First, I should catch up before going on the exciting news. I have been having horrible pains underneath my ribs. It hasn’t just been in the front (kind of stretching the muscles) like it was with Mallory. It has been in my side and back, and it has been excruciating. No idea what it is. Maybe Tater 2 is pushing on organs…I don’t know. What I know is that I don’t wake up with it. It usually comes on around lunch time. And the longer I am vertical the worse it gets. I have to lie on my left side to get rid of it. And the worse it is, the longer it takes to go away. Kylie was in town two weekends ago. On Sunday, we didn’t get home from church and stuff until around 3:00 in the afternoon. I had to do Mallory’s laundry. I was leaned over our mud sink, treating and scrubbing stains, while I was moaning and writhing in pain. I laid down for about an hour and then made dinner. By 9:00 that night, all I could do was lie on the couch and talk to Johnathan and Kylie while they played pool. Not fun.

The next day was my 36 week check up. I told my doctor about it (Johnathan had accused me of not being completely honest with her about my pain). She said she could take me out of work, but I had way too much going on. I said I would work with my boss to start cutting my office hours back. She said if that didn’t work and the pain became too much, we could look at inducing early…but she really wanted me to make it to 39 weeks. The risk of the lungs not being developed goes from 5% at 37 weeks to 1% at 39 weeks. She recently had an example of a baby born at 37 weeks that had to be on a ventilator. That was enough to convince me. She checked my cervix. I was 1 cm dilated and about 40% effaced. My body was working but not in overdrive.

My boss has been really great about letting me go home early. I go home, lie on my left side and continue to work. It helped tremendously. The pain didn’t go away, but it was better. I did push it to 4:00 one day and paid dearly. I was having contractions every 6 to 10 minutes from 3:00 – 4:00. Won’t make that mistake again.

At my check up the following week, my check up was about the same. 1 cm and 40%. I told my doctor that going home early was helping, and I could continue. She, of course, was pleased with that.

But yesterday was the sweetest of all. 38 weeks. One more week. I’m almost there. She said those
magic words…”How would you like to set an appointment to have this baby?” Hallelujah!! YES, YES, YES! She checked me. She didn’t comment on my effacement (and I was so excited I forgot to ask). She said I was 2-3 cm and easily stretchable, which means I am “ripe for induction”. Thank you, Lord! She called labor and delivery and set an appointment for Monday morning…between 5:30 and 6:00. Yeah, I know. It’s early. Johnathan has already complained. But I don’t care. I’m not sleeping these days anyway. So if I don’t go this week on my own, Monday it is! On in interesting note, the baby’s heart rate was 135. Kind of low. And I commented that I had a little caffeine at lunch (actually I had a Mt. Dew, but I wasn’t going to divulge that). She said, “Well, sometimes the baby’s heart rate slows down a day or two before you go into labor.” Ah, a girl can dream. However, I really don’t want to have this baby on my birthday. Not that I care about my birthday. I just want Tater 2 to have his/her own special day. But it’s out of my hands.
After the exam yesterday, I was experiencing some pretty severe cramping. I was having contractions, but I wasn’t paying much attention to how often. I mean, I have been having contractions since week 20 or 21. My biggest concern of late has been that I won’t know when I’m actually in active labor. After putting Mallory down, I piddled around for a while and decided to start paying more attention to the timing. At about 9:15, I started tracking the contractions. I tracked for 2 hours. They never got super consistent, but they also never got abut 7 minutes apart. And they were quite painful. Johnathan and I were both convinced that was it. But my instructions from my doctor say that they need to be less than 5 minutes apart for at least an hour. I tried changing positions a couple of times. I let Johnathan go to sleep so at least one of us would be rested (not without giving him severe crap first…I told him that the attitude was only going to get worse so he needs to be prepared). I dozed between contractions as they got further apart and less painful. Finally, around 3:30, I thought they had subsided enough that I could really sleep. I sent my boss and my staff an email explaining the situation and that I would be working from home…after getting some sleep. I now have a bought of false labor under my belt. A “nice” little preview of what is to come, I suppose (complete with being ugly to my husband…at least I didn’t try to pull his bottom lip over his head…this time). I’m hoping to hold out until Thursday or Friday. My mom is coming and my mother-in-law is off work after Wednesday. I know that they would love to be as involved as possible so I hope the baby and I can accommodate. :)

Now, I need to get to work. This is absolutely my last week so prioritization is key.

One final note, because you all know that I won’t get another blog in this before I have this baby. Despite all of my complaining, in the grand scheme of things, this pregnancy has been easy. I haven’t had the lung problem most women have in the last couple of months. I have had times where it feels I’m not getting enough oxygen so I have to take a few deep breaths, but some women actually can’t breathe at all and have to get the baby to move so they can expand their lungs before passing out. I have been very blessed, and I just can’t wait to get my hands on this little bundle of joy. All we have left to do is finalize a boy name. Piece of cake, right?