Another Appointment

Yesterday I had another appointment. Stephen was able to come to this one and he definitely made it more enjoyable. He asked the silliest questions and had me laughing the entire time. My doctor thought he was a hoot and ended up telling us more stories of births that she thought he would enjoy. Apparently she's delivered ten babies since last weekend.

Unfortunately I haven't progressed any further. I kinda wished she had lied and said that I was like .5 cm more dilated or 5% more effaced, but I'm not.

I was so glad that Stephen came because as it turned out I had a flat tire. So after the appointment we went to get the flat fixed. It was fun to be able to spend more time with him during the day.

I just wanted to add as a reminder to those who haven't commented with their predictions for Stephen the Kid's arrival, there's still time to enter the contest. I figure that I'll give everyone until the first and whoever guesses the most things correctly will win some sort of a prize. So far I've gotten a response from Chris, Soccermom, Lucky Mom, My Mother, Allison, and Kat. I've included the questions so you don't have to go hunting for that post.

1. What day will Stephen IV make his arrival?
2. What will be the time of the above-mentioned's birth?
3. How many hours will I be in labor?
4. Will I end up getting an epidural?
5. Will this child shock us all by being a "Stephanie" and not a "Stephen"?
6. Will an emergency c-section be necessary?
7. What will his length and weight be? And let's keep this to a relatively low number please, I will NOT be having a ten pounder!!!
8. Will he have a head full of hair or be a little baldy?
9. Anything else you would care to remark on.

Thanks!

Fun Houses

After my appointment on Thursday and after we fixed the flat tire, I decided to drive around taking pictures of the fun houses nearby. These were taken near and in the historic district by where we live. I'm not going to comment on every single one because there's so many but I wanted to show them off.

I like the above one because it reminds me of Arizona, but it's definitely one-of-a-kind out here.

Now this next one is right by where we live, and I really like the look of it, I just think it's cute.

Now there are plenty of these types of houses all over, the run down very dilapidated homes. It always amazes us to see that people live in some of the homes that look uninhabitable. This one is just down the street from us.

Our Car

I think it's a guy thing, but Stephen gets really excited when our odometer gets close to a "cool" number. In this case our odometer was nearing 66666 AND the temperature outside has been around 66 degrees so Stephen worked really hard to get the two to correlate together. That was "neat" because it was 66 degrees and then the mileage was 66633, and did you know that 3+3 is 6?! We pulled over to take that picture.

And here we are at the right mileage but the temperature was just one degree off!! I'm sure that was frustrating!

I like that Stephen gets excited over something like this because I think it's important in life to celebrate the little things. Here's to the next exciting odometer number!!

Stethoscope

A while ago I subbed for a P.E. class. It was certainly an adventure with my pregnant belly and lots of kids running around but I really enjoyed myself.

It was even more fun to have the little second grade girls come up to me wanting to hug and talk to the baby in my belly.

Anyway while I was there I really overdid it. I tried to not do too much physical exertion, but the sixth grade girls didn't know how to "bump" the volleyball, or how to do an underarm serve so I felt it was in their best interest for me to teach them these valuable lessons.

I also played jump rope with the second graders but really I should have just held the rope, teaching them to "jump-in" wasn't the greatest of ideas I had. (You can't just verbally teach these things, no, they must be shown.)

Needless to say that when I got home I was EXHAUSTED! Thoroughly wiped out. I immediately went to bed and slept my pain away for a few hours. I groggily remember waking up and in my coma-like daze realizing that I hadn't felt Stephen the Kid move all day long. Not once. So I immediately tried to feel him.

I was rolling over and getting up in the bed, I was poking and prodding him but it was all for naught. No matter what I did I just couldn't feel him move. I began to get quite frantic. My mind started wandering onto all sorts of horrific possibilities. At the time I hadn't finished my thank-you cards from the Peoria shower and how was I supposed to finish them if something happened to my child!!!?!

Mind you I was still half-asleep, very sore, and probably a little hormonal. I freaked myself out and was bawling until I finally felt him move. Once I calmed down I ate a little and as I calmed down and woke up, so did he. It was definitely scary, and when Stephen arrived home I had to tell him why I was so shaken.

A few days later Stephen came home late from work with a surprise. He had bought me a stethoscope! Now I could listen for our son's heartbeat if I ever was having trouble feeling him move. I've gotten pretty good at using it and it's fun to compare his heartbeat and mine.

