Yes! I am still Pregnant!

I got six phone calls today from people asking if I was still pregnant. Most of them from people we would actually call on the way to the hospital. Yes, the privileged few that would actually know that I've gone into labor itself -- let alone know that I had the baby.

Obviously Calleigh is taking after big brother, Little Einar. He too held out until his due date -- in fact missed it by about 5 hours (he was a day late). So yeah, thus far 4 times out of 5, I've had my babies anywhere from 9 to 14 days early... and obviously, now 7 days before my due date Calleigh is not going along with the crowd.

Today, I've finally resigned myself that I will most likely make it to my due date (July 17th) pregnant. It's much better than driving myself crazy with every Braxton-Hicks contraction asking, "Is this it?" I've decided to assume I'm not in labor from now on. LOL It's the only way to keep my sanity at this point!

Anyway -- please don't call me and ask if I'm still pregnant. I'll either call you and let you know that we've had the baby or I will post a blog announcing her arrival. I don't need to be reminded that I'm still pregnant all! LOL

HUGS!

The Final S T R E T C H . . . . . .

Yep. I'm there. I know it's midnight... but I am technically 38 weeks pregnant right now. That's right, I had little Reagan at this point.

So what's the hold up, Calleigh? What are you waiting for? How much longer are you going to hang out upside down in my belly? Is it really that fun? The way you keep trying to stretch your foot through the side of my stomach, I'm thinking that the quarters are getting a little cramped for you these days.

I have decided that I'm going to be pregnant forever. I always reach this point. It's completely and utterly irrational, I know. I know that she'll come out... eventually. And yet, I definitely want her to come when she's ready... blah, blah, blah, blah. But on the other hand, I think this baby just might be my first to stick around in the womb for a few years before coming out and heading off to college.

I hate the anticipation. I hate the frantic nesting, "I've got to get all the baby clothes clean right now because I could go into labor at any moment and I don't have the hospital bag packed yet!!" I hate that all my plans have become tentative. "Sure kids, we're going to have a picnic in the park and watch the fireworks on the 4th -- that is, if Mommy's not in the hospital giving birth to your new baby sister." Ugh!

It's not the physical discomfort, surprisingly. Oddly, my blood pressure is back down and I don't have a ton of pains. Sure, I could do without the hourly potty breaks during the night and I do miss seeing my feet -- but I've definitely felt worse during this pregnancy.

It's my life I'm anxious to get back to. Yeah, there'll be a new baby keeping me up all night, pooping and puking all over the place. Yeah, the kids will act out with the big adjustment in their own quirky ways. Yep, I know there will be moments when I think "Omigosh, what have I done??" those first few weeks. But you know what? At least I won't be WAITING anymore!

Alright, enough of my baby whining. I probably should head off to bed and try to get as much sleep as possible between frequent mad dashes to the toilet due to baby-squishing-the-smitherines-outta-my-bladder syndrome.

As a parting gift (and thus to redeem my cry-baby-ness), I give you little Reagan in her first time in the big pool this summer. At least she had the decency to come early two years ago!



Hopefully she'll become a big sister very soon. (Please, oh, please Calleigh!)

Never Leave a Toddler Unattended!

So two days ago my older kids were watching a movie, one they hadn't seen in a long time. Little Reagan, my 23 month old, was with them. I thought I had a few moments to myself in my room.

All was well and quiet for a while. Eventually I heard the little pitter-patter of tiny toddler feet and an exuberant "Mama!" I turned to look at my little girl and about fell over.

She had found the lipstick, the bright pink lipstick and had proceeded to use the entire tube to cover her face, hands, feet and the front of her pretty little dress. (Not my lipstick -- I'm too much of a tomboy for pink -- but the lipstick my mother had given to her older sisters to use when they played dress-up.) She was beaming with pride and thought she was such a big girl!

It's been a while since I've had a toddler -- I had forgotten the cardinal rule: When they're quiet, mommy should worry!

