Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

[iheartscience]

I had to lurk this thread to see MonkeyPie''s bebe trying to escape! Ha MP-that is crazy!

Deb-your daughter was such a gorgeous baby! Love her hair!

vesper-your son is the cutest! What a handsome little guy! His picture reminds me of my husband''s baby pictures-their hair color and eye color are very similar! Maybe his hair will turn dark when he gets older-that''s what my husband''s hair did.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Meresal I carried pretty small like you and loved being preggo... until 34 weeks

Then all heck broke loose! LOL! You look great.

All you ladies look great! I love the photos!

 

[vespergirl]

Hey guys, Andrew thanks you for the compliments

His hair is definitely darker now than it was when he was younger - he''s more of a dirty blonde now (he''s 3 and a half), so we''re not sure if it will go brown or not. The grandfather who''s coloring he seems to have stayed dirty blonde his whole life, but since DH & I are both brunette, it could definitely go either way ...

 

[Mara]

Deb I still love that picture..!! Julian looks a little like your daughter in some of his pics. That HAIR.

DRK your daughter is beautiful and a huge Congratulations to you and your husband!!

Love the photos...!! MP so funny that M is trying to escape, can you believe it''s so close? I know you can.

Jcrow are you really due in just a few weeks? WOW where does the time go.

You too Mere... and girl you are still SO freakin'' tiny..!!

HH your post about B&J made me laugh because ummm your 10 week photo was like my normal pre-baby belly...HA!!

Lulu love the blurry photo..!! Your pics are always so good.

Pupp congrats on a BOY. I have to say I just love having a boy! My sisters are girls (obviously) so this is my first time around a boy baby and it''s so fun and different. Plus I just adore boy clothes.

Vesper I went in spurts on the ''getting ready''... there''s no timeline other than ''oops baby is out'' hahaa.

 

[AGBF]

Date: 3/21/2010 7:22:05 PM
Author: Mara

Deb I still love that picture..!! Julian looks a little like your daughter in some of his pics. That HAIR.

Hey, Mara! You probably won''t be back here for a while to read any responses. I was going to ask you if I had to go to the Newborn to 12 Month thread if I wanted to see one of those pictures of Julian (which I do).
I''m glad you dropped in and I''d love it if you posted a new photo of Julian here, but I guess it wouldn''t kill me to make the trip over to the Newborn to Twelve Month thread. It''s not as if babies that age are hard to look at .

Deb

 

[drk]

Long-winded birth story and belly pics from day 5 postpartum:

I went to my appointment Mon, at which they did a biophysical profile scan. She wasn't as quick as usual to do the practice breathing and the amniotic fluid index was slowly decreasing (just over 9), and since I was 41+3 weeks, they figured why wait any longer. I was sent over to L&D around 4:30pm and put in a small room. Eventually I was checked in by the day nurse, who was then waiting for the doctors to come check me and start the induction. They were busy, so I got my night nurse and moved to a nicer bigger room for the rest of the time. My mother finally went home around 10pm after constantly saying how slowly things were moving and why couldn't they find the time to assess me and get on with it. I know how L&D works, and there's no point getting upset about stuff like that. There's always some C/S that needs to be done urgently, or a couple deliveries that need the doctors, or something potentially bad in triage to assess. She went to nap in her car, since there weren't enough reclining chairs for her and DH in the room. Then she dcided to go home till we called her to say things were getting more active.

I had taken a dose of milk of magnesia for feeling a little constipated earlier in the day, and between that and the excitement of knowing I was about to be induced, I started having diarrhea while waiting for things to start happening. The staff OB came along at 10:30pm to check my cervix, and said it was 1-2cm and 50% effaced. He wanted to start me off with a dose of prostaglandin gel, which was fine with me. I didn't want my membranes ruptured or to be put on oxytocin right away. He said he'd come in again at 7-8am to give the next dose. They put me on the monitors for an hour after that, and I started to have regular tightenings every 3-4min which weren't painful.

