Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

[Jena17]

I am still really bummed that I cannot read the whole post on my computer. Just as a post is getting good I can't read anymore of it! Hope everyone is doing great, I wish I could keep up with the thread more.

I am 35 1/2 weeks and we had our Dr. appt yesterday. I am 1cm Dilated and 50% effaced and then I think I lost my mucus plug this morning. I need to call the Dr. and ask if that is normal. Does this mean I will have this baby early???

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

HH- You are gorgeous! Congratulations. So many of my LIW/BIW buds are having babies Love it!

Thank you! It's good to hear from you IWPO. I hope you're doing well!

Off to the doc for my weekly today. It's so weird to go every week now....Considering the doc's opinion last week of me delivering in October, I'm going to ask her questions about what to expect from an induction today. The biggest question is how long do they wait after an induction before pulling the trigger and moving on to a c/s. My biggest fear is going through the hassle and pain of a chemical/balloon induction, laboring for 40+ hours and then having to have a c/s. I'd rather just skip right ahead to the c/s (I know, I'm weird and yes, I've read the literature about risks associated with c-sections). The issue with me is I've previously had surgery on my cervix, which, in addition to sometimes causing early dilation in some people, can cause problems with NOT dilating in others. So some women have unsuccessful inductions because of this.

Cara how's it going with you? 37 weeks today, right?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I am still really bummed that I cannot read the whole post on my computer. Just as a post is getting good I can't read anymore of it! Hope everyone is doing great, I wish I could keep up with the thread more.

I am 35 1/2 weeks and we had our Dr. appt yesterday. I am 1cm Dilated and 50% effaced and then I think I lost my mucus plug this morning. I need to call the Dr. and ask if that is normal. Does this mean I will have this baby early???

The easy answer is not necessarily. You could walk around for the next few weeks at 1cm/50% (or more!) and your plug could regenerate. Or it might not regenerate and you STILL wont go into labor. You should definitely give the doc an update, but this is nothing to panic over. I'm willing to bet they'll just tell you to monitor yourself over the next few days and then call if you start to have contractions or your water breaks. When is your next appointment? You must be on every-two-week visits now, right?

 

[Jena17]

Thanks HH! I figured there was nothing to worry about but I have a call in to my Dr. just to keep them updated. I am on my weekly appts. now and will see him again on Tuesday. For the last 2 days my pelvic bones have been soooo sore too! I am about ready for this pregnancy to be done with, but I know I am going to miss feeling him move, we are just ready to meet the little guy!

How about you? How are you feeling? You are getting close!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Oooh pelvic pain sounds promising! I'm 37 weeks and as of my appointment this morning, showing no signs of progression. I think I'm in it for the full 40 or possibly longer. I'm feeling good though.

 

[cara]

HH, I am hanging in there, definitely big and puffy and lumbering. Yesterday I had to walk a lot and was really dragging, but overall I think I can make it another few weeks. I am 37 weeks today, at least by my personal counting system of due on the 22nd. Also yesterday I discovered that the doctors office moved my official due date up a week from the 24th to the 17th, so they say I am now due in 16 days - Yikes!! Doesn't really change much, except if I go late presumably I will be induced before October.

And I got my butt in gear and ordered a bunch of leftover stuff on the registries, and the diaper service last night. After harrassing my mother, who in classic fashion has been promising various gifts for weeks but finding it too difficult to go online and order them. Finally the moved-up due date got her attention last night, but then she ran into minor technical difficulties, gave up, and said she'd write a check. Which is fine, and I know I shouldn't complain about her being generous with gifts, but the whole process of talking to her every few days to try and nudge her along and getting stressed out that things weren't being ordered was just too familiar with other conversations in which she tantalizingly says she will do X nice thing tomorrow every conversation for months on end but doesn't get to it... I should know better by now!

Anyway, the dr. appt update: I am 1 cm dialated, 25% effaced, which the doc said was good for a first-time pregnant woman at 37 weeks. But not to plan on going early. And my ultrasound last friday had the bebe at 7.5 lbs (+/- 1 lb) then! I know they aren't terribly accurate, but still... Let's keep the size reasonable, okay LO?

