bethysmalls

Last picture of my pregnant belly. At least for a while. Heading to the hospital in minutes. eeek!

Exactly nine months from my wedding date. Fun facts.

So.

This past week has been just a little annoying for me. I mean that. Just a little. I had a lovely Christmas and didn’t even have to leave my house! I ate good food, received many wonderful, thoughtful gifts and even slept in a few times!

But then there is my OB/GYN practice. I had a scheduled appointment on Monday which I attended and met the one doctor I hadn’t yet and he proceeded to examine my cervix. He told me that I was still not dilated but that I’m softening and rotating forward. To which I thought, “How would you know? This our first ‘introduction’” but I kept that to myself. This guy was/is very nice and the irritation I have with my practice has nothing to do with him, let me just say that before I go on. Anyway, he tells me I must come back on Friday and have a non-stress test (NST) and again on Tuesday for an exam and NST and that in the mean time, he has to go to the hospital so he’ll look for a date to schedule an induction. Just in case. I work with several doctors and I know they are busy people so I had no confidence that this man would remember to do that. I didn’t call him on it though because I was already about to lose my shit about my stupid cervix and just took my paper to the SUPER nice appointment scheduler. She was busy making copies and one of the receptionists offered to help me out instead. She took a look at my paper and said, “I don’t do NST’s, Sheila.” So Sheila comes over and looks at my paper, types in some information and says to me, “Ain’t nobody here on Friday.” I looked at her with my, “ok, I didn’t ask for this” face and waited for her to make a suggestion while the receptionist went to find my doc. Sheila proceeded to schedule me for my appointments on Tuesday while I fought back my tears enough to say, “If I can’t come in on Friday, can’t I come in on Monday instead of waiting until Tuesday?” Sheila was having none of my suggestions and continued to do what she was doing. Doctor comes around the corner and beckons Hoagey and I into an exam room and says, “We’re going to have to work the system a little,” and devises a scheme wherein we go to the HOSPITAL on Friday since there will be no one in the OFFICE even though the 26th of December is not a HOLIDAY (Nor is the Wednesday before Thanksgiving when I also needed an appointment and had to wait until the following week even though I was supposed to be seeing them weekly at that point but I digress).

So Hoagey and I went to the hospital on Friday morning and told them we hadn’t feel the baby move which is what the doctor told us to do. This wasn’t exactly a lie since I hadn’t really try to feel the baby move that morning and just the day before I had to basically play my belly like a tom-tom to get some movement going. But anyway, they took us right in as there was 7 nurses waiting at the nurses station for something to do and did the NST and a very nice resident came and gave me the most painful exam I’d ever had done. Something called Stripping of Membranes. She deduced that due to the total lack of movement, the fact that I was 40 weeks + 6 days pregnant and that my baby was “not small” as she put it (sigh), my doctor would almost certainly opt for induction asap. I didn’t know what to say as at least 1/3 of her information was not exactly ‘true.’ But my doctor came in moments later, confirmed that I was just doing what I was told and then told me that he had scheduled me for induction on Tuesday. I was very shocked and relieved because a) he remembered to schedule me and b) I could stop lying about something that I didn’t exactly want any bad karma for, ya know?! After they checked the amniotic fluid via ultrasound, the baby was moving so much it was visible from space and it was obvious the jig was up.

Well it’s Sunday and I haven’t had any noticeable contractions since my practice labor.  Stiiiiiilll pregnant. And good news, we hung up some stuff in the Nursery! Still not finished but we’re like, so close!

Skippy ready for a diaper change

All that’s left is the fan and some shelves. And of course the baby.

Friday was a fairly slow day at work. There was a few kids at the end of the day who needed my attention but other than that, nice and slow. I say MY attention because I was the only one there and actually, it was kind of nice. I just sat and waited for the track teams to trickle in and caught up on my spider solitaire.  And then around 1 or 2pm, I started to feel something…squeezy. And consistent. Because I’m the jump-to-conclusion-iest person I know, I forced myself to ignore it. So for the rest of the afternoon, I sat contracting and getting a teensy bit more uncomfortable by the hour. Hoagey came out to get me after work and we were going to get some shopping done. It turned out we were both starving so we went to Chili’s. I wanted something Buffalo-y and their selection is 2nd to none! Plus it was in the same parking lot as the store we were headed to so win-win. During dinner, we whipped out the old iPhone (it is SO handy) and timed my increasingly uncomfortable contractions. 90 seconds long at about 5 minutes apart. Eff yeah! I was, again, cautiously freaking out.

On Wednesday of last week, I woke up at 3am contracting and when we timed a couple found that they were 12 minutes apart (yay!) but by the time we were up to go to my OB appointment, they had died down to where I couldn’t feel them unless i had my hand on my stomach as they were happening. But I figured, “Maybe I’ll have dilated a little!” Not so fast, said my doc later on, “You’re closed. I’m going to have to ask you to go schedule an appointment for next week.”

