Category: Kids & Parenting

Tomorrow I'll Be The Mother of Two Children

Published by dee on March 17, 2008

Well, today is Zachary’s last day as an only child. By this time tomorrow, BabyG should be here and I will officially be the mother of two children. It is hard to believe that it is so close.

I had planned a fun mother-son day with Zach today, but the rain this morning kept us in bed instead. Zach had crawled into our bed around 6:00 this morning, and when he woke back up just before 9:00, he told me he wanted to watch a movie in bed and snuggle. I would have been pretty stupid to turn down that opportunity so we popped in Toy Story 2 and snuggled in the bed for about another hour until I had to pee and just couldn’t wait anymore. Once I was up, he popped out of bed and was ready to play.

We lounged around for a bit, had some breakfast, played with his cars for a while, and then I forced myself to go take a shower. I asked Zach if he wanted to go somewhere special with Mommy and have lunch and of course his number one choice was McDonald’s, so off to McDonald’s we went. I’m sure those salty fries that I inhaled were great for my already swollen ankles and feet. Zach was perfectly behaved and finished almost all of his happy meal before even asking to go play. After we finished eating, he played for about 45 minutes. I had a moment of slight panic when I realized that I couldn’t see him when he was climbing through those huge tunnels. I knew he would be fine, but he suddenly seemed so very small. I think this was the first time I have ever let him play there when his older cousin wasn’t with us to rescue him if he got stuck. Every time he came down the slide he would run over to me and exclaim, “I did it!” He was so proud of himself.

After we left McD’s, I decided to make a quick stop at Sam’s and surprise Zach with a copy of Bee Movie. He’s loved it since we saw it at the theater and I figured it would be nice for him to have something new to watch over the next few days.

Now we’re home and he’s napping. Everything is packed up and ready to go. We’re going to head over to my mom’s tonight and stay there since she lives less than five minutes from the hospital. That way Zach doesn’t have to get disrupted so early in the morning. I’m supposed to be at the hospital at 6:45 in the morning ready for them to break my water. I’m still hoping that my body will decide to do this on its own first. I’ve been having contractions all day today, but they are still anywhere from 15-25 minutes apart.

I still can barely believe that this day is here. It feels so strange to have the birth of my child scheduled. I was scheduled to induce with Zach, but we didn’t make it that far. It just seems weird to know that she will be here tomorrow. Plus, I’m starting to get a little nervous about the whole taking care of two kids thing. Taking care of one is hard enough some days!

If you are the type that obsessively checks for birth announcements (like I do) I suggest keeping an eye on my Twitter and Flickr feeds. They will most likely be the first updates. I’m told that the hospital has free wi-fi so as soon as I can manage to take a break from staring at my beautiful daughter, I’ll try to post a pic or two.

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38 Weeks

Published by dee on March 14, 2008

This will probably be the last belly shot I post for this pregnancy. It was taken a couple of days early because we had such beautiful weather on Wednesday. My mom and I decided to have lunch at the little park that sits in the middle of our office complex. She just happened to have her camera with her so we took advantage of the sunlight (notice the extra squinty eyes) and took a few shots. I’m glad we did, because even though they aren’t the best pictures ever, these are probably the ones I will look back at one day when I want to show BabyG photos of her in my belly.

Right now I’m still a little bit in disbelief that my daughter will be here in 4 days or less. It has gone by so fast, and yet I feel like I’ve been pregnant forever at the same time. Of course, knowing that I went the full 40 weeks, plus an extra 4 days, with Zach makes this pregnancy seem short since I’ll be delivering at 38 1/2 weeks. I’m very thankful that I won’t have to wait quite that long this time. I’m so anxious right now I can hardly stand it. Every time I feel a little twinge in my stomach I’m thinking, “Is this it? Is it time?” But, of course it isn’t.

Today is my last day at work for a while and I have to say I’m pretty happy about that. I have a great job, but it will be nice to have a break for a while. I am completely caught up on my stuff and am spending the day today helping my mom out so she can be a little more caught up before she has to take over my job. I’ll be taking 6 weeks off, but will most likely be doing some work from home during the last few weeks of that. Since my boss provides a laptop, I really have no excuses not to.

Unless I go into labor early, this weekend will be spent hanging out with Zach and giving him as much special mommy time as possible. I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to be very hard on him. He’s very excited about his baby sister, but I know he really has no idea what it’s going to be like when she comes home with us. I’m not quite sure I do either to be honest.

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6 More Days

Published by dee on March 12, 2008

Today was my last check-up with my OB. I was hoping for a little more progression and that she would tell me I’m going into labor today, but that didn’t happen (of course!). I have dilated more over the last week and am now at 3 cm, but still only 50% effaced. Really, I could still go at any time.

