11/29/2014 39 Week Pregnancy Update

Warning: this post is full of details about how early stages of labor/late stages of pregnancy feel to me. I use medical terms and list it bluntly, so if you don't want to hear it don't read it. This is for me and my memory of how this went, because I am discovering my memory of how it went with Josiah is a blur.

38 weeks 6 days. Was having such bad contractions that night that I wanted one more picture just in case it was the last. 

I am now more pregnant than I have ever been. Josiah was born at 38.6 weeks. Today I am 39.2. My theory is that with Josiah my body was forced to ovulate at day 14 of a 28 day cycle and my cycles not on mediation are more like 32 days and the delay has been before ovulation. So if I use that delay to put this pregnancy at the same time with the last, I would expect this baby to be born about 4 days later than Josiah was to have the same time gestation time. That put's it at December 1st. We'll see. This has been quite confusing for me.  Every evening I think, "This is probably the night I will give birth," and then I succeed in sleeping. I still get up a bunch of times due to contractions and a full bladder, but then succeed again in falling back asleep. When morning comes my body isn't contracting regularly any more. Each night the contractions get stronger, except for last night. I commented that I was going to laugh really hard if it was the night we went to the hospital since the contractions were much milder than the last 3 nights. It didn't happen though. I did wonder when I woke up at 2 am because of some bad contractions but they let up after I went to the bathroom, so I slept again. Each night around 5-6 I start having contractions about 5-8 minutes apart. They cause period like cramping in my low abdomen and back. I feel a low of pressure in my pelvis and I at times can't keep sitting or laying or walking or whatever I am doing. They are always easier if I can relax my upper body and if I can sway my hips.
Two days ago I started to loose my mucous plug. Bryan and I stopped following the Dr.'s orders to not do anything that might progress labor ;) and that probably contributed to the loss of the mucous plug.  It has been a 2 day process of pink to blood tinged mucous coming out, like the light day of a period, except with more pink to red than brown colored. No big chunks came out, just gooey mucous. I feel really cramps all the time like it's my period weather or not I am contraction. When I have a contraction it just makes the cramp sharper and the pressure much greater and makes me catch my breath and squirm.
Feeling even just the tiniest bit constipated seems to make the contractions extra bad, so I ate a lot of fiber and significantly increased my fluid intake. It took a couple days, but that doesn't seem to be a problem any more. However now I have to go almost every time I go to the bathroom. I think the baby's movements and the contractions are overstimulating my poor colon.
I am pretty sure I can tell the baby has dropped. I can fit a whole hand between my chest and my uterus. The part of my belly below my belly button seems much bulgier. Also, the rib pain that I have been feeling is also much less meaning that the baby is not pushing up on them like he was.
I got a stretch mark which is new to me. It is down low maybe below the pants line even on low rise pants, and it really isn't much compared to what they can be. We'll see if I get more. I showered last night (and Bryan shaved my legs for me) and I lathered everything with vitamin E oil mixed half and half with some kind of body butter (same thing I do after every shower). I just don't get to shower that often so it isn't really much more than once or twice a week that I put it on. So far it has made my skin pretty stretchy, but the lower part of my abdomen is really stretched much more than it was now that the baby is so much lower, so I can see why I got one.
I have been having that pinching sharp feeling on my cervix that I saw I mentioned around 38 weeks last pregnancy. The one that Dr. Payne described as the baby's head turning on the cervix thinning it. It's uncomfortable but makes me hopeful that some progress toward a baby coming out is being made.
I think nesting has started. I fear every night that this kid is coming to I go like crazy during the day trying to get as much done before he gets here as I can because I am supposed to rest afterword to let everything heal up nicely. Twi and Jason came to stay from Thanksgiving mid day to Sunday mid day. I have been including them in my nesting since Jason asked what they could do to help. With everyone's help in just a few days we have cleaned the garage, which was a disaster, put up Christmas lights, acquired put up and decorated a christmas tree, took a few desired maternity pictures, covered the garden with the rest of the maple leaves, tacked the tarps back down on the barn roof, hemmed 6 swaddle blankets and died two of them red, moved the newborn clothes to the night stand in our bedroom, scrubbed the master bathroom and created a newborn diaper changing station, and not on my list and Jason's idea was remove remaining bits of wedding nail polish from my toes and paint my nails red. Boy to I feel loved. They have been here taking care of Josiah for me, cooking meals and keeping the kitchen clean and the dishes done. Letting me work on whatever little things I can accomplish and doing all the hard tasks so graciously. Twi takes Josiah outside to play all the time to wear him and her both out. I just assumed my list wasn't going to get accomplished and I was ok with it, but now there is very little to nothing left that I need to do now.

