Dr's update

Yes, we successfully made it through another Dr's appointment. Fortunately, they called me back when they did, because I had given them 10 more minutes before I was leaving. I think it is safe to say I inherited my father's impatience for waiting at Dr's offices. I mean, don't you think waiting for an appointment for 45 minutes is quite ridiculous...esp when you are only in there for 5 minutes! ARG! We have had some random progress...TMI alert, the loosing of the mucus plug, but still not much in the way of contractions or dilation. I am 'open and soft', i.e. no real progress. We have another appointment scheduled for next Wed, but we (dr included) are all hoping that she makes her appearance sometime this long weekend. But truly, when has the baby ever done anything I've wanted her to do! So we will be doing a lot of walking, drinking tea, eating spicy foods and probably one more thing that I won't mention out of respect for my Mom!
Yesterday was a pretty nice day. The co-workers threw me a surprise ice cream 'shower'. They gave me a very generous American Express gift card, with the express intent that I use it on myself. I knew we were going for ice cream, and they yelled surprise, with the hope that it would start labor, but no luck! My co-worker & wife also gave us a little bib & hat that say 'little firecracker'. So cute, but I am not convinced that she will be here before the 4th. But, as they said, she doesn't have to be born on the 4th to be a firecracker. At this point, I would have to agree!

Happy Anniversary!

Amazingly enough we have made it to our 3rd anniversary. Not amazing because I didn't think we would make it, but amazing because we are not spending the day at the hospital. Thanks for 3 wonderful "couple-only" years, now for the next years as a family with kids, if our first child decides to grace us with her prescence. Love you!

Shocking

Yesterday I was at the organic store, buying some better produce than I can get at the local grocery store. The organic store is always an experience, but yesterday was a little more unusual. When I got up to the cashier to pay there was this slightly crazy person in front of me, I think she was on something...I don't know what, but she was a little off. Finally I got to the front of the line, and the cashier, who apparently hadn't seen me up until now said "OH MY GOD! Does that hurt?" (I could only assume she meant my belly, but who knows, she seemed rather shocked by my appearance.) She then said "I mean is it uncomfortable to carry around all that weight in the front?" This seems like a bizarre question to me, but whatever, I smiled politely and said, "not really, you get used to it." I guess for some people the belly might all of a sudden become huge, but for me it has been a gradual thing. I mean really it is not like they surgically attached a watermelon to my body when I was sleeping...it might look like that, but truly that is not what happened. (She has apparently never seen someone who is due in less than a week, or maybe I have only gained weight in the 'baby area' so she was shocked by my protruding belly when I came around to where she could see it. Either way, quite funny how people react!)
We are still under flash-flooding warnings/watches, but to my knowledge our area, although we have gotten a ton of rain, has not flooded, like some of the lower surrounding counties. The MIL would like some of our rain; unfortunately, I can not ship it to her.

Thunderstorm!

A bad line of thunderstorms have blown through the area. Yesterday I was on the phone and the storm was starting. All of a sudden I noticed lightening and heard it as static in the phone. I told my girlfriend, I had to go. She (being from FL) understood and got off the phone. As I proceded to cook dinner and watch the thunderstorm I heard sirens enter our neighborhood, not an unusual occurance for our neighborhood. Then I saw a helicopter, a lot closer than I expected. It flew over the house, and the whole place shook. Then I saw it land in the Weis parking lot across the street. Pretty exciting. The question was (we live pretty close to the airport) did it get caught in the storm and was forced down, or was it related to the sirens? It did not look like a hospital helicopter, more like a police helicopter. It left during the storm, after most of the thunder had subsided, but it was all very exciting.
Still no movements toward the outside from the girl. The fire alarm went off at work today and she wasn't the least bit phased. Crazy kid, doesn't she know that everyone is anxious to meet her...maybe she does and she is a bit of a drama queen and is going to make a grand entrance...now who would you suppose she would get that from?

Pictures

Even though I think these pictures are from a bad angle, I will post them, for posterity, and so my loyal readers will get a good laugh. I am sure you need a good laugh! Maybe not the best picture of myself and the baby, but what do you think of this one?
I think these are pictures of us at 37 weeks. Hopefully, we will soon have some real pictures of myself and the baby, like where you could see her and I wouldn't have such a big belly. Fortunately today it was raining, so I didn't have to walk all 4 miles, but we did do some walking in the stores. Still no contractions.

Dr's update WK39!!!!

