Overdue 5 days and getting anxious

Well, I'm on day 5 of being overdue and still no sign of labor. I never really thought much about going overdue or worried about it. I never even discussed with my midwife what her policies/procedures were for going overdue till it occurred to me at my 39 week appt to ask. She will only let me go to 42 weeks and then requires me to go into the hospital for induction.

I kind of felt like I'd go early this time, or at least I was really hoping for it. Obviously I was completely wrong on that. (as I type this Aiden is going nutso in my belly, he's quite the kicker and really likes to stretch out...not super comfy.) Now that I'm almost a week past due I'm starting to get anxious. What if the baby doesn't come in the next week? I have so many issues with going into the hospital for an induction. The first is that I would be so so sad to not get my homebirth after months of anticipation and excitement at the prospect of delivering my little man at home. The second is the fact that I'd be in a hospital, not my favorite place. I don't even have a birthplan, plus I'd be being induced, so that right there would introduce some of the medical interventions I was thinking I'd be avoiding with a homebirth. And last, but not least, it'd cost us an additional $2500 to use the back up OB. We simply don't have the money.

Ug. Anyhow, I wasn't anxious about this at all until last night. I figure I have my 41 week appt tomorrow and usually my midwife checking me stirs things up. I'm going to ask her to sweep my membranes, too. She's already done that once, but hopefully this time it's effective. I also read a couple places about using an herbal tincture that is a combination of black and blue cohosh for naturally inducing labor after you are past due. I emailed my midwife about that and we'll see what she says. I really want to just have this baby this weekend and not have to worry about going 2 weeks overdue. Also, I'm starting to worry about other things that are probably not even an issue, like what condition the placenta is in, do I have enough amniotic fluid? What if there is a ton of meconium in the water, will the baby be ok? Ahhhh! Preggo hormones do not help the situation at all.

Anyhow, cross your fingers that this little man evacuates this weekend! I really can't wait to meet him. I was doing so well with not being impatient, I was so proud of myself. Now I'm not so much impatient to meet him as I am anxious about all the stuff that could happen or go wrong should I make it to 42 weeks.

Being sick and pregnant sucks

So, last Tuesday I came down with the cold that Liam and Chris both had. By Friday I thought it was getting a lot better and hopefully I could have the baby by my due date on Sunday...then Saturday came and I felt a bit worse, much more congested. I had my 40 week midwife appointment. She checked the baby's position and said he's still head down, but not any lower than he was at my 39 week appt. She didn't want to do an internal since I was sick and she didn't want to stir anything up that could put me into labor. It's a good thing she didn't since I was even worse yesterday. I had everything going, congestion in my sinuses, my ears were clogged and hurting, super bad cough, sneezing, headache, etc. I think that it was the worst I've felt from a cold that I can ever remember. Today is much better. I'm still coughing but not nearly as much and my congestion is way down. Phew!

I'm hoping I'll feel even better tomorrow and be ready to go! I'd love for my labor to start tomorrow night and have the baby Wednesday morning. August 19, 2009 would be an excellent birthday for my little man. I can't wait to meet him. I know it'll happen soon, for real now, and I'm so excited. I can't believe that I'm officially overdue!

I hope that I'm able to enjoy Aiden's first few weeks of life more than I was able to with Liam. I think being a 2nd time mom and knowing how to breast feed and such should help a lot. I'm just hoping Liam doesn't have too hard of a time coping with having a new baby in the house. He seems to be warming up to he idea of a "brother" though I don't know if he really understands what a "brother" is. He will soon enough.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying Liam as much as I can. He's so snuggly and soft and really such an amazing little man. I can't get enough of him!

Still pregnant and an update on everything else

I guess now is a good a time as any to post again. Life's been exhausting recently. I guess I'll do a quick update on each segment of my life.

Liam has grown up so much in the last few months. Part of that has brought on tantrums that have been horrible to deal with. I think it's been a combination of his age as well as somewhat of an understanding that his brother is coming soon.