Back to Friday night. We concluded our Buffalo-sauced dinner and headed over to the store and while we were walking around, I didn’t really feel that much. I said to myself, “That’s why they tell you to walk around during labor! Cause it makes the pain better!” But really I think I knew we were just practicing. On the way home, I had some pretty intense contractions again so my secret hopes were restored. And after we parked, I was having the most intense contraction I had ever experienced to the point that I had to wait in the car for a few minutes. We finally walked inside the house and a few minutes later… nothing. It was about 6 or 7 at that point and I’d had my first ‘false alarm’ (although the women at alphpamom.com prefer you call it ‘practice labor.’ Use positive language, please) and that was that.

This weekend seemed to fly by. More so than other weekends, I felt like I was losing hours by the fistful. Every hour that passed where I wasn’t in labor made me sadder and sadder and by Sunday afternoon, I was being consoled by my husband. That afternoon, we went to KMart, and Pathmark just to walk around but made sure to check both pharmacies for Castor oil, just in case. That evening, we started cookie baking at 9:30, finished at 1:15am, went to Pathmark again to find some cookie tins, were unsuccessful, and at 2am we were driving down every bumpy road in South Philly. All that was accomplished was an achy back (which I tried to mistake for labor pains and not the inevitable result of being on your feet for 4 straight hours), immensely swollen feet and 3 kinds of delicious Christmas cookies.

OB appointment this evening. Wish me luck!

This has been quite a year in my life. I started out overweight, engaged and in a city with an alleged sports curse. It’s the middle of December and in the last 12 months I lost 28 lbs., got married, conceived a child, slowly gained 40+lbs. and followed my favorite sports organization to a world championship. You’ve read about the baseball and the wedding and the pregnancy but today, my issue is the weight.

Like I said, I started out the year overweight. I won’t get into exact numbers and don’t get me started on my BMI but in my estimation I had about 20-30 lbs to lose and I did! And I felt good in my 1-size-down jeans and I would have been happy at that size/weight for a long long time. Not coming as a total surprise, however, Hoagey and I discovered after the honeymoon that we were pregnant and due to Weight Watcher’s Rules, I wasn’t supposed to continue the program so I didn’t. And for the first 2 months or so I didn’t gain anything, normal. The 3rd month, I gained 10 lbs, which could have had something to do with the Pei Wei Pad Thai I wolfed down moments before my appointment. But at month 4′s weigh in, I had gained an additional 5 lbs. At the month 5 check-up(and up another 5 lbs) I finally asked (since no one else was saying anything) if I was gaining too fast. My doctor glanced at the chart and, not looking too concerned, said, “yeah, you’re probably about 5 lbs over where we want you to be.” So I explained that I did not have the God-given ability to know how to eat and that I was using Weight Watchers but I stopped when I got pregnant and I don’t want to do anything that would harm the baby, yadda yadda yadda. She told me that it was fine to continue on WW and just to give myself an extra 300 calories a day. So that’s what I did and for the next 3 months, I gained ~1 lb. a week but around mid November, I gave it up. Since then I’ve kinda gone overboard. And I’m not worried for the following reasons: My blood pressure is good, my urine (which they test for protein and sugar at every visit) is fine and the doctor hasn’t said boo about anything.

Here’s my problem: Everyone has been telling me I look “great” and some people even use the word tiny. I realize that I am an athletically built (read: big-boned) person and perhaps I am just carrying/hiding this extra 40 (almost 50) lbs well but tiny, people? Assuming my friends and family are being honest with me and not somehow ALL in on this scam, where is this weight going!? To put this in perspective, WebMD estimates that women should gain 25-35 lbs during pregnancy. I’m not particularly swollen, I’m having trouble locating any huge-ness, aside from my belly, and I have my delusional but totally sweet husband telling me that it’s “probably my muscle mass increasing in your legs to carry your belly around.” Such a darling.

I guess if I still look ok and my health is fine, why am I worrying? BECAUSE MY HUSBAND WEIGHED 10 POUNDS AT BIRTH! Also, I’m not worried, just annoyed. Scales are stupid and I’m peeved I even have one but seriously where the frick is it going?

suggestions? comments?

Maybe it's in my hair

Holy crap, y’all!

That grainy iPhone photo is of a Crib and a Dresser IN THE BABY ROOM! We finished the touch-ups last night and got to work on the crib assembly and when all was said and done, it was 12:33 and we were off to bed. At least I was off to bed because someone had to clean up the crib box and take out the trash. And because I have the most wonderful husband EVER, he wouldn’t let me help.

