Progress

I had a really long appointment today. My doctor was running about an hour behind schedule so it was interesting keeping Mina entertained. She was way better than you'd expect a two year old to be when confined to a stroller for two hours. We played peekaboo with the exam curtain, colored, sang songs, looked at magazines together, and ate snacks while we waited and she didn't raise a fuss at all until we got out to the car afterwards. I guess she was afraid she'd be stuck in the car for a long time or something. Mina is such a good girl!

On to my appointment. I had my group b strep test and that was fun. Not. The baby's heartrate was good and my belly measured fine. The doctor did an internal exam for curiosity's sake and found out that I'm almost 2cm dilated already. Yay! I don't really want to deliver anytime soon, but that's two less centimeters I'll have to dilate later on. Baby is still up high so labor doesn't look imminent. Now I have appointments every week. I won't have another internal exam unless I make it to 40 weeks.

My body has been happier now that I'm sleeping in my own bed, but my congestion has gotten worse. I can't breathe through my nose at all right now so it makes sleeping difficult. Our bed has a ton of pillows in it so I can be somewhat elevated in order to breathe. I finally got around to getting some sudafed this morning. I hope that helps so I can get more sleep. I'm tired!

I'm slowly working on the to do list and hope the nesting instinct kicks in soon. My house is disastrously filthy. We pick up every night, but the cleaning part has been neglected. It's bad that I don't remember the last time I dusted. I think it's gotten to the point where I'll just need to do a room a day until baby comes in order to stay on top of it all. I'll start that tomorrow....or the next day. :)

35.5 Weeks

We didn't do an official picture again this week, but I snapped this picture with Mina this morning. She absolutely loves kissing my belly. She also looks just like me in this picture if you look at my profile picture on the left. I have an appointment on Thursday morning and should be getting my first internal check at that point. I've had many braxton hicks contractions in the last week so I'll be surprised if I'm not dilated even a little bit. I'm not in a hurry to get this over with, but I'd hate for my body to be wasting its time contracting.

We're settled in for the duration of the pregnancy now. I sleep so much better in my own bed and in my own house.

ETA - I just noticed that I'm on the last baby of my pregnancy ticker. Wow! That means it's almost go time.

34 Weeks

I don't think I'm getting all that much bigger anymore. I'm feeling great most days and not in any rush. However, we're continuing to get stuff ready for Charlotte - getting the diaper changing station ready, clothes cleaned, swaddling blanket sewn, breast pump prepared, etc. I had a really off day today and was totally and completely exhausted. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow since we're getting our family pictures taken and I have quite a bit to do before we leave on Tuesday. Sometimes it seems like I feel worse when Jon is home because I have him to lean on. He's on vacation all week so I need to snap out of that!

I guess I didn't update after my appointment on Thursday. It was boring. I did find out that Mina will be able to visit in the hospital now that the swine flu isn't as big of a problem. Baby is still head down, but not engaged so I hope she doesn't try to do any last minute gymnastics. I'll get an internal check at my next appointment on the 31st and a quick ultrasound just to make 100% sure she's head down. From there, I expect time will pass way too quickly and way too slowly all at once.

Jon has informed me that he'd like me to deliver in the first week of February due to his surgical schedule so it looks like I have quite the wait ahead of me if I follow his plan. LOL!

The Shelf

My belly has become the perfect shelf for carrying Mina. She doesn't mind getting kicked in the rear end every once in a while. We had a party on Friday night so we got all dressed up.This is as close as we got to a belly picture this week. Can you believe that people had the nerve to ask me when I'm due at the party? I mean, I'm barely showing.I've been feeling pretty good other than a killer charley horse in my calf the other night. I think I let myself get dehydrated and that was the problem.

Jon is already talking about baby #3. Hmmm...

I was at the mall today and I saw two little girls that played really well together. They held hands when they went down slides, the older one kept track of the younger and comforted her when she fell down, and they were basically inseparable. The dad just sat on the sidelines and blissfully watched his daughters play. I asked him how far apart they are in age and he said 26 months. That's exciting to me since Mina and Charlotte will be about 25 months apart. I hope they're best friends too!

I spent a good chunk of time going through baby stuff yesterday and getting drawers arranged. That always feels good.

