How irritating

So Andy's birthday is tomorrow and I still haven't gotten all the stuff I wanted. Make that MOST of the stuff I wanted to get. My plan was to do it all today, but he had the morning off. We ended up going to the mall and also had lunch out. Since we got home, I have felt just exhuasted and nauseous. Not a good combination for taking two little kids out to buy decorations, cake and presents! Plus, Dominic and Clark discovered toys I had hidden in the storage room (we rotate them in and out - it's ridiculous how many they have. And yet, I can't seem to just get rid of them). Anyway, I will have to drag them out of the house kicking and screaming. 

And you know, I just *had* to google "nausea before labor". And naturally 18 million links popped up of women on message  boards asking if this meant anything. And of course there were loads of women responding back, "Oh yeah, I felt sick one day and had my baby that night" along with loads of women with the opposite experience. 

By the way, if the baby were born today or tomorrow, I'd be taking part in quite a deFiesta family tradition - Andy was born on his mother's birthday. If the baby were born today, he'd be born on his mother's birthday and if tomorrow, then on his father's and grandmother's birthday. And Andy is also the third child! That would be quite a family fun fact! 

Okay, enough procrastinating. Time to drag the children out of the house!

38 Week Appointment

My appointment this morning went well. I've dilated another centimeter, which puts me at 2, and I'm 50% effaced. So - progress. Nothing crazy, but things are moving in the right direction. Baby's heartbeat is still in the 150's, my blood pressure is fine, and I lost 3 pounds! My nurse practitioner was quite interested to know how I managed that. I really have no idea. 

Also, I went ahead and let her strip my membranes. And let me say, it's no big deal. It was mildly uncomfortable while she was doing it, but certainly no worse than a regular pelvic exam. I don't have any great hopes that it will actually do anything, but you never know. Right now I'm feeling mildly crampy, but I'm not having any contractions. We'll see.

Lastly, she doesn't think I'll be having another big baby like Clark (nor do I). She's guessing somewhere between 6 1/2 and 7 1/2 which is what I've been thinking, too. So we'll see!

Insomnia

So here in Hawaii it's 4:49am. Ugh. I've been awake for the past two hours. What woke me was Clark - and then I just couldn't turn my brain off after I got him back to sleep. Having to make a couple of trips to the bathroom hasn't helped, either. So I've been puttering on the computer for a while and I think I'm starting to get sleepy again, so wish me luck. I have to get back up in about two hours - yuck. At least I have my OB appointment to look forward to today, so I'll be posting more on that later. :)

38 Weeks

I hit 38 weeks today. My 38 week appointment isn't until Wednesday morning. I'm curious to see if there's been any change. I haven't really experienced any more pre-labor, so I won't be expecting much. I think the baby may have dropped even lower since whenever I walk for any distance, I feel increased pressure both in the front and the back. I've also lost a couple of pounds, which is often a sign that you're close to the end. But, as with all the other signs, "close" is a very relative term.

My mom, step dad and brother will be visiting this weekend and next week, and we've made plans to have dinner out in Waikiki on Saturday night. So I'm hoping to hold off giving birth until after that. Andy's hoping I make it all the way to the 18th, since that will mean he will be off work through basically the end of the month. lol I guess that would be okay - I'm still not totally uncomfortable, but it does get harder to be patient as time goes on. :)

The rest of the story

Well.

Heath and Michele got to our house last night around 5:30 and hung out for about half an hour before heading off to get something to eat and pick up a movie at Blockbuster. When they got home, Michele was feeling a bit nauseous so she went to lie down. Then she took a shower. When she got out of the shower, her water broke! So we got a call around 7:45 and headed back down to the hospital to pick up Kaylee. By the time we got there, Michele had started having contractions that were 5-7 minutes apart. So yay! No waiting around for an induction!

Matthew Heath Faison was born at 12:53 am this morning, weighing in at a whopping 10 pounds, 10 ounces!! And he's 23 inches long! And no c-section! All hail Michele, birthing goddess!

No go

So I just got a text from Heath - they will not be having their baby today. They will be leaving the hospital soon to go back home. They've been kicked out right as rush hour is about to get really nasty. I would be soooo pissed right now.

Yikes

So my friend Michele, who was due to have a baby five days ago got a call from the hospital this morning bright and early at 4am. They told her to be there at 7am and they would induce her. It's now 3:30 pm and she is still waiting for a bed to open up! When I went over there this morning to pick up her little girl, Kaylee, the place was a freaking zoo. There was nowhere to park and there were swarms of cars circling the lot trying in vain to find a spot. There are a good 20 or 30 "stork" parking spots for women who are 34 weeks or more pregnant and every single one was taken. Michele's husband, Heath, told me that they've run out of room in the postpartum unit for ladies who have delivered and are being sent to other areas of the hospital for the remainder of their stay.

How the hospital could not have anticipated and planned for this baby boom is absolutely beyond me. Every woman delivering at Tripler has also been going there (or Schofield, which is part of Tripler) for her prenatal care. Don't they track how many people are due at any given time? And doesn't everyone know that there's always an uptick in expected babies after a brigade gets home from a deployment? There are seven ladies alone in Andy's company who are having babies around this time.

Anyway, I certainly hope I don't have to be induced! I'll definitely be keeping my expectations of my hospital experience significantly lower, too. I now have visions of giving birth in a hallway somewhere, or maybe outside by a dumpster. lol