Thursday, April 21, 2011
Big update, small post
Thanks so much for the well wishes for tomorrow. It turns out that tomorrow will be the day....that we bring Mr. Bean home! He actually arrived on Tuesday night and we are doing great. I will give more of an update when I can - right now I'm super tired and need to go to sleep. I cannot believe that I have my beautiful baby boy right here beside me as I type. It has been a totally surreal week. More to come...
Friday, April 15, 2011
One more week???????
Ok, so the little guy is not actually breech, but more transverse, with his head up under my ribs (as I suspected) but the rest of him sideways. He is also face up, which meant that they didn't have a good place to grip him to do the version. More importantly, he has the cord around his neck, which is probably why he is staying up there - he knows better than to move down. And my fluid is a little on the low side. For all of these reasons, the doctor did not think it was safe to do the version. So, we are scheduled for a c-section next Friday morning, one week early, so that I hopefully won't go into labor before then. This is somewhat disappointing to me, but ultimately of course I just want the guy to come out safe and sound. And at lunch, J. reminded me of how grateful we should be to even be in this position, and of course he is right.
And now I know that I only have one week to get all the last minute details, both baby-related and work-related, taken care of! I can't believe we are going to meet our baby in just one week!
And now I know that I only have one week to get all the last minute details, both baby-related and work-related, taken care of! I can't believe we are going to meet our baby in just one week!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Upside down....
...or should I say, right side up. The little guy is breech. The doctor is giving me until Friday to see if he'll turn on his own, but then I'm scheduled for an external version. And then, if that doesn't work, they want to do a c-section the following Friday (at 39 weeks), assuming he doesn't turn on his own during that week. I'm pretty peeved, and nervous. I know this happens all the time, but still. I'm going to go to yoga tomorrow morning and hope that some good poses will help, and will also ask the teacher for a recommendation for an acupuncturist who specializes in turning breech babies. I've been doing cat/cow pose at home, as well as "butt in the air" pose, whatever that is called. And pelvic tilts. And playing music down low with headphones. Will go do a cold pack up by his head and a warm compress down below in just a minute, when I get into bed. Any other thoughts?
I'm certainly not complaining too much, because this pregnancy has been pretty blessedly easy-peasy up to this point. But I really don't want to have a c-section, although several people have told me that it is just not that bad. And I know there is still time for him to turn. If he doesn't turn with the version, I think I might ask the doctor whether I can wait a little longer before doing the c-section, just in case he decides to turn on his own. I think they are just worried that if he hasn't turned by this week, he will be too big to do so.
Any thoughts?
I'm certainly not complaining too much, because this pregnancy has been pretty blessedly easy-peasy up to this point. But I really don't want to have a c-section, although several people have told me that it is just not that bad. And I know there is still time for him to turn. If he doesn't turn with the version, I think I might ask the doctor whether I can wait a little longer before doing the c-section, just in case he decides to turn on his own. I think they are just worried that if he hasn't turned by this week, he will be too big to do so.
Any thoughts?
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Another sleepless night update
Here I am awake in the middle of the night again, same old, same old. But I do seem to have such a hard time writing entries that this seems like as good a time as any.
Things are still really busy, but I'm less stressed than I was last time I wrote. First of all, we ended up finding another place to rent in the summer at Ca.pe C.od. Actually, it is the cottage right next door to the one we wanted originally, and it turns out that we really lucked out. I did not realize that the one we wanted at first actually has another house right in front of it, blocking a direct view of the ocean, whereas ours is the last house in the row of cottages and does not have a blocked view. So it seems that this situation turned out for the best. It is still a long way off, but I'm so excited about our first little vacation as a family!
On the hiring of two people to teach for me in the fall, we are making progress. A dismal job market in academia in general, and even more so in my field, is bringing out lots of people who are desperate to work. I feel really bad about that for them, and it really sucks that we can't pay them more money. But I do think we'll end up finding a couple of people who are willing to take the jobs. I hope we can take care of everything before I'm done for the semester, but if not my colleagues will finish up the process without me.
In terms of finishing the semester, I am now done with the actual teaching - have covered all the material that I needed to cover and am moving on to final presentations from the students. This is particularly good because it means that I can sit with my feet up for the next three class days, which will be my last. Yes, I just have to get through 3 more days over the next two weeks! I will most likely go out to campus at least one more day though, to wrap up loose ends and possibly meet with job applicants, but I am almost done.
