We had an apt. at the hospital at 1:00 today to see if she needed the prostaglandin (Prostin) gel to soften up her cervix. They did the same fetal non-stress test we had done a few weeks ago first. Noah Maxx is doing great. She had one solid contraction in the 45 minutes or so she was hooked up. Then the doc did a check and said she's at 2 cm and fully effaced, so the gel wasn't necessary.
So, we went and had some lunch, got a couple of last things from the grocery store, and now we wait. If her water breaks or she has real contractions at 5 min. apart we'll call and head on in to the hospital. Otherwise, we get there at 6:30 tomorrow morning to induce.
24 more hours - give or take. As we've said for months now, we just can't wait to see him.
The hospital room has wi-fi, so I'll do FB/Twitter updates when I can and try to put at least a short post up here once he's out and clean and all that good stuff.
We appreciate all the prayers and good wishes. Soon the real fun begins!!
Day 5 past due date and still nothing. We're so well rested it's not funny. The house could be cleaner, I keep doing little at a time. Also, at this rate it looks like I'll actually get to finish season 4 of The Wire. So heartbreaking.
I'm not entirely surprised he's late, but a little surprised he's this late. But I know that the minute he's born this extra week of waiting won't matter.
Hi this is Nerdstar, and we are well into 3 days past Noah Maxx's due date. We know that pregnancy can last anywhere from 38 to 42 weeks. Now we've already gone ahead and scheduled for Noah Maxx's induction on next Thursday, but just in case any of you like to gamble, or are into statistics, or even have any sort of psychic connection, I'd like to have your take on when Noah Maxx will be here. It has got to be on the dates prior to next Thursday, if anyone is sensing or guessing that he'll be here prior to induction.
Here are just some of the latest "non-symptom" symptoms:
1. Noah Maxx has been really active, especially during last night, I felt he was going to puree my organs! Despite of us telling him repeatedly that he'll have a lot more room to kick around on the outside.
2. I'm still eating and drinking normally.
3. My sleep is starting to not feel so restful, due to my right hip being out of whack, baby getting heavier, and my endless trips to the bathroom, it's almost bad enough for me to consider buying some Depends.
4. I've got just a few, but not a lot of those Braxton-Hicks, at least I think that was what I felt.
5. I don't think Noah Maxx could be hanging any lower down my belly than he already is now.
6. Otherwise, I feel pretty normal, as normal as anybody 10 months pregnant living in 100+ degrees heat.
Hope these details will help/not help a least a little bit! Happy guessing!
Had our weekly ob/gyn apt. this morning. Still only dilated at 1 cm, he's in a great position and seems to be doing great, but seems to still be in absolutely no hurry. I've read boys really do need to cook a little longer, so he's got some more time. We've got the induction scheduled for early next Thursday morning, but we've got our fingers crossed he gets in motion before then.
Nerdstar's still feeling mostly good, starting to have a little more trouble sleeping, but that's what naps are for! We've been recording the Tour de France and watching it in the afternoons, it seems to be perfect for napping to.
Tomorrow is D-Day, due date. We'll see if that means much or if our little fella needs some more time in the oven.
As we're so close to the end of this part of things, I just want to say how amazingly proud I am of my Nerdstar. She's giving me the greatest gift of my life. I am grateful to God that this pregnancy has gone so smoothly for her. I know she doesn't ever really let it sink in, but I think she's been beautiful through this, my little earth mama!
I can't wait for the next stage in this journey of parenting. I'm glad we're on the same page about things, that we both hope more than anything to have fun with our boy.
As some of your might know, I've had a fairly smooth pregnancy so far, going into the 38th. week, and Noah Maxx has been pretty active as far as fetal movements were concerned.
That is, until about 24 some odd hours ago. I woke up two nights ago to pay my obligatory visit to the porcelain God and noticed that he was just laying still like a hard lump in my belly, which was different than the evenings before, he'd move quite a lot overnight, while I'd feel some of it, I wouldn't feel other of his movements since I am usually a deep sleeper.
In the morning after, Noah Maxx's movements would feel less in intensity, even though he'd still move, the movements just didn't feel the same. Obviously, I got suspicious and called the ob/gyn office to inquire what might be going on. The nurse practitioner instructed me to perform the kick count test, which involved me counting the baby's movements in an one hour window after I had some food and sugary drinks. Noah Maxx passed that test, but I could still not shake that suspicious feeling. Part of the nurse's explanation for the changes in Noah Maxx's movement was that he was positioning himself properly for delivery, and there will be changes to the intensity and the frequency of noticeable fetal movements.