DH went out to get me some late dinner since I wasn't in active labour, and came back with a falafel and tabouleh, of which I only managed to eat the falafel. I walked around a little while he was gone, and then we hung out in the room and watched the channel with the education programs about baby care as the contractions got stronger. At 12:30am, during one of the contractions, I got this sudden sharp ouch-ouch around the cervix area that also made a couple popping sounds. Aside from it hurting, nothing much happened after that. My nurse came back in a couple minutes later, and we told her what we'd heard, and while she was there doing the intermittent monitoring, I started to feel a little warm fluid running over my leg/perineum. I told them that either I was becoming incontinent, or my water had broken with the popping noises. She didn't quite believe that was what it was, but gave me a pad and stretchy underwear to put on to collect some of the fluid for testing. Turns out I was right.

Over the next hour, the contractions became much stronger and closer together. I kept on having more diarrhea, which the nurse said was partly from the prostaglandin gel I'd been given. My intention was to do hypnobirthing and avoid an epidural, but I hadn't really been practicing the relaxation stuff much at home, what with the move and everything, and things went from being just a little bit of pressure to some really really intense pressure in the vagina and above my pubic bone, along with ache in my lower back, very quickly. I think sometime around 1am I suddenly felt really nauseous and had to run to the bathroom to revisit my falafel dinner. I had DH blow up the exercise ball for me, since I was only semi coping with the contractions when standing and leaning over something, and I really wanted to sit on the ball and brace my head on my arms on the bed. I did that for a little while, and then told DH and my nurse that I was swiftly reconsidering the epidural. She said she'd check me before calling for it. I was at 3cm and more effaced, but not completely thinned out yet. She called for the epidural at around 1:30am - I asked her if the resident on that night was any good, but she didn't really know, so I asked if I could have the staff guy come do it. Apparently he came around 2am, just as I was going to the bathroom yet again. I decided to wait and call Mum with the labour update till after epidural, as I didn’t want her to try to talk me out of it.

I positioned myself cross-legged on the bed for him, with my paper hat on. The doc told me to let him know when I was having a contraction, and I told him he’d be able to tell easily from my breathing pattern. The local needle hurt and the lido for skin freezing stung a little. After that there was a little pressure. I could tell from the sounds that he used loss of resistance to air and either did 2 passes or reinserted the obtunder at one point. My epidural space ended up being at 4.5cm and I had a fairly long-lasting right buttock paresthesia as the catheter went in. He said that was a good confirmatory sign – I’d never call it that! After the loading dose, I had a good right hemiblock, but not pain relief on the left as confirmed by the ice test. I turned left side down and he pulled back the catheter 1.5cm and gave more meds. My left foot started to feel a little tingly, but I still had most sensation above and left of my pubic bone. He pulled the catheter back again 1cm, gave me more meds, and it finally started to work. He offered more fentanyl, but I declined, saying I'd cope with the tiny patch rather than have extra narcotic that might have a minor effect on the baby.

I had called Mum while the first bolus was working and told her we’d been 3cm before the epidural if she wanted to come back in, but there was no rush. By 3:30am I was having a flatter tracing with some late decels. They checked me and I was fully dilated with the head well down. She did better with me side-lying, so we tried to wait for Mum to push. At 3:45am they said that we couldn’t wait any more, she needed to come out. I decided there was no point in calling Mum to tell her to hurry, because it could be dangerous getting her worried while driving in.

By then, my right leg was totally sensory and motor blocked after some lido in the top-up. The nurse started pushing with me, but I was apparently ineffective as I had next to no sensation down there. My legs were up in stirrups and they were making me try to do 3 10 second pushes per contraction. The OB resident came and started aggressively stretching my perineum to encourage descent. She got the kiwi in the room after a couple more decels, and with one prolonged one at 60/min, we decided to use it. I did three pushes with the next contraction and there she was at 4:08am.

We asked if she could be put on me for skin-to-skin if she came out vigorous, and that we delay vit k and erythromycin for an hour. We had a lovely screaming baby come and bond with us both. She promptly peed and pooped all over me and we hung out while my 1st degree tears/abrasions were repaired, which took the help of another resident too.