Our due date is in three weeks! I am 37 weeks as of yesterday and therefore officially full term. I truly can't believe that we have made it this far - it seems so surreal. And it's even stranger to think that we really are going to have a baby in this apartment soon. This weekend we are working on final preparations - our glider arrived the other day and needs to be put together. And we got a narrow, tall bookshelf to put in a corner to provide some additional storage, so that also needs to get assembled. And then we will work on getting everything put away and the room all tidied up. I still haven't gotten any curtains or a rug - who knows when that will happen! We are going to make a list of all the final things we need to buy and will take care of that over the next week or so. But even if the little guy arrived tomorrow, we would be fine - just need to run out to the 24 hour drug store around the corner for some diapers!
That's it for this late night update. I hope I can fall back asleep soon, but at least I can sleep as late as I want to in the morning...
Things are still really busy, but I'm less stressed than I was last time I wrote. First of all, we ended up finding another place to rent in the summer at Ca.pe C.od. Actually, it is the cottage right next door to the one we wanted originally, and it turns out that we really lucked out. I did not realize that the one we wanted at first actually has another house right in front of it, blocking a direct view of the ocean, whereas ours is the last house in the row of cottages and does not have a blocked view. So it seems that this situation turned out for the best. It is still a long way off, but I'm so excited about our first little vacation as a family!
On the hiring of two people to teach for me in the fall, we are making progress. A dismal job market in academia in general, and even more so in my field, is bringing out lots of people who are desperate to work. I feel really bad about that for them, and it really sucks that we can't pay them more money. But I do think we'll end up finding a couple of people who are willing to take the jobs. I hope we can take care of everything before I'm done for the semester, but if not my colleagues will finish up the process without me.
In terms of finishing the semester, I am now done with the actual teaching - have covered all the material that I needed to cover and am moving on to final presentations from the students. This is particularly good because it means that I can sit with my feet up for the next three class days, which will be my last. Yes, I just have to get through 3 more days over the next two weeks! I will most likely go out to campus at least one more day though, to wrap up loose ends and possibly meet with job applicants, but I am almost done.
Our due date is in three weeks! I am 37 weeks as of yesterday and therefore officially full term. I truly can't believe that we have made it this far - it seems so surreal. And it's even stranger to think that we really are going to have a baby in this apartment soon. This weekend we are working on final preparations - our glider arrived the other day and needs to be put together. And we got a narrow, tall bookshelf to put in a corner to provide some additional storage, so that also needs to get assembled. And then we will work on getting everything put away and the room all tidied up. I still haven't gotten any curtains or a rug - who knows when that will happen! We are going to make a list of all the final things we need to buy and will take care of that over the next week or so. But even if the little guy arrived tomorrow, we would be fine - just need to run out to the 24 hour drug store around the corner for some diapers!
That's it for this late night update. I hope I can fall back asleep soon, but at least I can sleep as late as I want to in the morning...
Monday, April 4, 2011
Can't sleep...
I've been meaning to write another post for a while now, but it has been crazy. Right now I'm up in the middle of the night (morning really), with the worst.reflux.ever. I stopped taking Zan.tac because I was worried it was making me dizzy and fuzzy-headed, but this is a nightmare. Although I had been popping Tum.s all night, that just didn't help. So I got up to take some Zan.tac and am remaining sitting up until it kicks in.
So, we have been trying to find a beach place out on Cap.e Co.d for two weeks at the end of the summer. We are getting a late start on it, so of course the choice is limited for anything on the water. This is the first time we have ever done this, but are hoping to start a little family tradition and of course we'll want a little vacation by then. After much, much searching and stressing (I literally spent 12 hours combing listings and contacting people last Monday), I finally had a place that we wanted and was in contact with the owner, telling her we wanted the place. I was getting stressed because she didn't get back to me by email over the weekend, but J was telling me to relax, that we couldn't expect everyone to reply to email over the weekend (again, this was a private owner...) and that it would surely be fine. So of course now I got up at 3:30 and checked my email, only to find out that sure enough, the place had been rented. She also lists it with an agency, and they had booked the first week we wanted. That sucks. So now I'm back to the beginning, sort of. I'm revisiting the other contenders we had, and hopefully some of them are still in the running. But that was the last place up in the area we thought we really wanted to be, whereas we aren't as sure of the location of these other places. I just want to be on the beach though, so hopefully we'll at least get that. Talk about stress.
More stress: As you may recall, I am a college professor. I am taking the entire fall semester off and had lined up our current adjunct to teach my classes for me, plus needed to hire someone else to teach a few more courses in my discipline (I am the only full-time person who teaches it). It was going to be hard enough to find someone for those 2 extra classes, considering we pay adjuncts complete cr@p, but now I find out that the person who was going to take my classes is not coming back in the fall after all. (She has been adjuncting for us for a year, and found something that is more convenient and pays better - I can't say I blame her...) So now I have the added stress of finding not one but two people to cover my area in the fall. Ugh. Fortunately my colleagues are helping me out, but it is not going to be a fun process, especially if I want to be involved in the final selection process. Because I'm only going to be on campus for 2 1/2 more weeks! Yikes.