Of course I gave her a bath, but made sure to snap a few pictures. As much "fun" as it was to clean her up, I knew that by the evening I'd laugh about it with Einar.

Yay!

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday. My blood pressure was down! Hurray! The doctor still wanted to do the non-stress test. That wasn't fun. I swear they left me in that room, hooked up to those machines for at least 15 minutes longer than they were supposed to. Normally that wouldn't have been a problem... except little baby Calleigh is in a bit of a funky position and my hips and lower back were killing me!

Speaking of baby Calleigh... I had another ultrasound on Monday. She's growing great and I have plenty of amniotic fluid. Here are a couple of pictures that they gave me. (Oh and I was relieved that they were able to confirm that she definitely is a girl -- seeing how I've already given away all my baby boy clothes!)

The first is a profile 4D pic -- she's facing right:



The second is a full face pic (not 4D, though). For those who have trouble deciphering ultrasound pics, her forehead is tilting far right.



I think she looks like she's got very full lips. She still resembles Little Einar to me, but we'll see when she's actually here!

I took Madison and Annabet with me to the ultrasound. They have never gone before. The tech gave each girl their own picture of little Calleigh. They loved it!

I've got 23 more days until the due date (July 17th). I'm hoping she'll be a tad early like most of her siblings though. I'm so done with being pregnant!

Oh -- and Einar finally picked a middle name for her: Venke. It's Norwegian and is my mother-in-law's twin sister's name. (Say that 5 times fast!) In case you're wondering, it's pronounced something like "VEIN-kuh".

Well Crud....

So I went to my OB appointment today all geared up to set my doctor straight about my blood pressure. I've been eating really well, I took it very easy yesterday and this morning. I prayed -- oh, yes, I prayed!

The nurse gets me to the room and takes my blood pressure reading. 144/86. The 144 is still in my "happy place" but dagnabit, that 86 is definitely not "normal" for me. That's also the number that I can't do much about other than having the baby. Fortunately, because I was reluctantly willing to submit to all those tests two weeks ago (and the results came back great), the doctor was not worried at all. She did diagnose me with PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) and has only asked that I submit to a NST (non-stress test) at every visit as well as one more ultrasound next week. No more blood work and she seems fairly confident that I will be able to still have natural childbirth.

*sigh*

The good news is that this Friday I'm 36 weeks pregnant. That means that I only have one more week until I am considered "full-term". Basically, I'm pretty much at the end, so this little blip on the radar isn't so bad. (With Reagan, I was hypertensive much earlier.) The doctor didn't even put me on bedrest. So yay for small miracles!

This is definitely another sign for me that this little one is for sure our last child. Pregnancy is getting harder and harder on my body. Strangely, it's making me feel even more at peace with our decision to close the baby factory once and for all.

I'm grateful for that.

A Snippet From Madison's Violin Concert!

Einar wanted me to post this. I wasn't planning to, because of all the sibling behavior while filming it -- it's hard to pay attention to Madison's playing! LOL



I'll post more later!

Slightly Irritated...

Unless my husband is snoring at night and keeping me from falling asleep -- or the kids have destroyed something or are fighting incessantly, I think I can roll with most punches pretty easily. I mean, yeah, I'm not sure that I would describe myself as fully "laid-back", at least not since I married Einar. That man takes life like he's permanently laying back in a cushy arm-chair! LOL Man I love him! But I'm fairly adept at letting things slide off my back for the most part.

So, that said -- I'm a bit unnerved by my OBGYN after my appointment yesterday. Those of you who really know me, know that after 5 kids, I've found that natural childbirth is a better fit for me. It just works. I also prefer to have very relaxed prenatal care as well and opt out of as many tests as possible. Yes, I totally stick by the standard ones: Gestational Diabetes, Group B Strep, urine tests for protein, etc. For the most part, however, less is more for me. In fact I didn't even see a doctor until I was more than 20 weeks pregnant this time. Last time, I didn't see my midwife until I was 18 weeks. I'm not saying that this is the way all pregnant ladies should go about their care... it's just what I'm comfortable with.