She got weighed and bundled at 30min, but DH missed taking the scale shot with her weight. I let them give the vit K shot then (got a nice cry out of her), and then she came back for more cuddles and staring at each other until they put the erythromycin ointment in at an hour after birth.

Mom showed up probably 15min after she’d been delivered to greet her birthday present. She wandered in with Tim Horton’s coffee in hand while the resident was working on sewing me up. I had a few little 1st degree tears and skid marks, but they were very oozy and quite the pain to repair. I have no clue how many stitches I have in there, but I think there are two little ones on the outside for cosmetic purposes, one on the labia, one on the hymenal ring. They decided to put in a very firm vaginal pack to help put pressure on the other tears and skid marks to stop the bleeding, since suturing them was actually making things worse. They rechecked my hemoglobin later in the morning, and it only dropped to 121 from 132, which seems pretty darn good for a pregnant woman. The vag pack stayed in for 4 hours and I got one dose of Ancef (that made my hand ache as it went in), and then they came back and pulled it out and said things were looking good.

They got me up to go to the bathroom about an hour after all the stitching was done (?). My legs felt ok until I tried to get back up off the toilet, when I noticed that my quads were still pretty weak if my knees were bent more than 90 degrees. I managed to leverage myself back up, and then stayed standing up at the side of the bed for a while to stretch my legs. At that point I was still feeling pretty good and on a high.

We were held in L&D till 11am, then went up by wheelchair to our postpartum room. It’s a good thing they hadn’t waited to induce me till Tues, because when I left, there were 7 inductions waiting, 4 from triage, 3 booked. And no rooms to put them in.

During the day as the epidural numbness wore off more and more, I started noticing the pain that no one had told me about: perineal swelling is not a fun thing. I could hardly sit down, though no one offered to bring me an inflatable donut to use. I used ice packs 3 times in the first 24 hours, and they felt pretty nice. Popped them in the gigantic mesh granny panties with the incontinence pad underneath, and then just wore them till everything was all melted. I was also put on standing Tylenol and diclofenac, and didn’t need anything stronger in the way of pain meds. The uterus contracting down never really bothered me at all.

My belly was nice and flat when lying supine right after the delivery. The uterus contracted down initially to about belly button level. By later that day, it was a couple cm below umbilicus. 5 days after delivery, it’s about 14-16 week size (4-5cm above pubic bone). I initially looked like I did when I was about 28 weeks pregnant, now I’m back to maybe 24 weeks – except I can squeeze into pre-pregnancy jeans! (With no hard uterus in there to be uncomfortable, I guess I can squish things a little more) I have a spare tire, but it’s not too bad. And no stretch marks!

Baby is still cluster feeding and hates being changed or bathed. Her face and had and neck are still a little asymmetrical from (I think) being squished in one spot in utero for so long. She finally let me get a little more sleep last night after I took her into bed with me to sleep lying on my chest.

Her weight dropped from 3255g at birth to 3040g at 48h, to 2970g at 4 days old. That's still wwell within the acceptable weight loss range. My milk sems to be coming in now. Hope all looks good tomorrow at the doctor's appointment.

 

[drk]

3 days old.

 

[drk]

5 days old

 

[swimmer]

Kate, She is amazing! So sorry I didn't post Mazel Tovs before, when you posted I had to email Fisher and we had a think back to your journey to get here.

Congrats from the bottom of my heart and the same plus prayers from Fisher!

So so so so worth every moment of trying to get her here! You are a trooper, a great labor story, so sorry that you are sore now, but thanks for the reminder to do the relaxation/viz stuff. Thinking of the rainbow... You and baby K are an inspiration, thank you for sharing your journey! hugs to your clan!

 

[MonkeyPie]

DRK, she''s so adorable! What a perfect little face, and I love that she has already found that hand lol. Your birth story was interesting - you knew exactly what was happening at every stage, whereas the rest of us have to guess, heh. I''m so jealous of your belly, too! I''m glad all went well.

 

[vespergirl]

Drk, thanks for posting your story - Kara is such a beauty! I can''t believe how skinny you are already - lucky!