In other news, we went to our 2-day intensive childbirth class this weekend. We weren't able to go to the weekly ones in the evenings, so opted for this weekend-intensive instead, and it was indeed....intense. But good. We learned a lot and got to know a lot about how our hospital works. Plus we got a tour and filled out our pre-admission forms. Of everyone in the class, our due date is the earliest, and that really got me thinking about how we don't have much time left. I really could go anytime now!
Speaking of that, I am just over 36 weeks now. I owe you some pictures and J finally sent me a couple, though he still needs to give me some of the later ones with my sweet kitty before we lost him. But here's one from yesterday.
I'm definitely getting big, but people keep telling me how small I look for 36 weeks. I am measuring exactly on target, and as of last week's OB visit had gained exactly 20 pounds since the beginning of the pregnancy. Of course, I was already carrying an extra 10 pounds before starting IVFs three years ago, and the treatments put on another 10 pounds, so I had plenty of extra padding to start with. I'm looking forward to lots of walks with Mr. Bean in the park this summer. And hopefully some along the beach as well!
Ok, I'm hoping that the fire within me has subsided enough for me to go back to bed now. I've been up for 2 hours and that is not going to be fun tomorrow. Or should I say, today.
So, we have been trying to find a beach place out on Cap.e Co.d for two weeks at the end of the summer. We are getting a late start on it, so of course the choice is limited for anything on the water. This is the first time we have ever done this, but are hoping to start a little family tradition and of course we'll want a little vacation by then. After much, much searching and stressing (I literally spent 12 hours combing listings and contacting people last Monday), I finally had a place that we wanted and was in contact with the owner, telling her we wanted the place. I was getting stressed because she didn't get back to me by email over the weekend, but J was telling me to relax, that we couldn't expect everyone to reply to email over the weekend (again, this was a private owner...) and that it would surely be fine. So of course now I got up at 3:30 and checked my email, only to find out that sure enough, the place had been rented. She also lists it with an agency, and they had booked the first week we wanted. That sucks. So now I'm back to the beginning, sort of. I'm revisiting the other contenders we had, and hopefully some of them are still in the running. But that was the last place up in the area we thought we really wanted to be, whereas we aren't as sure of the location of these other places. I just want to be on the beach though, so hopefully we'll at least get that. Talk about stress.
More stress: As you may recall, I am a college professor. I am taking the entire fall semester off and had lined up our current adjunct to teach my classes for me, plus needed to hire someone else to teach a few more courses in my discipline (I am the only full-time person who teaches it). It was going to be hard enough to find someone for those 2 extra classes, considering we pay adjuncts complete cr@p, but now I find out that the person who was going to take my classes is not coming back in the fall after all. (She has been adjuncting for us for a year, and found something that is more convenient and pays better - I can't say I blame her...) So now I have the added stress of finding not one but two people to cover my area in the fall. Ugh. Fortunately my colleagues are helping me out, but it is not going to be a fun process, especially if I want to be involved in the final selection process. Because I'm only going to be on campus for 2 1/2 more weeks! Yikes.
In other news, we went to our 2-day intensive childbirth class this weekend. We weren't able to go to the weekly ones in the evenings, so opted for this weekend-intensive instead, and it was indeed....intense. But good. We learned a lot and got to know a lot about how our hospital works. Plus we got a tour and filled out our pre-admission forms. Of everyone in the class, our due date is the earliest, and that really got me thinking about how we don't have much time left. I really could go anytime now!
Speaking of that, I am just over 36 weeks now. I owe you some pictures and J finally sent me a couple, though he still needs to give me some of the later ones with my sweet kitty before we lost him. But here's one from yesterday.
I'm definitely getting big, but people keep telling me how small I look for 36 weeks. I am measuring exactly on target, and as of last week's OB visit had gained exactly 20 pounds since the beginning of the pregnancy. Of course, I was already carrying an extra 10 pounds before starting IVFs three years ago, and the treatments put on another 10 pounds, so I had plenty of extra padding to start with. I'm looking forward to lots of walks with Mr. Bean in the park this summer. And hopefully some along the beach as well!
Ok, I'm hoping that the fire within me has subsided enough for me to go back to bed now. I've been up for 2 hours and that is not going to be fun tomorrow. Or should I say, today.
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