Husband was a little concerned - he isn't off work until the 23rd, so birth earlier than that would be inconvenient, and I don't think he was expecting a big baby! I was mentally prepared for an 8 lber or so, but the baby might *already* be 8 lbs, so if it takes another while to come out it could be bigger... Plus we still have no name. Definitely getting stressful. Thanks for all the suggestions on that front, we are still struggling to find something right.

HH, I understand the mentality of planning to go to October (making it mentally easier if you do in fact go to October) but earlier is still possible! Doc said often a first time pregnant woman at 37 weeks is high and closed, and while you should be prepared for going late, the predictive value is pretty poor. Same for you Jena, don't count on going really early! Are either of you going off work early? I had planned to stop around the 15th-17th, which was a weekish early with the old due date, but apparently now *is* pretty much my due date. Yikes again! Oh well, I think I will stick with that plan if I remain able to work okay.

Catluver, I totally understand your name pain, though I may be a bit further into the suffering! Sounds like you do have some options that you both like though (Abigail, Alexandra, Charlotte). At the end of the day, I think having a name you love is more important than worrying about the popularity too much. Of the more offbeat choices I love Coraline (but if you don't like Cora as a nn, that's not great) and I like Lorelei. Also, it depends on your last name, but I wouldn't rule out a 1-syllable first name like Claire. It can sound fine with a one-syllable last name, at least to my ear, but it is your ear that matters.

 

[cara]

One more thing, HH, any chance you can talk to your doc about your induction fears/cervix concerns? I'm not sure how long you've been lurking on the preggo thread, but a number of women have had successful inductions after going late, so its not necessarily a c-section sentence. Obviously you have the extra concern with your medical history. But maybe better to know what the plan would be than worry about the might-bes?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Hey Cara, glad to know you're hanging in there.

I wasn't able to meet with the OB today, she was stuck in traffic and there were two patients ahead of me, so I met with the NP and it was a very very basic appointment. In jest mentioned my concern about induction to the OB I met with last week (they have a rotating staff) and it was clear that she was an advocate for non-surgical labors. I'm weird though, I have absolutely NO fear of surgery and it's 100% a viable option in my opinion. I'm not saying I'd go for an elective c/s, but I'm not opposed to them by any means. I AM however, opposed to being tortured for hours only to have to get one in the end. I would rather just have it presented as an option at the time of induction. I would be OK with an induction if the doc agreed to let me put a time limit on the labor, like 8-10 hours with little to no progress. That's the type of stuff I plan to discuss with her.

And I'm working up until the bitter end.

 

[cara]

OK, since I am delinquent on pics, here are some from a few weeks ago. I look really big on camera! Probably IRL too, sigh... I think I have dropped a bit since these were taken.

 

[cara]

HH- I'm with you on the try to avoid induction + 40 hrs of labor + ultimate c-section!! Who wants that! Yes, scheduled c-section without the labor sounds much more pleasant. But some women do well with the induction and once the labor gets chugging everything goes okay. I think your idea of *try* inducing but if it doesn't take move more readily to the section sounds better than the 40-hr torture version, especially if there is little progress with the labor. I know one couple that was really opposed to the medical interventions, but they were forced to induce at 42 weeks, it didn't take, and finally consented to a c-section after 3 DAYS of no progress... They were miserable, the woman was beat up and recovery took awhile, it did not sound like a good experience. Baby was a perfectly happy, healthy 11 lber no-way, no-how coming out the usual way. But in their case, I am sure the couple's reluctance for medical interventions was a factor in how long the doctors let them go (that and the baby was not stressed.)

 

[lucy.lucy.80]

Hi Ladies!

I dont post that often but I do check in from time to time. Just wanted to share the wonderful news that our little girl arrived on August 28th (2 weeks early!) 6lbs 8oz!!!

my water broke while out to lunch with my mom (ek! at least they had a bathroom!) Rushed to the hospital and was 3cm dialated (at the dr apt the day before I was only 2cm and dr said I had a while to go) they gave me pitocin to induce contractions and an epidural and 3.5 hours later out she came sunny side (face) up (that hurt a bit!) She had a minor anemia scare that required her to stay in the NICU for a couple days but the doctor gave her vitamins and she is doing better now and was discharged last nite.

