Closing out 2009

Well I thought for sure that 2009 would bring us a new baby, but it sure isn't looking that way. I feel like I have been pregnant for the entire year. Lots of other milestones have passed me by it seems in the excitement and anticipation of our son's arrival. My 30th birthday. Our 5th wedding anniversary. Ok well maybe that's it...

Either way, it's been a good year. Eric and I are having quite a different New Year's Eve than we are used to. We slept in this morning and then had a little brunch around 10am of cheesy scrambled eggs and Paula Deen's Ultimate Coffee Cake. We went for a VERY long walk through the not-so-nice neighborhood down the hill from us. Then spent the early afternoon being lazy watching VH1. We've just now gotten showered and dressed and are considering getting out of the house for a bit before we head over to my friend Jen's for chicken katsu don and a low key New Year's celebration, hopefully complete with my favorite year end movie, 200 Cigarettes. I also picked up some Fre Brut yesterday at the store so I can toast in the new year properly :)

Still nothing in the way of meaningful contractions, so it's looking like Seth will be here tomorrow at the earliest. We can't wait!

I'm a watched pot

Went to the baby Dr. this morning. B/P 122/72, wt 187ish, baby's HR 147. My measurements are still increasing, so baby is still growing. Still head down, still 1cm dilated and about 50% effaced. Dr. H said he is normally a proponent of induction, as an obstetrician he said he feels nothing really good happens after 39 weeks. However, at this point the condition of my cervix is still not ideal for induction so if we did induce it would probably take awhile and it would be hard. So he suggested stripping my membranes, which I agreed to. I realized he probably hadn't done it before, since the last time I saw him I wasn't dilated at all. He said he is a big believer in "serial" membrane stripping. So we made another appointment for Monday to come back and do it again (if needed). He did say also that frequently after doing that labor will start with your water breaking earlier, so be prepared for a flood.

At this point my only worry with waiting is that the PUPPs might come back. Dr. H said if it does I could just call in and say I'm 40 weeks and I have PUPPs and I want to be induced and they would do it straight away. He said we could do another Medrol dose pack as well (or instead). Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but it feels good having a plan B. Makes it a little easier to be patient and wait. He did also mention that normally the dose pack will improve the PUPPs, but not make it go away completely so it's possible that it wasn't even PUPPs at all but rather something else.

I did have a lot of contractions late in the day yesterday, and a few this morning. Then ever since our appointment I've been feeling pretty crampy as well. So maybe we won't have long to wait. We are starting to come to terms with not getting that extra deduction on our taxes this year, so if that's the case I'm not that anxious to rush him. So anyway, I'll keep you posted!

T minus 3 days

Here we go, into my 2nd week off work and still no baby :( Frustrating! I did have quite a few Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday I think, brought on by a marathon of cleaning house, grocery shopping, and casserole making. They continued for awhile after I quit and went to bed, but never progressed beyond a vague crampy feeling or tightness. And then when I woke up today, nothing. I don't feel very good today though. Eric and I went on a walk this morning and I had to cut it short I was just not feeling up to it. It was a little colder than normal today so that was part of it, but I also thought I was getting a headache.

So, I'm going to take it easy today and see what happens. If something doesn't happen soon I am starting to think I would agree to being induced if Dr. H suggests it on Wed at our appointment. The thought is a little scary to me, but not as scary as having the PUPPs come back. Today was my last dose of the miracle cure they gave me and I would not be surprised at all if it crept back up in a couple of days. Again, selfish, I know... but... what if I ended up being a WEEK late?? It took less than a week for the PUPPs to go from a few annoying pink bumps to my own personal nightmare. I can't do it again. I can't, I'm sorry. So listen up, Seth: Mommy needs you to come on your own, and quick. I know you want to.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

As of today my rash is almost completely gone. I am still pretty itchy, but it's more of a mild all over kind of itch - as if I had a bad sunburn that was healing. A little annoying but tolerable. The important thing is I had a fan-TAS-tic Christmas. Still no sign of Seth's grand entrance, but it was a wonderful day just the same. Hopefully this outfit isn't too scandalous for you all, but I could not pass up the opportunity to get my 39 week pic dressed up as Mrs. Pregnant Claus ;) Merry Christmas!!



