Tick Tock - 37 weeks and 3 days

Wow - a month has passed already since my last post. In that time, I've developed Irritable Uterus, my Carpal Tunnel Syndrome just about drove me nuts, my feet lost their bones, AND I left work earlier than planned for my mat leave.

As for the Irritable Uterus (I.U.), now that I'm "term" (able to have the baby at home, safely), it doesn't provide much of an issue other than terrible discomfort to me. But oh well. It was the reason I left work 2 weeks earlier than planned. I.U. can cause pre-term labour. Basically, any physical activity or prolonged sitting or my jeans digging into my belly causes my entire uterus to contract painfully - for hours. So it's like a contraction. AND I get Braxton Hicks contractions on TOP of this. Yay.

As for the being "term" part, for anyone not familiar with pregnancy issues, a pregnancy is considered to last 37 to 42 weeks, since doctors are stupid and can't quite figure out how long a baby needs to be in there (answer: FOR AS LONG AS IT TAKES). So, having said that, a woman is "allowed" to home birth anytime after midnight on the first day of her 37th week of pregnancy, which for me, was Saturday morning. Yippee!! I'm in the clear, no threat of a forced hospital delivery (gak), etc etc. I can officially go into labour at any time now. Preferably before 42 weeks and one day, since at that point they'll be pressing me to be induced (not a good thing).

Today I picked up the birthing tub and all the supplies we'll need for the home birth, so we're all set, on this end. Ben set up the tub in the spare room, so all we'll need to do once labour starts is put in the plastic sheet (to keep it sanitary for next person), and fill it. That's a relief.

We have a ton of onesies now, for 0-3 and 3-6 months size, and a few in sizes bigger than that. We have absolutely no "clothes" for those sizes, other than the sweaters I've made. Not sure how that's gonna work, but I'm sure we'll not have the baby in any clothes for the first little while, since it will be summer, and it's a baby, for jeepers sake. Everything else, we have, thanks to family and friends' shower gifts (thanks everyone!) and purchases we've made. The only item we've yet to buy is the monitor off our registry. We'll likely pick that up later this week.

Ben starts his new job tomorrow, should be interesting. I guess him being laid off the day before he had his appendix removed was a good thing..upward and onward!

As for actual pregnancy news, I've had some signs of pre-labour (trust me, you don't want to know), and have it on authority that I'll be having this baby sometime in the next few weeks (snide laugh inserted here) but I feel it likely won't be that long. I could be wrong. We'll see. Ben wants me to "wait" until the weekend. I'm not sure the kiddo will agree, but I guess we'll find out soon enough.

Sorry to everyone who is awaiting an updated pregnancy pic, but we just keep forgetting. On Wednesday night we're having official professional pregnancy pics taken by Tisha Johnson of Intrigue Photography. I'm not sure what her copyright preferences are, but if I'm allowed, I'll put up one of those as soon as I can. Otherwise, you'll have to wait until Ben and I take more pics.

Appendix? Who needs it? 33 Weeks and Counting.

Hello everyone.

Wow-check out how huge I am! I don't feel this big! And I still have (about) 7 weeks left!

There have been quite a few interesting occurrences in the last week or so. Starting off with me waking up with Carpel Tunnel Syndrome in my left hand and then developing it in my right-apparently this happens often during pregnancy? The extra fluid and swelling - and boy are my hands ever swollen - puts pressure on the nerves etc and causes the pain/tingling/loss of mobility and strength. What fun. I found that the exercises I found online have been helping with the mobility/pain in my left hand, but my right hand still suffers from tingling and numbness. It sucks bad. I can only hope it goes away after Fred is born. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

The next major issue: Ben developing appendicitis and having surgery on Saturday to remove a piece of his body...what a nice way to enjoy a baby shower - Ben texted me about an hour before my family baby shower was to begin, to let me know the ultrasound had showed appendicitis and he would be having surgery that day to remove it. Now, I immediately wanted to cancel the shower, but there were several people coming from out of town to attend. And we had no idea WHEN the surgery would take place (turns out they took him shortly after 5 pm). So I put on a (mostly) happy face, bad cold and all, and tried to enjoy the shower. Immediately after the last guest had left, I took off to the hospital and made it about 5 minutes before they took him up.
I was seriously worried. Any number of things can go wrong during surgery. Add to that fact that Ben had never been admitted to a hospital before, let alone had surgery, I was scared. But everything turned out ok, and around 8 pm they wheeled him by on a stretcher on the way to his room (so much for the surgeon coming to talk to us). He was ensconced in a room on the surgical floor and fought the anesthesia for several hours (he lost) and ended up sleeping, off and on, until about 1130. He woke up for quite a while then, and was taking it like a trooper. I ended up leaving the hospital shortly after midnight (thanks for the ride, Lindsey!) and went home to a very lonely bed - the first time we've been apart since our wedding.

Add to all of this: I was developing a NASTY cold/flu virus from Thursday morning on. Thank goodness it didn't get too bad until Sunday, but man, when it hit, it hit hard. I've been out for the count-fever, headache, sinus pain, coughing, congestion, runny nose, earache, you name it, I have it. I've been off work these last two days and still feel terrible. I've developed the fever in the last 24 hours - I hope it's not pneumonia or sinus infection, I really want to avoid antibiotics. I'll keep monitoring the fever and go from there.

As for baby stuff, we got some really nice stuff from my family. In addition to tons of onesies and sleeper (please, NO MORE SLEEPERS OR ONESIES), we got two awesome diaper bags, lots of small sized pre-fold diapers, a baby gate, the coolest bath toy storage system EVER, and lots more. We also got some cash to help us out with purchases in the future. Thanks everyone!
Anyone coming to upcoming baby showers should check out our registry lists at Toys R Us (look under 40485155 or Rebecca Maclary) and Cheeky Monkey (look under Rebecca MacLary) for ideas-all the stuff we need is on those lists.

I've been cutting out cloth wipes and started sewing them this afternoon - I got thru three of them before my headache kiboshed that plan. Oh well, at least they're started now. I also cut out the outside pieces for several more diapers in newborn and small sizes. I think I've got those pretty much covered, for up to 15 pounds, anyway. We still need diapers for over 15 pounds. Either pre-folds, fitteds, or pockets. See our registry lists if you want to help out.

Thanks!
Rebecca, Ben, and Fred