Came back from the doctor with no new news on baby's trip to the outside. Still thinning, no word of dilation, nothing. So, he scheduled the induction date. July 6th! I was hoping for earlier, then we found out who is on call that day (the c-section expert) so I started drinking Red Raspberry Tea...ICK! But we want this baby out before the induction day, so I will do what I can. Eric has now prescribed 4 mile walks every day and we are starting all the rest of the wives tales. I don't know about you, but I am really tired of being at work! Yesterday as I was going to sit in a chair and the boss said 'is that chair going to hold you?' Excuse me!? I guess he doesn't value his life. We have also scheduled a 'back-up' to pick up my Mom from the airport, who comes in on the 8th, in case Eric can't make it to pick her up. So, I guess we are ready now; there is an end in sight. I think the doctor also stripped my membranes when he was checking...no action yet though. We are still in wait and see until the 6th.

Work rant

Today was a big day at work. We were introduced to our new business unit leader. Didn't really get a chance to talk to him, but he seems rather nice. This was an 'all hands on deck' meeting, our immediate bosses were there also. One of the bosses said, what do you think about sending Eric out of town the third week in July. WHAT! I don't think so. If I had the baby today, it might be feasible, but the baby might not be more than 2 weeks old. My Mom will be here until early Tues of that week, but I don't think he should be traveling yet. I said, oh Eric, don't you have a final coming up, isn't that the 3rd week in July, ok it is the 2nd, but Eric's like I am not sure. I saw that he was trying to tell the truth, but I didn't care. I know that I could probably handle the baby, but shouldn't he be home, i.e no travel, for the first month. Maybe by then I will be adjusted. The boss was like, we could send him away so he could get some good nights rest. Whatever dude, I am not sure your wife would not be too happy if you were sent away too soon after the baby is born. It is likely I won't have to worry about this. The guy running the program is giving the group the run around. The 3rd weekend in July is the 3rd reschedule for this test. I hate to be a pain, or do I?

ACTION!

Well, not to disappoint but there is no 'action' but I have learned what the person who uses the term means when he says it. As I was meandering to the water cooler I happened upon the action asker (AA). The conversation went like this:
"any action?"-AA
"I wouldn't still be here if there was" -me
"well there could be action and you could still be allowed to work, like dilation" -AA
"I don't even have them check, there is no point until I go into labor to be concerned about dilation, I could be that way for months" -me
"no, you couldn't" -AA
"yes, I could be dilated for quite sometime before going into active labor" -me
"did I hear someone say dilation?" -another co-worker who is apparently concerned
"no, no dilation" -me
AH! This man has 2 kids, unfortunately they are my age, so he has forgotten all about the laboring process, much to my dismay! Of course I could be a big fat liar, but at this point I don't care. When I go into labor, these people will know, b/c Eric and I won't be at work. It is likely that one of us will be responsible enough to call in and say, we won't be coming in Melanie's in labor.
In more exciting news, Eric is obsessed with this race to win the Volvo...I probably need to help him get to the next level, he needs my help. Solving a problem always cheers me up! But now he is on the phone. :(
I also have a new favorite phrase: 'procrastination on a project by you, does not constitute an emergency on my part'. This is a paraphrase, because I can't remember the exact phrase, but this seems to happen a LOT at my workplace. People have these looming deadlines (that they have known about for quite sometime) but they don't get us peons involved until the last minute and then we are expected to perform a miracle and get everything done. I am not a miracle worker, well I guess for the time being I am, in my belly, but no where else. This is occurring with a project I have been trying to transfer to manufacturing. I have been working to transfer this project since Feb. This should have been an easy transfer. They already QC this product, simple, yes? NO! They apparently haven't had anything pass QC in a year. WHAT! Now I have to re-teach them everything and I am not sure they are listening. How can I help? And why, since I have been working on this since Feb is this an emergency know? Shouldn't it have been an emergency back then if you couldn't get stuff to pass, not when I could go into labor at any minute? Labor at any minute probably won't happen, I think our girl is applying for permanent resident alien status.

Cranky!

