Hi Everyone,
My parents are in town right now, which has been a great help. Chris even went in to work today to save those precious vacation days, and I don't even feel upset about it. Of course, when my mom goes home next Tuesday that may be a different story.
Anyway, I have finally set up our photo share site. It's located here and it's password protected for any of those lurkers out there that I don't know about. If you'd like the password, leave a comment or email me, and I'll email it to you! And if you become a member of the site (I think just setting up a Shutterfly account), you'll get emailed updates as we add more photos. I've really only added pictures from our time at the hospital, but I'll add more soon.
On another note, after a few sleepless nights, we've really got something of a schedule down where she eats and then sleeps for 3 to 4 hours, as opposed to eating and then being up for 3 hours! This has really helped Chris and me get a little bit more sleep, and I'm feeling pretty good over all. I hope it lasts!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Pictures!
We've been home for a whole week now. It's been challenging, to say the least, but that will be devoted to another post. For now, it's picture time!
Charlotte in her cute rainbow jumper and the knit hat from the volunteers at the hospital.
Charlotte in her cute rainbow jumper and the knit hat from the volunteers at the hospital.
Daddy giving Charlotte her first bath at home.
All clean. Check it out. Charlotte is probably going to have curly hair. Her Aunty Nancy will have to help me out with tips on how to deal with that!
Charlotte is sleeping in the bassinet next to our bed, but Tandy wants everyone to know that the crib mattress is quite comfortable, for your information!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Birthing Baby Berry
So I thought since today marks a week since we went to the hospital for the induction that I'd take the time to write Charlotte's birth story. (She's great by the way, although Chris and I are pretty exhausted with late-night feedings, getting the hang of breastfeeding, and I'm still recovering -- we'll post pictures soon along with a link to a photo share site I created for pictures of Charlotte). I'm not going to sugar coat this in any way, so if you're squeamish, you might not want to read all of this.
Chris and I arrived at the hospital at 7 AM last Thursday morning. It took us quite awhile to get admitted because the room we were supposed to be in wasn't clean, so they sent us to the "Dump and Drop" room, the room closest to admitting, for those moms who come to the hospital literally ready to push and give birth. There was some confusion about which nurse would be assigned to us, but finally we got Lorna, who was awesome. I changed into the hospital gown and we waited for the midwife, Lynnette, to come in and check me before starting the Pitocin drip. I hadn't made any progress since the Tuesday before, but they decided to start me on the lowest dosage of Pitocin, thinking that maybe if I even just whiffed it, contractions would start.
Since I was on constant fetal and contraction monitoring, we could see the contractions starting, but they weren't painful and pretty inconsistent. Chris and I passed the time of this "early labor" playing cribbage and watching the first season of "Flight of the Conchords" on DVD, which is really quite hilarious. Every hour or so Lorna would come back and up the Pitocin. At around 2:30, I finally started feeling painful contractions. Chris and I were still playing cards, but I would have to pause and breathe through the contractions. At 3 PM, there was a shift change in nurses and Lorna brought in her replacement, Ivanka, whom we later found out is originally from Macedonia but had lived in the Chicago area for a long time (Orland Park). Lorna also mentioned that if we were still there the next morning, she wanted to be our nurse, which was nice to hear. Ivanka, as we came to learn, was quite the "take charge" nurse. She saw that my contractions were getting a little out of hand, so gave me an injection of fentanyl, pain meds that were supposed to last an hour, but worked so well, I didn't need another dose for 2 and a half hours. She also checked me and said that I was about 2 1/2 centimeters dilated, which I was really disappointed to hear considering how long we'd been there already.
The second dose of fentanyl, around 5:30, definitely did not last as long. By the way, during almost the entire day and night, Chris spent the majority of the time pacing the room. Lorna called him the cliched nervous dad when she introduced us to Ivanka, and that was certainly true. So anyway, by around Jeopardy!, which was about 6:30, I was in all sorts of pain. Chris was trying to get me to relax, but all I could do was shove him off and yell at him to "stop touching me!" Finally, I told him to page Ivanka and tell her I was in horrible pain. She comes in and says in her thick Greek accent: "You vant epidural, I get you epidural. Why you not ask until now?" She gave me another dose of the fentanyl and called the nurse anethestist to administer the epidural.
