man, it's been awhile...

I haven't updated forever...too much going on I guess.

Well, let's go back...

Starting with 10/16/04:

This was the day of my PartyLite party. By time I gathered everything up at my mom's, hauled it back in the house and then jumped in cleaning my own house (since everyone else was camped out on the couches either playing video games or talking on the phone) oh I'd say by 5:00 pm I knew something was starting with the baby. I took it easy the rest of the day but from 9:00 - 9:30 pm I was having contractions every 2 minutes. Those subsided but I was still feeling pressure. Still not sure if it was serious enough to go to the hospital but knowing that my ob was upset with me that I hadn't gone in other times, I waited 'til 10:30 - 11:00 pm before I went.

They hooked me up to the monitor and not long after that I started having cramps/contractions - whatever they were. They said nothing was showing up on the monitors but they still gave me a shot to stop the contractions. Why they'd would do that if nothing was showing up I don't know but I suppose it was based on what I was telling them I was experiencing. They sent me home just over 2 hours after I had gotten there.

I rested the rest of the weekend and didn't have any more contractions for days.

So then on 10/21/04:

I had my regularly scheduled ob appt. I told her about my trip to L&D. She talked about repeating the Fetal Fibronectin test but it was too soon. It was to be at least 2 weeks. We talked about the connection of these bouts coming on on the weekends when I've been on my feet more and doing more than I do during the week so she said to stay off my feet as much as possible.

She said every week now that I make it she is just happy as can be with because we just didn't know what would happen with my cervix. It's still closed. She also said that if I go into labor anytime after 34 weeks (2 1/2 weeks from now) they'll just let me go. That's mid-November so I'm kind of resigning myself that we may very likely have a November baby. And actually as long as it's healthy, I'd be TOTALLY ok with that.

So, then I was going good until 10/27/04:

I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. I swear there was an alien space ship hovering over our house the entire night. There was this loud buzzing noise over our house and eventually it started pounding inside my head. I was awake from that before the alarm went off but was just laying there not wanting to get up either. All of all sudden I felt like I was going to throw up. I turned on my side and soon started having cramps. After a little while I went ahead and got up and the rest of the morning I just didn't feel right. When I would walk my stomach felt different, later it was hard as a rock. Around 9:00 am I started having the pressure and pinching. Right then I told Leslie and Carla (the girl who is filling in for me) that I would probably be going home. I stuck around long enough to get Carla to a point where she'd have something work on the rest of the day. My plan then was to go home and go through the routine for pre-term labor...which is empty your bladder, drink 4 glasses of water and lay on your left side for an hour. If you have 4 or more contractions in an hour - head to the hospital. First Ken & I grabbed a bite to eat then I laid down. Within 10 minutes of my head hitting the pillow I was OUT.

An hour later I woke up though again having the pressure and pinching/cramping. I started my water again and waited. It was like that for about an hour and a half but not real intense or painful so again I didn't go to the hospital. The rest of the night I stayed off my feet and felt better just slow moving.

The next day I felt fine and happen to have an ob appt already scheduled that day - 10/28/04:

I told her how I had felt the day before and she re-did the Fetal Fibronectin test. I won't get the results 'til Monday. She checked my cervix, said it feels the same and that the baby still feels high (hasn't dropped).

So, the advice was basically the same. Stay off my feet as much as possible and go to the hospital if anything happens. I haven't had anything since.

Last night was funny though. When the winds picked up so much around 8:30 or so, he (or she) was moving like crazy. Have you ever heard that women can go into labor when there is a storm - it's the change in the barametric or air pressure?! That was really the first time I was seeing my stomach move around like there was an alien in there. No one else was home so it was just me laying there watching it all.

Hey, did anyone notice that I said he (or she) just then? I've been having thougths sometimes that when we go in for the c-section the baby actually comes out a girl. Maybe I'm just holding on to that a little. BUT a couple weeks ago Ken called out the word "GIRL" in his sleep. It was almost an exclamation, like "GIRL??". HAHA. Also the baby's heartbeat was back up to 152 at my appt Thursday. The last 4 or 5 appts it's been 140 every time. Plus I've got other girl "signs"...carrying high and all in front. I KNOW, I KNOW those are just old wives tales and I know of people who had those signs a certain way and it turned out to be the other but it's fun to toss the ideas around.

So it's day by day. Like I said, I've sort of resigned myself to a November baby so we'll see.