final countdown

As a good friend pointed out to me, I am just about 36 hours away from my own personal D-Day. Having this induction scheduled since early LAST week has caused me difficulty. Why is that? you ponder. It's like having that awesome vacation planned a year in advance. You're constantly thinking, "I can't WAIT until that freakin' vacation!" I wake up in the middle of the night contemplating uterine tightenings and radiating pains. In the middle of working or watching TV or having a conversation, I think about it. Every time I have a low back pain, I think, THIS IS IT! Only to be devastated. I suppose the positive is that no matter what at 7:30 am on Saturday, January 31, 2009, I will be checking in to the hospital to finally have this baby.

hayden watch 2009

We are currently on official Hayden Watch. Since Sunday, I've been having fairly regularly (although painless) contractions for the majority of each day and night. If history can tell us anything, this will go on for a while longer until my body finally realizes that it needs to get with the program and begin labor for realsies. If my uterus has aged to the point where it will no longer get busy on its own, we have already scheduled an induction for Jan. 31st. Woo hoo!

37 weeks

My feet have never looked so teeny tiny. My midsection...Never so ENORMOUS. Thirty seven weeks have flown by and I'm knee deep in 22 trips to the toilet per night, itchy belly skin, nightmares of my water breaking in inopportune locales and people constantly asking me, "Haven't you had that baby yet?" That last one has to be my favorite as clearly I am barely sporting a bump.

update

Mitchell had a CT scan today. Although he had trouble with the barium he had to drink last night and this morning, the scan itself went much better than the one he had in the hospital. The scan is looking for any abscesses or abnormal fluid collections in his abdomen. Hopefully it reads clear; he's not too thrilled about the possibility of having to go back on another antibiotic. We shall see... I'm having lots of pre-labor activity. Hayden should be here any time now. Mitchell got the crib set up last night... Yea! And the girls put the bedding on. They did a great job and were very proud of themselves for their efforts. Thanks to the shower and the generosity of others, we now have various and a sundry baby paraphernalia. Every day now Taylor asks me if it's a possibility that Hayden could come "today". The answer now is YUP!

almost there

Being almost 36 weeks pregnant, I am realizing that I am almost done with this gestating thing. Weird. It doesn't seem like that much time has passed. And then I look down at my burgeoning belly, and I feel as though I'm at least 60 weeks pregnant. I don't feel bad per se, just uncomfortable. It's difficult to sleep as I must get up every 40 minutes to empty my bladder and I can only sleep on my left side otherwise my right arm falls asleep and becomes a dead piece of meat that dangles from my shoulder. I have that distinctive pregnant lady waddle, try as I might to walk like a normal person. None of my shirts will cover that bottom part of my belly...maternity or not, so I'm constantly walking around hiking up my pants. By the end of the day, my feet (when I can see them) slightly resemble marshmallow puffs stuck to the ends of my legs. I haven't seen my crotch in awhile. Putting lotion on my calves and feet has become a near impossible feat. And I often feel as though I have a little Hayden-hand hanging out of my cervix.

accosted

Today at the girls' school, some random boy jumps in front of me, rubs my belly (I hate that word), and then proceeds to embrace me for several seconds. Fully embrace. Strange, little boy cheek to baby bump. Fingers splayed against my sides, gently rubbing to and fro. He finally finishes, but before he pulls away, he gazes up at me from my mid-section. "You finished?" He gives me a final squeeze and skips away. How weird is that? He's lucky that he had the benefit of surprise, otherwise I would have had my knee in his little chest, forcing him away.

12-ish weeks

Yup. That's right. I'm just about finished. Hard to believe but true. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm done with this whole preggers thing, although sleeping at night is currently no picnic. My average number of trips to pee between midnight and 5 am is currently 4. Just so you know...

vomit burps

I have entered the heartburn phase of my pregnancy and have spent almost the entire morning and afternoon burp/vomiting into my mouth. Oatmeal and water shouldn't cause this to happen, right? Also note that I've consumed about 47 tums in an effort to combat my problem. Not working out so well.

sugar n spice

We are having our third girl. I'm excited and more than a little relieved. I'm not sure I was prepared for a boy and all the rugged items that go with it. After some bitterness, Taylor has reconciled herself with the fact that she won't have a little brother like she wanted. Dylan was thrilled to see the lack of a dangling participle on the sonogram screen. Everyone keeps worrying about Mitchell and his need for male offspring to carry on his lineage, but he seemed unfazed by the lack of penis.

good news

Got the genetic all clear from the Dr. the other day! Way to go Squishy of the Thin Neck Skin!

squishy makes an appearance

Here is the latest pic of Squishy. S/he is lazing away comfortably in utero. This was taken last week during an extensive exam I like to call "You're-Probably-Too-Old-To-Have-A-Baby-But-Somehow-You've-Gotten-Yourself-Preggers-So-We've-Got-To-Check-It-For-Genetic-Freakiness". I have yet to receive the thumbs up or down as to my newest offspring's genetic normality(or lack thereof), but the Tech performing the exam was quite excited by the thinness of Squishy's neck skin.

