False Alarm -- Did I Miss Something?!

On Wednesday, November 25th I was on a soup-making kick. I woke up and ate breakfast, checked my email... worked for a little while and then started my soup-making about 1pm. I had to finish making two different soups because the fresh vegetables were starting to go bad. At about 3pm Graham called to say that he was on his way home... when I finished talking to him I bent over in a pain I hadn't felt before during my pregnancy. It was a menstrual cramping on my front right side... I breathed through it and quickly grabbed my computer to do research on this weird feeling. These cramps were coming on about every 10 minutes for about 30-45 seconds. The March of Dimes website says that cramping could be the on-set of labor... so, I called Graham. I told him what was going on and he said, "Sounds like we're in labor..." I told him he didn't know what he was talking about because I wasn't having the 'Braxton-Hicks' contractions (which I THOUGHT was the only thing I was going to have to deal with during labor). He said, "Where were you when we went over the fact that labor was going to feel like menstrual cramps?!" I quickly got off the phone with Negative-Nancy Graham and just laid on the floor in pain. I was exhausted from cooking all day, so I got in to bed and feel asleep right after Graham got home. When I woke up... the cramps were gone! Whew...

So, apparantly I thought that labor was going to consist of harder Braxton-Hicks contractions that wrap all the way around to my back. I truly don't remember in all of my education, Bradley classes, and in researching... anyone ever saying anything about MENSTRUAL CRAMPING... ughhhh... sounds terrible!!!  Haha...

Hopefully we won't have anymore false alarms... but it was kinda exciting knowing that we are getting close... it was nice having a little test run though.

Giving Thanks

Graham and I wanted to share with each of you what we are thankful for during this Thanksgiving.

5. Our health - although we may get bumps and bruises every now and then... we are thankful that we are able to show our love for each other in making a child and that we are healthy and happy.

4. Our “jobs” - we are both so thankful that we wake up each morning and truly love what we do. We don’t even consider them jobs, more like hobbies.

3. Our friends - we have the best friends that are so thoughtful and caring. I'm so happy to be married to someone who showed me the meaning of keeping your true friends close. Although we may not always get to see our friends -- I hope they know how important they are to us.

2. Our soon-to-be son - we can’t wait for the opportunity to be your parents and to love you unconditionally.

1. Most of all – we are thankful for our families. Without them we would not be who we are or where we are today. Thank you for your support and love.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Thank you for following us during this journey and truly caring about our family. 

FULL TERM -- 37 WEEKS

Lowercase g is the length of a stalk of Swiss chard

We had another baby appointment yesterday! We say 'another' because it's amazing how often we feel we have to go to these now. Here are the details:

I am negative for Group B Strep -- Whew.

My weight is currently 163 (33 pounds gained total).

My blood pressure is in the lower range again - 112/80.

Lowercase g's heartrate was 138 -- the lowest it has been, meaning he is turning in to a normal human being and not just a fetus!

Fundus Height - 36 centimeters.

Approximate Weight - 6.5 lbs. 

We are so thrilled to announce that he is still head down and I got to feel his head this time. Graham was right, in that it DOES feel like a softball.

The CNM gave me an exam and said that although we are not dilated she can totally feel the cervix now and it is softening and ripening (all very technical terms.. haha). This website (link) says:

"One of the final signals that labor is near is the ripening of the cervix. Ripening of the cervix refers the process by which the cervix thins, softens, becomes relaxed, and opens in response to uterine contractions. Once the cervix ripens and then dilates, this allows the fetus to pass through the cervical opening."

Last appointment she couldn't even feel the cervix and suggested that we do some backwards-leaning squats everyday for 30 minutes, use Evening Primrose Oil and another very private suggestion! It must have worked! I hope next appointment we'll be slightly dilated.   

Other than our appointment I think that I feel completely ready for him to be here. Although, on second thought, we dropped the ball on finding a pediatrician until NOW. We have our interview with him next Thursday - so hopefully he won't come before then.

And -- I happen to have the worst heartburn EVER right now but only at night. So, I sleep a lot during the day because it's the only time I really can sleep. Also, lowercase g is getting very, very strong. When I'm trying to get to sleep he thinks it's time to party... not so fun for me though. I can't decide if I should get up and walk around or watch TV or just lay there, miserable, hoping he'll go back to sleep so I can sleep. Oh... the wonderful days ahead!