Wish you all lots of luck and hope you are all doing well

 

[jcrow]

lucy - she's so beautiful! she has the perfect button nose! congrats mama!!

 

[jcrow]

blond bunny - funny, when picking a name we went through the SAME thing! we had a boy name but ended up having a girl. struggled and struggled to pick a name and finally did the last day at the hospital after her birth. our last name is also one syllable so we wanted a name with 2-3 syllables as well. a lot of your names were on our list. i loved charlotte, but didn't like char for a nickname and i figured that was bound to happen. loved abigail, and in fact at the hospital because we didn't have a name for her, she was called baby girl [insert our last name]. after saying baby girl, baby girl so many times it seemed to morph easily into abigail in my head. we loved claire, but my mom's bf is named claire and i thought that would be weird. loved loved loved katie, but would want the longer version and there were too many spellings and the one spelling we'd go with due to my middle name was the least common spelling. we didn't want her to have to always spell her name out for people. LOVE olivia. still do. but it's hecka common.

we ended up with an emily. even though it's common, it was common a few years ago and much less common now. and really the popularity of it was our only drawback. everything else about it was perfect and fit us. easy to spell. easy to pronounce. classic. 3 syllables. saint name. sorta french heritage. five letters. i liked writing it. all stuff we wanted in a name.

all this to say, good luck! you've got some lovely options. you'll find the right one.

 

[lili]

lucy.lucy--
congrats on your little girl and a fast labor.
she's a darling
love her cute button nose and fuzzy head.

 

[cara]

Lucy and LIA, congrats on your beautiful baby girls! So pretty! (Lucy, are you sharing the name?)

 

[Mara]

lucy oh my gosh she is the cutest thing... love the little parted newborn lips and peach fuzz hair. squee. congrats!

 

[Lanie]

Lucy! She's so cute!!! Congrats! What a precious baby!

Cara -- I think you look great! I can't believe you are so close to delivering!!!

AFM -- I hit 24 weeks today! Very excited!!! I am happy to have made it this far and it's almost a relief that i've reached the supposed "viability" week. I feel him kicking more and more every day ALL OVER...in my ribs, in my belly and downstairs somewhere that's kind of uncomfortable...I guess my cervix? It feels weird and keeps me up sometimes at night, but I'll take it! I haven't posted a pic in awhile bc I'm still a little weird about having this massive ball taking over my body, but I'll be brave and post. I've grown a lot since 20 weeks (my last pic). And I know it isn't Friday, but I'd rather do it when I advance to a new week. Hope all of you other preggos are doing well!!!

 

[Laila619]

Lucy, huge CONGRATS!! She is such a little cutie pie! I want to hug her.

Lanie, lookin' good!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

Lanie-congrats on hitting 24 weeks! I remember getting there and breathing a big sigh of relief. If Josie Duggar can make it at 24 weeks than GD'it so can Aidan Campbell D.

Lucy-she's gorgeous, congrats!

 

[Loves Vintage]

Lucy.Lucy!!! Congratulations!!!! She is so beautiful! Very glad to hear that all is well, and she's home with you now!

Lanie, You look great.

Cara, You look wonderful!!! Is it weird that I want to look that way now!!!! Were you on vacation in that first pic?!!? The mountains in the background are so beautiful.

Catluver, You've got quite a list there!! I vote Cordelia! How does it sound with your last name? It's an unusual name, but so pretty and Shakespearean!

Kunzite, WOW! That's a lot of baby stuff! Looks like quite a diaper haul too! Are they all all-in-one's? Laerke is such a beautiful name for a girl.

*********

No real updates here. Hoping to work on the nursery this weekend. I'll do the taping, and DH will paint. He also wants to lightly sand the floor and then do a layer of fresh poly over it.

Otherwise, I'm just loving being pregnant. I'm feeling Samantha more and more and even felt a few kicks the other night that DH could also feel.