Maybe it's just because I'm the Mom, but I fancy I can make out a little nose and some more of the trademark Harris lips.

i shall call you squishy

It's officially real. Today we heard the baby's heartbeat. There were a few freaky moments before that fuzzy "wah, wah, wah" resounded over the speaker when it was hiding from us, and I was having all those fatalistic thoughts I'm prone to have. But suddenly it was there. Nice and strong and fast. I let out a sigh of relief and greeted my new squishy.

new diet plan

I have stumbled upon the best diet on earth. It's called The First Trimester Pregnancy Diet. It's super easy. All you've got to do is get impregnated. That where your work ends. There's no calorie counting, portion control, nada. About 4 weeks into it, your diet plan kicks in. You will no longer be able to consume dairy, most meats, sugar or just about anything else depending upon the day without violent vomiting and yes, even sometimes, diarrhea. It's truly amazing. Granted you will have to cope with almost constant nausea, but it's completely worth the 10 plus pounds you're likely to drop in a flash. And get this people, it happens with absolutely NO physical exercise. More than likely, you'll be required to increase your sitting on your ass and nap time exponentially because you'll have NO energy to do anything else. The downside, of course, is the fact that as you move out of your 1st trimester your urge to purge will be greatly reduced, and you'll most likely gain 25 to 50 lbs. Oh. That and the fact that your ob really frowns upon losing weight while pregnant and will even threaten to hospitalize you if you can't get it together.

joys of pregnancy: #1

Being in your first trimester, constipation is a pretty typical condition. It's one of those things you tend to forget about once you're out of the situation. But then you're in it again, and you're like, "WTF. How could I have forgotten this?" Part of life's plan, I think. To make you forget those little unpleasantries so you'll foolishly decide to do it again. Procreate, I mean.

It's totally common for me to go 3 go 5 days without pooping. I try not to dwell on my lack of bowl movements. It's just the way things are when you're pregnant. No big deal. It's just that when I do finally poop, it's kind of horrifying. Horrifying in that it's the color of creamed spinach, and it's taken 3 to 5 days to exit my system.

guess who's coming to dinner...in february

I'll cut to the chase and just type it. I'm pregnant. I can already hear the gasps in both surprise and ill-concealed disgust. I'm sure people have questions. Here are some answers.

Inquiring Minds: This pregnancy... was it planned or a surprise? Me: Freakishly enough it was planned. I even willingly made the appointment to have my iud removed. Even better? I tracked my periods and recorded my basal temp for 4 months! How's that for attention span? IM: Aren't 2 enough!?!? Me: Apparently not. IM: Okay. Forget about overpopulating the Earth, what about your age? Aren't you close to 50 already? Me: I'll have you know I'm just as close to 20 as I am to 50. Okay. Maybe that's not true since I'm on the downhill side of 35. But still, celebrities have babies at their advanced ages every day (okay, so not the Spears but didn't Halle Berry have a baby recently?). IM: What are you thinking? You were completely in the clear. Both in school, no diapers, everybody wipes their own ass. WTF?!? Me: I'd been getting so much undisturbed sleep since moving to Tucson, I figured I needed to inject some excitment into our lives. IM: Can you afford this? Me: Theoretically, no. Realistically, sure. It'll be fabulous. And no MJ, we won't have to sell the house or borrow cashola from you. IM: Is this Mitchell's last ditch effort for a boy? Me: Perhaps. As usual, he hasn't been super-specific about the brand of baby he'd like. He just seems happy that I agreed to a third. IM: Not that you don't deserve whatever comes your way since you got yourself into this, but how're you feeling? Me: Awesome! Similar to T's first trimester, I'm desperately ill. In a typical day, I'll puke 8 to 12 times. I have a headache most days and want to sleep constantly. The girls, of course, have other plans... IM: Hey yeah, what about the girls? How do they feel about this? Me: They are ridiculously excited. They're constantly trying to feed me and bring me drinks and kissing my stomach. DeeDee's especially thrilled to take a turn as a big sister. T's planning to babysit.