Prediction: I'm thinking that he's going to join us the second week of December and be in the high 7's to low 8's (pound-wise). We'll see...

"Must Haves" Party

Last night I attended another Metroplex Baby & Kids party (like the "Best & Hottest" where we got our awesome car seat). This party was called "Must Haves - Products from Pregnancy to Infancy."

The cost for attending the party was $30.00 but unlike the Best & Hottest, we didn't get to preview the products that were available for us to win until we were already at the party. But, once we got there - Dena & I went together - we found out that they had tons of different items like a breast pump, highchair, booster seat, bouncer, play yard (larger items) and smaller items such as changing pads, wraps, journals, belly casts, baby food kits, clothes, etc.

We all got to go and pick our gift bags - which were filled with items such as night time diapers, leg socks, soaps and inside of the soaps was a number that predetermined which order you would get to choose your prize. Out of 53 mom's I was number 40 -- not too bad, considering I had such a great number last time.

They served us dinner - which wasn't that great - and then it was my turn to choose! There were two mom's in front of me still choosing but the three products I had my eyes on were - a baby food maker kit, a journal with timer for feedings/changing/etc, and a starter kit of flush able/reusable diapers! The two people in front of me choose two of my top choices.... leaving me with:

The GDiapers (Flush able/Reusable)!!!!

I looked online today and this starter kit usually retails for $26.99... so I got my money's worth. We haven't purchased any reusable diapers yet but we really wanted some -- so I'll give these a try. The starter kit comes with 2 cloth pants and 10 flushable refills. The colors of the cloth pants are orange and off white and they have lowercase "g"s on the butt -- personalized for my little g!! Haha... it certainly seems that way.

 

The cloth pants are super soft, so we're really hoping they work out. I think we are going to try out the 10 refills and then decide to purchase more or not. Their website says that in all parents will need about 4-6 pairs of each size (S,M,L) of cloth diapers to get them through to potty training and about 6,000 flush able refills. WOW -- but they are priced about the same as disposable diapers, so why not?! We'll let you know how they work out.

Here are more photos from last night:

Head Down!

23 Weeks

34 weeks

                                                                      

Today we had our 36 week check up at The Birth & Women's Center with Cherie, our midwife. We were initially concerned about this appointment because we didn't want to hear anymore bad news about little Graham being Transverse Lie. Luckily, we got some good news that he is head down and on my right side. Upon pushing on my belly she called Graham over and let him feel our son's head. She pushed Graham's hands in to my belly and Graham quickly pulled his hands away and said "that's too hard"... our midwife laughed and said that it won't hurt him. Graham later said that it felt like a softball and was a cool thing to feel.

During this appointment we were also examined for Group B Strep and my midwife checked to see if I was dilated. I'm not dilated and my cervix was still really high and she couldn't find it. She suggested that I do low squats but to lean back while doing the squat... she said to not do the squats that we do in yoga that are forward leaning... she really wants me to focus on getting him to slide down. She said to do leaning-back squats with my elbows on the couch for 30 minutes a day. She also said to do leaning-back squats while holding on to the door (about 20 per day). Another suggestion was that I continue to lay on my left side while sleeping, which is getting painful because I will wake up and my hip will be asleep and throbbing.

I've also had slightly-high blood pressure at the last two appointments. She said that I need to spend 2 hours in bed each day and to not workout or walk anymore. I asked if I could go ahead and walk in the Turkey Trot (a tradition) and she just looked up and rolled her eyes and laughed... I'm guessing this means NO! Not working out is going to be difficult because I think that I've had such a great pregnancy because of Prenatal Yoga but I also think that it could be the assisting reason that he was Transverse Lie. But, I guess I can take the next few weeks off.

Because of how our pregnancy is going now... we're back on our original due date of December 16th. We're hoping it's sooner but all of the signs are pointing closer to the 16th. We'll see....

Also, we had our mandatory Saturday class this past weekend and learned more about what to do when we think we are in labor, the things that will happen during and after labor too. It was a great, very informative Saturday. After class Sybil and I went to Babies R' Us to finish purchasing the 'essential items' we needed, which was fun but babies are EXPENSIVE!

We are almost ready and glad that things have taken a turn for the best with positioning. Positive thoughts really, really do work!

A Room With A View...