 

[vespergirl]

Quick question for anyone -

This morning I noticed that I had some thicker discharge that was slightly tinged with brown. Could this be the beginning of the mucous plug? I am only 36 weeks, so I am sincerely hoping not.

I go to the dr. for my 36 week checkup tomorrow morning, so I was going to ask her then, but I thought maybe you guys would have some info ...

 

[drk]

Vesper -could be, but don't panic. Mine was blood-tinged thick thick EWCM, if that makes sense. Started to come out after the first stretch and sweep, and was still intermittently coming out 2 weeks later with no sign of real labour in sight.

Swimmer - thanks for passing word to Fisher. It'll be nice when lent/Easter s over and she comes back to PS!

 

[lovelylulu]

morning all! thanks for all of the sweet compliments on the BFPs. I love everyone''s photos because it''s just so darn interesting to see how the body changes through this process.

This weekend was operation start organization. We moved into a new house this fall and have managed to amass/fail to unpack piles of random bits and pieces all over. Before we can really get started on the nursery, we need to fix up the attic a bit in order to make some useful storage space. So, the process has begun. We also took trip to ikea and picked up the infamous hemnes dresser and a closet organization system for the babe''s room. That place is such a time suck and after wandering about the store for something like 2.5 hours I was definitely feeling pregnant (or maybe more geriatric) feet hurt, pelvis hurt, belly was heavy. I wanted to climb into the cart and be pushed out to the car. fortunately, there are ice cream cones at the end of the line

. We''re also trying to simplify our list of to-dos. For instance, the weather was glorious this weekend and inevitably we started talking about fixing up our backyard. We planned on doing it this spring, so that we could enjoy it for the summer. However, with all that needs to be done on the inside of the house, we''re thinking that it might be just fine in its current state for this year and we can focus on it next year . . . pairing down and prioritizing. Spring just brings on so many projects.

Dr. K. - amazing story and amazing shrinking belly

so many congratulations on your beautiful daughter.

vesper - andrew is so handsome! sorry to have no answer to your question aside from when do you see your dr. again?

mp - you can last one more week!!!

jcrow - don''t know the website you are looking for. have you made any more name progress?

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I hate my body and what pregnancy is doing to me. Yes, I have a massive cold sore break out. I don''t think my abreva is helping either

Do you think my OB would prescribe Acyclovir for it or is that a question for my PCP? It''s huge, like 1/2 inch across

Sorry if that''s gross.

 

[meresal]

Drk- Thanks for sharing! You look incredible and Kara is beautiful!

Thank you ladies for the comments on my weekly pic. I was having a *skinny* day

, but I feel like I grew a bit this weekend!
DD- Too funny about being great until 34 weeks. I'll be 35 on Wednesday, and I am starting to feel the changes.

We had our shower yesterday! It was EXACTLY what we wanted and everyone had a great time! Everything kind of hit home, and it was so exciting to see how excited DH was the entire day. I kept catching myself staring at him with a huge smile on my face. A friend of his has a 1-yr old, and DH wouldn't put her down.

He is so ready to meet our little guy.
I was also able to spend the whole weekend with my parents. We spent 2 hours at the new house on Friday, and 2 more on Saturday. My mom and I made a huge list of things that need to be fixed before the closing. Then we spent about 2 hours at Ikea... looking at furnitre.

It was a great weekend! (Now back at work...

)


I have a question:
Did/Do any of your families or husband's families refer to your new baby as "our" baby?
Ex. "Our baby is going to be here in a few weeks!"
"Just wanted to make sure you're taking good care of our baby!"
MIL has said this for a while now, and then at the shower yesterday, his grandmother said it as well. Is this odd? Normal?
A few months ago MIL actually referred to the baby as *her* baby. We were leaving dinner and she looked at me and said, "Take care of my baby". I looked at DH and smiled and told her that he was doing pretty good on his own... and she corrected me, that she was talking about the new baby on the way. I obviously thought she was talking about my DH.