The other day Stephen came home from work and wanted to use the stethoscope to hear the heartbeat. He moved the thing all over my belly and was disappointed when he couldn't find it. So I casually took the stethoscope and after I heard my own heartbeat (to have a referencing point) I then placed the stethoscope right over Stephen the Kid's back and immediately found his heartbeat. Keeping it in place I let Stephen then listen and while he enjoyed hearing it, he was a little miffed that he had been trying for a while to find it when I easily found it right away. I guess that my motherly intuition is kicking in. (really it's just that I can feel where the Kid is, and I've gotten used to using the stethoscope but we'll call it my motherly intuition instead).

Oh yes, and I had another doctor's appointment today. It was SUCH a better experience than some of my prior ones. I haven't been feeling any contractions lately and other than swelling like mad not too much else is going on. Because of this they were only going to check my vitals and send me out. Thankfully the nurse asked if I would like to have my cervix checked to which I responded with an emphatic "YES!". (Apparently they don't start do those exams until week 38 which would be next week, but I wanted to know where I was at)

My doctor then came in and we discussed that because I haven't been having any noticeable contractions, I probably wouldn't have progressed at all, but nevertheless she agreed to check. I even joked with her that I'm feeling like NOTHING is happening and I could totally see me being pregnant even into this summer. As luck would have it, I am totally progressing which is fantastic!! I'm already dilated to a 2, am 70% effaced and am at a -1 station. She was quite surprised at how close his head is. My doctor also said that I must have been having contractions, so either I just can't feel them or I have a really high pain tolerance...I'm hoping this indicates my high pain tolerance.

This was such exciting news to receive! It's makes it feel more real, he'll be coming soon!! Now I am aware that many ladies can be dilated for quite some time before they deliver, but it's exciting to know that I'm progressing. I went home for lunch and told Stephen the news and then had to explain it all to him. He now thinks that the Kid will come any day now! I think that's just wishful thinking ;) I explained to him that you have to be dilated to a 10 AND 100% effaced before you deliver and that we don't know how far away that is. I'm just thrilled to find this out although now I feel like we've got to be all ready today. It's also exciting because at this point if I were to have him at any time he would be considered full-term which makes me so more relieved that we've finally gotten to this point!

A Great Deal

Applebee's is having this amazing deal right now. On Monday's and Thursday's they are selling wings for less than a penny each!!

Sounds too good to be true? Here in Texas we do things a little differently.

This sign clearly says that their wings are less than a penny. I could easily go inside to inform them that their sign is incorrect, but it would be much more fun and enjoyable to instead go in and create a little scene.

Waiter (or Waitress): "Welcome to Applebee's, table for two?" (Of course I'd go with Stephen, I don't go to restaurants other than Schlotsky's without him!)

The Texas Flower (that'd be me): "Why yes, thank you! We're here for the amazing wing deal!"

W: "Oh, yes people do seem to enjoy that one."

TTF: "I'm sure they do, would you believe that you can get wings cooked and at a restaurant for cheaper than you can buy in the store?! It's simply incredible! I'm sure you're just doing this for the bad economy, right?"

W: blank stare or some awkward comment

TTF: "I mean, imagine getting three wings for just over a PENNY! Why, for this dime I can get 25 wings!!"

W: "Umm, actually you can't, the deal is for 39 cent wings, as in each one costs 39 cents."

TTF: "Haha, well, your sign out there says otherwise. It's a common mistake, most people have trouble dealing with numbers so I understand, I just thought that I should inform you of the mistake before too many other customers try to cash in on this little error."

TTF: "Oh, except I do want the advertised price for the wings."

Now all I have to do is wait for Thursday.

P.S. Any bets on whether they actually give me the advertised price or if they just get irate at my little charade?

Pregnancy Update

As of today I've got 23 days left til I get ready to post the eviction notice.

Is it alright to give the evictee one week notice? I certainly don't want him to come much earlier than his due date (I'm thinking a day or two is fine), but I am against going a week or more over. So basically he's got a 9-day time frame to vacate his current premises.

In the prior posts I've talked about a prediction game for those who want to guess various unknowns about this child and whoever is most accurate will win a prize. One of the questions I asked dealt with how much I would weigh at the end. Based on what I am going through right now, that question has been removed.