 

[noelwr]

Lanie - trade you your massive ball for mine. mine's so heavy it's making my underbelly sore.

HH - glad you're feeling good. if you get bored, I am sure my fridge could use some cleaning. I'm also not opposed to c/s. hope you don't have to go through any unnecessary labor.

AFM, yesterday was my 1 year wedding anniversary. dressed up to go out to dinner with DH. photo didn't turn out that great because lighting was bad in the morning. I think I could pass for a pregnant witch on Halloween, though.

 

[Lanie]

LV -- yay for kicks! And how cute that you can use her name now!!!!

noel -- you look great! Happy Anniversary! Ours was a little over a month ago (first one) and I was still feeling nauseated at the time, so didn't have too much fun out at dinner. Glad you could enjoy yours. Do the celebrate Halloween in Holland? I'm thinking they don't, but you never know!

Speaking of Halloween costumes, we have a Halloween party we go to every year, and I'm DYING to go either as a pregnant nun or as a pregnant prom queen. Any other fun ideas???

 

[somethingshiny]

lucy~ She's gorgeous!! She actually doesn't look like a vaginal delivery--maybe because it went quickly? Congrats to your family!!

 

[CatLuver]

Lanie - congrats on 24!! You look great. I hope I look that good at 24 wks!

LV - glad all is well with you!

HH - hopefully you won’t have to go through a “double labor/delivery” - that really would be the worst. I remember Peony who delivered 1 twin each way - major ouch!

Bella & blondebunny - I never realized Rory was a nickname for Lorelei! Even after seeing Gilmore Girls.

geri - glad you have found some maternity clothes. I wish maternity clothes were better quality in general - even the expensive lines have a lot of polyester items. I haven’t found a pair of quality, natural fibers pants yet. How is your name selection going? Are you going to reveal your name before the birth?

SS - thanks. Emeline is pretty too.

cara - hope your LO listens to you and stays at a manageable size! I can’t remember, have you picked a name yet?

jcrow - I think your message re: names was for me. We like a lot of the same names! Emily is so classic and pretty. I read in a name book that another nn for Charlotte is Lottie, but I don’t love that either. I really like Abigail, but I’m shying away because of how popular it is.

 

[CatLuver]

One more question for you all - we'd like to take a short babymoon before it's too late, and our options timing-wise are just before 24w or just before 28w. Do you think there will be a big difference in physical comfort and tolerability of traveling, including long-ish (6 hrs) car rides at those times? Thanks!

 

[cara]

Uhh... contractions. Probably the practice kind but still. Woke me up last night, continued today, and now I'm exhausted! And scared... Stay in, LO! We don't have a name, we don't have your clothes washed, Mommy and Daddy have more work to do...

Yeah, name situation is: Xavier out. Hubs doesn't like it enough, and all 'er' ending are vetoed.
Rhys/Reece out. Too much 'ee' sound with the last name.

Still kicking around:
Colby - we like it but our good good friends just named their kid a close variant (like Coleman.) We'd feel like copycats but are getting desperate.
Ryan - I think we both like the flow with the last name better than Riley, but I'm kind of meh about this one. Heck I am 'meh' about them all now.
Luke - decent.
Silas - kind of old-timey.

But we added Sam and Jack to the list for consideration as nicknames. Sam had been off the list for a long time (its a serious family name on DH's side, but he's not in line to use it. He'd probably have to call and ask his cousin if it's okay.) Anybody have suggestions for names besides John that have Jack as a nickname? John is out for family reasons; I think we like Jackson best of what we could come up with on our own, but its not grabbing us.

E B, if you are out there, I've been through your great suggestions list and I can't make any of them stick! This is hard hard hard.

Other suggestions welcome. Guidelines are: no 'er' or 'ar' endings. I'd love a good short form name (either as a nickname or the name). Hubs and I are both N. European descent with English last names, so nothing that would be too much of a stretch given that background. Like many people, we'd like something not too popular but which sounds like a name. Preference for a somewhat modern sound, and not biblical name (though we obviously are not sticking to that too strictly.)

