Wednesday, August 29, 2012
She's here!!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Quick Update!
I have definitely been out of the blogging mood lately but I do feel like I need to update everyone on the status of Miss Ava.
At my 35 week appointment I was surprised to find out that I was already dilated to a 1-2 and 30% effaced. I was completely shocked considering this is my first pregnancy.
I then discussed with my doctor about scheduling my induction date for September 6th. She kind of laughed to herself and said, "Sure, I don't mind scheduling it at all but I highly doubt you will still be pregnant. I would be very surprised if you still are."
Hmm...well okay then! Induction still scheduled for September 6th (at this point).
I had a late night visit to the hospital during one of my shifts at work two days later. I had been walking around quite a bit but really wasn't hurting a ton. A co worker talked me into putting me on the monitor just to see if I was contracting.
And...sure enough! What started out to be a contraction every 6 minutes gradually turned into every 3-4 minutes the longer I laid there. So the lead nurse decided it was best for me to go to the hospital I would be delivering at and get checked out.
Long story short, I went home to pick up Wes and up we went to the hospital. The nurse checked me and said I was now dilated to a 2. They observed Ava and the contractions (which were now consistently every 2 1/2-3 minutes by this point) and rechecked my cervix.
(Most people are probably wondering if I was hurting at all. I was...but not near the amount of pain that I know is to come when it is really time!)
No change. So they sent me home. Most likely early stages of labor.
No big deal. I kinda figured that but no true way of knowing without going in and getting checked out.
Since then, my doctor has taken me down to working 6 hour shifts at work which has helped a lot. I have still been contracting off and on but nothing bad enough to make me feel the need to go in again and get checked out.
I figured after one trip, I am not going to go in again until 1) my water breaks or 2) I am in so much pain I can't stand it anymore.
At my visit last week, I made the decision to move up my induction date to when I will be 39 weeks which is next Thursday, August 30th. I figured since I am already starting the early stages of labor, why keep it going just that much longer?
At my appointment today, I am now dilated to a 4 and 70 % effaced. Making progress from week to week, just slow progress. I was hoping to be dilated to a 5 so she would just send me on over and get things going.
Wishful thinking...Ava will come on her own time when she is good and ready. And as of right now, she is just fine with where she is. :)
Who knows, she might hold out all the way until the induction next week. We will see what happens!
36 weeks
I think this is 36 weeks too but took this before my baby shower at the church.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Pregnancy Update: Week 35 & 36
Yes, I am alive and well on the other side of blog world! :) Life sure has gotten busy getting ready for Ava to arrive. My mind is now consumed with a constant "to-do" list that never seems to end. I started a list about a week ago with seven to eight things on it and am now down to four so I guess I can consider that progress.
This awful Oklahoma heat is making running errands at 36 weeks pregnancy very difficult. What I once could get done in a single afternoon ends up taking two to three days to accomplish. Oh but I'm so close!!
You will be happy to know that one of my "to-do's" is to BLOG so here I am getting yet another item off my list. :) Although, I think I will end up having to do more than one post to recap the past month's events.
I have had two baby showers and will have another one this weekend. So of course I have pictures from those that I want to share. Wes and I are realizing just how blessed we are to have such wonderful family and friends to support us and love on us and our new baby. Ava is already one special little girl to many people!
So I will start up the updates with a pregnancy update. A lot has actually happened in that area since my last update from a very fast growing belly to now more complaints than I know what to do with. I am officially ready for pregnancy to be over. :)
Here are a few weekly pictures to catch everyone up on the ever growing baby bump:
35 weeks: Taken just before my baby shower last week!
36 weeks: This shirt really showed off the belly for sure!
My body is starting to let me know that I am carrying around a full term infant in my body. My hips and back are hurting more and my knees! My goodness! Just squatting down to pick something up lights my knee joints on fire trying to get back up! My increased weight gain would explain that pain. I am now at a weight gain of close to 27 lbs and it is ALL baby.
My biggest and newest pregnancy symptom is my feet; swollen...swollen...swollen...all the time. It started to come and go and now they just stay pretty puffy. They have gotten really bad after being on my feet at work. I had to take a picture the other morning after working three nights in a row just to document how bad they really were.
Yikes!!! Do those feet even belong to MY body??
I try my best to elevate them sometime during my shift and drink lots of water but sometimes that unfortunately just doesn't happen. I am more than ready to be off work but I know the more I work maybe the faster she will be here! :)
However, working in Labor and Delivery, I realize that some women can be dilated to a 1-2 for weeks before anything exciting happens. But some women also never dilate at all until they are induced at 40+ weeks.
I talked to my doctor about inducing me on her due date and her response was, "Of course! But I really don't think you are going to make it that long. I would be very surprised if you did."
Well okay then! You can only imagine what that news did to my already "to do" list, overdrive brain...super overdrive now!! I haven't been able to let my mind rest since. Like I said, it doesn't mean that anything will happen anytime soon but there's a good possibility it will be before September 6th.
Just for my peace of mind, I requested to have one more ultrasound to check her size. I'm not sure why I feel like I need to know this information but it's just a mental thing I guess, needing to know what size of a baby I will be delivering. :) I'm not at all concerned with her being too big. But I was curious because of so many people saying, "You are how far along??! You are so small!!"
I thought maybe I was going to prove that I was carrying an 8 lb baby just out of spite, but that isn't the case. We had the ultrasound yesterday and she is measuring perfectly at 36 weeks exactly which puts her at 6 lbs 1 oz.
I was 6 lbs 8 oz when I was born so it looks like she might be on track to take after her momma. Everything looked great though. The sonographer was even nice enough to flip over to the 3D for us to get one more look at her. She showed off quite a bit again by opening her mouth, yawning, sticking her tongue out. She's already a character. :)
The sonographer commented on her full lips just as the other lady did. haha I'm anxious to see if those lips are as pouty and full as they appear on the ultrasounds. Too cute!!
I finally ordered her baby book a few weeks ago. I knew I wanted to get one before the showers arrived so I could have a page for guests to sign. I ended up ordering it online and really love it!
The front...
A few of the inside pages. This one is so cute for the family tree.
My other project a few weeks ago was to make a sign for the door at the hospital with Ava's name and date of birth information on it. I see so many patient's family members that put up the cutest signs for their doors and knew I had to come up with something.
I got online and looked around for something I could easily replicate. I don't consider myself the most creative person in the world so I knew it had to be somewhat simple.
Here is the picture I found that I decided to go off of:
Believe it or not, I was even considering painting that little butterfly on the side of the letter too! Let me tell you what though, I got into Hobby Lobby and got completely overwhelmed and suddenly had NO idea what direction to take with this thing.
I was amongst all the millions of ribbon and had no vision in my head in order to pick something out. Of course I end up picking out two or three and would just decide later. After gathering all the rest of the supplies, I was ready to go home and figure out how I would make this work.
Turns out, I love what I was able to do with it and probably even more than that one above. I couldn't find an "A" as big as that one, so the buttons weren't going to fit. I didn't paint anything other than the colors of the letters and dots. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to make though and how cute it ended up.
The plan is to have it hanging on the door at the hospital and then hang it on the outside of her door at home. One more "to do" to check off the list!!
Close up.
And one more....
Well, except for baby shower pictures and updates, that is all I have for now. Time to go complete more items on my "to do" list. :) First things first...thank you cards!
Hoping to post again soon but no promises. I will do my best!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)