Ahh, the epidural. We all know that I wanted to try the whole natural childbirth thing, but seeing as how I did not go into labor naturally, I finally succumbed to the epidural. It was easy to administer and didn't take long at all to start working. And seriously, it was a GODSEND. My entire lower half of my body was completely numb, and although the monitor showed me having contractions, I couldn't feel them anymore. It was great. I was able to relax and even fall asleep. This happened between 8 and 9. Around 10, Chris went out to call our parents and give them a status update. I was listening to my iPod and when he came back around 10:30, I was talking to him, when all of a sudden I knew I had to vomit. I had barely enough time to sort of point to Chris, who just in the nick of time grabbed the vomit bag, and I threw up, several times. Now mind you, I never once even came close to throwing up my entire pregnancy. Thank goodness Chris was there because given the fact that I was completely immobile, I would have vomited all over myself and the hospital bed.
After that, we both caught some sleep until about 2:30 AM, when the midwife came in and checked me. I was 5 cm dilated, so she decided to break my water. Apparently, it was quite the flood, but I didn't feel a thing. She also inserted an internal pressure monitor to get a more accurate reading of the contractions, which weren't progressing like she wanted. The nurse in the 11PM to 7AM shift (I can't remember her name because I was sleeping almost the entire time) upped the Pitocin again to 22 micrograms (I started at 2) and I went back to sleep. Around 5:30, I woke up to some backpain and pressure, even though my legs were still completely numb. I paged the nurse, who checked me and I was now 9 cm! I had dilated 3 to 4 cm in only 3 hours! Finally, I thought. At about this time, we heard a lady screaming in the hallway and nurses running toward her. This was one of those "Drop and Dump" ladies who came in ready to push. A nurse even opened our door thinking that the room was available. Given the sounds she was making, Chris remarked about why anyone would want to go through that meds-free.
So Lynnette came in around 7:30 -- mind you, she was working a 24 hour shift 8 to 8-- and said how disappointed she was that she wouldn't be the one to deliver me. But, the good news was that the midwife coming on board after her was Susan Stone, whom I had seen a few times early in the pregnancy. Susan is wonderful and actually worked at my organization a number of years ago. Lynnette checked me and said that she could feel the baby's head and I was in fact 10 cm dilated. At the same time, Lorna, our nurse from the day before came in. I told Lynnette that I was naming the baby Charlotte Kay because I knew that was also Lynnette's middle name. Turns out it was Lorna's middle name as well (and of course it's my middle name and my mom's, which is why I chose it in the first place)! Lorna said it was meant to be.
Around 8AM, after Lorna and her nursing student Carrie got all the instruments and warming table ready, we decided to do some practice pushes. Chris grabbed one leg, Carrie the other, and away we went. Lorna was satisfied by pushes, so called in Susan. She watched me push for a bit, said it would take at least an hour and that she'd be back. Given that Charlotte wasn't born until 11:22 AM, obviously it took much longer. Why, you ask? Because I got this horrible cramp around my right diaphragm (like when you're running and get a stitch in your side)that made it impossible to breathe through. At one point, I was in so much pain and was yelling so bad that Susan called in the attending OB/GYN, who, ironically enough turned out to be the OB I'd been seeing throughout my pregnancy. What are the odds of having both your midwife and your OB at the hospital at the same time? Pretty low for Kaiser. Susan thought I was exhausted by pushing and asked if Dr. Castillo-Rico could use a vacuum to get her out. This I did not want to hear at all. Instead, I told them that I felt okay on my left side, so we tried that out and it worked out fine.
Chris was still holding my leg during each contraction and could see that I was definitely making progress. He could even see the head poking through! Susan asked if I wanted a mirror, and I said yes because I couldn't feel what I was doing and whether or not I was making any progress. Well, the mirror was an amazing source of motivation for me. I could see the head a little bit and with each contraction, I could see myself making even more progress. This really picked up the pace and pretty soon, out she came and they put her right on me! Chris was crying, I was in shock, and everyone was commenting on how big she was! Of course no one expected her to be 9 and a half pounds!