P.S. Santa brought me a NEW camera this year. So no more blurry grainy pics! Yay! Just in time for our new arrival!

Not for the faint of heart

The Medrol pack appears to be working already. I feel like a new woman...almost. Still a long, long way to go but I can tell I'm going to be having a Merry Christmas and I'll even be able to wear a BRA!

Just in case my string of whiney posts this week weren't enough to convince you of my misery, I thought I would share a picture. Eric talked me into getting some photographic evidence of my "condition" this morning (so someday when Seth has the chicken pox really bad I can say, ha! I'll take your chicken pox and raise you some PUPPs!). I can't bring myself to post the really nasty ones, even strategically cropped, so here is my leg and I'll leave the rest up to your imagination (click on the image below at your own risk). This horribleness is all over my hips, back, arms, ankles. But don't my nails look nice?



LUCKILY, last week before all this happened I had the foresight to take some *nice* naked-ish preggo pictures in which my skin is smooth and white as snow. I won't be sharing those, sorry :)

Christmas Eve Eve

Just when I thought things were starting to improve... well they were, but more patches keep cropping up as bad and as itchy as ever. We went to the doctor AGAIN today, this time for my regular 39 week appointment. Today we saw the midwife, "S" who has grown on me since the "what's up with this weight gain" incident. She talked me into a Medrol dose pack - basically Prednisone. It's a tapered course of a steroid - 6 pills on day 1, 5 on day 2, and so on. She assured me it's not going to hurt the baby and it is something they give moms all the time for various reasons - asthma, allergies, etc. She explained that in her opinion, with the Medrol I will actually be getting LESS medicine than if I continued to use the Triamcinolon cream - since at this point I would be spreading that cream over such a large portion of my body in order to hit everything. She also said I would probably start feeling better in a day or two - which is a lot faster than I would expect the cream to work. Then by the time I'm done with the course, I should definitely be ready to have the baby anyway. So I am going to be a little selfish on this one and try to get some real relief in time to enjoy Christmas, that will be nice. As a compromise I think I am going to try going without the Vistaril tonight since I don't really think it's making that much of a difference.

She checked me again, still 1cm - so the perky ARNP was right about that. She also stripped my membranes - which in hindsight is probably what Dr. H did (or tried to do) last week. It's interesting to me how both of them undertook the procedure... it wasn't a matter of "would you like us to try and strip your membranes?" Nope, they just went for it. Not that I mind at this point - I am more than ready to get things moving for sure. I still think it's kind of weird that they didn't ask if I was okay with it. But whatever... IMO that type of thing is pretty harmless on the broad spectrum of interventions. Much preferable to Pitocin anyway.

And now I am going to go drink some Raspberry Leaf tea and eat some pineapple ;)

*Some* relief

I did take the Vistaril last night.  I did a lot of research about it online when we got home, and ultimately decided it was going to be ok.  At first it didn’t seem to be helping, I was laying in bed crying and feeling sorry for myself for a long time.  But then I finally did go to sleep and I STAYED asleep for a long time it seemed.  Then when I woke up this morning the baby was moving around like usual, whereas the last couple of mornings he seemed to sleep in until past noon.  So that made me happy.  It also looked like there was possibly some improvement in the PUPPs, but I could be imagining it.  Probably not because of the Vistaril but I assume the steroid cream could be working.  It’s almost completely gone away from my stretch marks, which is where it started and I had been using the Triamcinolon 2x per day for about a week.  Some of what I’ve read online though has indicated that in some cases it just spontaneously clears up on its own for no reason at all.  Wouldn’t that be nice.

Anyhow, I went for a long walk today and had some contractions.  Being out in the cold made me feel normal for that hour, so that was nice.  Now that I’m home and showered though, the itching is back and the contractions are NOT back.  Boo.  I have another appointment tomorrow so we’ll see if I have made any progress. 

By the way, Yes, I am officially on maternity leave – I guess maybe that wasn’t totally clear from my last post.  So I think I’ll go take a nap.