Cranky, it has been a word used to describe me lately. Eric and I discussed it this morning on the way home to meet the pest control man (who did show up today BTW!). At first, I said maybe me becoming cranky is like some people becoming uncomfortable, I am not really uncomfortable, just sometimes irritable/cranky. Then, as we discussed it more, I realized that my crankiness, has more to do with the fact that I am 38 weeks pregnant and people keep expecting me to be done with this already. One woman this weekend was kind enough to tell me on Friday that "you look like you are ready to pop". I wish that I could have come back with some witty comment like...well, I still can't think of one, but something like I should hope so I am due today! (even if it is not true, would that make the person feel bad?) I told Eric, you would be cranky too if people talked to you about the things I get to hear. One guy came in today and said "any action?" Now my first thought was not one that I could respond with so I just looked at Eric (isn't the "action" what got me into this predictiment to begin with, and does he really want to know if I have had any recently?) Apparently he meant with the baby coming out, if there was this kind of "action" then I wouldn't be sitting here looking at you, now would I? Then he said "we're getting anxious about this being over with?" UM HELLO! I am the still pregnant one, how the heck do you think I feel? MEN! This could be why I am cranky, people keep asking me about baby, due date, and oversharing, as I have said before I would prefer not to remember that my due date is 10 days away, day 11 when I am still pregnant is going to make me depressed. There is a part of me that would like my body back, but I would like her to be fully incubated when that day comes. I just hate not knowing when, how can I plan for that? I would like to try to keep my Zen attitude about this, but inquisitive minds make it so hard. I also could be a tad bit cranky because my father just died. I am not the type to go to the 'depths of despair' when bad things happen, I just become cranky and out of sorts, but I would suspect not many 'outsiders' remember that I have been through that stress, so they just interpret as pregnancy related cranky.
In more exciting news, we have gotten rid of 2 more tacky previous owner lighting fixtures. Now all we have left is to put up the new fan, this is going to require way more work, becuase the 'master splicer' that lived in the house before spliced the previous ugly fan in such a way as to become a fire hazard. Not such a good thing, so the husband will have to crawl into the attic to replace/rewire. Yesterday was close to 100, so attic probably too hot to crawl up into, but I suspect early in the morning the attic would be a nice (ok not really, really hot) so we might be waiting until this weekend, which is fine with me. I am just happy that we have gotten rid of all tacky '90s lighting fixtures. People can come to the house and I don't have to say, embarrassingly, we will be replacing THAT! You may be wondering, will I miss the fake marblized fan/chandelier or the hunter green lighting in the kitchen? I would have to say HECK NO, I will miss them about as much as I miss the black outdoor looking halogen lights...I look at our new lights and I think, YAY, no more tacky lighting. In 10 yrs when someone buys this house from us they will probably look at all of our lighting choices and think the same thing we do now, but at least we feel more at home.

Dr's update & more

And the update is...no change! Actually I am not sure I really know, since again the Dr asked if I wanted to be checked, I mean if your going to ask, I am going to say no! (He seemed to have a slight cold and I had been waiting for the visit for over an hour, so I was a bit cranky!) We did have a nice little chat on how maybe I have made my belly too comfy (any suggestions on how to make it less comfy?) and that I should try to give her better incentives for coming to the outside. I have to say, all-in-all, I don't really mind staying pregnant, I just you know, want to make sure there is an end in sight. The Dr did say that if there is no change and no movement to the outside between my 39-40 week visit we can schedule for induction. I have mixed feelings about induction, Eric says, then you will have a definite end day. That is true, but once you start with the drugs for induction it seems to start a cycle of drugs, you know like when you 'break the seal'. Eric said at 39 1/2 weeks if I am still at no change we can start the old wives tales that get labor started. But, like I have said before, I want her to come when she is ready, just hurry up and get ready. Oddly enough she was on the opposite side than she usually is when we've listened to the heartbeat. I mean he found her on the left side when she is always on the right. How bizarre. I thought she was supposed to have less room to move around now. I guess not!
In other non-exciting news I decided on the Destination Dark Chocolate from MaggieMoo's I would also recommend that flavor! I did substitute pecans for the almonds. I guess I lived in the south too long. How can you beat dark chocolate, strawberries, pecans and fudge? YUM! I can't decide which I prefer, they are both so yummy. How will I vote and register for my free iPOD?
I think that my neighbors might have moved out! (The U-haul in the driveway, might have given it away) We had some neighbors that were renting the furnished TH next to us and they have been there for over a year. She had told me they were waiting for their house in NC to sell and her hubby was staying there while she and the daughter were here. They truly weren't any problem, but it will be nice since the baby's room is on that side of the house to hopefully not disturb anyone not staying in our house when she is crying. I am not sure I could handle living apart from Eric with our child for more than a year. But, I guess you do what you have to, which reminds me, I am going to find some spicy foods to eat this weekend. I have heard that pineapple also works.