 

[fieryred33143]

Drk She''s beautiful

New babies make my ute grumble

HH-Sorry that you are feeling down

Mere-If she''s doing it now, it''ll only get worse. MIL started doing that while I was pregnant but not as much. Now everything is *my* baby. My baby''s feet are cold. How is my baby? Take care of my baby over the weekend. It''s one of those silly annoying things that you just have to roll your eyes at and move on because it isn''t worth the energy.

 

[jcrow]

lovelylulu - oh, i''ve soo been there. my last trip to ikea was miserable. i''m dreading going there again, but we''ll need to to finish up somethings in the new house.

nothing new on the name front.

i don''t know what we''re going to do!

 

[E B]

Congratulations, DrK!

I'm so happy for you. Kara is beautiful!

Date: 3/22/2010 11:08:57 AM
Author: jcrow

nothing new on the name front.

i don't know what we're going to do!

Weren't you considering Katherine/Kathryn? It's such a nice, classic name, has several great nicknames, and is easy to pair with a middle name.

 

[jcrow]

drk - you look fantastic! sheesh. and she''s so sweet + beautiful!

thanks for posting your birth story. i''m finally enjoying reading them now that i get closer to my due date.

speaking of due dates, where the heck did the time go? i swear i was just 20 something weeks. now i''m suddenly 34 weeks. eeks!!

 

[jcrow]

oh, and this weekend, we went and finished out the immediately needed items on our registry

then promptly packed them in a box to get ready for the big move in a couple of weeks.

any of the other further along preggos feel super heavy? sitting is uncomfortable. changing positions is uncomfortable. walking too. she''s just so heavy. and when she moves around? oy!

 

[jcrow]

Date: 3/22/2010 11:11:37 AM
Author: E B
Congratulations, DrK!

I''m so happy for you. Kara is beautiful!

Date: 3/22/2010 11:08:57 AM

Author: jcrow


nothing new on the name front.

i don''t know what we''re going to do!

Weren''t you considering Katherine/Kathryn? It''s such a nice, classic name, has several great nicknames, and is easy to pair with a middle name.

yeh, but my big beef with it is that there are so many spellings. i''d hate to have to spell my name all the time. hub has a name that is always misspelled and it''s a huge pet peeve of his. even when he spells it for people, the sit there and write it incorrectly. so all the spelling options for kathryn aren''t appealing.

 

[E B]

Date: 3/22/2010 11:19:02 AM
Author: jcrow

yeh, but my big beef with it is that there are so many spellings. i''d hate to have to spell my name all the time. hub has a name that is always misspelled and it''s a huge pet peeve of his. even when he spells it for people, the sit there and write it incorrectly. so all the spelling options for kathryn aren''t appealing.

This is true. If you were going with Catherine/Katherine, it might be as easy as "with a C/with a K," but if your favorite is Kathryn, I think it''s probably the least common of the spellings and might be screwed up the most.

Would you like some suggestions? Feedback? I know many of us love helping with this kind of stuff. (I completely understand if not, though!)

 

[jcrow]

Date: 3/22/2010 11:27:35 AM
Author: E B

Date: 3/22/2010 11:19:02 AM

Author: jcrow


yeh, but my big beef with it is that there are so many spellings. i'd hate to have to spell my name all the time. hub has a name that is always misspelled and it's a huge pet peeve of his. even when he spells it for people, the sit there and write it incorrectly. so all the spelling options for kathryn aren't appealing.

This is true. If you were going with Catherine/Katherine, it might be as easy as 'with a C/with a K,' but if your favorite is Kathryn, I think it's probably the least common of the spellings and might be screwed up the most.


Would you like some suggestions? Feedback? I know many of us love helping with this kind of stuff. (I completely understand if not, though!)

yeh, kathryn is still in consideration for a first name, but will most likely be the middle name if it flows ok with the first name.

suggestions would be great. we'd love a 5 letter name. more than one syllable. on the traditional side but not in the top 5-10 in popularity. ideally it'd also be english/french and a saint name. one spelling would be great too. lots to ask for and i'm sure something has got to give

 

[Puppmom]

DrK, sounds like things went pretty smoothly except for the belly aching. I''m sure I''ll have similar issues. My belly hurts when I''m in stressful situations. Kara is gorgeous and you look absolutely fantastic!

