Calling all the Pregnant PS''ers

[So Excited]

Thank you... I understand.. I had a bunch of US with our first towards the end because I found out I was prego so late they wanted to check her growth/etc.

I have to get a 28wk with this pregnancy to check my placentas location... Cross my fingers... hoping it moved up away from my cervix!!!

I would have paid the $99 too! I was just thinking how much was charged to my insurance for my hour long US at 20 wks and I would find it hard to justify the approx $550 for the 3D shots only. For $99, heck yeah!!

 

[Mara]

our hospital and OB did not offer 3D, they just didn''t have the equipment, but i know some OB offices do.

we paid i think it was $140 for the package, it was $120 but we got the DVD which added on like $20. and it was supposed to be 30 min but the tech spent almost an hour with us. we got a CD with something like 100 pics (but about 10-15 were really good), and the DVD was the entire session from start to finish. and we brought my mom, sis, grandma, and friend with us, so it was great. totally worth it! the best part was the kid looked just like his photos!

happy v-day preggos!! hope everyone is enjoying their last v-day sans kiddos hehee. its our first WITH... what a great v-day gift to each other.

 

[gingerB]

Happy Valentine''s day and Happy Lunar New year ladies!!

mer - what a cutie! sorry you didn''t completely enjoy the whole 3d/4d experience. i think the pic you got is pretty great. love love love those fat squishy cheeks!

kim - my fluid has been on the low side since 37 weeks, but it''s lasted so farand i''m almost at 41 weeks. so crossed fingers for you that everything will continue to be a-ok. glad you got a doc that you''re in synch with.

qt - you guys look great! hoping to follow in your footsteps

mara - love your collage. really hope my body does something similar!! it''s kind of weird. i actually have no expectations of labor. i''ve known from the beginning i wanted an epidural and never had a problem with the thought of possibly needing pitocin to spur things on. and throughout the whole of pregnancy, i didn''t read up on what to expect, i was very accepting of the changes my body was undergoing. I didn''t have issues with my belly expanding. I just dealt with the M/S and kept moving etc... BUt i came to realized that i think the big thing i was looking forward too was the moment i remember reading in mandarine''s birth story of all of a sudden coming upon that surprise moment of realizing TODAY IS THE DAY. which is kind of out of character because i actually dislike surprises so i don''t know WHY i wanted that surprise moment. i didn''t care what happened before or after, but i guess that was my one selfish wish through this whole process and i''m sad realizing that it is unlikely happen. not logical, purely emotional which is again out of character for me. i told hubbs about it and he tried to fix it by giving me all these LOGICAL reasons why i shouldn''t feel that way, which is in keeping with my usual character, and it just made me feel worse and worse. i started crying and finally had to tell him to stop talking because he was making me feel worse. poor guy. he really was just trying to help and had no idea what to do with this shockingly emotional, unlogical version of his wife

. so he just shut up and hel me and i felt better afterward''s just acknowledging what i felt. it''s so weird. of all the tougher things about pregnancy that i thought i might have problems dealing with, soooo did not expect this would be the one that really hit me hard.

jcrow - i love the shower in a box idea -- that''s so cute!! **filing away for possible future use**

========================================================================

so our little tiger is still snugly ensconced in my belly. when i showed up yesterday to our big family new year''s gathering the entire family was ecstatic that i was still preggo, instructed me to eat up, hold on until midnight, then go home and have a baby. lol. family. you gotta love ''em. oh, and they started a pool to based on when i was finally going to pop.

last night was the first time i had significant lower back pain, which was shocking because i''ve had back issues my whole life (crooked spine, borderline scoliosis as a child, but straightened out a bit as i got older, hence my long torso) and i expected A LOT of back issue with pregnancy that never manifested. but last night my back just would not get comfortable and today everything my uterus contracts i''m having back pain. so now i''m questioning whter they''re still BHs that is just exacerbated because my back hurts for other reasons or more "real" and it''s the contractions causing back pain. Esp since I was greeted this V-day am with (TMI warning) bloody d/c. and the southern pressure with the contractions is def more intense, and accompanied a stronger feeling of needing to go #2, although i KNOW i shouldn''t have to go. no pattern though. very erratic.

so gingerbaby is again teasing his mama. our induction date is coming up and he''s making me think maybe if i wait a bit longer...

. hubbs and i were wondering if this is the kind of behavior we should expect from the kiddo as we attempt to raise him

either way, i''m happy my body SEEMS to be showing signs that things MAY be moving forward, which i hope means that if we end up inducing, that my body would be more accepting of it and reducing the risk of emergent c-section, y''know? don''t know if there is any medical/scientific basis behind that thought though.

