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| Despite being a bit unprepared for Christmas this year, I've already received the best Christmas present ever. :)
Ashlinn Grace was born Decem ber 1, at 9:36 p.m., weighing 5 pounds and 11 ounces and measuring 18 1/2 inches long. She came 4 1/2 weeks early, so she's a bit of a preemie. She's doing very well though, and has already gained a pound and a half since birth. She's awfully adorable and makes the cutest/funniest faces when she sleeps. She'll have a pouty look on and then change to a big grin and then crinkle her eyebrows in frustration -- all in a matter of 20 seconds or so. It's fun to watch. She also giggles in her sleep sometimes, along with making about a thousand other noises. I never realized how noisy infants can be!
Anyway, we are both doing well three weeks later -- though I could use a bit more sleep at night! We'll see when that happens... ;)
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| This has been quite the eventful week for baby and me. On Monday I had a regular doctor's appointment, where the midwife told me that, based on her measurements of my stomach, it appeared the baby was five weeks or so behind in growth and development. Sometimes the baby is just positioned more inward though, she said, so I scheduled an ultrasound for a more accurate read of the baby's measurements. I had the ultrasound on Tuesday, and baby was fine (actually, she was measuring a day ahead  ). That was exciting because not only was she fine, but I also got to see her on screen again and get more pictures to take home. During the ultrasound, she kept putting her whole hand in her mouth and then stuck out her tongue and tried to touch her nose. It was pretty cute.
On Wednesday I felt like I was developing a urinary tract infection, which is bad news this late in a pregnancy because it can send an expectant mother into preterm labor. I went to urgent care, which sent me over to labor and delivery for observation. They hooked me up to a machine that monitors the baby's heartbeat and the mother's contractions. Well, it turned out that I didn't have an infection, but I was having contractions two minutes apart. And I couldn't feel them. Sometimes I could sort of feel a little bit of tightening in my stomach if I was watching the monitor at the same time and already knew that I was having a contraction, but most of the time I couldn't feel anything. This was bad news. They gave me a shot of terbutaline to stop the contractions, checked my cervix (which was still closed, thankfully), monitored me some more, and finally discharged me at 12:30 a.m. with instructions to come back if I felt more than four contractions in an hour.
The problem, of course, was that I couldn't feel the contractions in the first place. So how was I to know if I should come back or not? I spent the next two days anxious and frightened. I still had more than 7 weeks left 'til my due date, so I couldn't afford to sit around and hope I wasn't having contractions when I couldn't feel if I was or not.
I talked to my mom, who said that she didn't feel her contractions with either my sister or my brother until she was in active labor. And I talked to another friend whose water broke several weeks early with her two oldest sons because she was having contractions she couldn't feel. This made me more nervous. So on Friday I took a half-day at work and went back to labor and delivery to be checked again. The nursing staff gave me a lot of grief about coming in without a real reason, but I think it was worth it anyway because I got to see for myself that my contractions had calmed down. My uterus was still irritated, so they gave me another shot of terbutaline and told me to take it easy as much as possible. But at least I wasn't contracting every two minutes like I was on Wednesday. I'm still a little nervous, but less so than I was before.
I have, however, come to the realization that I am nowhere near ready to have this baby. My house is not ready, I don't have everything I need for her, I haven't taken a childbirth class yet, and I have a list of things I want to get done before she comes. I'm not mentally prepared for her arrival at all. And I'm so not ready for labor. But I guess I better GET ready because she could come anytime! | | |
| I had hoped to write in this journal more often during this pregnancy, documenting the experience so I could look back on the entries and remember it all. Oh well. I have just begun my last trimester, and there isn't really a lot to note. My little girl is still crazy active, and she is measuring one week ahead of her actual age. She's also very strong. What can I say, my daughter is an over-achiever already. ;)
Everything else is coming along pretty nicely as well. I've only gained five pounds so far, plus the three I lost in the beginning. So that's been good. I took my glucose test on Monday and haven't heard anything back, which I'm guessing means good news. My iron level is pretty low though, even with me taking the iron supplements my doctor prescribed last time I saw her. I read somewhere that pregnant women need 30 mg of iron a day. My prenatal vitamin has 28 mg, I eat iron-rich food fairly regularly (though probably not quite daily), and now I'm taking an extra 65 mg of iron a day--and still my levels are low. It makes me wonder if my body isn't absorbing it or what...
The one thing that is not coming along very nicely is the baby's room. I had hoped to have things at least somewhat set up and organized by now, but the only thing we have put together so far is the crib and a little make-shift dresser with plastic drawers in the closet. Everything else is just sitting in the middle of the floor, waiting for me to figure out what to do with it. And there's a lot of it. My mom has gone absolutely crazy buying things from garage sales for the baby. She's a pretty excited grandmother-to-be.
Speaking of my mom becoming a grandmother, my sister is due any day now. Her actual due date is the 7th, but the baby could come any time. I keep my cell phone next to me at all times now, just waiting for her call. It's so exciting... I'm going to be an aunt very soon!
Well, that's about all I have for now. I'll try to check back in soon. :)
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| I am 22 weeks today and growing fast! My lovely little girl -- yes, we officially found out she's a girl -- moves around almost constantly; she should try out for the Energizer Bunny act. At first she wouldn't wake up until around 8:30 a.m., which gave me some hope that she might possibly be a late riser. Alas, she now tends to wake up before the sun rises, and sometimes she keeps me up in the middle of the night too. So yeah, I'm a little tired these days. But happy. It's amazing feeling her move around, knowing that I am carrying a living (and wiggling!) miracle inside of me.
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| I believe I felt the baby moving around last night. It didn't feel so much like butterflies like I hear people compare it to so often, but it felt a lot more like little kicks. And these kicks went from one side of my belly to the other side over a period of about five minutes. It looks like I might have a little night owl on my hands because it was nearly 10:00 when the little one started its acrobatics. :)
I also got to hear the heart beat for the first time on Friday. It was nice and strong at about 150 beats per minute. Caleb was pretty surprised that it was so fast. My mom told me that it's a sign that the baby is a girl. I told her that was an old wife's tale, and she said she thinks it's a girl anyway. I do too, really. And so does pretty much everyone else. But we'll see... I have my sonogram scheduled for two weeks from this past Friday. Hopefully my little acrobat will cooperate and the technician will be able to tell me if I'm having a boy or a girl. I can't wait to stop using indefinite pronouns when referring to this baby!
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