Liam had been doing pretty well in the sleep department, only waking a couple times a night. Then we took a trip to Seattle (just the bean and me). That messed everything up. I guess that was a month an a half ago and ever since then his sleep has been awful. I decided that I couldn't keep getting up with him during the night and maybe I could change it so that he could come to us. We got him a toddler bed about a week ago and man was that ever a mistake. We've gone beyond backwards. He has always loved his crib and was going down fine in it. He just would wake up a million times a night requiring me to have to get up. Now it's like pulling teeth to even get him to sleep in his bed. It's no fun at all. And he's still waking up tons during the night. It's not helping that right now he (and Chris and I) has a bad cold. Liam being sick always equates to horrible sleeping at night. Last night we couldn't get him to sleep so we finally gave up and had him sleep in our bed. We all went to bed at 8:30...sigh.

Anyhow, other than the sleep issues he's doing really well. His tantruming has gone way down and he is talking soooo much! He's so stinkin adorable. I can't believe how much he has grown up. We were just eating dinner tonight and I was watching him. I have a little "kid". It's crazy!! If he would simply sleep through the night, he'd be pretty much perfect.

Seattle! Liam and I flew by ourselves to Seattle about a month and a half ago. It was so much fun! We stayed with my friends Megan and Paul and their two adorable little squirts. I really really had a great time. I drove around Seattle and went to a couple areas that we are considering moving to. They were so nice. I managed to totally get lost coming home...and my phone was dead. But somehow I managed to find my way back to their house on my own (after wasting maybe an extra 1/2 hour driving around). I sampled many yummy decaf coffees while there and my friends kept me nice and busy. We took the ferry to Bainbridge Island and ate lunch there. We also shopped at Pike Place market, which was really cool. We went swimming and visited parks and played outside. It was so much fun. I loved Seattle and I'm actually quite stoked to move there. I was also really proud of the fact that I survived both flights with Liam by myself!

I wish I'd gotten some pictures, but I've grown a bunch of tomatoes! I keep eating them the second they are ready, so I haven't accumulated any. I can't wait till I have more space and I can grow a ton of tomatoes. They've come out so yummy. I have maybe 10 right now that are still green and growing. My pepper plant completely died and I even managed to kill two rosemary plants.

Like I said in the heading...I'm still pregnant. I've had a few false alarms, but nothing came of them. This Sunday I will officially be 40 weeks pregnant. The baby has been doing well, super active. This pregnancy has been so uneventful, in a very good way. I'm super sore and achy now, but I'm willing to wait this baby out till he is ready. I really wanted to have him on Tuesday, but then Liam and I both came down with colds and it was pretty much out of the question. I really need Liam to get better so I can sleep and then I can get better and have this baby! I really can't wait to meet the little man. I'm so excited!

We FINALLY got my Best Chair! We'd ordered a Best Chair for me to use for nursing when Liam was first born, but the furniture co that we ordered it through screwed it all up and we kept not getting it and finally, months later, we cancelled the order. So, we went to a different furniture co this time and ordered it again. It just came yesterday and it is perfect! It's velvety and chocolate brown. It swivels, reclines and rocks! I can't wait to use it for nursing Aiden!

I guess that's it for now.

Win a super cute sling and muslin blankies!

Win a Sakura Bloom Ring sling and Aden and Anais Swaddling Blankets from Nature's Child - Wholesome goods for Mothers and Babies

Trying to grow veggies!

I have never ever had a green thumb. My plants always end up dead, often simply from failing to water them. But I really wanted to start an herb and veggie garden now that we are in our new house and I have the room. For Mother's Day Chris got me several tomato plants, a pepper plant, flowers and a bunch of herb seeds. I'm so proud of myself that for the most part, my plants are still alive! The tomatoes have grown so much bigger than they were when I planted them. They are starting to bloom! I can't wait till I have actually grown a tomato!