Later, after I had gotten home from work, the GF put her hand on my belly and also felt a difference in his movements, and there was so much of a difference that she had also gotten concerned. She then looked up some information on the internet but none of the information were really all that helpful. Some things are just not as clear when it comes to pregnancy and what it all involves.... heck, some people won't even know that they were pregnant until their babies are born!
We got to talk about calling the ob/gyn doctor on call and see what she/he recommends, and if we can't get any answers, we'd go to the emergency room and have them check Noah Maxx out.
While in bed, quietly waiting and monitoring Noah Maxx's movements (and there wasn't many) we decided to call the ob/gyn on call, and she recommended that we head to the hospital and do a non-stress fetal test. We then quickly got dressed, grabbed the hospital bag, and headed to the hospital. There was a bit of confusion about where to register, since the check-in desk at the labor and delivery ward was closed at 10 PM (we had gotten there around 11 PM, almost midnight) but thankfully they got me in after a short amount of time. The lady from the emergency room got me a wheelchair, wrist ID band, and pushed me to the labor and delivery ward. We were lead to the post cesarean section recovery room and I then got hooked up to this fetal monitor that tracks fetal heartbeats and my contractions (I don't think there were any.), and I was also given a push button that I had to push every time that I can feel the baby's movement. After about 20 minutes of monitoring, the nurse said that Noah Maxx looked great and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong. That was a huge relief! I for one felt a bit like a dumbass, but I think my concern was justified. :-)
I so hope that this particular event will hopefully be the last event before Noah Maxx makes his debut... from this dry run, I found that the hospital, while an exciting place to be (I mean, just look at all of these medical shows on t.v.!) it's not conducive to getting any rest or anything similar.
Our boy has been very wiggly for many, many weeks. That's a good thing. And they say as you get closer to the due date, all you can do is watch for losing the mucus plug, your water breaking, contractions, and a reduction in baby movement.
At the ob/gyn apt. last week, and the week before, they said everything looks great, and that it looks like he's in no hurry. That's ok.
About 3 a.m. early Monday, Nerdstar got up to pee and then came back to bed and said she hadn't felt him move in a while, and he just felt like a lump. Thankfully, we've got the little home fetal heartbeat monitor, so we checked and his heart sounded just fine. He moved a little, but it was just nothing like what he's been doing.
So yesterday morning she called the doc's office and they had her do the test where she has something to eat and then counts his movements for the next hour. That went fine. But all day and then into last night he just didn't feel like his normal self - there were movements, but just much more muted than all the days before.
About 11 we went to bed, and he's usually pretty wiggly around then. But last night not so much. We finally decided to call the doc's office and the on-call doc said to go ahead and go to the hospital L&D and have a stress test done. We went ahead and grabbed the packed bag just in case and headed on over.
They hooked her up to a fetal monitor for 20 minutes and his heart was really great and of course he moved around quite a bit. So we came back home. We just joked that this is our dry run to see how it goes for the real thing.
Everything is still fine. Our best guess is that he's changed positions again. He's been head down for a couple of months, which is great. But maybe now he's face down instead of face up and so we're not getting his arms and legs as much as before. Who knows. The next ob/gyn apt. is Thursday morning. Apparently it's not so much how big the movements are, just that he has so many of them within X amount of time.
I've been very good and haven't freaked out. What's funny is that in my job as a phlebotomist, I am fully aware that fear makes people grumpy. And that's what being a little scared does to me. I'm good at keeping my mouth shut and not saying stupid things. But that means I'm quiet and grumpy.
Tomorrow should be Nerdstar's last day at work. I'm happy about that.
Hello, this is Nerdstar and I thought that I'd give a bit of update on what has been going on lately.
So far, Noah Maxx is still inside the belly and being fairly active. The doctors at the ob/gyn. office are not predicting that he'll make his debut early, but then again, they are not exactly sure either. It seems like the doctors really don't know anything, that's medical science for you, educated guesses, educated, but still guesses.
I think we are ready for him to arrive, and I will let you know, of course, in retrospect, if we have somehow forgotten something!
I finally found out that my last day of work at my current project will be on next Wednesday, and I think the timing is just right. I had been thinking about taking off a few days earlier anyways. Just in case that there are a shortage of projects at my current company, I went ahead and took an offer from another company, ready for when I get back to work. Needless to say, I am not that worried, at least not right now.
I had also received my honorable discharge order from the reserves (for those of you who might not know, I've been an army reservist for quite a while now, with one combat deployment.). It's a bit of a long story that lead to the discharge, but I think it's really a blessing in disguise. With the current system of frequent, long deployments, confused (and sometimes ill-willed) leadership system, these are a few dollars and a few fringe benefits that I am willing to let go of. Kudos to those who are opting to stay with the services. It has been a crazy 14 years, and it's time to go.