Looking for the right Christmas tree. Josiah insisted on carrying the saw. 

Josiah stole the saw from Bryan after he started cutting.

"Let me do it Papa." 

Loading the tree in the truck. 

The view of Mt. Hood from the tree farm.

Looking cool and keeping busy at REI

I want to take a repeat picture with the baby and crop the mirror portion of this picture to have me holding the baby. We also took this the night that I was contracting so bad I thought the baby was going to come and if we didn't take the picture I wouldn't have one. 

Josiah helped decorate the tree. 

A combo of the kiss the belly and kiss the toddler picture I saw and loved and a christmas tree maternity silhouette that I loved, so we combined the two. It was late and night, past Josiah's bed time, and he was quite fussy but the picture turned out great! Thanks to baby #2 waiting till Twi and Jason could come to take the picture for us, and help decorate the tree. 

11/23/14 38 Week Pregnancy update.

I have continued to have a lot of contractions. I think sometimes I perceive that they hurt because my abbs are separated already and that makes them uncomfortable. I read bank on this blog about posts from the same time fame and I described them as mostly painless. I also talked about a lot of downward pressure though as well. Maybe it's different because I went though labor and those contractions weren't all that much different than these... I am not sure, but I am glad to be past the point where anyone cares whether I am contracting or not and I can just wait until I am sure I am in labor before we have to call the midwife and go to the hospital. There's no need to stop them now! Sometimes, and for the last 3 nights in a row I have had regular contractions 5-9 minutes apart that last 45sec to 1 minute and hurt pretty back in my back and lower abdomen like period cramps. Some have been bad enough to make me do nothing but lie down and wonder if the baby is coming. Those nights I do restful things and put myself to bed and see if sleep will make the contractions go away. So far every time it has.
During the day how am I feeling?
I feel tired. I am glad to be only working one day at a time.
I feel best lying or standing. With sitting I have a lot of back and rib pain. I went to the chiropractor on 11/20 and got adjusted and boy do I feel much better. I had no idea my pelvis was that out of place and that my gluteal muscles were so tight and angry.  I think I'd better work on stretching those, I'll need them in good shape when labor comes. I get to go again tomorrow!
I feel pressure. I keep telling people I feel like I have a softball sitting in my pelvis. I don't feel any pinching that I described last time. Although the last 2 days during some of the bad contractions I have felt a pinching that goes along with the achy cramps feeling.
I feel shooting pain down the backs of my legs and sometimes like my knees are buckling. I remember that from last time and thinking that meant the baby's head was pushing on nerves as he descended lower into the pelvis.
I feel like my pelvis is trying to split in half in the front where it connects. It pinches and when I try to stand on one leg or lift one leg when turning it's excruciating.
I can still walk, but I can't really go briskly. I can still climb stairs but probably only 1 flight. I can still work, but not two days in a row. I can still pick things up off the floor but it sure is hard.
I weight 7lbs more than I did at this point last pregnancy. I have been having trouble gaining much here at the end thanks to small stomach space, so at least I am not up to 168 like I feared. I am only at 162. We'll see what happens if I have to be pregnant for another 4 weeks though.
From my posts before I don't really feel that much worse than last time I am just grumpier about it. I'll have to pray for an attitude adjustment to keep me going!

11/18 picture post

36 1/2 weeks pregnant. Didn't have the right veggies in the house and potty training Josiah makes it hard for him to be presentable in pictures. I didn't want to miss the growth picture so I took one of just me. 

I have been enjoying watching the fall colors!

The bright yellows and dark greens together. The bit of sun even though it came with such cold has been really nice. 

