Alan and I took an ARC Infant/Child CPR
certification class last night. I was not looking forward to it
(real pain to get scheduled, then ended up being 6pm-10pm), but
it turned out to be fun. Glad we did it. Even better, Lex was
an angel for my mom. No crying, no fussing, just a good boy all
around. That gives me hope :)

Off to my
41wk appointment. I scheduled it a bit early (Friday instead of
Monday) so Mom would be here and Alan wouldn’t have to take the
day off. No way can I do an ultrasound and NST with Lex by
myself!

I’ll try to post an update and
maybe an ultrasound pic later this afternoon.

This post is just a bunch of whining, so
consider yourself warned :)

I think I
was very spoiled with my first pregnancy. I was late, but quite
comfortable (relatively speaking anyway). Going from no labor
progress to baby overnight is definitely the preferable way to
go. This time around I’m dilating sooner (which is good
progress, I suppose) but all of me hurts! I now understand all
of the “typical” late stage pregnancy gripes. Well, most
anyway. There are certainly a few issues I can think of that I
don’t have (thankfully!!) that would make things even more
uncomfortable. But I’m achy all over and my belly feels like
there is a bowling ball inside and totally bruised on the
outside. It isn’t really bruised, but it feels that way.
Walking is uncomfortable. Any sort of fast walking (chasing Lex
down the street) is damn near impossible. It takes a real
effort to roll over in bed at night and I have to get up every
hour to pee. Blah! Fortunately my mom is here to take care of
me :)

I think today would be a lovely
day to have a baby, but worst case, Monday is a full moon and a
low pressure system coming through, so hopefully that will do
it. It’s also eight days past my due date. We’ll see
:)

Guess I should be updating more frequently
these days. Not much going on, just hanging out. Had my 40wk
checkup on Monday. No news there. The midwife said “you could
go any day now,” and I thought “that’s that they said last week
too!” Scheduled my 41wk checkup for this Friday for another
ultrasound, a non-stress test, and then the appointment with
the midwife. Lex won’t be very happy at the doctor’s that long,
so it was nice I could do it when my mom is here to help out.
Let’s all hope I can cancel those appointments though!! :)
Otherwise we’re just doing our thing. Lex has regressed a bit
into sleeping in his crib most days and still quite the mommy’s
boy. I learned that he’s only a mommy’s boy when I’m around
though. I went to yoga on Monday and left him with Rosy and he
was happy as can be. Didn’t seem to care that I was gone :) I
guess that’s the best way to be, huh? Ok, now he’s awake from
his nap so I’m outta here…

Waiting is the hardest part, especially
with a crowd. I keep reminding myself that I’m not even due
yet, let alone past due. I probably have a few more weeks. But
waiting is tough. I think my friend (due tomorrow) may be in
labor today. Is it petty to be jealous? I also worry a bit for
Lex because he’s gotten so mommy happy these past few days. He
likes other people, but only if he knows exactly where mommy
is. I don’t think he’s let Joyce or Barney read to him or
really do much with him the whole time, just wants mommy. I
think he knows something is going on. Not sure he fully
understands what, but he definitely senses some impending
something. I’m trying to balance showering him with attention
as much as possible before baby comes, while not making the
clingy-ness worse. Who knows the right way to do that. Oh well.
I’m pretty tired and cranky today so I think I’d best stop
posting my rambles to the world :)

One big difference between this pregnancy
and my first is the ability to feel the baby’s parts. It’s
amazing. With Lex, the midwives could feel big things like
head, butt, back, etc. But I could only ever feel a big, solid
lump. This time around, I can feel individual parts inside,
especially when baby is moving a lot. I don’t know exactly what
they are, but if I press on my belly I can feel something bump
under my fingers and go by, like baby just turned over and I
felt the arm pass by. Again, I’m never sure exactly what part
it is, but it’s pretty amazing to feel. Sometimes my belly just
feels lumpy (when the BH contractions are giving me a few
minutes of relief) and you can just poke around and feel little
hills and valleys in the belly. Very cool , in an alien inside
sort of way!

Had my 39wk checkup this morning. All is
good. Baby is strong, active, and measuring right on schedule.
She also said I’m 2cm dilated and “very soft.” Which doesn’t
mean a thing, really, since I went from 0cm to baby within 24
hours with Lex and some women stay several cm dilated for
weeks. I know a woman who is due just before me and she’s been
5cm dilated for several weeks now. But, the dilation does
explain the funky feelings I’ve been having lately. I keep
getting flurries of activity in my belly. I’ll get a real
strong BH contraction, baby will start doing flips (probably in
protest of the contraction!) and then I’ll get weird pinchy
feelings in my cervix. Then things will settle down again for
awhile. Soo… I guess that means we’re making progress :)
C’mon baby!

PS. Mom, there was
a toy phone in the waiting room and Lex kept picking it up and
saying “Hi Mema…” then going into a long conversation that I
couldn’t understand a word of :) Probably telling you all about
the lovely hospital waiting room.

Alan and I went to a three hour childbirth
refresher class last night. A few important takeaways:

1) High, tight, belly pains and Braxton-Hicks
= false labor; lower back pain and low-belly cramps = real
labor. Good to remember.

2) When I’m in
labor and start forgetting what I’m doing (Mom, remember that?
You: “What are we doing in this room?” Me: *shrug* “No idea.”)
When I get to that point, it’s time to get to the hospital
ASAP!

3) Lex did great with our
babysitter (Jan) right up until she mentioned the “b” word
(bedtime) then he had a complete meltdown. She said they had a
great time playing, reading, etc. and then he cried really hard
for an hour as she tried to get him in bed. She’s good though
and got him to sleep in his bed.

So now
we are refreshed and continue to wait :)

Here are a few more belly pics. Can it get
any bigger?? These are good pics because you can see the
stretch marks and all. :) I have lots of Braxton Hicks
contractions lately and in the past few days the belly has
started getting very achy and sore too… maybe too many
Cadbury mini-eggs ;) And I got the same belly button pain that
I had with Lex, though not as strong (yet). I just went back to
the old blog and saw that the midwives called it a mild uterian
hernia. Yipee! Like my online whining? Like my maternity yoga
pants? They are so comfy I might just wear them for the rest of
this pregnancy.

I’ve had requests for more belly pictures,
so I gave it a shot tonight. Alan isn’t home at the moment, so
these are self-portraits. Hope you like. As usual, the belly
feels much bigger than it looks in pictures!