Irritation

Last night I left work early to meet the pest control man. I was at home, doing some cleaning until a friend called. I noticed the pest control man outside, but didn't go out to meet him because he was doing the outdoor spraying, and I was on the phone. When I got off the phone I found the receipt that said please be home next time. WHAT! I was home! I called the pest control company, immediately and said why didn't he ring the door bell or what not. She didn't know apologized and we had to set up a new appointment! When we got into work this morning, he called the husband's work number twice and said he rang the door bell. I never heard it. How frustrating!
Work is a bit slow today. The bosses are out of the office as usual. We peons decided that when our boss was out of the office for the days we have lab meetings we would have an off-site lab meeting. In the winter, we would get coffee (decaf for me or hot chocolate), but now that summer is here we get ice cream! YUM! This new place just opened up it is called MaggieMoo's kind of like a Cold Stone, where they have flavors of ice cream and you get to pick toppings they mix in for you. Pretty good, last week I had Strawberry Skydive very yummy! I am going to try a new Fresh Escape this week, but it will be hard to top the Strawberry Skydive, strawberries, oreos and fudge, oh my! That is like a dream combo to me.
Another exciting Dr's appointment tomorrow. I can already tell there has been no change. We are scheduled to go to lunch with one of friends from AL tomorrow. He is up visiting the family, so nice of him to include us in his trip! It will be so nice to see him. One of the benefits of being near DC is that people often travel up here and they stop in to see us. So cool! Now, if I could just get him to come before 12:45! I am going to be STARVING by then.

Another day down

So, on an exciting note, one of my 2 readers has asked me to update my blog!!! Pretty exciting. I am glad to know that someone reads this, especially since I was feeling so blah about updating. Well my friend, you have given me new excitement to update you on my blah life!
Went to the Dr last Friday. After meeting with the doula Thursday night I had a new appreciation for the term 'false hope'. During the last month of Dr's visits they like to check you, invasively. They look for what they call 'progress'. When you take your childbirth classes you learn that you probably won't have any 'progress' until you are in labor, so why do they check you...to give you false hope. This is exactly what I had after our Dr's appointment 2 weeks ago. I knew the dilation was nothing to fret over, maybe 1 cm, but what does your thinning out mean? Does that mean I could give birth any day? Apparently not, cause here I am 10 days latter with a baby in my belly, who has not dropped. So, how does all this relate to Friday's appointment? The Dr asked how I was doing, I said 'there has been no change, she is still rather high, I am not uncomfortable yet.' This is when he said what endear me to him as one of my favorite Dr's...'would you like me to check you?' I said NO! (I might have been a little overly excited about the fact that I even had the option!) Why have him give me false hope!? So we listened to our baby's rather fine heartbeat and went about our day. I our next appointment this Friday is with the same Dr...will I possibly have the option not to be checked, I don't know, but it is exciting to think I might not have to be.
In other exciting news, we have packed the bag. The hubby's clothes for the hossy are sitting on top of the bag, but I imagine we will have time to plop those into the bag before we leave. As soon as I start to feel the first signs of pattern contractions, I am heading home (if I am not already at home)...I am hoping to finish the last minute packing stuff and then lay in the bed or watch a movie and hopefully relax and take it easy before we have to head on to the hossy. I know I will be SUPER excited to get the whole process over with, but I don't want to head to the hossy to early. When we were at the hospital before my Dad died, I saw all these super pregnant women wandering around trying to get labor started, they didn't seem to be having contractions, just wandering in their hospital gowns. I think I would be so bored and want to go home! Oh well, you never know what is going to happen. I had wanted the baby to hold out for at least another week, but now I think there is some work stuff coming up that I want to avoid so I have changed my tune, now I want her to come next week! I know she will come when she is good and ready, but when will that be? I was talking to my Aunt over the weekend and I told her that I am just going to shoot for the week after my due date. That way when she comes late I won't be as depressed when she is late and it would be a super nice surprise if she is early. So technically I have like 17 days left, but I am going to say to myself 24 days. I hope that when I get to day 24 the Dr talks to me about inducing, or I will be really depressed!
I must stop procrastinating and get back to the computer work the boss has set me on. I should probably try to finish that soon. I do have to say it was kind of fun for the geek in me to find out that sometimes the CDC will test products and if they don't work or there is a recall they will publish a whole paper on it. Makes me feel bad for the makers of that product, but it is nice to see that some products on the market that we know suck, do get negative press. Hopefully that doesn't happen with any of our products!