Here are pictures, promised a while ago, of his room and the guest restroom (his bathroom, as well). Enjoy! We are really impressed on how well it actually turned out. Thank you to everyone who assisted us in making our dreams for his room a reality! We originally didn't want/or have a theme for his room but as soon as we found the cloud light we were hooked. From there we found the beautiful, retro-looking, hot air balloon mobile and wall decal.

Little Graham's crib and custom, organic bedding with hot air balloon

mobile and Uppercase Living wording that says "You are our dream come true"

His bookshelf... we ordered too much furniture so this had to fit in the corner.

Still organizing the items on the shelf.

 

His changing table/dresser with white letters that spell his name...

I loved these at Restoration Hardware because the letters have hooks on them,

which seem less 'girly' to me, but they were $15.00 per letter. We found these at Hobby

Lobby for $3.00 per letter! WOW!

 

One of my favorite aspects of his room... his cloud light on the ceiling from Ikea.

We paired this with a dimmer and I painted four clouds on the ceiling... completing the

"dream/sky" theme.

 

A great view of the wording/bedding/mobile. 

His Bathroom:

Our wishes for his restroom were that guests could also use it without feeling like they were in a baby's bathroom. I know this bathroom is fun and will grow with Little Graham and Hollis (our second child... haha). 

We found the cloth shower curtain, towels and rugs at Ikea (total maybe $25.00).

We then took these items in to Home Depot and bought the 2.5 oz. $2.00 paint in four matching colors. Once we got back home we used our nesting bowls (glass kitchen bowls)

and traced random groupings of circles on the walls.

We also added the Uppercase Living wording "Rub-a-Dub-Dub".

We love the way it turned out!

 

 

An Interesting Day....

So, we check in to Baylor Hospital at 4pm today. The super-friendly nurse brings us in to our very spacious room and asks me to change in to a gown. She then starts the 1000 questions to finish checking us in. She also hooks us up to a heart rate monitor to listen to the baby's heartbeat. The first position she finds the heart at is right under my right lung; then all of a sudden we loose his heartbeat and she finds it in my lower left abdomen. As soon as she finishes finding the heartrate again and the questions, about 5pm, the sonogram-technician arrives to talk to us about seeing our little guy. He states that he will be assisting Dr. Lawson in turning the baby and they will be monitoring him throughout the process. He pushes around on my stomach and says that he can still feel that our little guy is transverse lie (his hiney was under my left lung and his head was in my right side).

He lays down my bed and turns down the lights to start the sonogram. Little Graham was very active during this time because when my midwife called at 1pm (earlier in the day) she said that I would not be able to eat anything -- just incase of the sonogram prediciment.

Once he spreads the cold gel on my baby bump he is surprised to find our Little Graham moving as much as he was... and sure enough he moves on down to the correct position... head down, hiney up. Dr. Lawson arrives about the same time, with our midwife, and everyone can't believe what they are seeing! They state that I have a lot of fluid around our son (which is a good thing) and that he is still able to move around as much as he wants.

We all breathe a sigh of relief and get ready to head home. During checking out he is still head down -- upon walking out to the car I can tell that he flips back to transverse lie... however, we have decided that we are not going to worry about this until at least 38 weeks and he can't move around as much.

I think I'm going to have a semi-difficult child on my hands... just like Graham! We are so thrilled that we don't get to meet him today and are prepared to accept him in to our lives when ever and where ever that may be.

External Aversion

Update from yesterday...

I heard from my midwife this morning and she stated that she would get us in to Labor & Delivery as soon as possible with Dr. Yolanda Lawson in Baylor Hospital. It is not a super emergency but she wants to get us in and do an external aversion (where they physically turn little Graham). This has to be done in L&D because I will be hooked up to heart rate monitors and a sonogram machine to make sure that he is ok during this process. If things take a turn for the worst, then we will be exactly where we need to be to do a C-Section.

They said most likely the aversion will be done tomorrow. My midwife stated that she will be there with us, which makes me feel much better, and all of the Transverse Lie cases where they have done an aversion have been successful and she has never had to go in to an emergency C-Section.

My mom is here with me today so we are going to get packed and ready to go -- just so we have everything with us tomorrow. We will be updating the blog with more information as we get a definate time and date.

And The Problem Is....

So, we were recently referred to a sonogram technician at a local doctors office because our little guy hadn't grown in two weeks (fundal height 31 two weeks ago... fundal height 31 now).

Today we went to the office to get a sonogram and learned that the problem is that Little Graham is Transverse Lie. You can read all about it here, at spinningbabies.com.