I’ve been having a new pregnancy symptom. I can sleep through anything. A few weeks ago I was complaining about waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to get back to sleep and therefore was exhausted all the time.  Now, I DO sleep through the night to the point that I don’t move, hear Hoagey’s alarm… I don’t even have to pee until the morning. That’s weird, right? Not only do I not have to get up in the middle of the night and sleep like a rock, I am still freaking exhausted in the morning. Today I snoozed 3 times which means that I couldn’t wash my hair. Not a big deal as I doubt anyone is expecting that much from me by way of appearance. Most of the people I talk to are surprised I’m still working at this point. There’s a lot of, “How much longer now?” “Nine days.” “Seriously? What are you doing here?”

Answer: I’m wishing and hoping and praying that this baby comes early so that I can stop coming into work. I’m not particularly uncomfortable, but it has been slow here and while that is generally a good thing (no one getting hurt, etc.) if I had the opportunity to be a little more active, maybe this process would speed along.

Nothing can bring me down today, though. There’s a crib in the nursery, not in a box. And the dresser has been stripped of it’s protective wrap and they can finally get settled into their new homes and become friends.  The sheets aren’t clean yet and the light fixture is a contractor-style lamp but who cares? The pendulum is bound to swing the other way soon, and then I’ll have all kinds of super energy to get everything done!

Look out, baby goods, you’re about to get organized.

Yesterday was awesome. After 8.5 months of slooowly inching towards a place for the baby to sleep and eventually play and never clean (if this child’s anything like me) my village and I bounded towards the finish line. We are 1 coat of paint away and if all goes well tonight we’ll be ready to move in.

In addition to the painting and the bounding we also did a half a dozen other things to prepare for “shorti” as this baby is known by it’s aunts and uncles. Observe:

It was incredibly exhausting and all I did was dry some dishes and sterilize the baby gear.

My original plan was to have my mother and mother-in-law help me put baby clothes into drawers but I wanted to take the drawers out of the chest since it’s not moved into place yet and I figured it would be to heavy to move with all the clothes in it. It would also get all the baby crap out of my living room. It turns out, as some sort of safety feature, you can’t take the drawers out! Pffft. Safety. People get so hysterical about that stuff.

Meanwhile I was beside myself trying to figure out how to handle the bottles after I sterilized them. Do I just pick them up?! With my HANDS?! I don’t have a sterile field! My hands are contaminated! No matter how much I wash them! Germs! My mom said that I can just put the tiny stuff like nipples and pacifiers into a clean container and wash my hands before I do it. I think I trust her so that’s what I did. There’s no guarantee that I won’t sterilize them again before using them.

Okay folks! 12 days til my due date! Let’s freaking go.

Like most people who are living in the 1st world, I’ve wanted an iPhone since before there were iPhones. I deduced from the size and shape of the almighty iPod that it would be so easy to make one that could, like, dial too. When they actually came out and cost almost as much as a month’s rent, I soon realized that it was not something that was in my future not that I stopped talking about it, though. I told everyone to buy me one for my birthday or whatever holiday was close. Recently, my beloved hubby would ‘remind’ me that I had a choice between a new pet, a iPhone or a baby and, that clearly, I’d made my choice. It was all in good fun since, like i said, it was a pipe dream anymore.

Many of you know that I celebrated a birthday yesterday. One that falls between 20 and 30. Many of you also know that I am very pregnant and due within a couple of weeks. I am usually nuts about my birthday cuz it’s a day, that’s, like, all about ME. I like to be special and celebrated but this year it felt sort of … inappropriate i guess? to be so narcissistic while I’m thisclose to being a parent. Anyway, I didn’t feel like a big deal was in order and I honestly didn’t expect one. Parties thrown for my birthday are usually done so by me and until this  year, no one has ever successfully surprised me with, like, anything (way to go, baby shower conspirators!). Hoagey and I were to go out to dinner after work to one of my favorite places and I knew he was getting me Tales of Beedle the Bard since it was released yesterday and I was more than happy with these plans.

There was, however, a small problem with my cell phone. We recently put our phones on a family plan and I assumed that meant I would now be able to send and receive picture messages and yet, it wasn’t happening. So my darling hubby took the bus to see me after work and then on our way home, he said, “Since we have some time, why don’t we go to the AT&T store and see if we can figure out what’s wrong with your phone?” “Okay!” I said cause I was pumped to get picture messages, Wooo! I’m sure you can see where this is headed by now, but I had no clue. We walk into the store and a woman greets us and before I can open my mouth to explain the problem I’m having with my device, Hoagey says, “We’re here to get her an iPhone for her birthday.” And I literally shouted, “We are?!”

I couldn’t stop smiling the whole night and I still can’t believe that I own this tiny little awesome thing and that even though my baby coming is still the awesomest thing that will happen this month, my man still thinks I’m special enough to get me a way too expensive birthday present.

hoagey buying my iPhone, taken with iPhone.

On a new website!

I decided that my previous digs were a little too…juvenile? And anyway, I wanted to be like the cool kids and have my own domain name, so here I am, webz!

Plus I feel it’s much more appropriate to post the forthcoming baby pics and vids on this very very classy blog. So update your readers, friends! I’m global.

Love to you all,

Bethy