Full-term

Tomorrow I will be the scary phrase...full-term. This means that labor could start anytime in the next 3 weeks and they wouldn't stop it. I guess that means that any day now I could be holding my little girl after several hours of pain. Should be a rather interesting experience. I have been relatively lucky with this pregnancy. Random strangers do not walk up to me and touch my belly, only random friends and family. I don't mind that. Random strangers are starting to ask me when I am due, most are shocked when I say June 30th. Since pregnant bellies appear to be a subjective thing, I am not sure if they are shocked that I am huge, or shocked that I am tiny. I think that the men think I am huge, women think I am tiny. I don't feel huge, all the time, and I am truly not that uncomfortable. I also have been lucky that either people are telling me their labor horror stories, or I am forgetting them, I don't which, but either way it is nice. There are some days I walk slower than you can pour out molasses, but I think that is out of laziness and not because I have to. I could walk faster, but what is the point I need to move around every hour, might as well mosey, truly where do I need to be. Tomorrow is also our next lovely Dr's appointment. I really liked those when it was weigh, pee, listen, but now that it is weigh, pee, listen, explore, not so much fun. Last week I was told I was starting to thin and dilate, but that process can take weeks to actually happen. In some ways I wouldn't mind if labor happened soon, but I still don't feel prepared. But, with your first child, are you ever really?

Humdrum

It seems I am trying to settle back into work after being gone so long with my Dad's illness, death and funeral. This is probably a futile effort, since within the next couple of weeks I could be having this baby and life will be in turmoil again. A better type of turmoil, but turmoil nonetheless. On Friday the Dr said I am starting to thin out cervix-wise and I could be 1 cm dilated. I don't take much stock in the 1 cm thing, because the books say you could be dilated 1-2 cm the entire last month of your pregnancy, the cervix thing, now that is news! Does that mean the baby is coming soon? Who knows, haven't read much on that yet, I guess I should check into that. We meet with our doula on Thursday to go over any emotional trauma that might come up during childbirth. Since I am not real open about my emotions it should be interesting, especially during the labor. Goodness knows what is going to come up!
I am excited though, I reserved the flights for my Mom this afternoon. Crazy how quickly flight prices can change within a couple hours/minutes! Hopefully we will have the baby before then so she can be support staff for a very tired new Mommy, while very tired new Daddy is back at work and school. We don't have much else exciting going on. I have been wondering around the house putting together baby stuff that has been sitting in the boxes. Don't know if I need to do that, but while the husband is busy finishing his 'before the baby comes list', I might as well do something productive.

Back to work

It hardly seems possible that I am sitting here at work. Especially after the events of the last several weeks. It is hard to imagine my Mom sitting at home alone wondering what to do next. I find myself thinking of my Dad a lot, maybe even talking to him in my head. My Mom said she used to 'talk' to her Mom after her Mom died...I was 2. I have a friend that told me that I have a "young family". He said this after my Grandmother passed away 2 years ago. My friend, being from an "old family" has had to deal with the passing of many close family members, I have not. So, I probably don't deal with death as I should, but what is the correct way to deal with death? Mourning and dealing are personal journeys complicated by the fact that people don't know how you will react, they want to help, don't know how and end up staying away or over sharing, there appears to be no middle ground. My parents have this crazy lady that lives next to them, she thought the world of my Dad and now feels the need to talk to my Mom about everything, things that are none of her business and my Mom can't get away. Blast it woman, leave her alone, don't make me come down there and slap you. Maybe I should send Guido...now that the hubby has passed the you'll be good to our Mel or else test Guido probably has some spare time.
It is bizarre to think that my Dad won't physically be here to talk to, not that he could say much when my Mom and I got to talking about the coming grandchild. But to just know he was listening and could comment if he could fit a word in. He was a quiet man, but he was a good man and that is what I heard over and over from the people that knew him. He always told me that you should make an effort to make people feel better about themselves. People get beat down everyday, make sure you do what you can to help them feel good about themselves. He was able to make people feel like he was their best friend. I have been thinking about that lately. I know that my father was proud of me, but that was based on the little he saw me, would he be proud of me now that he can watch me all the time. I guess I will have to keep that in mind from now on, so he can continue to be proud of me.