Last pregnancy, I ended up with Pregnancy Induced Hypertension (PIH). It was kind of scary and risked me out of the homebirth I had wanted. It's also the reason that this time I decided not to even try for a homebirth, despite that being my very desire. However, I never developed Pre-Eclampsia or HELLP syndrome or any of the other miriad of problems PIH could create. I only had PIH. I did have edema (swelling -- you know "cankles") but I never had protein in my urine and my blood tests came back happy despite my elevated blood pressure. The day I went into labor it was 167/98. Very dangerous, and honestly it was a miracle that I didn't have any other problems!

So far, my blood pressure has been great... generally it's been 130-ish/70-ish. I haven't had edema -- no headaches, no protein in my urine. My normal non-pregnant blood pressure is typically 117-ish/65-ish. Now, with all my other pregnancies (except the last), my blood pressure always rises a little at the end. I do average about 140-ish/70-ish by the end. Yes, the 140's is slightly hypertensive... but this is normal for me. It does not put me in the danger zone, especially when I don't have edema or protein in my pee.

Yesterday I had my 32 week appointment with my OB (even though I'm not 32 weeks until Friday). My blood pressure was 140/70. Totally normal at this stage. My pee was normal. Everything is normal -- baby moves great. I expected that the OB might want to have the nurse take my blood pressure one more time before I go to see if it lowers, and even if it didn't, I was sure that I'd be sent home anyway with a warning that we would be keeping an eye out for my next appointment. I mean, I'd understand what transpired next IF my blood pressure had been around that at my last appointment as well.

The nurse did take my blood pressure again and it was still 140/70. You have to realize that I also had Reagan with me at the appointment as well -- so it wasn't exactly restful! LOL The OB came back and she's freaking out! Despite not having any protein in my urine, she orders more labs for me (including a 24 hour urine test -- yay me!) and asks if I can stay and do a non-stress test (NST). For the unintiated, the NST is where they hook you to a couple of fetal moniters for 20 minutes to track the baby's heartrate, fetal movement and any contractions.

I didn't want to any of it because other than hitting the 140 (for the FIRST time thus far), I have NO edema, NO protein in my urine, NO other symptoms whatsoever. I also know that this is normal for me... at this point in my pregnancy with Reagan, my blood pressure was much higher. I ended up acquiescing to her because I felt like I needed to placate her concern. The NST is just fine and I'm in the midst of doing the other labs -- which I know will turn out fine as well.

However, it definitely put me off that my doctor reacted so rashly yesterday. It's more than the fact that I don't think it's the patient's job to ease the doctor's nerves. I'm looking at the day I give birth. We've discussed natural childbirth and as little medical intervention as possible (barring a medical emergency of course)... but I'm worried now that if anything seems slightly off from "textbook" my doctor is going to push intervention after intervention unnecessarily at me. I'm also concerned that if she's freaking out this much at a ONE appointment reading of 140/70, what happens if I consistantly stay there for the rest of my pregnancy -- without any other issues (like I have in my first four children)? Will I have to be fighting off more unnecessary labs and tests? Will she start pressuring me for induction?

These are things I don't want to have to think about when I'm getting so close to the end. I am irritated. Yesterday, I found myself glad that this is the last baby. I don't want to have to deal with this kind of crap ever again. As long as the baby remains head-down, and I have no other issues other than being slightly hypertensive -- you can bet that I will be laboring as long as possible at home. When I walk into that hospital, I want to be ready to push the baby out and nothing more. Else, I fear that I won't get the support from my doctor for natural childbirth.

Ugh.

/end rant

On a happier note. Here's a picture of little Einar and his 1st grade teacher after the class "Circus" last Friday. I'll post more about that as well as Madison's last violin concert of the year next time!