 

[Kaleigh]

gingerB,

Oh girl sending you lots of labor dust your way.... I really hope it happens on it''s own.. I know that''s what you wish for. I don''t blame ya one bit.

So good luck, will be checking in to see how you''re doing.

 

[Mara]

ginger what you are describing is a lot of what i was feeling leading up to the birth in the final 24 hours. the evening before, i had my first REAL contraction (i thought anyway and yep i was right) where it felt significantly diff, just a bit more ''surprising'' than the BH''s. and then all night i had them but they were manageable by myself. they were accompanied by some back pain. it wasn''t until my water broke the next day that i started having the ridiculously crazy back labor contractions that made me feel like i was going to die every time. and the poop thing is part of the back labor, you feel like you have to stiffen up to hold everything just so.

so def keep an eye on them...mine didn''t have a pattern either really up til the last 2 hours and that is when i was like ''we have to go to the hospital, i am SURE i am like 7cm''...welp surprise i was just 2 but i was 80% effaced and water was broken so my body was almost ready...that is why the pitocin spurred me along so fast in just 6 hours to 10cm.

i am so excited for you, i hope that it''s going to be soon and this is the precursor and that you don''t have to be induced. while i also tried not to have expectations, when we got to the hospital i realized i still DID, even though i didn''t get too hung up on them at that point (whats the point hee) but i thought ''what do you mean i have to have pitocin! that''s not part of the plan!''. so just realizing you have them and embracing the inconsistency and moving past it IMO is part of the process.

again my one takeaway from my labor was pitocin+epi=happiness hahaha. so get your epi!! good luck and can''t wait to hear updates!! keep us posted.

 

[Jas12]

Burk--congrats again. Iam so happy your delivery was easy. That''s gotta make such a big difference with recovery. Kade is super tall and skinny (guess he comes by it naturally right?) but i think it''s so funny that almost no one that is predicted to have a huge (or even ''big'' baby) has one. Those estimates are always off it seems.

Mara--you look awesome!!! Nothin much left there at all. Amazing the amount of change in less than a couple weeks. I was only back at the gym so soon b/c i am in northern canada and there was a snow storm the day after i gave birth -walking outdoors was touch and go. My good friend just gave birth last week and is back working out too for the same reason, she exercised up till her delivery and it''s -25 out right now, so she''s dying to just walk on the treadmill. It''s hard to have a newborn in this climate!! You go stir crazy indoors all day, but can''''t go anywhere but our tiny mall.

QT--you look so great too!!!! And hello, you are certainly allowed to be in pjs all day!

.....

Here''s my first, and late, bump pic contribution. Taken late last week. 23 week-ish. I am about to get big....fast. Last pregnancy it felt and looked like i got instantly huge at 26 weeks so it''ll be interesting to see if i follow the same course.
I am carrying super high again, so everyone thinks its another boy.

 

[cara]

Cute bump Jas! Not so far from my 8-week bloat+pre-preggo padding, but I trust yours is a little more solid! And how handy for you to know it will change and soon. I'll be in a wedding at 26/27 weeks and I'm already pondering how to go about the dress shopping. Luckily (or not, what do I know!) the bride has just given coloring instructions for us to buy our own attire.

Good luck GingerB, can't wait to meet your tiger gingerbaby!

DrK, you look great! Can't believe you are 37 weeks! Almost there you are.

My update is: bleh blah bleh, nausea. Yesterday was pretty good though so maybe this is my reward. It lets up and gives me a few decent hours or days and then comes back to plague me. At least a few weeks have passed and I can see surviving this, counting weeks! Only 8ish, sounds better than 5. Yesterday I almost messed up - we were out with some of my husband's coworkers, and ironically all three wives were preggo though I haven't told yet. But of course the other two preggo ladies were talking things preggo and I was perhaps joining in a little too much! Oh well, it is nice to have this news kept close for now but it will also be nice to share when the time comes.

 

[Jas12]

Cara--first tri bloat is crazy--i bet you''ll feel smaller next month, it seriously creates a fake belly. 26 weeks is actually a great time in pregnancy for dress wearing. You will have a good, recognizable bump by that point, but won''t feel huge, so you''ll look great. My advice is to wait at least till the end of the first tri before you even consider shopping. Your boobs, butt, thighs will have grown by then and will give you a better idea of what to expect. I am not sure if anyone else agrees with this, but i find the ''padding'' happens in the first trimester, and the belly mostly grows after that. I don''t count water retention as weight gain

 

[taovandel]

Mara and Mer: We were also scheduled for just 30 minutes but she definitely went waaaay over. I think she felt bad because she got stuck in traffic and we wound up having to wait around for for like 10 minutes. Evan was also snuggled up on the side near the placenta so we had difficulty getting any good pictures....We even tried Soda and nothing. He just stayed in the same spot.