Josiah was in the way when Jason was clearing out the guest room for the night, so he got a ride.

Playing with the "balls", really balloons that were on top of Jason's birthday pumpkin pie. 

This time of year all the tree farms have piles of sideways christmas trees laying around to be shipped off to various parts of the country. I liked this one's view with Mt. Hood clear in the background. 

We baby sat Ellie Hall for 4 hours. Josiah really loves her and kept trying to take her or touch her. 

Josiah likes to pull his brimmed hats down so far he can bairly see and this is how he looks when he ttys to look at somebody after pulling his hat brim down. 

Super cute picture Bryan took of Josiah and his friend while I was working. 

Fans make his hair crazy!

Car seat static make his hair crazy. 

11/14 Potty Training Update

We have been potty training now for 2 weeks with Josiah. Before we started, Bryan and I both read an e-book about potty training that claimed you could potty train your child in three days. We got it from this page.
http://www.startpottytraining.com
Josiah wasn't showing all of the signs that the book recommended but we decided to try anyhow, figuring we had nothing to loose. If we failed, we would still just have 2 in diapers. If we tried, we figured we'd stand a chance at just one. If Josiah regresses, then at least we'll have the stuff he already learned to rely on and go back to.
At this 2 week point, Josiah is not fully potty trained. We decided to continue in our efforts because  we are finding it easier than diapering. It does come with a few frustrations that diapering doesn't but we feel it's worth it to see if Josiah can learn before his little brother comes.

The progress we have made since the last post is pretty big in our opinions. Josiah will now go potty when we are out and about. He will go at church and at a grocery store bathroom. We can hold him on a big toilet without too much of a fit and when he needs to he will go. We can also take him potty if it has been a while and he can make himself pee if we can get him to take the 5 seconds to relax and do it. He will poop on the toilet or the potty chair at home if he is bare bottom. We realize when he needs to poop, but we are having trouble getting him to have the patients to sit there long enough to do it. When he is bare bottom and doesn't sit there long enough he just runs back to the potty chair when he feels it coming and so it works. If he is wearing underwear though he has no problem letting the poop go in it. We aren't really sure what to do about that except to work on his willingness to sit on the potty chair when he needs to go and to leave him bare bottomed more at home around the time he needs to go to see if he can get more the hang of how to make himself poop.

Josiah isn't potty trained at night. He can sometimes make it though a nap now that he will go when we take him. If he goes right before a nap usually he is dry when he wakes from a nap. At night, even if we follow the plan's advice to cut all his liquids off 3 hours from bed time and take him potty an hour after he falls asleep and again an hour before he should wake up, he is very wet. This is the readiness sign he wasn't showing though. He has never woken up with a dry diaper in the morning. This is evidence that his body hasn't learned how to hold his urine yet. So at this point he wears cloth trainers for naps and bed time and sometimes for long car rides. That seems to be working for us while we wait for his body to gain the ability to hold his urine.

Overall I am happy with the method we used. I am happy that Bryan and I did a lot of reading together before starting so we use the same methods. I am pleased with the progress we have made. It would be nice to have it all done in 3 days, but we started early and we realize that. We are hoping that this will help us avoid power struggles over potty training with the defiance that comes at 2 years old and help Josiah not blame his lack of diapers and having to potty train on his coming brother.

11/5/14 Potty Training

Starting out:

Packing up the diapers.

We put away all the dippers. All Josiah has is big boy underwear. We got 25 pairs in hopes they would last a whole day of peeing in them. They are size 2t/3t. I was nervous that at 21 months they wouldn't fit him well, but they are a pretty good fit! He is just wearing PJ pants and undies, or nothing on the bottom. We also have about 15 pairs or more of PJ's. We expect to do a lot of laundry in the next three days.
So far, Josiah has peed on the potty 3 times and in his undies or on the floor 5 times. No matter where he pees, he ends up crying a lot. We have added reward for just sitting on the potty because I can't get him to do it willingly without one. Now, he gets a chocolate chip if he sits on the potty. The problem is his language skills aren't good enough yet to comprehend if then statements. So when I tell him he can have a chocolate if he sits on the potty, he doesn't get it and he just ends up crying about not getting a chocolate. He gets a lot of praise every time he sits on the potty and especially if he pees while sitting there, but it doesn't seem to help him stop crying.