And, by the way, I barely tore at all. Charlotte's head, which is 14 inches around (above the average of 13), didn't tear me, but her shoulder did. It's internal and superficial, but ouch does it still hurt. It took about an hour for Susan to repair me, meanwhile, I got to hold my baby skin to skin, which felt amazing.
It was an amazing experience. When things were painful or not progressing as fast I thought they'd be, I was really regretting my decision to induce. However, once Charlotte was born and seeing as how big she was, I'm really glad I did. Susan said that if I had waited much longer, it could very well have turned into a c-section, something I desperately didn't want. And seeing as how large Charlotte was, chances are if we have another baby someday (some day, far, far, away! :) ), they won't let me go past my due date.
So all in all, not a bad experience. About 23 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing. Some women who are induced take much longer than that. Charlotte wants to be fed, so I'm signing off for now. More pictures to come soon!
Chris and I arrived at the hospital at 7 AM last Thursday morning. It took us quite awhile to get admitted because the room we were supposed to be in wasn't clean, so they sent us to the "Dump and Drop" room, the room closest to admitting, for those moms who come to the hospital literally ready to push and give birth. There was some confusion about which nurse would be assigned to us, but finally we got Lorna, who was awesome. I changed into the hospital gown and we waited for the midwife, Lynnette, to come in and check me before starting the Pitocin drip. I hadn't made any progress since the Tuesday before, but they decided to start me on the lowest dosage of Pitocin, thinking that maybe if I even just whiffed it, contractions would start.
Since I was on constant fetal and contraction monitoring, we could see the contractions starting, but they weren't painful and pretty inconsistent. Chris and I passed the time of this "early labor" playing cribbage and watching the first season of "Flight of the Conchords" on DVD, which is really quite hilarious. Every hour or so Lorna would come back and up the Pitocin. At around 2:30, I finally started feeling painful contractions. Chris and I were still playing cards, but I would have to pause and breathe through the contractions. At 3 PM, there was a shift change in nurses and Lorna brought in her replacement, Ivanka, whom we later found out is originally from Macedonia but had lived in the Chicago area for a long time (Orland Park). Lorna also mentioned that if we were still there the next morning, she wanted to be our nurse, which was nice to hear. Ivanka, as we came to learn, was quite the "take charge" nurse. She saw that my contractions were getting a little out of hand, so gave me an injection of fentanyl, pain meds that were supposed to last an hour, but worked so well, I didn't need another dose for 2 and a half hours. She also checked me and said that I was about 2 1/2 centimeters dilated, which I was really disappointed to hear considering how long we'd been there already.
The second dose of fentanyl, around 5:30, definitely did not last as long. By the way, during almost the entire day and night, Chris spent the majority of the time pacing the room. Lorna called him the cliched nervous dad when she introduced us to Ivanka, and that was certainly true. So anyway, by around Jeopardy!, which was about 6:30, I was in all sorts of pain. Chris was trying to get me to relax, but all I could do was shove him off and yell at him to "stop touching me!" Finally, I told him to page Ivanka and tell her I was in horrible pain. She comes in and says in her thick Greek accent: "You vant epidural, I get you epidural. Why you not ask until now?" She gave me another dose of the fentanyl and called the nurse anethestist to administer the epidural.
Ahh, the epidural. We all know that I wanted to try the whole natural childbirth thing, but seeing as how I did not go into labor naturally, I finally succumbed to the epidural. It was easy to administer and didn't take long at all to start working. And seriously, it was a GODSEND. My entire lower half of my body was completely numb, and although the monitor showed me having contractions, I couldn't feel them anymore. It was great. I was able to relax and even fall asleep. This happened between 8 and 9. Around 10, Chris went out to call our parents and give them a status update. I was listening to my iPod and when he came back around 10:30, I was talking to him, when all of a sudden I knew I had to vomit. I had barely enough time to sort of point to Chris, who just in the nick of time grabbed the vomit bag, and I threw up, several times. Now mind you, I never once even came close to throwing up my entire pregnancy. Thank goodness Chris was there because given the fact that I was completely immobile, I would have vomited all over myself and the hospital bed.