 

[lover in athens]

just a quick pop in to say...JAS, you look adorable! i love your bump. it's definitely high, but i think that whole boy/high and round, and girl/low and wide is a bunch of hogwash!!

(ETA: i also love your jewelry!!)

 

[gingerB]

so the erratic back pain has now become stop-what-i''m-doing stay really really still and just BREATHE crazy back pain now every 5 minutes lasting about a minute each time for the past 4 hours. i don''t think they''re getting any closer together but the intensity has definitely increased from hour 1 to now. debating on whether or not to call the doc. i''d hate to go to the hospital just to be sent back home. i feel like i should just keep waiting it out since i''m almost 100% positive my water hasn''t broken and i''m relatively comfortable in between.

 

[Mara]

ginger..i waited til i honestly was really worried to have greg take me in. when i called they were saying well they haven''t really solidified into consistent and they aren''t getting closer together but when i said that i thought my water MIGHT have broken they said i should come in and be checked. so i said well i''ll wait another hour or two and it was like 45 min later that i told greg we HAD to go. i didn''t care at that point if we went in and were sent home, i just didn''t want to wonder anymore.

and i am so glad we went in because my water HAD broken, i wasn''t sure when...and that is why my contrax were so much stronger. i still haven''t figured out exactly when my water broke because i never had a huge gush..but i had a lot of discharge and a few smallish ''gushes'' but i don''t even know that they could be termed that because it was not quite a lot. so it was really hard for me to tell even today looking back.

i was also fine in-between contrax, but it was DURING that was really hard. and oh man the ride to the hospital and the ''check in'' felt like FOREVER. anyway i am glad i didn''t wait. but if you are sure your water hasn''t broken then i say try to stick it out a little longer at home, can you take a bath or a hot shower? good luck gal!!

 

[mtjoya]

Ginger-I REALLY hope that this is it! I think so!

Good luck! I will be rooting over here for you!

 

[snlee]

gingerB, how long is the pain lasting? It sounds like it''s getting close to 5-1-1 if not already. If the contractions are lasting around a minute I would call and see what they say. If you end up getting checked and sent home at least you''re not wondering. Good luck! Sounds like it''ll happen very soon! I hope you have an easy and fast L&D!

jas, you look great! You are carrying high but I don''t believe in that stuff. I''m still thinking girl for you.

 

[swimmer]

Congrats Burk and family!

Go GingerBaby!

You look fantastic DrK! SO so so can''t wait to meet your little girl! Wow, you are really almost there! I am just so happy for you and your DH!

Lulu, same, you look divine! where is your mouse?

MP, lookin good lady!

Kimberly, good luck with fluid...that is a rough one, but yes, smaller baby (within reason) means a better labor for everyone.

Meresal, love the 3d photo!

(we get them free from our hospital but DH is convinced that u/s and any constant monitoring are bad for the baby (he is a scientist so I''m having a hard time arguing with his utter insanity) so we can''t do photos for fun. I have ideas for sneaking in on my own, but since it seems that babies don''t like to show their faces it might not be worth it.)

Jas, you are looking great, yes so high! It won''t be freezing when this little person comes!

HH, I am off work this week...wanna play?

I am now too enormous to photograph! I won''t fit in a frame and we don''t have wide angle lenses. It just stuns me to see my belly when I walk past the mirrors in my swimsuit to get to the pool deck. Not even going to comment on how the swimsuits now fit! Thank goodness they lose their stretch and I had some old ones to fit over this bump. Have another u/s W to see if the placenta has hopefully moved. Oh man, I will be vexed at having taken our 12 week childbirth course only to have a scheduled c-section. But whatever happens will be great.

Happy Presidents'' Day Americans! happy Monday Canadians!

 

[jcrow]

ginger - yay!!! seems like you're next! wishing you a easy delivery and a healthy baby boy! can't wait to meet him.

meresal - cute pic! we had a ultrasound and they did a 3D as well and they couldn't get a good pic of the face

she tried several times. she said the baby was right up against my wall.

speaking of ultrasounds, at our doctor's office, they have the equipment to do the 3D ones as well. at several of my regular ultrasound appointments they also gave us a peek at her with the 3D equipment. so, since we don't have to pay extra for it and we've seen a few peeks, i don't think we'll opt for an actual 3D session that we have to pay for. at the last appt., we did buy the dvd [$35] and she recorded the whole session with the regular ultrasound + 3D ultrasound too. we showed my family and his and they enjoyed watching it.