For now, we're just concentrating on relaxing as much as we could, and waiting for the arrival of Noah Maxx!
Here we are at 21 days away from the birth of Noah Maxx, not really knowing when exactly he'll choose to make his debut. We're excited to finally be able to see him soon though! He has been really active in my belly, sometimes to the point that I'm wondering if he ever really slept!
Do I know what job I'll be working on after Noah Maxx is here? I still don't have any idea. This is one of the evils of working a federal contracting job, the government can take its sweet time at deciding which firm has won the work bid, but it's something that we're learning to accept. To tell you the truth, this is not the first thing on my mind at this point. The biggest thing on my mind right now is hoping that Noah Maxx's delivery will be safe, smooth, and hopefully quick.
Some of our friends have started to give births, with the latest one born yesterday evening (Hi Justin and Jen!), and this truly makes the "summer of babies"!
We are really excited, and almost cannot wait until we see our little man!
Nerdstar was lounging on the sofa with a blanket over her belly and I got one of Noah Maxx's little toys out and cut the tags and stuff off and then handed it to her. He's been moving around a lot, so she put the toy on her belly. It's a 3 minute video, but it's so cool.
Of the incredible stretched marked belly! Yes, after having been able to avoid it for much of the pregnancy, not even I can hold them at bay any longer! In fact, it took me a while before I could see them since they were on the underside of the belly that was hard to see.
Which means that Monday we'll be at 30 days - or 1 month.
I've been predicting for several months that he'll be born on his due date, and he'll weigh between 7 lbs and 7 1/2 lbs.
My favorite pastime is still having my hand on her belly feeling him wiggle around. Poor little fella is squished, but trying to stretch. I think he's most comfy when she's sleeping on her side and he can sorta lie on the bed, too. That's when I can sometimes feel his little hand move along her side as opposed to usually feeling his leg/foot moving just above her belly button. He's been head down for a few weeks now, and the doc said he still is at the apt. today. I told him he better stay that way.
We're 90% sure her insurance and short term disability and maternity leave and such will all be just fine. Her current job ends June 30th. We have no idea if they'll find a different job for her to work on for a couple of weeks before Noah gets here or not. I'm kinda hoping not so we can chill and spend our time trying to find a couple of really good meals. Then we know even less about where she'll end up working after maternity leave - but one thing at a time.
My head is clear from the previous insanity. I'll never understand how hormones/PMS can actually affect thoughts. Thank God I usually know that's the cause and can try to ignore it, and it doesn't last more than a couple of days.
It's been another mostly lazy weekend, well, other than the time yesterday spent shopping for the things we needed to be as ready as possible for Noah Maxx. A year ago I would not have imagined how cute I now find all the things we buy for him. We finally bought him a couple of little toys. We got all his grooming supplies. Nerdstar even had to get him some of those jean diapers for if/when we travel. We're good to go on cloth diapers, I think I've washed them enough and got them ready to use. Really, the only thing left to do is wash all his blankets, sheets and clothes.
I have an evil brain. And in 42 years I've mostly learned how to deal with it, when to pay attention, and when to ignore the hell out of it. Friday it really got bad. I ran across a couple of blogs by women whose babies had been stillborn. That just sort of got stuck in my brain. I won't elaborate, but it takes me a lot of energy to fight off those types of thoughts.
As I've mentioned before, Nerdstar is great about not worrying unless there's something concrete to worry about. I'm getting better at absorbing her calm.
That said, we do have a potential thing to worry about. She found out late Friday afternoon that her last day of working on this current project is supposed to be July 1. The problem with that could be that she's supposed to work until July 6 to hit the one year mark. We'll find out much more tomorrow (hopefully) about insurance continuance and short term disability and FMLA and all that good stuff.
We're not too, too worried about the money/job stuff. But it's not so fun waiting to find out exactly how things are going to go.
He's been head down for a while now, with his back and butt on her left side and arms and legs on the right and at the top. I keep telling her he's all squished in there. I try to rub his back and pat his little butt sometimes. I hope he doesn't find it annoying.
Here's a bonus pic of Ramen with Jo (our friends' little girl). He's always been great with little kids. He just takes it and then sneaks in licks of their hands and face when he can.
Hello everyone! It's Nerdstar again and we are headed towards Noah Maxx's delivery! He has been really active and his head has also been pointing southwards so that means that he's getting ready to get out of the belly. I have no idea whether or not he'll come early or later than his due date, but as long as he's healthy and delivered safely, I won't be that worried.