After that, we both caught some sleep until about 2:30 AM, when the midwife came in and checked me. I was 5 cm dilated, so she decided to break my water. Apparently, it was quite the flood, but I didn't feel a thing. She also inserted an internal pressure monitor to get a more accurate reading of the contractions, which weren't progressing like she wanted. The nurse in the 11PM to 7AM shift (I can't remember her name because I was sleeping almost the entire time) upped the Pitocin again to 22 micrograms (I started at 2) and I went back to sleep. Around 5:30, I woke up to some backpain and pressure, even though my legs were still completely numb. I paged the nurse, who checked me and I was now 9 cm! I had dilated 3 to 4 cm in only 3 hours! Finally, I thought. At about this time, we heard a lady screaming in the hallway and nurses running toward her. This was one of those "Drop and Dump" ladies who came in ready to push. A nurse even opened our door thinking that the room was available. Given the sounds she was making, Chris remarked about why anyone would want to go through that meds-free.
So Lynnette came in around 7:30 -- mind you, she was working a 24 hour shift 8 to 8-- and said how disappointed she was that she wouldn't be the one to deliver me. But, the good news was that the midwife coming on board after her was Susan Stone, whom I had seen a few times early in the pregnancy. Susan is wonderful and actually worked at my organization a number of years ago. Lynnette checked me and said that she could feel the baby's head and I was in fact 10 cm dilated. At the same time, Lorna, our nurse from the day before came in. I told Lynnette that I was naming the baby Charlotte Kay because I knew that was also Lynnette's middle name. Turns out it was Lorna's middle name as well (and of course it's my middle name and my mom's, which is why I chose it in the first place)! Lorna said it was meant to be.
Around 8AM, after Lorna and her nursing student Carrie got all the instruments and warming table ready, we decided to do some practice pushes. Chris grabbed one leg, Carrie the other, and away we went. Lorna was satisfied by pushes, so called in Susan. She watched me push for a bit, said it would take at least an hour and that she'd be back. Given that Charlotte wasn't born until 11:22 AM, obviously it took much longer. Why, you ask? Because I got this horrible cramp around my right diaphragm (like when you're running and get a stitch in your side)that made it impossible to breathe through. At one point, I was in so much pain and was yelling so bad that Susan called in the attending OB/GYN, who, ironically enough turned out to be the OB I'd been seeing throughout my pregnancy. What are the odds of having both your midwife and your OB at the hospital at the same time? Pretty low for Kaiser. Susan thought I was exhausted by pushing and asked if Dr. Castillo-Rico could use a vacuum to get her out. This I did not want to hear at all. Instead, I told them that I felt okay on my left side, so we tried that out and it worked out fine.
Chris was still holding my leg during each contraction and could see that I was definitely making progress. He could even see the head poking through! Susan asked if I wanted a mirror, and I said yes because I couldn't feel what I was doing and whether or not I was making any progress. Well, the mirror was an amazing source of motivation for me. I could see the head a little bit and with each contraction, I could see myself making even more progress. This really picked up the pace and pretty soon, out she came and they put her right on me! Chris was crying, I was in shock, and everyone was commenting on how big she was! Of course no one expected her to be 9 and a half pounds!
And, by the way, I barely tore at all. Charlotte's head, which is 14 inches around (above the average of 13), didn't tear me, but her shoulder did. It's internal and superficial, but ouch does it still hurt. It took about an hour for Susan to repair me, meanwhile, I got to hold my baby skin to skin, which felt amazing.
It was an amazing experience. When things were painful or not progressing as fast I thought they'd be, I was really regretting my decision to induce. However, once Charlotte was born and seeing as how big she was, I'm really glad I did. Susan said that if I had waited much longer, it could very well have turned into a c-section, something I desperately didn't want. And seeing as how large Charlotte was, chances are if we have another baby someday (some day, far, far, away! :) ), they won't let me go past my due date.
So all in all, not a bad experience. About 23 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing. Some women who are induced take much longer than that. Charlotte wants to be fed, so I'm signing off for now. More pictures to come soon!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Announcing Charlotte Kay Berry!
She has finally arrived! We went in for an induction at 7AM on Thursday, started the Pitocin drip at 9AM, and she was born the following day at 11:22AM. I'll post more about the birth later, but for now, here are the stats:
Charlotte Kay Berry
6/19/09
9 lbs 9 oz
22 inches long
And a few pictures (more to come when I can actually spend more than a few minutes away from her!). Chris was an absolutely great labor coach and is totally in love with his little girl! By the way, today is his birthday and Father's Day. :)
Daddy and Charlotte
Mommy and Charlotte
Charlotte at home!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
To Induce or Not to Induce...
