narcotics if I need them.) After that they'll give me the epi and we'll have the baby.

So this is a long process, but I'd rather be here in the hospital being watched (my BP's have been slightly elevated since I've been here a few times, and my doc said that if they'd waited until next week for my body to do this naturally, that they could have been dangerously high.) So we wait. Our little boy seems content where he is but he will be evicted soon, so we're hoping he likes it here on the outside with us as much as we're going to like having him here. :)

Update

I was going to do my 38 week update yesterday, but life got ahead of me!

Just to keep you all updated, I'm in the hospital now! Went in for an appointment yesterday and turns out I have preeclampsia, so they admitted me and they're clearing my system of the one blood thinner I was on and they'll start inducing me tomorrow. So it looks like our little guy will be here Monday or Tuesday depending on how fast the labor progresses!

We have a theory that since this little guy will be a teeny, tiny bit Irish (I'm about a finger's worth Irish) that he wanted to be here to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! So today we're just waiting around. They put me on a heparin drip for anti-coagulation and magnesium for the preeclampsia. That's not fun...makes me feel flushed randomly and hot, but it's ok. A little dizzy sometimes, but ok.

The real work begins tomorrow when we get to start the process of meeting our little boy!

Interesting doctor's appointment

Had a OB appointment yesterday. Had my NST first and got in quickly. I was hopeful I'd get out of there early. The tech put me on the monitors and his heartrate was good. Mostly in the 150's and with lots of acceleration. However, as the test went on, this tech kept commenting that she wasn't pleased with the fact that his heartrate wasn't going up much (although last week, she was saying the same thing when his heartrate was in the 130's and 140's.) So I was confused about that. She asked if he'd been moving around a lot and I said a little but not too much and that he was more active during the evening. So basically she was getting me all worked up )for no reason.)

At the same time, I'd gotten a horrible headache and was feeling lightheaded. My nurse came in and commented that my hands and feet looked puffy. So of course, I'm thinking preeclampsia signs and that these are them. They had taken my blood pressure and it was up a bit too. So they moved me to a room after the NST.

My doc is on vacation, so I was scheduled to see his partner who knows all about me and who I'd seen last week. Well she ended up getting called into a c-section, so I had to see "stranger doctor". Who knew nothing about me, my history, etc. After waiting for awhile and talking with the nurses, who were placing bets that "by next week I wouldn't be pregnant anymore", this doctor came in. He'd been briefed on me about 2 minutes before he walked in the door. I'm not exactly the person to have someone briefed on. :) I told him how I'd been feeling, and he said that they'd taken my blood pressure which was down from when I'd been in the NST and they'd checked my urine and I wasn't spilling proteins (apparently a sign of preeclampsia.) So this was good news. He told me the warning signs for preeclampsia and told me to call if I had any of them.

He measured me and said I am now measuring behind (36 weeks) because the baby has dropped. He also said that the NST was fine, he didn't know why the tech was worried about his heartrate because it was great. He also said that because the baby has dropped, that's probably why he's less active (but to keep an eye on it anyway.) He didn't check my cervix (which I was ok with since I didn't know him.) But then the nurse came back in after he'd left and said that I should come back in to see my doc on Friday. I was originally scheduled to see him on Tuesday, but now I'm in for Friday. And making a plan to have this baby maybe?

So we'll see...in the meantime, I'm pretty uncomfortable. My lower abdomen is killing me when I walk. When I stand up, it hurts, and I have to take a minute or two to readjust myself before actually walking. I had a contraction this morning that was all in my upper stomach area and was SUPER painful. Thankfully only one. And I'm having cramping in my lower ab area that the doc said was "irritability"...guess the walk I went on with Tito on Saturday might have done something.

So we'll see on Friday...I'll be 38 weeks then so realistically this baby could arrive anytime...car seat was installed on Saturday, and we went to Costco Sunday and stocked up on food which I put into freezer bags as meals. So we've got easy meals (just thaw and pop into the oven or thaw and pop on top of the stove) for about 2 weeks (we also have some tortellini and bread, etc. Only thing we'll have to get are things like milk, juice and fruits/fresh veggies.)

37 weeks! Full Term!

How Far Along: 37 weeks and 4 days (17 days to go!)

What "They" Say About Our Baby's Development:

How your baby's growing: Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel. Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Mama: Braxton Hicks contractions may be coming more frequently now and may last longer and be more uncomfortable. Be sure to ask your caregiver about the results of your Group B strep culture. That way, if the result isn't yet on your chart when you get to the hospital or birth center, you'll be able to give the staff there a timely heads-up if you need antibiotics. It may be harder than ever to get comfortable enough to sleep well at night. If you can, take it easy through the day — this may be your last chance to do so for quite a while. Keep monitoring your baby's movements, too, and let your caregiver know immediately if you notice a decrease. Though his quarters are getting cozy, he should still be as active as before. While you're sleeping, you're likely to have some intense dreams. Anxiety both about labor and about becoming a parent can fuel a lot of strange flights of unconscious fancy.

Weekly Food Comparison: A stalk of Swiss chard

The Good: Installed the car seat, and spent some time walking with Tito in the 60 degree, sunshiny weather!

The Bad: More contractions, and more foot swelling

The Weird: Feeling his arms, legs and bum in hard little knots on my stomach. His movement after I eat or drink anything sugary or spicy... :)

Currently Craving/Avoiding:

Avoiding: Not really avoiding anything...other than big meals. I feel full so fast now!

Craving: Water or just drinks in general...I'm so thirsty all the time!

Doctor Updates: Saw the doctor last Monday and I was 1cm dilated and 50% effaced. She was very excited and kept saying my cervix was "very favorable." She kept mentioning it and was super excited so as she left the room and said it once again I told her I was very proud of myself! :) I'm seeing her again tomorrow and we'll see if I've made any more progress!

Total weight gain/loss: 32 lbs. - which is right on target for where the doc said I should be.

Maternity clothes? Yes...squeezed into a non-maternity top last week which fit but caused a lot of people to mention how much I was "popping" (I'm 9 months pregnant, I have nothing to do but pop!) or for the woman in my complex office to say "wow, you're HUGE!" I let it go and didn't ask her what her excuse was as she was obviously not pregnant, but definitely a large person. Why is it that people think it's acceptable to comment on how "big" you are when you're pregnant??

Stretch marks? Ah, probably a few more than I can see. However, I'm swearing by the Palmer's Cream. It doesn't make them go away completely, but it definitely makes them less apparent. So instead of large red lines on my tummy (still low!), I have to squint to see if they're there. They will hopefully fade fast and be nothing but a pregnancy memory in a few months.

Sleep: Pregnancy insomnia - waking up at 3:30am and 4:30am consistently without being able to get back to sleep. I'm not used to this, so it's wreaking a little havoc my work days.

Best moment this week: Finishing up some shopping and stocking up on supplies. Also installing the car seat, and having the bags ready to go.

Movement: Constantly

Labor Signs: Practice contractions

Belly Button in or out? I think it's officially "out"

What I miss: Not having heartburn

What I am looking forward to: Doctor's appointment this week to see if I'm dilated any more...and planning when this little guy will be making his arrival into the world!


The Weekly Belly Bump: 37 week and 4 day photos!

This belly is big from the side...you can see a little how this guy has "dropped"...
I can certainly feel it!

And the belly is larger from the front!