As I said last week, at the very latest this baby will be here on the 18th. My doc set up the induction today. I am set to arrive at the hospital at 6:45 Tuesday morning and my doc will set things in motion. I will be looking at my baby girl in six days. I’m very excited, yet it still seems so unreal to me that it is so close. I really can’t believe how quickly this pregnancy has passed by.

I was telling Hubby last night as we were catching up on some TV shows that I am just so bored right now. I’ve been keeping up on everything so well (because I’m afraid of going into labor at any minute) that I just don’t have anything to do. Even my TV shows and internet aren’t that exciting right now. I can see TV being boring, but the internet? It never lets me down. It is always there for me when I need something to do, but right now I’m just not even interested.

My pre-baby task list has dwindled down to practically nothing. I need to do a quick glance through the bills again and make sure everything is paid up for the next couple of weeks. I have yet to finish my state and local taxes. Other than those two tasks I really don’t have anything else that has to be done. There are only a couple of items left on my to-do list at work and if the mail would stop coming in daily I wouldn’t have much to do there either. I’m sure I can manage to fill the next couple of days, but I’m really just pretty done there too.

Since I know now that I’ll be having this baby at least by Tuesday, Friday will be my last day at work. I’m planning to take Monday off so that I can have one last special day with Zach. I’m not sure what exactly we will do. It will depend a lot on the weather. But, I want to take him out and do something fun with just him before he loses his only-child status. As much as I’m looking forward to BabyG being here and watching her and Zach grow up together, I’m still going to really miss all of the time that I get to spend with Zach now.

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Another Reason to Hate Day Care

Published by dee on March 11, 2008

I knew something was up with Zach a couple days ago. He barely ate anything over the weekend. He wasn’t really acting like he felt sick, but the whining was driving me up the wall. I noticed myself snapping at him and wondered what had gotten into him. Then I blamed myself for being cranky and pregnant. I thought surely I was just imagining it and that he was probably just being a normal 2-year-old.

I knew last night when I helped him in the bathroom. I knew something wasn’t right then. I wondered when he fought us at bedtime last night, and then again when he woke up fussing just a few hours later. But I really knew when he woke up this morning crying and saying, “Mommy! I gotta poo poo really bad!”

That pretty much set the tone for the entire day. Since I don’t want to miss any more work than absolutely necessary right now, I waited a couple of hours for his stomach to settle, made a quick stop at CVS for some children’s Pepto, then made the poor sick kid sit at work with me all afternoon while I tried to get some work done. I ended up having to stay longer than I originally thought and by the time we finally headed home he was exhausted.

Zach ended up crashing in the car and slept until after 7:30 on the couch. Now he’s up and seems to be feeling better. He just downed a bowl of Cars shaped chicken noodle soup and I’m really hoping that it stays where it should for a while.

Sometimes I have to wonder if the education he is getting at his school is worth all of the illness and germs he brings home. It seems like he was only actually well for about a week since the last round. Plus, the last thing we need in our house right now-with a new baby soon on the way-is more germs.

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37 Weeks

Published by dee on March 8, 2008

Since my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, I’ve felt this urgent need to finish up all of those last minute things that I had been putting off. I thought I was pretty set by Thursday night, that everything was ready for BabyG’s arrival. Then Friday came and about a million more things popped into my mind that I needed to finish. With the exception of a few very necessary breaks, I spent all of Friday evening and most of Saturday organizing, arranging, and sorting.

Late Friday night, just as I was getting ready to go to bed, I suddenly felt a very strong contraction-like feeling. It was hard enough that I felt nauseated. I stood up and suddenly my belly was a few inches lower. I had thought earlier in the day that she had dropped a bit, but this was very obvious. She’s was much lower.

So with the nesting and the dropping, now I’m just waiting. I think I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. The longer she waits, the more obsessive I get about making sure everything is just right. My bag is packed, with a last minute check-list stuck on the side. Zach’s bag for Grandma’s house is ready to go. The camera bag is filled with extra batteries. All that’s left is to actually go into labor and have this baby.

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She'll Be Here By Easter

Published by dee on March 5, 2008

Well, today was the big sonogram to check BabyG out one last time. I’ve been really anxious because I knew that after today we would have a pretty good idea of when our baby girl would be making an appearance.

BabyG measured in at approximately 7 pounds, 1 ounce this morning at just under 37 weeks. Apparently I have not been imagining all the pain in my pelvic area either as I’m already dilated to 2 and about 50% effaced. This baby is ready to come out. My doc says that her head isn’t quite planted yet, but I’m guessing that will happen sooner rather than later.

The consensus with the doctor is that I will most likely be induced on the 18th if I don’t go into labor on my own before that. If I’m still pregnant by next Wednesday, I’ll have one final checkup with her and then set up the induction for the following Tuesday.

In 13 days or less I will be holding my little girl in my arms! I have so much to do!!!

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