I've never had any issues dealing with my weight and suddenly I'm experiencing it. At my appointment on Thursday the first thing they do is to weigh me. Both the nurse and myself were quite shocked at my new weight. She was so shocked that she took me to a different scale to make sure the first one was working correctly. Both scales were measuring comparably.

I was so embarrassed. It's tough because I know that I'm supposed to be gaining weight. While other woman are able to get away with only gaining twenty pounds total while pregnant, I am not so fortunate. And boy am I gaining it.

My doctor basically said to not worry about the weight that I've gained. My blood pressure is normal and based on the excessive swelling that I'm having she said I'm just doing an amazing job at retaining water.

My feet are swollen all the time. I had to go and buy some larger sized shoes that are slip-on because nothing else fits. When I'm really swollen these ones don't even fit. My hands have also started swelling. I went and bought some rings to wear in place of my wedding ring and I figured I would buy some one and a half sizes larger than I am. I'd rather have them fall off than be too tight. Except that sometimes I swell so much that I can't even get THEM off!

I never really expected pregnancy to be this uncomfortable. I used to hear women complain about how their body was so sore and how they were just uncomfortable all over from being pregnant and for the most part I didn't really believe them. I just figured that since our bodies were essentially made to do this that it would be pretty easy. Boy how wrong I was. I now feel badly for all the times that some pregnant woman (probably one of my sisters) would tell me how uncomfortable they were and I would politely blow them off. I just didn't get it. Now I do.

And stretch marks?! I've got them allll over. The only place I don't have them is my belly. How does that make any sense? It's definitely the part of my body that has stretched the most and yet I haven't found any stretch marks. Until today. I was so glad that at least my stomach would survive this pregnancy unmarked but apparently I was wrong again.

I am so excited to have my little boy here and to finally get to meet him! I sort of forget that I'm really pregnant and that I'll have a child at the end of this. Going to the birthing classes at the hospital and seeing all the newborns there definitely got me so excited. I am so thankful for this pregnancy. While it certainly isn't enjoyable all the time I am so grateful that I haven't had to deal with any serious complications.

I really do love being pregnant. I love experiencing this life growing inside of me, I love reading about what's growing now or how he's progressing. I love hearing his heartbeat and especially seeing him on the ultrasound monitor. I love watching my belly move around when he's awake and I love being able to feel him move while no one else has any clue what's going around. I love having him so close to me all the time! And I love that I have less than a month to go!!

A Pictureless Post

A lot has been going on but I've either forgotten my camera at these events or have chosen not to display the photographs for various reasons.

First off, on Saturday we went to our Childbirth class. I opted for the condensed program where they teach you everything in one day so that way I only had to drag Stephen along once ;) Some of the information was very good to hear and other parts were ridiculously silly. It was nice to see the hospital and to get the tour so that we know where to go and what to do when I do go into labor (it's less than a month away!). I really enjoyed watching the birthing videos although I had to look away during the C-section video because it was making me WAY too uncomfortable. At least I don't have to see what's going on, right?

Coincidentally we sat next to a couple who had a very similar last name...what are the chances of that!?! We were chatting with them during the class and expressed our chagrin that no one ever seems to tell you all the little details about what being pregnant and going through labor and delivery entails. We all agreed that had we known all these details we would have thought a little more about getting pregnant. I think some of the details aren't well known so that the next generation has a chance to come about. But here we are now.

We were asked to bring some pillows and I brought along our pillows that still have the Valentine's Day pillowcases on them that my sister Pollyanna made for us. I really wanted to take a picture of this but I forgot the camera.

I recently took some bare belly pictures so I can remember what my baby belly looks like. From my angle my belly sure looks strange because the little guy favors the right side of my body. So that part of my stomach is nice and round whereas the other side is much more limp and almost non-existent. I have finally developed the line that runs up the pregnant belly right in the middle. I first had the line appear from my belly button on down and it took longer to get the line to move upwards. I have no idea what this line is for, but most pregnant ladies get it. What makes mine even better is that from my belly button up, the line is not in the middle of my belly but instead about an inch to the left. I can only imagine this is from the little guy lovin' the right so much. I attempted to document this so everyone could appreciate the oddity that is my baby bump but Stephen took a look at the pictures and thought they were a little to risky to put on the web. So you just have to imagine it instead :)

Oh, and there's still time to make your predictions, I've already received four (including my mom!) and I'm sure you don't want to miss out on your chance to receive some sort of a prize. The details are all on my previous post. Have fun guessing!