One day's worth of chocolate chips.

He woke up pretty early for when he went to bed, so we are hoping it was just over tiredness and put him down for a nap. We hope he can either sleep though peeing on himself or not pee until he wakes up. We are hoping to get him to sleep about 2 hours.  He did end up waking up sopping wet, but he had slept 2 hours and was in better spirits for our continued efforts.
Day 1 ended with neither of us being sure if Josiah gets what's going on and some fear of bedtime. We have a pair swaddle bees training pants my sister got us, that fit him. They are just like slightly thick underwear with a water proof lining. I don't think I would use disposable pull ups, but cloth ones seem to be to help save the bedding, Josiah still feels wet if he pees and they look and feel more like underwear than his diapers do.  We put him to bed in those. Since Josiah didn't drink anything after 6pm and went to bed at nine, it worked ok. We woke him up an hour after going to bed to sit on the potty with no results, and I work him up at 6:30am (well he was stirring and fussing) and put him on the potty with no results.

Josiah's Potty

I did some reading again after Josiah went to bed and decided to add a timer to day 2 routine to make sure we get enough practice on the potty, and to try to encourage more fluids and fibers (green smoothie if I can get him to drink it). I think the timer will help make sure if we aren't paying enough attention to Josiah's behavior he at least has a better chance at fewer mistakes. I think the fluids and fiber will keep him from holding his poo any longer and give us lots of practice before the pizza night at my parents on the last day. He didn't poop at all on day 1. I think he needed to and had a lot of gas, but just wouldn't because of the change.
Day 2. Josiah was damp when I got him up to potty at 6:30 with no results. He didn't quite make it back to sleep before his friend came over for baby sitting. When he heard her voice around 7:20, it was over and he was up for the day. Taking him potty while his friend was here worked better than I thought.  I figured we would have more crying as we pulled him away from his play to go potty, but he would come saying "chockie?", which is his word for chocolate.
The timer seems to work well but he doesn't usually pee when we put him on the potty just because the timer went off, and a few times he would start to go, just a couple minutes after coming off the potty because of the timer, but when we put him on because of his behavior change or because he dripped a little, then he would go a lot. Twice so far today after his friend left he asked to go on the potty, I think after he lost a tiny bit, and peed a good amount once he got there. So maybe the purpose of the timer is just to remind Bryan and I to be attentive to his behavior and how long it has been since Josiah last pottied. We kept pants on him while his friend was here. He did poop in his pants, not on the potty. Oh, well, more practice. Turns out cleaning pooped in underwear is about the same and a diaper, so it didn't make much difference to us.

The travel potty.

We got the travel potty out and set it up in the bathroom to try to have him get used to it. We'll probably try to get him to use it a few times at home before we try it out when we go to my parent's house tomorrow.
So far, I am more hopeful that this is working today than I was yesterday and we are at about 1/2 way though.

11/1/14 35 Weeks and Contractions Again

I started having a lot of contractions at work wednesday the 29th. I made it through and they went away when I slept that night. I spent a lot of thursday being lazy. We were babysitting Josiah's friend all day and through the next morning because her parents were a part of planning, setting up and taking down a big fundraising function. She and Josiah played really well. There were, of course, fights over toys and at times Josiah would try to hold her hand and pull her around but for the most part it went well. I rested on the couch a lot since they could entertain each other really well and I was tired from working though all the contractions the day before. It was very rainy so we didn't attempt to go outside.

Snuggles before nap time.

Popsicle eating is serious business. 

I started having contractions again while prepping dinner and while sitting and eating I had more than 6 and I wasn't even sitting there for an hour. My mom was over, just by chance, because she was delivering another load of stuff. She helped me by tiding the bathroom and installing a towel hook for my bathrobe so it has a home and doesn't always end up on the floor or the shower door. I mentioned all the contractions to her and she stuck around while we figured out a plan. I rested on the couch timing them and doing nothing for about 45 minutes and they didn't slow down or go away. They were 30-45 sec long and came every 3-5 minutes. I have never had them come that frequently even during my last labor, well maybe they did during the very last stage and pushing. I decided to call the midwife group. Linda, the one on call said I should give it two hours, try to rest or sleep and see if I could make them go away, if not to come to the hospital to get my cervix checked.