...that is definitely the question du jour.
We went for my one week follow up appointment today. My OB cancelled at the last minute, so I saw one of the nurse midwives on staff. She asked if my doctor had discussed induction, and I replied that we hadn't even discussed it last week because she was pretty confident that I wouldn't make it to today's appointment (Ha! Charlotte sure showed her!). The nurse midwife, Lynnette, asked me what my birth plan was. I said I pretty much wanted to avoid unnecessary interventions if at all possible, so she said that the next step would be to go in twice next week for a Non-Stress Test (they monitor the baby's heartbeat and movements for 20 minutes as well as the fluid around the baby). When I heard next week, I just about lost it. I immediately started crying because I just couldn't bear the thought of going another week. Although apparently most first time moms deliver 7 to 10 days late, so I'm still well within "normal" range.
Anyway, the midwife said (after seeing me crying) why don't we check you out and give you all your options today, and you can decide. That calmed me down a bit. She checked me and I'm about 2 cm dilated, still 80% effaced. Baby's heartbeat is great, so she's still happy. She then did a second stripping of the membranes to see if that moved things along (clearly it didn't last week!). Lynnette then said, because I told her I wanted a midwife attending my birth, that she's at the hospital all day Thursday, which is exactly 41 weeks so why don't we have you come in then. In short, we've scheduled an induction at 7AM on Thursday morning. I kind of have mixed feelings about this because I would love to go into labor on my own, but I have no idea how long it's going to take to happen.
The midwife did suggest taking castor oil to get things moving, but I'm not sure I really want to go that route -- it's basically a strong laxative that has been used for years to get labor started. It just doesn't sound all that pleasant.
The midwife assured me that if I change my mind and don't want to induce, I don't have to. I think I'd be more zen about the whole thing if I hadn't heard next week. Plus, it's starting to get hot again and that's making me uncomfortable -- we've had amazing weather all last week and now the mercury is creeping back up. So for now, Thursday morning it is. Or maybe I'll be lucky and go in before then!
We went for my one week follow up appointment today. My OB cancelled at the last minute, so I saw one of the nurse midwives on staff. She asked if my doctor had discussed induction, and I replied that we hadn't even discussed it last week because she was pretty confident that I wouldn't make it to today's appointment (Ha! Charlotte sure showed her!). The nurse midwife, Lynnette, asked me what my birth plan was. I said I pretty much wanted to avoid unnecessary interventions if at all possible, so she said that the next step would be to go in twice next week for a Non-Stress Test (they monitor the baby's heartbeat and movements for 20 minutes as well as the fluid around the baby). When I heard next week, I just about lost it. I immediately started crying because I just couldn't bear the thought of going another week. Although apparently most first time moms deliver 7 to 10 days late, so I'm still well within "normal" range.
Anyway, the midwife said (after seeing me crying) why don't we check you out and give you all your options today, and you can decide. That calmed me down a bit. She checked me and I'm about 2 cm dilated, still 80% effaced. Baby's heartbeat is great, so she's still happy. She then did a second stripping of the membranes to see if that moved things along (clearly it didn't last week!). Lynnette then said, because I told her I wanted a midwife attending my birth, that she's at the hospital all day Thursday, which is exactly 41 weeks so why don't we have you come in then. In short, we've scheduled an induction at 7AM on Thursday morning. I kind of have mixed feelings about this because I would love to go into labor on my own, but I have no idea how long it's going to take to happen.
The midwife did suggest taking castor oil to get things moving, but I'm not sure I really want to go that route -- it's basically a strong laxative that has been used for years to get labor started. It just doesn't sound all that pleasant.
The midwife assured me that if I change my mind and don't want to induce, I don't have to. I think I'd be more zen about the whole thing if I hadn't heard next week. Plus, it's starting to get hot again and that's making me uncomfortable -- we've had amazing weather all last week and now the mercury is creeping back up. So for now, Thursday morning it is. Or maybe I'll be lucky and go in before then!
