Finally, Early Labor

Today I'm officially 39 weeks. I started counting my contractions late last night around 10PM and they were coming about every 9 minutes. Then I counted again 8 hours later (around 6AM) and contractions are becoming a little more closer (about 6 minutes apart). So it seems that the frequency of my contractions are changing in closeness about every 2.5 hours. Labor and Delivery told me to come in when contractions are coming about 5 to 3 minutes apart. At this rate of time, I should probably head over to Labor and Deliver after lunch (12PM) to get monitored for delivery.

True Labor Symptoms?

2:30AM ~ I tried sleeping since the "show" happened. I finally woke myself up to get something to eat, but by this time I started feeling like I might be getting diarrhea and nausea.

3:25AM ~ Craving Pizza!

12:00PM ~ more show exiting my body

2:00PM ~ again more show

5:30PM ~ called L&D about the abundance of mucus. They said that it's a sign of my cervix opening and softening even more. Nothing to be alarmed about. I just gotta wait for more labor signs.

True Labor Symptoms?

Around 9PM Breanna and I finished taking a quick warm shower. By the time I finished putting on my underwear and pajamas a warm, sudden gush of liquid (about half an ounce) spilled out of me. I thought it might have been amniotic fluid but it was a slimy, pearly, pinkish-white color. I showered off again right away and replaced my underwear. I kept on watch the rest of the evening.

According to the childbirth basics booklet, this was more of my show exiting my body. It occurs from hours up to a week before labor (which could mean the baby could arrived as early as tonight and as far as April 14th). Basically the plug of mucus filling the opening of the cervix is released as the cervix begins to thin and open. Because of this I need to start packing, stay well rested (meaning, no more chores or fun to tire me out), and be ready when labor begins.

38 week update

Mild contractions that compare to menstrual cramps, backache, mild diarrhea...I'm definitely feeling more activity for labor. I've also gained 40 lbs since the time I first got pregnant. Seems kinda normal or on track. I gained 50 lbs with Breanna. I'm also swelling a little in my hands and feet. Getting up from laying down position is definitely challenging now for my legs and lower back.

The end is near and I'm kinda liking being pregnant still as crazy as it sounds. I just like the idea that there is a growing life inside of me that God has entrusted us to care for. We're doing alright with Breanna and with another one on the way we got a little head start for the parenting skills. I'm taking this pregnancy day by day now...and feeling ambivilent about the true end of labor.

Positive Group B Strep

Went to my prenatal appointment today and found out that I tested positive for Group B Strep in my birth canal. This means that I'll have to take antibiotics on the day that I deliver to prevent the baby from getting it as I am trying for a VBAC delivery. This medication is unnecessary for planned Cesareans. I heard that this disease could be fatal to the baby if I deliver without the antibiotics. Now that is some pretty powerful medication!

Preggo Pic Projects

Compare Breanna's Second Trimester Utero pictures with Chloe's Third Trimester Utero pictures. 

Breanna at 23 week looks almost as large as Chloe's 30 week picture.

TMI: The Inside Scoop About My Poop

It's a little challenging to tell the difference whether I got constipation or that the baby's head is jamming that poop holder shut. Either way, you know I got it bad because my body odor stinks so much that I (the owner of this powerful methane gas) can't even handle it.

Oh how I wish I knew the mechanisms to all my bodily functions. I can't really describe why I got a constant headache. Baby Chloe Joyce Miller, please find your nearest exit.

The Final Ultrasound

Went to get an ultrasound of baby Chloe yesterday and I got more of an exciting adventure than necessary. First of all, the baby measures an estimated 5.5-6.5 lbs as of 3/16/2010; by the E.D.D. the baby might be 7.5-8.5 lbs. Chloe's head is also positioned in my pelvis and is facing toward my sacrum which is always a good sign for a healthy delivery. The amniotic fluid amount is average as well as the baby's body, so there is a good chance that I could have a successful VBAC experience; Cesareans may be a fast way to take my baby out but the recovery time (6-10 weeks) takes so much longer than a natural delivery. I want a VBAC!

The exciting part comes when I explained to the staff that I've been seeing flying stars for the past week (since Friday afternoon). So they got my blood pressure checked, which measured pretty high for someone in my condition. My norm would have been 120/70 but I measured at 142/89! So they sent to me Labor & Delivery to get me strapped to the testing tables. My blood /urine samples were analyzed; I was checked positive for edema (swelling in the ankles); and I lay monitored with straps for baby and I for about 2 hours. By the end of my monitoring, I got the okay to go home since blood pressure went down to normal.

The good thing that came out of this false alarm was being better prepared for Breanna care. All these instances happened just a couple hours before I was supposed to pick up Bre. It was a perfect drill for what might come in the daytime hours.