Being one day short of 35 weeks, I didn't know if this was labor if they would try to stop it, so we prepped for everything before I rested. I packed a hospital bag. Bryan put the car seat and a bag for himself in the truck. I set out my work clothes for the next day in case sleep was successful and my mom decided to stay the night just in case we needed to go to the hospital so somebody could be at the house with Josiah and his friend. 

When I finally did lay down at 10pm, the contractions did slow down and lighten up to more like every 8 minutes. I laid there for a long time, until almost 1am and couldn't fall asleep. Every time I would get close another contraction would wake me up. I finally called the midwife again and asked if this was labor if she was going to try to stop it. She was uncertain without examining me, and requested I come in. If they weren't going to stop it, I was going to stay home because I don't prefer to labor in the hospital. Since she was unsure and I wasn't excited about the possibility of a 35 week preemie or a Halloween baby, which it now was, I went without complaint. Linda, the midwife,  and a nurse were waiting for me when I got there. Maybe I should have told them how far away I live. Oh well.    

They monitored my contractions for 45 minutes. Checked my vitals and urine which were fine. Baby's heart rate was around 135 which they said was normal. My cervix wan't dilated and was spongy. Linda said I was at -2 and 60% effaced. I was sent home. I wasn't sure how I was going to sleep since my contractions were continuing at every 5 minutes but I figured it was better than being in the hospital. I called in sick to work figuring I would be unhelpful with such frequent contractions and so sleep deprived. 

We got home at 4am. Josiah fussed, so I went in and rocked him back to sleep. I went and laid down and had a lot of intermittent light sleep with dreams of labor and contractions. Whenever I woke up I was still having contractions. Josiah fussed a lot though the night and ruined Bryan's sleep. I am sure ready for this respiratory infection to resolve so he can breath at night an sleep. When he quit fussing Remmy started (by then it was 6:45). She went back to sleep once and then eventually my mom heard her and went and got her up. I slept ok from then until 9:30 when Josiah got up and there was a lot more noise. I was still having contractions, but less frequently and certainly not increased at all in intensity. My mom stayed until it seemed clear that I was capable of handling the two of them. 

Bryan watched them when he got up, and I got to go to work to deliver the bread, my contribution to the sandwich potluck and show off my Halloween costume. They were critically short staffed, and I felt bad. They were managing ok, but I wished I could be helpful. Even the contractions I had while I was there for that short time showed me that I really couldn't stay and help. 

When I came home, Josiah's friend was getting picked up. We hung out had lunch and chatted for a while until it was clear both kids really needed to get to their naps so they left just before one. Josiah went right down for his nap and slept 2.5 hours. I got a one hour nap and some internet time to help relax and read some things and like experiences to put my mind at ease. Josiah woke up in a good mood and wanted to go outside. I figured I could use a walk so we went and watched Bryan work on the driveway. He has been regrading to fix pot holes and adding gravel on top. One area got too deep and widened and is now rather boggy, so he was trying to fix it. It felt good to be outside and up and the contractions were no different than while resting, so I got a couple rakes and Josiah and I raked leaves until it was time to leave for pizza night. 

He was so good helping. He was kinda trying to knock the piles down, but they were so big he couldn't so just played happily with the rake the whole time. 

While out there raking, I was thinking about what I had read about 35 week deliveries and complications, and that every time nobody is concerned about all my contractions, so I decided not to care and just to keep on going as normal as I can and ignore them as much as possible until it is clear to me that I am really in labor. Of course if something seems wrong I'll call but I don't think I will go to the maternity ward again until I think I am ready to deliver. 

The closest I came to dressing Josiah up for Halloween. We have the pieces to a cowboy costume somewhere, but I couldn't find them all easily and wasn't interested in looking very long just for a picture and no event.