The good news is that he is fine, growing leaps and bounds. Our midwife was measuring us vertically and he's growing horizontally, like the photo above. He has all of his body parts -- kidneys, great looking heart, lungs, liver... etc. His head is shaped like Grahams -- big and round, instead of like mine, long and slender. In a third trimester sonogram some items can be measured and be a big off but the measurements we were given are:

He's measuring at 37 weeks (+/- 2 weeks because 3rd trimester)
His weight is 6.5 lbs (+/- 1 lbs. because 3rd trimester)

So... all of that is good news.

The bad news is that the above website states that it is easier to turn a breech baby than a transverse lie baby in the third trimester. This is because the uterus can actually turn and make it harder for him to turn head down.

So, what does all of this mean? Although there are plenty of things we are going to try to do to get him to turn head down... all in all if he is still transverse lie he will not be able to be born vaginally, as originally hoped. Also, since he is transverse lie he isn't putting pressure on my placenta, which should begin to soften and which makes us go in to labor, so we may need to be induced.

However, as long as we have a happy, healthy baby we truly don't care how he comes!

Family Shower

I had a GREAT shower on Saturday, November 7th that my gracious sister-in-law held in my honor. (Graham was away with his second-wife/best friend Patrick and they were hunting with my Dad). Although I say above that this was a 'family-shower' there were also some really close friends that attended as well.

My adorable shower cake that said "Do Not Open Until December. Love, God"

This was one of the best showers I've ever attended. We started by socializing together and then moved on to some super-fun but NOT corny shower games. The first game was Baby Taboo and every person got three cards. The cards had one word on it that their "team" was suppose to guess and a few words on it that they could not say. This was a great ice-breaker... everyone got to know each other.

Grandmom Playing Baby Taboo! Good Job Grandmom!!

The second game was in honor of little Grahams daddy... we took a quiz on infants/children's laws in Texas. It was about a 10 question game and our cousin Amanda won -- and she DOESN'T even live in Texas (she lives in FLORIDA)!!

Amanda, Aunt Betty and Rivers who surprised me and

came in town from Virginia and Florida!!

The third game was where everyone got to guess the cost of items that my sister-in-law bought. The items were placed in a basket and included things such as shampoo, baby wash, lotion, oil, wipes, diapers, etc. The total cost of the basket was $56.00, I believe.

The final game was the ribbon around the belly game -- which I requested to do. I want to put the ribbon in our baby book and remember the size I was now. My best friend, Sybil, won by using her boobs as a guide... GOOD IDEA SYBIL!

Finally, the shower had an emotional aspect to it... as I should have known. My sister-in-law passed around two crystal containers that had blue beads and silver beads inside of them. She explained that each person should take one bead from each container and the blue bead represented their wish for little Graham and the silver bead represented their wish for me in labor/motherhood. Each person went around the room and placed one blue bead and one silver bead on a strand that eventually made a bracelet for me to wear during labor and to use as a focus tool. What everyone said means the world to me and I hope to pass the bracelet on to my son's wife someday when they are expecting their first baby. The best comment was that several people hoped that little Graham was exactly like his Daddy... with courage, strength, dedication and values. This meant so much to me because I know how lucky little Graham has it.... with such a great father! I hope he knows that his father is a hero to many people! I love it that this bracelet was made by all of the people that mean the most to me -- we are so blessed to have such support and love from our family and friends.

My sister sharing her wish for me and little g.

I handing the full bracelet back to Cheri.

Thank you Cheri for an awesome shower! We feel so loved and appreciate everything you do for us.

Happy Halloween!

We had a great time this Halloween at our friends Jinna & Dougs house. Halloween every year is a HUGE deal for us... and those that know me, know that I plan for this holiday before the current Halloween is even finished.

This year we handed out candy to all of the adorable trick-or-treaters at our new home and it was actually the first year for Graham and I to do this together! Afterwards, Sybil & Tim came over and we headed to see our adorable niece and nephew all dressed up. Then we headed out to The Danser's house and had a great time mingling and playing games all night. I tried to take a nap during the day, so that Graham could truly enjoy the last Halloween that will be like this... but when midnight rolled around I was exhausted already. We stayed out until 1am and didn't even make it to a Waffle House (which is a tradition every Halloween). But overall, we had a great time and we can't wait for a completly different Halloween experience next year.

Here are our photos: