Stubborn Like Her Mama...

Brenna isn't in my arms. She's in my belly.....still. Here's proof!

We'll keep ya posted! No signs of Brenna being a February baby yet, but we're praying!

Due Date Update

My due date starts in 5 hours. I'm not in labor. Bummer! However, I had a great doctor's appointment today and little Brenna is hanging in there perfectly. Here's what we know for all of you inquiring minds...
*I am still 70-90% effaced.
*Brenna is at a -1 station, much improved from -3 on Friday.
*My cervix is still REALLY posterior - so he couldn't even see how dilated I was.
*All four of my doctors are booked for inductions next week. They are trying to fit us in.
*My induction will be March 8 unless they fit us in or labor happens on its own.
*I'm ready for her to be here!
*I'm going to finish out the week at work....and I'm definitely tired!

Let's see if this full moon thing really works.....it's supposed to be on Sunday! :)

Surprise!

I have a million adults in my classroom this year - assistants, family preservation counselors, special ed teachers and assistants, intervention assistants - and they all rock! Today, three of them, along with one of my kid's mom, threw me a little surprise baby shower. They have apparently been planning this for awhile, but I had no idea! It was such a fun surprise when they came in at 2:40 and told my kids to put away what they were working on because it was shower time!

They had also collected money for a Wal-Mart gift card, which I thought was really sweet, especially since the economy in the county where I teach is, well, crappy.

We played the "string around the belly" game - which I refused at all the other showers, but I figured it couldn't be that insulting with kids. It was about 1/2 and 1/2 - some were too small and some were too big. But most were almost exactly right! I told them the ones who guessed too small got As and the ones who guessed too big got Fs! ;) One of them got it dead on, which impressed me. One of them also stuffed her shirt with one of the recess balls and then measured. Creative, but still too little, haha!

We also ate ice cream cones and played baby Bingo! The kids were so excited. Two of my favorite quotes were:
"Well you've got a belly in your baby, so it's gonna be big." HAHAHAHA
"I'm glad you're having a baby!" Me - "Why, cause you get ice cream?" "Yep!"

I'm really going to miss those kids. Could tomorrow be my last day with them? Who knows!

Top Ten

Two posts in one day? That's what happens when I don't work for two weeks due to snow!

THE TOP TEN THINGS I WILL MISS ABOUT PREGNANCY:
1. Feeling her move. It's rough when I'm trying to sleep, but I love knowing she's in there.
2. The anticipation of what it will be like when she gets here!
3. Being pregnant with friends - such a fun thing to talk about. Kelley is ending our pregnant-togetherness tomorrow though - Rhys and Owen are coming!!
4. The compliments - I'd be lying if I didn't say this. People tell me I look great even when I don't. Can't help but love that!
5. Napping without guilt.
6. Clean cloth diapers - they look so cute and fluffy sitting there all clean and poop-free!
7. Reading books about pregnancy - I think it's so fun to get prepared and yet still have no clue what's getting ready to happen!
8. Wearing comfy clothes around town and not feeling like a slacker!
9. The kids at school who whisper in the hall...."Is she pregnant?" Um, where have you been for the past 20 weeks?
10. Sprout. She won't be Sprout for much longer!

THE TOP 10 THINGS I WON'T MISS ABOUT PREGNANCY:
1. Heartburn.
2. The random limb that she pokes in my left side every night. I'm gonna like that limb a lot more on the outside!
3. Maternity clothes. I cannot wait to wear pants that zip.
4. Having too much time on my hands and shopping online wayyyy too much! I'm seriously looking forward to working out again and having a figure again. Let's hope the motivation holds out!
5. Having to sleep on my side - oh I cannot wait to lay completely belly-down again!
6. People constantly asking "Why haven't you had her yet?" I appreciate their concern - but just a notice....I'm not due yet!
7. Hearing random opinions about how I should labor. My baby, my decisions, thank you very much!
8. Not knowing if she is vertex or breech. She's restless like her mama!
9. The occasional swelling of my fingers. It has only happened a few times, but I don't like it.
10. Visits to the doctors. They were fun at first, but they are pretty ridiculous by this point. And they hurt. A lot.

Babymoon

I totally forgot to tell you all (haha, I love pretending I have loyal readers) about our babymoon. Do you know about babymoons? I think it's a pretty new trend of taking a vaca before a baby comes, knowing that things are getting ready to change dramatically. It was something I had kidded Jonathan about for pretty much the entire pregnancy, since we love to take little weekend roadtrips and it sounded like a good excuse. However, with the holidays and such, it just didn't seem like we could find a weekend (or the money) to really swing something - plus we were worried about the weather. So, we figured maybe we'd do something on New Year's Eve.....or not.....but weren't too worried about it.

That brings us to December 30, 2009. Jonathan calls and asks, "I need to know right now, do you want to go to the Chick-fil-a Bowl?" I realize that he means the big game that is the VERY NEXT DAY! But, being the flexible pregnant wife I am, I was figured it'd be fun. Then he calls back and says that the tickets his friend had are gone. Bummer. Hopes were up then quickly down. That is until he calls back about 4 or so to tell me that they are actually still available (minus the parking pass this time, boo!) and we decided to just go for it. He thought the game was on the 1st - but I quickly filled him in that we had 24 hours to pack and get to Atlanta to the game.

We packed up that night, called Kristen to come dogsit, and headed to Atlanta early on Thursday morning. We made great time (thanks to Jonathan's brand new GPS I had gotten him for Christmas!) and actually got to relax a little at the hotel before heading to the Marta station to go to the game. We are, admittedly, hotel snobs, but we found a great deal at a Marriot that included shuttling us to the Marta station and breakfast on Friday - score!

The game was super fun! We sat beside a couple that lives only about 20 minutes from us and rooted on our Hokies in the middle of a huge sea of Vols fans. It was a funny game for me - because I always rooted for the Vols when I was younger! We really did have a blast, and really enjoyed some time together before our family increases in size! Oh, and our romantic ringing in of the new year? Standing outside the Marta station waiting for the van from our hotel to come get us. We did watch the time on my cell phone clock at least!

We went ahead and headed back on Friday to save money and enjoy the last of our holiday break at home. We planned to stop in SC to see the Caskeys, but they all caught the stomach bug that week and decided they should spare us! I was very much looking forward to seeing Kelley's "pregnant with twins" belly, but that just means we'll have to plan another trip to see them after all the babies are here! Maybe it won't take me 2 months to blog about that trip! :)

Waiting Game

I headed back to the doctor yesterday to get all checked out (after begging for them to see me, getting nowhere, and then my hubby magically getting an appointment for me) and things are definitely getting back to normal. I'm definitely still having contractions, but nothing regular. And, the good news - she is definitely head down!! So that means I'm not as stressed about things as I was, and I know that when the contractions start getting more regular - whether it be this week or 3 weeks from now - that I'll be able to labor at home and not worry about a little breech baby! For now we're just trying to get recovered completely from the stomach bug (Jonathan has it now!) and whatever flu-like thing I had on Sunday. The only 2 things the doctor is concerned about now is this crazy feeling in my chest that makes it hard to breathe at times and the fact that I had some protein in my urine. For now we are chalking them both up to the sicknesses, but she just wants me to take it easy and let her know if the pain stays for more than another day. We go back on Friday for our 38 week appointment - where I've decided that I will NOT be checked for dilation again, because I'm just too posterior and it just hurts too, too bad. Hopefully all will go as planned for that! :) Wish I had some new pictures, but I have barely been off the couch in 5 days, so that's a no go! Maybe later this week! :)

Oh, I forgot to mention that Saturday before we left for the hospital we packed up the car just in case we came home with a baby. It made us realize we are still not completely ready, so this weekend will be spent making sure everything is completely in place. We're getting there. We even have a car seat in our car now - scary stuff!

Triage

Well, it's been an eventful weekend for us! Friday we got snowed in, so I missed my appointment, but we weren't too worried about it. We got up and made some yummy breakfast on Saturday, did some baby stuff, had lunch, and then I laid down for a nap while Jonathan shoveled the snow. This is when things took a turn for the worse. I started having some severe belly trouble, and when I woke up from my nap around 4:30 or 5:00, I was miserable. I kept getting sick and spent way too much time in the bathroom - which I could tell was making me dehydrated. I couldn't, however, keep any fluids in me, so it just got worse. I started feeling contractions that were pretty intense and making me pretty nauseus, so I started timing them about 7:00 or so. Turns out they were coming 3-4 minutes apart and lasting about 1 minute each.

I called the doctor on call, and he suggested I take some immodium and see if that helped, and if it didn't, to head on in to the hospital. The immodium helped clear up the bathroom issues, but the contractions were getting a little more intense. I was so scared to be the girl who went in only to be told she was crazy, but I couldn't really handle it anymore. So, off we went!

They checked me in to triage of L&D and got me all hooked up about 11:00 PM. Brenna had a good heartrate, my blood pressure was good, and the contractions were showing up on the monitor right when I was telling them I felt them. They decided I was severely dehydrated, so got me onto an IV - and I eventually took a bag and a half. About 2:00 AM, they put in some pain med and anti-nausea medicine in my IV and I was able to sleep off-and-on. At some point they determined I was about 1.5 - 2.0 cm. dilated but very posterior, which meant I wasn't in active labor. I was still 1.5 - 2.0 when we left at 4:00 AM - and the nurse thought she might have felt a head, which would be great!

They sent me home with 1 dose of 2 different medicines, and they are finally wearing off now. I did have a nice little conversation with the toilet today, which I'm sure means I'm officially as empty as possible. I'm keeping down Gatorade, and I might branch out to crackers in the morning. The contractions are still coming, but much more irregularly and not quite as painful. The nausea is back, and not fun, but we're hanging in there.

I'll call my doctor first thing in the morning and try to get them to see me and also do an ultrasound to check on her position - breech or not? I'm also hoping for a few more meds to get me through this for the next few days, but we'll see!

Full-Term!!

I am 37 weeks pregnant today! That means that I am officially full-term! I've been waiting for this day for quite awhile, especially lately! It's awfully reassuring that Brenna would be just fine if she were born today - even though it's definitely not going to hurt her to keep cooking for a little while longer. I go back to the doctor tomorrow (if we can get there through the ice/snow/sleet/whatever) to check on any progress and to see if she's still breech. If she is, that could mean she'll be here in less than 2 weeks!! It's starting to feel more and more like this is something that is about to happen, instead of something that is still months away! WOOHOO! Here's my 37 week pictures with my first born! ;)

Birth Month

Dear Brenna,

It's February! This is the month that you are supposed to arrive. I've been waiting for this day for a long time. It seems so much more real now that the calendar finally says February. It's so reassuring to me that you are still healthy and thriving, but that you could survive just fine if you came now.

I can't wait to meet you. I am dying to know what you look like. I hope you have lots of hair - everybody else hopes you come out bald as can be! With all this heartburn that I've had, you better have hair! I can't wait to count your fingers and your toes and kiss your nose a thousand times that first day! I can't wait to see Daddy hold you for the first time - and change his first diaper!

So, until you decide it's time for a birthday party, we'll be waiting. February is a great month for a birthday - trust me, I know. If you want to share birthdays, I'm okay with that, too! Just make sure to let me know when it's time so I don't have to worry about thinking it's time when it's not, okay?

I love you little Sprout!
~Mommy