we're getting closer.....

this morning i went in for yet another non-stress test. the baby LOVES to move around before i leave for my appointment. then, when i get there and all hooked up to the machine, the baby has decided that would be the perfect time to stop moving and take a nap. on tuesday this happened and i had lunch plans. so i'm sitting in the room pushing and poking at my stomach trying to get this kid to move. which it wouldn't. the heart rate was great. steady at about 138. i know that with hayden, the times i wasn't feeling him move, they sent me for an ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. and it always was. he was always in there moving around like crazy, but i couldn't feel it because of all of the extra fluid. so the dr. comes in and i tell him the kid isn't cooperating and i have lunch plans. then he pulled out the magical zapper. i'd totally forgotten about it. it's just a little thing that vibrates and makes some noise that they put on your stomach to wake the baby up. he zapped me and the baby moved immediately. i want a zapper like that for hayden. something that will make him do what i want him to do anytime i zap him. same thing happened this morning. heart rate was great, but baby was sleeping and not moving. but i was feeling my stomach tighten quite a bit, which i have come to find out, actually are contractions.
again. you're dealing with a very out of touch from her own body person over here. i guess i've just always thought, contractions? well, they hurt, right? and my stomach tightening doesn't hurt. so it's just another thing that happens when you're pregnant. it's a weird complex process ya know.
so i'm watching this machine and my contraction number go up. some of them seemed to be pretty big. which just means my stomach felt tighter than ever. it's kinda nice. makes you feel like you have abs of steel when really, you have the furthest thing from it.
so the dr. comes in after probably the biggest one and says "oh, you're really contracting, huh?" yeah, i guess. if that's what you call it these days. he asked if i felt it and i said, "well, yeah. i feel my stomach getting tighter." he made sure they weren't hurting and all of that to which i replied "well no, but about an hour before i had my son these 'contractions' didn't hurt." he told me to watch them and drink plenty of liquids today. said that i could be contracting this way because of the extra fluid. guess it causes contracting. who knew?!
jessica was texting me right when i got out from my appointment and was asking "well how far apart?" like i know these things. who does she think she's talking too. rest easy, jessica. i'm sure we've still got some time. although, we are getting closer....

36 week ultrasound

so on monday, march 12th we went in for another ultrasound. i was 36 weeks and measuring larger so the dr. just wanted to make sure the baby wasn't too big. i really have no faith in these as hayden was "a big baby" that was born weighing only 7 pounds 4 ounces. but it was fun, nonetheless, to see the baby again. this time around you can really only see a head profile shot as it is too cramped for space to see much else. the technician was actually impressed with how good of a profile shot we got. the tech told us that at 36 weeks most babies weigh somewhere between 4 and 6 pounds. this last month they will gain about 2 pounds. she said that everything looked great and it was moving around quite well considering there wasn't much space left. she could see that the baby has quite a bit of hair. something we also got to see on one of hayden's ultrasounds. at the end of the ultrasound she told us that she was getting a weight on this baby of about 6 pounds 2 ounces. so on the higher end of average but nothing major.
on tuesday, march 13th at about 3:30am we had a bit of a scare. thought that my water possibly had broken and i had some blood. i didn't have any bleeding with hayden so it was a little concerning. i freaked out when i started thinking i was going into labor. and not for the reasons most would be. i just kept saying "no. i have too much to do still. the house isn't ready." so, in typical jill fashion, i decided to lay down and see what happened. hoping for the best. i felt some contractions but decided since i wasn't having any fluid leaking i should just roll over and try to go to sleep. i'm not ready....the baby can't come yet. i woke up a few hours later and was feeling fine. i had my 36 week check-up that morning at 11:40am but decided to call the on call dr. just to make sure everything seemed ok as i still was having some bleeding. she said i should be fine to wait until my appointment that morning and that it most likely was just some of my plug. yummy.
so that morning i go to see the dr. they weren't concerned at all. there was no fluid leaking or anything and the dr. checked my cervix just to be safe. didn't say anything about any dilation but did say that my "cervix is softening considerably which could be a reason for the changes i am seeing." i told him that i had too much to do still and that the baby couldn't come. so if he had to go in there with a staple gun or some caulk, i didn't care, but i wasn't ready. he told me it looked like we still have some time left and i told him that i'm holding him to that. everything else looked good too. he went over the ultrasound and said the baby should be a decent size. not too big or too small. he's thinking around 7 1/2 pounds. but the reason i was measuring big.....extra fluid. SURPRISE. i'm a good fluid maker, i guess. i would imagine i had quite a bit more with hayden since they knew about it so early, but it's enough where i get to go through the same routine. so i'm now going to the dr. twice a week for non-stress tests to make sure the babies heart rate and movements are still a-okay.
so i was back at the dr. office today and everything is great. the dr. that was there came in and said "this baby looks beautiful" (i didn't know one of the dr.'s in this practice had x-ray vision) the heart rate was great, in the 130's mostly, when it moved it went up into the 150's. hayden was ALWAYS really high and nobody ever showed concern until after the fact. several times he was in the 200's. not good, so i'm told now. but the baby was also moving around really well too. so she unhooked me from the machine and sent me home, only to come back again next tuesday to do it all over again.

ahhh, progress

the basement is really coming along. i went to ikea for the first time on friday and was able to buy a desk, a 3 drawer cabinet and some decorations for our new office. friday nite dave and i put the desk together. i was hoping to have the furniture moved out of the upstairs office so that i could start priming on saturday while dave had to work all day. that didn't happen, but we aren't that far off on our schedule. i tried putting together a bookcase that i bought and had the whole thing almost done when i ran into a few problems. after working on it for probably 2 hours i gave up and decided to wait until dave came home. he had as many problems as i did, but eventually he got it put together and functional. he also put the cabinet together.
yesterday the family all went out to the dearborn inn for brunch to celebrate dad's retirement from ford motor company after 37 1/2 years. it was delicious. i'm glad i'm not going to the dr. for another week though! after going back to the house for a little bit, we headed home to get working on the office again. i emptied out the upstairs office the best i could as dave and a friend worked on the wiring of the basement office. we have 1 functional light now and the others are waiting to be installed. it's really looking good down here and i'll be so happy when everything is in order and clean. dave likes to say that i like my poop in a group.
today i got the first coat of primer in the nursery done all while hayden was at school. i dropped him off, started the priming at about 9am and finished at about 10:30. just in time to go and pick him up. i put hayden down for a nap and just finished up with the second coat of primer. it's so nice to be seeing an end to this! i've been feeling pretty anxious and panicky lately wondering if i'm going to be able to get everything done. i know that all of this doesn't need to be complete before the baby comes home. and i know that i still need to pack my bags and get the car seat and other essentials in the house and cleaned. but like last time....i have to do things my way. and in typical jill fashion, i refuse to learn my lesson. this baby can't come before i'm ready. right?! so i will continue to get the nursery ready before moving on to the much smaller (but possibly more important) things.
i'm actually quite impressed with myself as i was getting up and down from a step-stool and getting up and down off the floor all morning. at 35 weeks, that's quite an undertaking. i was always able to make it up off the ground. guess i'm getting my work out in after yesterday's brunch.
i'm taking pictures of the progress, and as i've said before, once i figure out how in the world our computer works with our camera i will post them for all to see. an empty room with primed walls is something everyone wants to see. this i know.