It's Belly Time

The blog title is in honor of Mina's new favorite saying. She announces that "It's X time," all day long. X = jammy, food, sleepy, cheerio, etc. Anyway, here's the belly at 32 weeks. My sister Claudia and her family came and visited this weekend while Jon had a conference in Chicago. We went shopping all afternoon yesterday and I managed to buy a bunch of stuff but no Christmas presents. Oops. Thanks again for coming to visit! Mina and I had a great time.

I had a real contraction this afternoon shortly after Jon got home. I've been having painless Braxton Hicks for weeks, but the one this afternoon hurt and lasted about 30 seconds. I've only had painless ones since and nothing regular so don't get worried.

I've also calmed down about the whole positioning thing again. The hospital freaks me out. I have appointments set for Dec. 17th, Dec. 31st, Jan. 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th, and even Feb. 4th. I see a lot of freaking out in my future.

Head Down

Charlotte was head down at the appointment yesterday. Hopefully she'll stay that way and not be sunny side up. I'm getting really freaked out about labor and delivery already. Too bad doulas cost so darn much. I'll have to do my own research on baby positioning and use spinning babies (interesting link even for those not pregnant). My goals are to 1) not have a c-section, 2) not need forceps or vacuum assistance, 3) labor for less than 20 hours, and 4) get to hold Charlotte and nurse immediately after delivery. I only succeeded in the first goal with Mina. She was in a bad position and there was meconium in the amniotic fluid so #2-4 were thwarted.

My friend Jamie fell down our stairs yesterday morning so she had to go into labor and delivery to be monitored last night. She's 33 weeks pregnant so it was kind of scary. Thankfully she's okay and so is her baby. Phew!

Chaos and Calamity

Today has been crazy. It all started with a loud crash and crying from Mina. Usually she wakes me up by yelling something cute like "careful" or "lions ROAR" so the noise was alarming. I fetched her out of her crib and carried her into bed with me so I could get more sleep since it was 6:30. Mina wasn't in on this program and instead kept kissing me on the lips and saying "hiya" to me for the next half hour. It would have been better if she didn't have bad morning breath, but overall I was pleased, if rather sleepy. She got bored after a while and went exploring while mother of the year laid in bed with the covers over her head. I finally got up when I heard noises on the main level of the house. On my way out of the room, I almost tripped over her wall clock which apparently was the source of the earlier crash. Oh, and it seems she had to find just the right pair of pants to wear because every single pair was on the floor of her room.

I got downstairs and found my lovely daughter running around with a flask (empty, don't get too worried). Yep, she was tipping it back and running around getting dizzy. It flash forwarded me to her potential once she reaches college. Yikes. The underwear hanging from the chandelier added to the effect. That's a whole other story.

Things calmed down for a while until I made the mistake of talking to my mother on the phone. Mina ran around like a crazy woman while I didn't have 100% of my attention on her and she tripped. She didn't just trip and land on the carpet like usual either. No, she tripped and landed face first onto Euclid's bone. Crying ensued and I was convinced she was going to have a black eye and a scraped up face. Luckily, the redness and puffiness went away after about an hour.

It was garbage day so I ran out to bring in the can while Mina was secured eating some breakfast. Euclid went with me and surprise, surprise, he ran away. He didn't have his collar on and I certainly couldn't run after him into the woods with Mina unattended. There's nothing like having your dog loose on garbage day. Once again, luck was sort of with me because he came back without further incident about 10 minutes later. I was relieved the neighbors didn't call SWAT.

I also learned that M&Ms should only be given one at a time to a toddler (if at all). Mina held onto four M&Ms for about half an hour. I wonder how long it will take to get the green dye out of her skin? For that matter, I wonder how long it will take to get it out of my skin. She couldn't help but put her sticky little hands down my shirt to cop a feel.

I decided to take a shower to have a little break from the craziness. Usually Mina entertains herself in her room and comes to say hello to me here and there. Today Mina decided that she wanted to put her head under the shower, turn the shower off, and worst of all, turn the shower all the way onto hot. As I hurriedly tried to rinse off between scaldings, she grabbed at my legs and rear end and giggled like a mad woman while I tried not to laugh or cry. I guess it's the end of my showering while Mina's awake days.

Boy, today was fun. I'm not kidding. I love my life and wouldn't trade it for anything! :)