Am I anxious about the delivery? Of course! This is something that I've never experienced before and not knowing what my pain/discomfort threshold is, you bet I'm feeling some anxieties! We did not opt to take childbirth classes due to the fact that our hospital was not offering them and also we didn't want to go through the trouble of traveling somewhere further to get these classes. Besides, there had been plenty of babies born without the moms having been through these classes.
I've been quite lucky so far in regard to how easy this pregnancy have been. I've never had any morning sickness, had to go on bed rest, or had to be monitored closely due to medical reasons, and so most of me is expecting that Noah Maxx's delivery will be smooth too. I'm not saying that I've not had any discomfort. I have swollen ankles, bouts of low energy, and just a few weeks ago, a massive allergy attack of my skin, but really nothing that bad.
Thanks to the GF, she had been letting me take it really easy and doing most of the driving on weekends when we'd go somewhere. Not only that, she has also been doing most of the reading on childcare and education whereas I have simply been working and growing Noah Maxx :-)
Needless to say, we cannot wait to see and hold our boy!
So far I've read two books, The Happiest Baby on the Block and then Babywise II months 5 through 15 (I think it's 15.) I have The Happiest Toddler but haven't read it, and am waiting on the Babywise infant book from the library.
In some ways these two sets of books are opposites. So it was kinda funny/brain hurting to read them back to back.
The premise of Happiest Baby for infants is that babies need a 4th trimester, but due to head sizes of humans don't get it. Therefore, for really fussy babies - and the book seems to be mostly for fussy/colic babies more so than happy ones - you need to do these 5 magic things to get them to self calm. The idea is that until about six months it's impossible to spoil the baby or set bad habits, so make the baby happy.
Babywise is all about moral development, I gather even in infants, and the parents setting the schedule and rules. It reads a little cold, but there does seem to be some good practical suggestions in there. It's written by Christians, which I suppose could annoy readers who aren't. Then again, with some of the ideas, the few Christian parts might not be the most annoying parts.
But really, until Noah Maxx is born, and we know what his personality is, there's no way to know what's going to work best for him.
Because it only took a few hours to read them both, I'd say it was worth the time.
Hooray!! We finally got to see our cute boy! Of course, he had his fist planted in his eye 80% of the time. Then, because that wasn't enough to hide behind, he added his legs and feet up by his face, too! Wow, to be that flexible!!
Here he at least moved his hand to upside his head...
And here he's trying to put his foot up his nose.
He's measuring perfectly dead average for his age. That's good. Next time we see him he'll finally be outside the belly. We can't wait!
On Saturday afternoon, we had a baby shower for Noah Maxx at a friend's house nearby. The funny thing was that the friend who had arranged everything switched the starting time of the baby shower at the last minute, from 2 to 3 PM so that there will be ample amount of time for her own little girl (her daughter is 18 months old.) to have a nap. Of course, and GF and I didn't know about this, so we showed up at her place about an hour early.
One person bailed at the last minute because she had a last minute closing on her new house, and another thought that the baby shower was at our place so she drove all the way to our place....finding it empty. She got really tired from all the traffic and decided that she didn't want to go any further. She did leave the baby's gifts at our house prior to departure though.
There were four people who came to the shower, one was a colleague from work, another was this girl that I had deployed to Iraq with, and the last two were a friend of mine from my reserve unit and his sometimes girlfriend. We chatted, had this enormous chocolate marble cake, had this really good citrus punch, and some other snack foods. Since we really don't have a lot of friends, I'm just grateful for the ones who did make it!
We didn't play silly games during the shower, which was just the way that the GF and I had intended. When our friend's baby girl got up, I went into her room and changed her and brought her out, baby Jo is such a good baby! She was friendly and receptive to everyone there! Our Ramen dog (we brought him to the baby shower, since our friend also have a dog that's pretty friendly.) was on his best behavior, getting everyone to pet him and letting baby Jo play with him.
We're really thankful for all the stuff that we had gotten at the shower! We got some of Jo's clothes, baby carrier, a baby rocker (they will be returned when our friend has her second little one.), lots of baby clothes, baby bottles, baby wash, baby shampoo, gift certificates to babies r us, and some great advice from the people from the shower written in this spiral notebook.
I was really surprised that we had gotten that many gifts for Noah Maxx! We were also amazed about how many things that a baby needs right when it's born! The reality is setting in ever so much more that, in 66 days, our little man will be here!
I will write about the rest of the weekend in my next entry, it's getting late and both the GF and I will have get some zzzzz's in before we hit work!
