My Gymnast - Pregnancy Update 39 weeks

39 Weeks - Yesterday I went in for a regular weekly checkup and NST on Olivia.  She passed her NST with flying colors.  I fully expected the Dr. to tell me I was progressing when he did my cervical check but instead he said I was hardly even a finger tip dilated and he couldn't feel a head at all.  He said "Are you sure she was head down last week?"

"Yes it was confirmed with an ultrasound" I told him.

You see my little Olivia flipped breech at 36 weeks then back to head down at 38 weeks.  Last week she looked pretty low and locked in but she still had a lot of fluid.

The Dr. wanted me to go to ultrasound to see if she was head down and not engaged or if she had flipped breech again.  Sure enough that little stinker had flipped once again to breech and her head was up in my right rib.

Our options:

1) Try to flip her from the outside - NO WAY! I hear this hurts and it isn't always a guarantee they will stay and it could put the baby in distress which would lead to an emergency c-section.

2) Schedule a C-section but still come in on Monday to see if she flipped and if so cancel the C-section.  Also check before the C-section to see if she flipped and if she did decide to either go forward with the C-section or wait for nature.

We went with option #2.  I suppose there would be a third option to just wait and see what position she was in when I went into labor on my own but for me that presents far to many risks.  My baby girl is little and with my first I went from 4cm to 10cm very fast and she came shooting out.  I would rather not risk her life should she still be breech when I go into labor.  Now that's not to say it won't happen between now and Friday (C-section is scheduled for my due date Feb. 7th) but where my first was over due and I am showing no signs of progression I probably won't go into labor before then.

C-Section Feelings:

I have mixed feelings on having a c-section.  On one hand I have had a vaginal delivery with Annabelle and besides the pitocen and the horrible spinal headache everything went smoothly.  The likely hood this one would be pretty is easy because she is small is pretty likely.  My recovery also would be far more manageable.

On the other hand with a c-section I know when it's happening and I know my Mom will be here for 2 weeks after to help.  But the recovery time is far longer and let's face it, it is major surgery.  I hate to be confined to one floor of my house and I am concerned about what happens after my Mom leaves because I will have very little help because Jerry needs to work.

My worst fear is she flips head down on Monday and we cancel the C-section then she flips breech again and I go past my due date and end up with a C-section any ways with far less help because my Mom has to leave on the 22nd.

I'm hoping recovery is not as hard as I am thinking it will be and I pray I do not get an infection.

The Good News:

Olivia is doing great and like I said she is projected to be 6 lbs. at 40 weeks with a full head of hair.  We could see her hair on the ultrasound and she had this big halo around her.

I have also only gained 10 pounds!  I am very very proud of myself because even though I am still very much overweight I am not as bad off as I could be after Olivia is born.  I attribute this to Annabelle keeping me busy and wanting to eat my food and to my continued use of my Wellbutrin from the second trimester on.

I have had some blood pressure issues during this pregnancy but they seem to correct themselves and then pop up just slightly at my last appointment.

Well my next post will probably be to introduce Olivia!  I will leave you with a picture.

This was taken at my baby shower (I'm second from the left).  These are all my pregnant friends.

Say a prayer for me that all goes well!

37 Weeks - Full Term!!

This past Friday we reach that point we all wait for and that's the 37 week mark!  We are so very excited and almost all ready for our little Annabelle.   I feel like over the past couple of weeks my belly has really started to get very big.  It could be because she is laying on her side and I am sure it is because she is putting on that oh so cute baby fat.

My sister Holly and I are going shopping for the last little bit of things we need to get before she comes.  Tomorrow we are also going for our Dr. appointment and we will find out if she is still laying sideways.  If she is I am not going to have them try to move her because I hear it is very painful and could cause the need for an emergency c-section if something goes wrong.  If she is still sideways I will probably schedule a c-section and then hope that she moves before the c-section.

Jerry is heading out for another business trip tomorrow afternoon and will be back Wednesday afternoon, so I need to holder her in until at least the end of the week.  I think we are going to be ok and all we plan to do is go shopping tomorrow then Holly and I will sit around the house on Tuesday.  I am going to work Wednesday - Friday and then I start my leave on Friday the 10th... Wooohoooo!!!

Baby Shower - This past Saturday I got a surprise from our friends Nora, Jon and Marilyn who threw us a baby shower at our house.

Jerry and I went out to run errands Saturday morning and Holly told me she wanted to stay home (now I know why) and we came home to all kinds of good food and a few close friends saying "Surprise"!  I was shocked!  I did feel really bad because I could see how much work Nora and Jon put into this with the help of Marilyn and it ended up being Nora, Jon, My Sister Holly, Lisa, Jerry and I (which if fine with me but others had said they were coming and didn't show).  Marilyn had a family emergency and I heard she came by to drop off some things then had to run to the hospital (her aunt was ill but she is ok now, thank goodness).  We had a great time and we very much enjoyed the company with Nora, Jon and Lisa (as always).   :-)

Thank you everyone for the wonderful gifts, Annabelle will love them!!  She got some great outfits, onies, bibs and a very generous gift card (which we already spent getting her some great things at Target).

Thank you again what a great surprise!!!