 

[cara]

One more question for you all - we'd like to take a short babymoon before it's too late, and our options timing-wise are just before 24w or just before 28w. Do you think there will be a big difference in physical comfort and tolerability of traveling, including long-ish (6 hrs) car rides at those times? Thanks!

Cat, go earlier. Each woman/pregnancy is different, and you'll probably be capable of traveling at either time, but things just get more difficult as you get bigger and you will be up for less on your vacation. I flew at 26 weeks (6 hrs direct each way + some driving on either side) and made it fine but it was rough. That much confinement plus the altitude just took a lot out of me. We also drove away for the weekend at 35 weeks to Lake Tahoe (someone asked about the pics) and it was ~5 hrs each way, again I made it but it was a lot of time in the car. Kind of hard to enjoy the weekend and recover for work the next day.

 

[geri]

Lucy - she is adorable! Hope she is settling in well.

Lanie - you look great. I don't think you look like you have grown a lot since last time but I know your own perspective on it is so different to what other people may see.

LV - so exciting that you can feel Samantha moving around!!

Catluver - I'm so with you on the maternity pants. I got a belly belt the other day which I am using to expand my existing pants. It works pretty well and hopefully will give me at least a few more weeks in my current pants.

We aren't planning to tell family and friends the name before the birth (we probably won't disclose the sex either). We want something fairly classic but ideally not too common (would go out on a limb a bit more for a girl than a boy), to go with a one syllable surname starting with D, that ideally has a nice nickname/short version. Some of the names we are considering are:
Girls -
Sophie - DH's favourite which I like too but fairly common, including being used already by a cousin (whom I rarely see) and a good friend
Claudia - We both like this but not sure what the nickname would be? DH keeps wanting to use the European "cloudia" pronunciation which she would be correcting for life in Australia and would probably make her sound a bit stuck up.
Eloise - We both like this but it has also been used by a close friend and there are so many "Ellies" around that I'm not entirely sure.
We also have Elka, Jillian, Penelope, Keira and Annaliese on the list (all very random I know).
Boys -
Hamish - I like this but I don't think DH is keen. Also not sure what the nickname would be?
Sebastian - We both quite like this but has been used by a good friend and not sold on Seb as a nickname.
Benjamin - I like Ben but don't like Benjamin so much (nor Benson or Benedict which can also be shortened to Ben.
Charles - I like Charlie as a nickname but not so keen on Charles.
We also have Joshua, Rohan, Samuel and Jeremy on the list. (We also like William, Hugh and James but these are all family names and we think we will veto these because it's too political to choose). You can see why we need to find out the gender to narrow it down!

Where are you thinking of going for your babymoon? I'm interested to hear what others think about this too. We are thinking of going to Hawaii when I will be 23-24 weeks. It will be a 9-10 hour flight for us so hoping it will be okay?

 

[E B]

Contractions and no name? Let's do this.

I think Andrew's a modern classic and has the short "Drew" nickname option. I also think Jack is strong enough to stand on its own, and I'm a little crazy about using 'full,' formal names.

Have you been to Nymbler.com? You type in various names you like (but aren't quite 'it') and it gives you suggestions. Might help to sit down with your husband and go through a few pages.

 

[charbie]

Cara: maybe some of these have been suggested, but these are some names I like
Garren
Garett (Rhett as a nn)
Colton (colt)
Wesley (wes)
Nathan (Nat, Nate)
Blake
Collin/Cullen
Dylan
Kenton (kent)

Ok, done rambling. One thing I try to remind my friends is how many nn we have for one another no matter what our names are. Everyone calls my DH "Wags", his buddy is "Simo", and another friend is "Klinger." Their parents even call their kids by the nicknames. Simos wife called him Simo during their vows...his name is Doug! I have a friend who is nicknamed "boomer" and no one knew his actual name for years...and his teachers/parents called him boomer. Sure, at work people call me Kate, but my friends call me by my maiden last name...even tho I'm married and no longer have that name. And the people at work say "katie or katherine" all the time as a nickname for kate...which is my nickname!