Maternity Leave

Just had a talk with the boss about maternity leave and schedules for next school year. It looks like I'm going to take my leave by the end of March but that it could actually be anytime sooner if I feel like I've had enough. So far I've been able to tolerate my work duties, especially when I got some help here and there to carry heavy loads of things.

Lights! No Camera! Cervical Action!

Today I've been having lots of strange, different symptoms. One of them is seeing bright, sparkly stars floating in my vision. It's comparable to watching a hand-held, Independence day fire sparkler emitting light. I was always afraid to get one of those sparkles to land on/burn my skin. Now I got them in my eyes. It kinda looks like I'm sporadically and momentarily traveling through space on hyper-drive like in those Star Trek movies.

Another symptom, not so strange, is the cervical pain I feel. The doctor told me to call Labor and Delivery if the daily contractions I've felt just a week ago start to increase even just a little bit. I'm not listening to her advice though. It's a Sunday night and I want to get my sleep. I'm assuming what I'm feeling are mildly painful contractions that are nothing to worry about. I'm 35 weeks now and I'm going to get myself into the hospital when things get really exciting.

Anyways, this week I'm supposed to get an ultrasound to see how large this baby's head could be. This enables the doctors to estimate if baby Chloe could pass through my pelvis. If Breanna's midwife could feel Breanna's big head around this stage, then the doctors should most definitely have confidence that baby Chloe could pass through because I feel like she's much smaller than Bre...or so I think.

Nesting or Gone Mad?

Wow! I must be nesting..or just got a burst of pregnant mama energy. I washed/folded & put away 3 loads of laundry, unloaded/loaded dishwasher, disinfected the kitchen & Breanna's tabletop, sweeped the crumby floors, scrubbed the kitchen cabinet doors, rearranged & organized a room-full of plush toys into the garage, steamed a large batch of veggies for snacking, replaced Breanna's pee-soaked bedsheets with clean ones, and ended my 4 hour cleaning morning with a nice 2 hour nap. The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in the car as David's passenger with Breanna as we ran his errands all over North County.

Then 3:30AM the following morning, I woke up hungry and ended up disinfecting the kitchen more until 5AM. Some sources say that the nesting instinct happens one to two days before actual labor. I guess I'm already in labor, being 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. What does it all mean?

I'm Done with Work

It's getting tougher to be me these days in my condition. Work at the preschool is so laborious, and expectations of me are still high...for a few people. I'm always bending, stooping, crouching low, lifting, walking back/forth and upstairs/downstairs, rearranging furniture, washing toys....and for a someone 34 weeks pregnant this is tough work. At seven months pregnancy (just last month) I could easily tackle this backbreaking job (and that's mainly what an assistant at this preschool does ~ breaks her back) and I liked the job criteria since I like challenging myself in using my hands on the condition that I'm healthy and not carrying another person with her support system. It's way too different and difficult now. I appreciate any help I could get, but it comes far and few between.

I'm not sure when to go on maternity leave but if I had it my way, I'd be on it now. I think I have to give my two weeks notice or something. I think I'm going to stop working on the 19th of March, maybe. Another option I could do to stretch my working hours till the weeee end is work at a much slower pace. Everyone knows I'm at the end of my pregnancy, but I feel like such a burden for them to adjust their duties just for me. My opinion of their opinion of me is probably not true, but it really feels like it.

Ouch My Feet, Ouch My Wrist!

I went to the doctor yesterday for my regular pregnancy check up and found out several slightly disturbing things. First of all, at 33 weeks I got weighed in at 179 lbs, which means I've gained 37 lbs so far and I've still got more weeks to go of growing (about a pound a week ~ maybe a little tapering down the last 2 of 6 weeks). I've tried as long as I could to eat healthily this pregnancy. My weeks in November and December (that's 8 weeks) were the hardest hit for me since I've got those really happy holidays to celebrate, but I've gotten better in food choices since then. At term Breanna and I were 200 lbs; I was 150 lbs and Breanna in utero was 50 lbs (10.7 lbs of which were all her).

The other slightly disturbing fact is that all the tingling I'm feeling on my feet and right wrist are due to swelling. Why does swelling even have to happen? It really hurts when I'm using my feet at preschool at least 4 hours into the work day. By the end of my work schedule I'm really hurting and unhappy. But what hurts the most is my right wrist. The doctor said that I have a form of carpel tunnel due to the swelling and that it may go away after the pregnancy is over (and that's about 5-7 more weeks of pain tolerance). Ugh Argh Blech!