 

[KimberlyH]

Ginger, it sounds like you are well on your way!

Swimmer, I doubt you''re too big to photograph. I''m sure you look great. Thanks for the well wishes. I''m done worrying about the weight, we just want the placenta and fluid to hang in there a bit longer. My husband hates all of the monitoring too, but he''s getting used to it at this point.

Late Ultrasounds: I had one last week and will now have two a week. We could see her face clearly for about a short time, but otherwise it was very difficult to tell what was what. The tech apologized for not getting a good picture. It''s pretty common not to get good shots at this point.

So we begin monitoring today, non-stress tests along with an ultrasound. I''m looking forward to it. For the first time I feel like I''m ready for her to be here, not because I''m done being pregnant but because I want to be able to physically see and check on her to be sure she''s okay.

 

[MonkeyPie]

vesper, that''s so cute!

 

[jcrow]

re: shower in a box, yeh it was a great idea especially since we're in another state from my family. she intended to mail the box of gifts, but we ended up coming to town so she was able to give it to us in person. it was wrapped like a valentine's gift, and since she always gives me something for valentine's, i was completely thrown off!

our couples shower was so great! it was laid back, yet still fun. less girly and frilly, which i also really liked. since we're undecided on names, they passed around slips of paper and everyone wrote their suggestions. also, they had wish cards for the baby. it said things like i hope you learn to, i hope you aren't afraid of, i hope you get, i hope you laugh, i hope you inherit... and blanks for guests to fill out their answers. it was so fun to read them all aloud. some were super clever, others really sweet and some really funny. only three couples gave stuff from our registry, but the other gifts were either really cute or really useful. also, the hostess gave *me* a gift prior to the shower. it had some really good chocolate and nursing pads and creme. stuff that she said worked for her while nursing. i thought that was super sweet of her to gift me something in addition to a baby gift. she also gave me a few bags of clothes since she's having a boy and her first child was a girl. and she gave me a big bag of clothes, blankets + shopping cart cover that someone gave her as hand me downs. most of it didn't even looked like it had been used! so, we should be pretty set on clothes

we plugged in our egg thermometer and put it into the baby's room. i'm shocked at how cold it takes for it to be happy! yikes. 61 degrees is cold to me!

in other news, heartburn SUCKS.

 

[Mara]

jcrow...yeah our egg wants to be under 67...but that is cold in our house!! we kept the temp at 73 to start and now we are doing more like 70-71 now that he is a few weeks old and can regulate his own temp more. if you want to see funny, put the egg right near a heater vent and crank it up. when it goes over i think 74 or 75 it turns red and has an unhappy angry face, it''s hilarious.

ginger...no more posts, i hope that means you are well into labor at the hospital now OR holding your little boy!!! can''t wait to see an update.

swimmer...girl i highly doubt you are too big for a picture, have you SEEN some of my photos ? hehee.

kimi...have fun at the US...!! i am sure she is ok in there, but the US will probably make you feel so much better. i was measuring small at every appt and i know you have a few other issues going on as well so it''s not just that, but i was ~2 weeks small since about week 20 and my kiddo came out at 8lbs, definitely not a small guy! and my dr often says that the estimates for weight in uterus are wrong. sorry don''t mean to give you another pep talk.

re: heartburn, hang in there. one of the best things about having the baby is no more heartburn. YAY! i know i have said this before but while it is ''harder'' aka more taxing to care for them when out, there are so many positives about not having them inside anymore, one of the most fun ones is actual physical snuggle time. finite period of time.

 

[qtiekiki]

GingerB
Hope you are holding your baby already. I hope you can post a pic of the little guy.

 

[meresal]

Ohhhhh Ginger! I hope this is/was it!

 

[lover in athens]

GOOD LUCK GINGER!!!

 

[meresal]

Date: 2/15/2010 1:23:32 PM
Author: jcrow

in other news, heartburn SUCKS.

Ditto. This crap is so uncomfortable.

 

[Burk]

Really quick one handed...Thanks everyone!!! We went home Saturday and are just trying to adjust to newborn and 2 year old! Here''s a pic of the little guy. I hope to post my birth story tomorrow.

Ginger~hope your little guy is in your arms!

ok, someone thinks he needs to eat again!

 

[Burk]

won''t let me post the pic...

 

[sbde]

congratulations burk! so thrilled for you guys - glad to hear tayva is being a sweetheart. can't wait to see the pic

 

[Burk]

pic as promised

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

**swoon** Burk he''s adorable.

 

[jcrow]

aw, now sweet, burk!