35 Weeks - Baby Shower!

Story of Baby Shower #2

On Fridays I work from home.  Today I had got up and taken a shower and put on my "comfy" cloths without doing my hair or working (what's the point I am just sitting in the house all day).  Jerry and I had breakfast and off to work he went.  At about 11am I get a message from Jerry that I need to go to the baby shower at his work.  Ok I knew they had planned a shower but never was told what day or time.  So I was totally confused, I asked so what day and time is it (thinking it was maybe next week he was talking about).  The phone rings and Jerry says I am on my way to get you (he had taken my car to work), huh?  Still confused "is it today? is it now?" I ask him.  

"Yes I am so sorry I didn't realize that it was today until just now" Jerry said.  

Oh great! So I finish up what I was doing for work and "run" (pregnant woman don't run) up stairs to get ready.  I quickly do my hair and make-up and Jerry got home as I was doing my make-up.  He helps me by ironing my pants.  I get dressed then out the door we go for lunch at his work (only took me 20 minutes to get ready, pretty good I think).

We arrived at his office and they had a big spread of all kinds of yummy food and they had decorated the room so nicely.  

The wonderful cake they had made!

They even had a cake made to match the invitations, very cute cake and it tasted yummy too!  It was nice to meet all of Jerry's co-workers.

After eating lunch it was time to open some gifts and have some cake.

We got lots of good things and I was so surprised that everyone did so much for us.  

Jerry and I Opening Gifts

The yummy cake

We then had some of that wonderful, yummy cake!  It was even as pretty on the inside of the cake as it was on the outside!

The funniest thing was everyone thought I would be really frustrated and made because I had to rush to get there, but that isn't the type of person I am.  I would never be mad when others were trying to do something nice for us.  It was an honest mistake that Jerry missed the date and time when he reviewed the invitations.  We are very grateful for the time his co-workers put into putting together the shower and to celebrate our little Annabelle.  I had been thinking for some time that we wouldn't even have a shower at all being our family is not around here but instead we had two with our work families.  

A special thank you goes out to Marilyn who worked so very hard to put together the shower, we truly appreciate all of the hard work she put into it.  What a great day!  Oh and I did return home after lunch and went right back to work as I am trying to wrap things up before little Annabelle decides to arrive.

All of the wonderful gifts we got, including a Target $100 gift card.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

What a Surprise!!

Story of Surprise Shower

Last Night:  First let me say that last night I didn't sleep so well after waking up at 2am to Jerry snoring (he doesn't usually snore) and our smoke detector outside our bedroom doing that annoying BEEP... 2 sec.... BEEP.... REPEAT over and over and over again.  Needless to say getting back to sleep and staying asleep wasn't going to happen.  So I got up and figured if I went down to the living room and turned on the TV that would drowned out the BEEP... BEEP, no such luck.  I would dose of a bit just to wake up 15 minutes later to the BEEP.

Why is it smoke detector batteries always die in the middle of the night?

Finally it dawned on me that I had ear plugs in my nightstand and that would be just the trick to stop the constant sound of that annoying smoke detector BEEP.  So at 4:30am I went back upstairs and put my ear plugs in and went fast asleep until that annoying thing called an alarm went off at 6:30am.  Needless to say with a night of interrupted "sleep" if you can call it sleep I wasn't feeling so well in the morning.  But I had a busy day at work ahead of me and knew I had to get going.  The funny thing is Jerry (who knew about this shower today) was saying that it was to bad I couldn't stay home today (he knew I wouldn't even if he told me I should).

The point is I almost didn't make it to the office today, if it wasn't for my very busy day and lack of having my work computer at home.  I might not have been in the office.

The Shower:  Today as I mentioned above I had a day full of meetings so I really didn't notice people disappearing all at the same time around 1pm or that Danielle totally got me to move away from the office were the gifts were by having me walk to the cafe with her earlier in the day.  I was totally oblivious!

I was in a meeting until 12:30pm then I shoveled down my lunch and went off to a meeting room to meet up with Danielle and Chuck at 1pm.  Chuck and I were sitting in the room waiting for Danielle, chatting about our project when we were like "hmmm where is Danielle it is 9 past."  So I shot her an IM to see if we were still meeting and she said her last meeting ran over and would we mind coming up to the room she was in?  I joked with Chuck "Oh sure make the pregnant woman move" said with a laugh.

So Chuck and I went upstairs and headed towards the conference room and as Chuck passed the one I thought she would be in to head to another one I was confused but still had no clue.  Until I rounded the corner and I then was thinking "Why is Danielle in the room with... Oh wait that's baby stuff...".  LOL I was totally surprised, I had no idea.

We got lots of GREAT things for little Annabelle!  They did so much and they even got us a diaper bag with Annabelle's Monogram along with some things I even didn't think of.  We played the classic melted chocolate in a diaper game (I am not so good at guessing my melted candies).   Danielle had even got us a cake with little roses on it for (Annabelle Rose), it was a very yummy cake!

Danielle also brought in the BIG storage bin of hand me down clothes ranging from 3 to 12 months (love hand me downs).  The outfits are so cute, man Annabelle is going to be better dressed than her mom and dad. 

Today was a GREAT day even with all the meetings (which went well I might add)!  A BIG thank you to my work family and to my wonderful husband who kept this all a secret!