I'm really starting to feel like the days are dragging on to the end at work. Sometimes I can't stand being there. Usually those unbearable days are my Tuesdays and Thursdays because I have those extra jobs of being on my feet all day as a playground and/or snack assistant. The last time I was a snack assistant, I ended up having back pain all afternoon. Ugh Argh Blech X 3!! I think it's time for me to leave Pomerado. I really feel so useless...and I really feel like I'm dragging everyone else down. I can't keep up with the pace. Poor Mrs. Berrong; she's only met me just a few months ago and everytime she sees me I got this semi-scowl in my face because I'm so uncomfortable being in this body. Also, she can't relate to me either because she's never been pregnant. That's okay if she doesn't like me now. Who would want to make friends with this frumpy little grump?

Something Is Different

It's past 2AM and I can't sleep as usual for this third trimester, but something feels different in my body. This little girl has been moving a lot more just hours earlier when we Miller's were all awake and playing after dinner. Actually, I wasn't playing...but I watched Breanna and daddy play with each other while I watched. I've had a different kind of contraction during dinnertime; it had a little pain to it. I'm assuming the contraction was a Braxton Hicks, but tinged with pain.

Another change I've noticed is that I could feel her movements a little closer to the "exit" region. I'm even feeling a lot heavier in the pelvic region, and yet I haven't gained much weight since last month. Could this mean that she's dropping (or the book terminology calls it "enlightenment")? I am so curious how much I've effaced and dilated so far, or if I have at all. This pregnancy is so much different from that with Breanna, it seems like the time will come sooner than Breanna's 41 weeks gestation...and 38 weeks is kinda what I'm hoping.

I thought it would be nice to deliver any day this week, but, according to the pregnancy books, at 32 weeks the baby would be considered a fragile preemie and may have to live in an incubator several weeks to survive. So now would not be a good time. How convenient it would be for us, though, if our baby was term at this time since David has 3 weeks off until switching to his new job. I'm hoping that in these 3 weeks, he could get some major work done on baby prep: cleaning the carseat cover, rearranging super heavy furniture in our bedroom to fit the bassinet/changing table, cleaning off the dust from all our baby equipment stored in the garage...just to name a few.

Anyways, back to sleep I shall try. I need to start documenting changes daily now since the changes are happening much more indiscreetly.

Wacky Utero Dreams

I read in a pregnancy journal that vivid dreams would start to occur in these late stages of pregnancy. I thought it would be interesting to jot them down on this blog to read later on. So far I've had several wacky dreams but I could only remember this morning what had happened last night.

I stepped into an elevator from David's former office along with 2 other friendly people. Suddenly the cable broke after the doors closed and we fell 6 stories down. I remember crouching into a corner while falling and telling God "It's up to you whether I die or not. So be it." After a short, unsafe landing I found myself intact and unharmed except for this bad headache that I still have this morning.

On another night, I had a dream that David held a wooden, handmade pistol and aimed it at me. I woke up flailing my arms and screaming "NO!" and almost gave David, now awake and next to me, a heart attack.

What do these dreams mean?

Contractions Timer

I found a neat webpage that could time and calculate my contractions for me. Contractions are timed from the start of one to the start of the next. Frequency and Duration are worked out for you. It's so easy.

http://www.baby2see.com/contractions_timer.html

Polyhydramnios

Polyhydramnios. I hope this baby doesn't have it like Breanna (borderline) did. I'm getting huge, you guys. The most common birth defects that cause Polyhydramnios are those that hinder fetal swallowing, generally involving the gastrointestinal tract or the central nervous system. I wonder if it has anything to do with hearing loss? We will never know the true cause for Breanna's hearing loss. Well, if baby Chloe has a hearing loss too then we are prepared for it.

Help Is On The...Way-Off

I'm starting to feel like an invalid. I don't like it when I feel this way. I can't do anything or help anyone. Sometimes I can't even be a pleasant person to be around. The greatest gift I could give others, especially my family, is help...help around the house, help with the cooking, help with Breanna-care. Right now I'm taking advantage of David's loss of work, but I really would rather be a team partner than a user. It's hard being pregnant sometimes. Hoping I can get through the rest of the pregnancy minus irritability and fatigue.

Role Playing

With all the pressures of life while I'm getting heavier and obviously pregnant, I'm sort of having a hard time balancing all my roles as I'm nearing the END. Pray for renewed energy and a sense of humor.

The Big Test Cheater

YaY! I called in for the Gestational Diabetes test results and it turned out negative, meaning I don't have it! I must have really cheated the test, though. Some sources say that the results can be skewed if the testing patient walk around during the entire test. Some other sources say to not drink any water between shots. Well, I did both. The nurse did say, however, that I could roam the hospital while I wait...so I did. But little did she know that I climbed up and down 12 flights of stairs between shots. I'm kinda wondering in retrospect what my result would be had I not exercised so much.