Friday, June 12, 2009
Still Waiting...
As you may have guessed, Charlotte has not yet decided to grace us with her presence. The stripping of membranes didn't do a whole lot in terms of jumpstarting labor, but things are happening, which gives me hope that she'll be here within a few days. At the very least, my doctor is encouraging induction by 1 week overdue, although I definitely hope I go into labor on my own.
I'm definitely bummed that she didn't decide to come while my mom was still here. My mom was really hoping to be here for the birth (I was delivered by c-section a week late due to my mom having high blood pressure), but I guess Charlotte has other plans. In any case, it's been nice to have someone around during the days to keep my mind off getting more and more impatient. Yes, I know that I will miss the "quiet," but you circle that date on your calendar and in your head for 9 months, so it's definitely frustrating when it passes you by. In fact, all day yesterday as we were out and about, I would see the date and couldn't believe that the day had finally come.
So my parents and grandparents leave for Vancouver tomorrow to start their Alaskan cruise and Chris' parents are going to be in Las Vegas over the weekend. I'm betting, knowing my luck, that she'll arrive when they're all incommunicado.
Oh well. I'm feeling pretty good (but this is the first time I want to NOT being feeling good!), so I'll just keep plugging along.
I'm definitely bummed that she didn't decide to come while my mom was still here. My mom was really hoping to be here for the birth (I was delivered by c-section a week late due to my mom having high blood pressure), but I guess Charlotte has other plans. In any case, it's been nice to have someone around during the days to keep my mind off getting more and more impatient. Yes, I know that I will miss the "quiet," but you circle that date on your calendar and in your head for 9 months, so it's definitely frustrating when it passes you by. In fact, all day yesterday as we were out and about, I would see the date and couldn't believe that the day had finally come.
So my parents and grandparents leave for Vancouver tomorrow to start their Alaskan cruise and Chris' parents are going to be in Las Vegas over the weekend. I'm betting, knowing my luck, that she'll arrive when they're all incommunicado.
Oh well. I'm feeling pretty good (but this is the first time I want to NOT being feeling good!), so I'll just keep plugging along.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tonight? Who Knows...
My OB pushed my 40 week appointment to today. She said she conservatively believed me to be 1 cm dilated, but 80% effaced. She could feel the baby's head and decided to strip the membranes (google search if you must, it's not that exciting) in an attempt to get labor going. So far, it's been about 4 hours and not feeling anything yet. The doc thought maybe it would get things going, maybe as early as tonight, since I'm already close to 100% effaced. We shall see.
On another note, my mom's in town. She got here yesterday and will be staying here through Friday afternoon. We're hoping that Charlotte has just been waiting for her grandma to get here in order to start the party. I really hope that she arrives before my mom leaves (my parents and my grandparents are going on a cruise to Alaska on Saturday and won't be back until June 27th). Yesterday, we played some tennis, by which I mean that I stood there while she hit balls to me. It really wasn't that bad. I was even able to shuffle a little to get around and hit a few backhands and a few times I even forgot I was pregnant!
In any case, regardless of whether Charlotte comes this week or not, I'm grateful to have my mom here. It's been nice having company during the day, even if she's convinced I'm going to go into labor any second... :)
I'll keep you posted!
On another note, my mom's in town. She got here yesterday and will be staying here through Friday afternoon. We're hoping that Charlotte has just been waiting for her grandma to get here in order to start the party. I really hope that she arrives before my mom leaves (my parents and my grandparents are going on a cruise to Alaska on Saturday and won't be back until June 27th). Yesterday, we played some tennis, by which I mean that I stood there while she hit balls to me. It really wasn't that bad. I was even able to shuffle a little to get around and hit a few backhands and a few times I even forgot I was pregnant!
In any case, regardless of whether Charlotte comes this week or not, I'm grateful to have my mom here. It's been nice having company during the day, even if she's convinced I'm going to go into labor any second... :)
I'll keep you posted!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
39 Weeks
Hello Friends!