Liam helped me out with planting/playing in the dirt the day I took these pictures. He also had fun organizing and reorganizing these rocks in a plant container. It was amazing how long he was occupied with this!!

66 days to go...

29 week midwife appointment

So I had my 29 week midwife appt on Saturday. We did my glucose test and I did the normal peeing on a stick and weighing of myself. *sigh* I gained 7lbs in 3 weeks. I'm only 5lbs away from my end of pregnancy weight with Liam. I can't seem to help myself, I eat like a complete pig. And I don't eat tons of healthy food either. This morning I started off with 3 small pancakes completely slathered in butter and a tiny bit of syrup, and a cup of coffee. Then, a couple hours later I made myself 2 fried eggs and had those over toast. And then (keep in mind that it's only 11am while I'm writing this) I keep eating these tiny little apple pastries (kind of like mini apple turnovers). And I'm holding myself back from chugging the chocolate milk in the fridge. Even after my midwife appt, the first thing I did was go to the drive-thru donut shop on my way home and get two donuts.

Anyhow, I think I'm going to get a lecture on diet at my appt in 2 weeks.

Back to my appt...we listened to the baby's heartbeat and felt for his positioning. He's head down (doesn't mean he'll stay that way) and his butt is on my right side. That's not where I want him to be...I want him on my left side so I don't end up with a back labor, but we still have plenty of time for him to move. His heartbeat was easy to find and is strong, as usual. Liam had fun playing with the doppler and putting it on my belly.

I got my list of supplies for my home birth, it was more than I though it would be. Just lots of little stuff. It's amazing how much more responsible you are for supplies and stuff in a home birth. I realized how much I took for granted at the birthing center last time around.

I was up in the middle of the night thinking about all the stuff I needed to get, figuring out (in my head) what I should use for what, where stuff should go, etc. It'll be good when everything is set up and ready to go and I don't have to worry about it anymore.

My midwife already got my glucose test results back and I passed with flying colors (yay!) but I'm anemic, which I already figured. So I have to get more of the liquid iron supplement I took when I was pregs with Liam.

While I was at my appointment my midwife gave me a bag of loose red raspberry leaves to make tinctures with. It's pretty funny because it totally looks like a bag of pot sitting on my counter. But it smells a lot better. I really really liked drinking the red raspberry leaf tea, but the tincture is a whole other ball of wax. It's like drinking the tea, but 90x's stronger. Very bitter and hard to get down. I drank it cold yesterday, we'll see what it's like if I heat it up today.

Today I'm also working on figuring out how to file claims for all the stuff we are paying for. Hopefully we can get some sort of reimbursment (which we should) from Aetna for all of it. I wish our insurance wasn't so annoying and would just cover everything like they ought to. So frustrating.

Missing my mommy

Driving home from Liam's swimming lesson a bit ago and a U2 song came on. U2 always reminds me of my mom. They were one of her top favorite bands of all time. For one of her birthdays we surprised her with getting a box at the staples center and a ton of us joined her for an awesome U2 concert. She was also able to see them in Vegas shortly after that. Anyhow, hearing them always makes me think of her and miss her.

It's incredible how a song can trigger so much emotion and leave me practically crying in my car on our drive from the aquatics center. I miss her so much. Being pregnant also reminds me a lot of how I don't have her here. I ache to be able to tell her how I'm having another boy and to show her my US pictures. I want to tell her all about Liam and all the new things he's constantly learning to do. She's missing so much. I also want to call her when I'm upset about something and hug her just for the sake of hugging her. I want to tell her how much I love her and miss her. I want to hear her tell me how beautiful my giant bushy eyebrows are. I want to touch her arm, her skin was always so soft.

I've never been a jealous person, but this is one subject that I can get jealous and resentful over. I really try not to, but I genuinely resent people who are so much older than me who still have their parents around. I just can't help but think how unfair it is.

Anyhow, I really really just miss my mommy and I still harbor the wish that I'll wake up one day only to find that this was all a bad dream.