Meresal, I''m so glad your shower went well. I know you were worried but it sounds like it was perfect and you accomplished a lot this weekend! I haven''t had other family members refer to this as "our" baby but we are certainly getting lots of advice - mostly on baby names. It''s actually been quite annoying. MIL emails us several times a day with suggestions...ugh! I''ve been sort of grumpy with a cold so I''m not being very tolerant. Owen and Henry are on our short list and MIL suggested them yesterday and I was angry that she thinks they were HER idea.

Lame - I know. I just want an opportunity for DH and I to enjoy the idea of becoming parents to our little boy before everyone offers their unsolicited advice on everything. I''ll get over it. Venting here always helps!

JCrow, since I''ve received much unsolicited name advice, I''ll give you some.

My personal favorite is Nora. If DH and I were having a girl, we were going to name her Nora Jane (or use Eleanor as a first name and Ellie or Nora as a nickname). I''m sure you''ll come up with the perfect name but I know the stress you''re going through. DH and I are just waiting for a name to knock us off our feet.

Vesper, yay for moving and shaking! I felt pretty motivated recently thanks to the nice weather. Now that the rain is back, I''ll crawl back into my unproductive whole.

Good luck at the doctor appointment tomorrow!

HH, I''m sorry you''re feeling so crappy. The medication limitations during pregnancy can be hard. I have a pretty nasty cold but I''m afraid to take most things. I would definitely call your PCP about the acyclovir (SP?). DD is prone to cold-sores and that works wonders. We always have a refill on hand so, as soon as it starts, she''s able to start taking the script. Maybe your body''s fighting something...that''s usually when one shows up on DD.

Things are pretty good here aside from the cold. DH and I are really enjoying the "it" to "he" transition. It''s been fun!

I forgot to mention that I found out at my ultrasound that I have an anterior placenta so a lot of our little guy''s movements are muffled by the placenta. I guess this means it may be a bit before I start feeling anything consistent. Also, at our ultrasound, MIL was given detailed instructions from DH about how she was supposed to be a "fly on the wall" and she kept talking about how quiet she was going to be when we got in there. Well, it started with "Oh, is that an arm?!" - all bets were off from there.

We had a really great (and very patient) ultrasound tech so it ended up not being a problem.

 

[jcrow]

puppmom - the stage i'm in, i think that an anterior placenta would be awesome. our little girl's movements are so uncomfortable! ugh.
and nora is a cute name, sadly it doesn't go with our last name. and that's exactly how we feel, we're got a list, but none of them pop off the page and says that's the one!

 

[snlee]

drk, I loved reading your detailed birth story. Thanks for sharing. It sounds like it went very smoothly! You look fabulous! My body didn''t look like that until months after giving birth. Kara is beautiful. I hope you''re enjoying every moment. I am so happy for you!

 

[E B]

Date: 3/22/2010 11:55:26 AM
Author: jcrow

suggestions would be great. we'd love a 5 letter name. on the traditional side but not in the top 5-10 in popularity. ideally it'd also be english/french and a saint name. one spelling would be great too. lots to ask for and i'm sure something has got to give

Does the first name need to be everything you need, or the first + middle? For instance, traditional five letter first, french/saint second?

Have you considered Grace? Five letters, easy to spell, classic/traditional, not in the top 10.

Others you've probably already considered, but maybe worth a mention.

Adele (French, after saint named Adela?)
Avery
Celia
Elise (also French)
Marie
Megan
Molly
Sarah

French/Saint names for middle?

Anne
Antoinette
Catherine (you could use Kathryn, since no one will ask her to spell her middle name that often!)
Genevieve
Madeleine (Madeline)

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I love the name Grace it''s our top pick for Bun if s/he is a girl. Sorry, I hope that doesn''t sway you.

 

[jcrow]

E B - ideally the first name would be all of the above. however, if need be, we could do a middle name that is the saint name. i know, we [or i really] are incredibly picky...

i like grace, but it''s one syllable. since our last name is too, i really think we''d prefer a 2+ syllable first name.