Today marks one week until my due date! I can hardly believe it. I'm feeling pretty good and just wondering when Little C. is going to get here. This week: I've walked about 2 to 3 miles a day in hopes that the swaying (ahem, waddling) will move her down; I've also swept and scrubbed the floors; baked blueberry muffins and homemade roasted tomato basil soup. This is more than I've walked in months, mostly because it really hurt a lot. Strangely, it doesn't seem to hurt much when I'm walking now. Now, before you think I'm nesting, I did do the cleaning and cooking all in one day. This wore me out, and that night I slept about 10 hours and then took a nap the next afternoon! So I'm not sure that nesting has actually been happening; more like being restless.
The weather has been cooperating nicely and this has been a huge help to my mood. It has been in the mid-70s all week. I think that if it were a 100 instead, I would be begging for this baby to get here! Last night, I didn't sleep that well because we had a freak series of thunderstorms (this is very rare for Sacramento, particularly in June). Chris joked, as we were watching the flicker of lightning around 12:30, that I was not allowed to go into labor right then because he didn't want to drive me to the hospital in the storm. However, I was secretly hoping something would happen so I would have this great story to tell Little C. when she was older. Alas, I'm still here, holding strong. Charlotte is one happy girl, moving around like crazy. I'm trying to convince her that the real world is pretty nice too.
Friends are taking bets on when Charlotte will actually arrive. My friend Brian had today, June 4th, as the day, but I'm thinking that's just not possible. The next guess is Sunday, the 7th. My guess is for Tuesday, June 9th, which also happens to be my friend Angela's guess. Chris is still holding out for June 21st, which is his birthday and Father's Day. Nice try, Chris. I will be one grumpy girl if she's still not here 10 days after the due date!
In any case, I'm trying to stay positive about all the great "Me Time" I'm getting to enjoy right now. As a perfect example, I was up from about 3 until 4 when the storm really gained force. I went downstairs and watched some TV, while poor Marzipan skulked around (she was so scared by the thunder that she insisted on hiding in the cabinets with all the pots and pans). I was able to eventually get back to sleep and then slept in until 9:30! I have no idea when the last time I've been able to do that. And goodness knows, sleeping in will be a thing of the past once she gets here!
Today marks one week until my due date! I can hardly believe it. I'm feeling pretty good and just wondering when Little C. is going to get here. This week: I've walked about 2 to 3 miles a day in hopes that the swaying (ahem, waddling) will move her down; I've also swept and scrubbed the floors; baked blueberry muffins and homemade roasted tomato basil soup. This is more than I've walked in months, mostly because it really hurt a lot. Strangely, it doesn't seem to hurt much when I'm walking now. Now, before you think I'm nesting, I did do the cleaning and cooking all in one day. This wore me out, and that night I slept about 10 hours and then took a nap the next afternoon! So I'm not sure that nesting has actually been happening; more like being restless.
The weather has been cooperating nicely and this has been a huge help to my mood. It has been in the mid-70s all week. I think that if it were a 100 instead, I would be begging for this baby to get here! Last night, I didn't sleep that well because we had a freak series of thunderstorms (this is very rare for Sacramento, particularly in June). Chris joked, as we were watching the flicker of lightning around 12:30, that I was not allowed to go into labor right then because he didn't want to drive me to the hospital in the storm. However, I was secretly hoping something would happen so I would have this great story to tell Little C. when she was older. Alas, I'm still here, holding strong. Charlotte is one happy girl, moving around like crazy. I'm trying to convince her that the real world is pretty nice too.
Friends are taking bets on when Charlotte will actually arrive. My friend Brian had today, June 4th, as the day, but I'm thinking that's just not possible. The next guess is Sunday, the 7th. My guess is for Tuesday, June 9th, which also happens to be my friend Angela's guess. Chris is still holding out for June 21st, which is his birthday and Father's Day. Nice try, Chris. I will be one grumpy girl if she's still not here 10 days after the due date!
In any case, I'm trying to stay positive about all the great "Me Time" I'm getting to enjoy right now. As a perfect example, I was up from about 3 until 4 when the storm really gained force. I went downstairs and watched some TV, while poor Marzipan skulked around (she was so scared by the thunder that she insisted on hiding in the cabinets with all the pots and pans). I was able to eventually get back to sleep and then slept in until 9:30! I have no idea when the last time I've been able to do that. And goodness knows, sleeping in will be a thing of the past once she gets here!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)