Monday's the Day

B and I have to be at the hospital at 6am Monday morning to start the induction. I can't believe that I'll finally get some relief and get to meet our little girl E!

Here's the even more amusing part. She's our 1st anniversary present.

A year ago 2 of the girls at daycare wanted to fix me up. One of the girls wanted to fix up her dad (that would be T) and was talking about it to little A's teacher. They decided I'd be a good person. Now when they told me this I was very skeptical. I was picturing some old man if the daughter was old enough to work at the daycare. After asking some questions about the man in question I decided to go against all of my normal behavior and allow myself to be set up.

1. I wasn't meeting anyone working and taking care of A all the time.
2. I had told 2 girlfriends at lunch the day before that when God was ready for me to be with someone he'd deliver them to me.

B and I had our first date the week before Thanksgiving. Who would have thought at that point that exactly a year later we'd be living together, engaged, and having a baby. A baby who is also a delivery from God (which I'll explain in a post next week). I could never have predicted this is where we'd be a year later, but it's so much better than I ever would have predicted!

Things I will NOT miss about being pregnant

I've hit the 38 week mark today on my pregnancy. This is the week I had little A, so I'm about as pregnant as I've ever been. I thought it would be a good day to take stock of the things I will NOT miss when this is over to get me through the next few days. (If I'm still pregnant on Friday my ob is scheduling an induction for Monday.)

1. The +4 pitting edema

You've seen the swelling pictures. I've now moved from just swelling to pitting. This is when anything leaves an indent in your skin. My indents last a good 5-10 min before returning to "normal." I still have the shooting fire pains upon standing too.

2. The compression stockings

Compression stockings are oh so sexy. They look like sexy thigh-highs you would wear with garters, but with the consistency of an ace bandage. Hot. They take 20 minutes to get on and then when I attempt to painfully peel myself out of them at night I have large indents on various points of my legs. (see pitting edema) Not to mention I still swell horrendously.

3. The 3 week chronic cough

I'm on a nightly regimen of cough syrup, allergy pill, and Pepcid to attempt to control the cough that could be indigestion, allergy drainage, or viral. Or it could just be normal additional mucous from pregnancy.

4. The pulled muscle

Yup. Due to the chronic cough I have pulled a muscle on my right side in my ribs. It's not like I have the easiest time moving as it is with no ab muscles at the moment. Now I'm down a side muscle too.

5. The gestational diabetes

Pricking my finger, examining everything I eat, not eating too late, abstaining from yummy seasonal goodness.... The thing with gd is that the diet is MORE strict than a type I or type II diabetes diet so it's even harder.

6. People calling everyday (or in my mom's case 7 times in a row if I can't answer the phone) to see if I'm still pregnant.

Um, why would I have a baby and keep it a secret? Especially from my mom? I told her last night if she didn't quit stalking me I was going to make her wait to read about the birth on Facebook. She got the point.

I pretty much am now in excruciating pain on every inch of my body other than my hair and left arm maybe and have been for weeks. If this baby doesn't come out ASAP I may seriously injure and innocent bystander.

Monday Giveaways - Nov 6

Why am I doing Monday giveaways on a Saturday? Well frankly I'm hoping to go into labor this weekend and be chillin in the hospital Monday. I'm 3cm dialated as of my apt yesterday w/ sporadic contractions. Well I say sporadic, but they come for 45min to 2 hrs and then just stop. My ob is on call this weekend and told me to go walking and to have sex with B in hopes of getting the contractions more consistent and coming to see him.

I'm checking in this morning and then little A and I are off for some errands (Gap is 40% off today if you mention FLASH40 at check out)and possibly to the new children't museum in town. Hopefully the errands last night and tonight will help on the walking front.

Anyway, here are the giveaways I've entered:

2 Fix-It-And-Forget-It cookbooks from One Momma Saving Money

$50 giftcard to The Game Shop from The Johns Family

Carmex winter survival kit from Making Ends Meet

And the Winner Is.....

The winner of the Stellababy giveaway is JL for her comment -

"Stellababy is now an etsy favorite of mine."



Congratulations JL!

Custom Ornament Giveaway Ends Today!

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for the Stellababy giftcard that will cover an ornament or to put toward another custom item. You can find the giveaway in the orginal blog post.

Caution: Crazy Hormonal Pregnant Woman

I have been very even tempered this entire pregnancy. Until this week that is. Now I cry over nothing and everything irritates me. I've been sitting at work this morning crying all morning over nothing. I'm working away with tears just streaming down my face.

Even stranger, I feel like little A's stalker. All I want to do is spend time with him. I can't get enough of him this week. I want to spend every minute with him. I don't want to focus on anything else. I'd love to go get him from daycare and go to McDonalds for a McRib combo meal with fries and a HUGE coke and then go play somewhere. (Of course I can't take the time off work or eat the McDonalds thanks to my gestational diabetes.) I even got up in the middle of the night last night just to go lay with him and cuddle.

I seriously feel like a crazy woman this week. This morning I decided I resented the baby because this pregnancy is seriously limiting my ability to do the things I want to do with little A and I don't want someone taking my time away from my baby. Then I started crying because it's just inevitable that things will change. (Of course I want this baby and I'm not doubting my ability to love them both. I'm just crazy and hormonal.)

I don't tend to bond with my kids during pregnancy. I have to see them outside of me as a real person and it takes a few days. So, right now little A is my baby and E is still just the fetus of a difficult pregnancy. I'm full term today and I think E needs to come out sooner than later for all our sanity. I may go all paparazzi on little A if not.

Pregnant Centaur

Remember back to high school when you studied Greek mythology and there was the half horse half man; Centaur. The top half was man the bottom half was horse. This is what I have become; a pregnant Centaur. Only, instead of half horse half woman, I'm half woman half hippo.

One of the joys of late pregnancy can be edema or swelling. I had it a bit with little A, but I have it full force this time. At first the dr thought it might be a blood clot (dvt) and sent me for a Doppler and bed rest. Thankfully it wasn't a blood clot, but cellulitis which is an infection that can mirror dvt. After a week of antibiotics, Benadryl, and aspirin the Cellulitis seems to have cleared, but the edema is still rocking full force.

Here is a progression of my swelling as the day goes on. Keep in mind one of the solutions drs give you is to keep your feet up. These pictures are even with keeping my feet propped on a chair all day at work.

8 am - starting out a bit swollen


12 pm - puffing up some more


6 pm - 3x my normal size


Thankfully at my appointment on Friday the ob cleared me for compression stockings since the other issues are gone. Hopefully these help. Not only do I puff up, but it sends shooting fire pains down my legs when I stand as well as a constant ache. Friday night when I got home I was so swollen I literally could not bend my legs or flex my foot.

I just keep reminding myself I have 3 more weeks max and then I'm done. I would definitely appreciate E deciding to come early.