Update

I had my doctor's appointment today. Despite having contractions for the past two days, I haven't made one ounce of progress. Still 1cm dilated, 50% effaced. I asked about an induction because I am that desperate to get some sleep and relief from the contractions...she said that she's not comfortable doing one until I'm at least 2-3cm and 70-80% effaced. Oye! The reason is that Pitocin (the drug they give you to get your uterus to contract) is only effective in helping you along if you're already dilated so much. Without being as far along as she recommends, the Pitocin would only make me have painful contractions and wouldn't be very helpful in dilating...which is what needs to happen! The chances of me having a failed induction and ending up with a c-section go way up if that happens.

She did say that she'll see me at my 40week appointment and if nothing is happening still, we could schedule an induction for next Friday (the 3rd). She will be on call and would therefore be the one to deliver the baby, which is a good thing! At least I know there is an end in sight :)

She did tell me I could take some Benadryl tonight to help me sleep. I'm going to try it and hope it helps at least a little bit! After my appointment I had pretty steady contractions (5-6 minutes apart) for about an hour to an hour and a half. After dinner, they slowly tapered off to where they have been for the past few days...about 15ish minutes apart and not super strong, but annoying.

Since we sold our truck and I'm on "bed rest" at home, I've found myself feeling incredibly bored! (I'm not actually on bed rest, but my doctor wants me to take it easy and keep my feet up. She thinks I'm doing too much and doesn't want to put any unnecessary stress on me or the baby). The entire house is clean, I've done every bit of laundry, and I've even started organizing the office...which is a huge, huge task! Any ideas of what else I could do to keep myself busy at home for however long it is before he comes?

Say a prayer and send some thoughts my way that this won't go until next Friday!

Eviction Notice

Dear William,

Please consider this your final eviction notice. Your lease is up on Monday, however there have been some questionable practices going on in your dwelling place since Sunday night. These include (but are not limited to), painful contractions that don't end up in labor and attempted rib-breaking. You have 24 hours to vacate the premises or your landlord may have to forcefully remove you.

Thank you for your cooperation,
Mommy

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I'm 39 weeks today. I know that I'm not to my due date yet, but the past few days have been somewhat close to torture. I've been having fairly regular contractions since Monday morning at 3am. They get further apart during the day (and sometimes allow me a little break and disappear completely), but they strike again in the middle of the night. I'm operating on about 8 hours of sleep for the past 48 hours and it's not pretty! In the past few hours, they've intensified slightly (though they're still irregular and not close together), and I'm also having what I'd consider back labor. My lower back hurts terribly with each contraction. Definitely not a fun feeling! My OB said that this could possibly go on for a week. After two days of it, I'm about to beg for an induction at my appointment tomorrow...I'm SO tired, physically and emotionally...completely drained. I'm not sure how I'm expected to go through labor and then care for a newborn when I haven't been sleeping. I'm going to take some Benadryl tonight and see if that helps any. I'm not too optimistic!

In more positive news, I got one of the sweetest, most thoughtful gifts on Sunday. It's from my Aunt Gena, my cousins, my grandma, and my mom. Way back in October, my mom flew out to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the balloon festival. She stayed with my Aunt. My grandma came down at the same time. Apparently, an idea was concocted then to create a quilt for Baby Will...although we didn't know that Will was a "he" at the time! Each girl created a square for the quilt that had to have a heart and a character on it. After everyone finished their square, my Aunt Gena quilted the whole thing and then my grandma hand-sewed the binding. They sent it to my mom and I picked it up on Sunday. I LOVE IT!! It's seriously the perfect gift :) And the funny thing is, I was able to tell, just by looking at the squares who created them. I'm so excited to have such a meaningful thing for Will to use through his entire life. And I know that thing is going to get lots and lots of love.

Top (Left) - Emily's square, Grandma's square; Middle - Mom's square, Hannah's square; Bottom (Left) - Ruthie's square, Gena's square

I'll update after my appointment tomorrow, although I'm really, REALLY praying that this baby decides to arrive before then. If that's the case, I may not update for a few days :)

The view from here...

This is my view now-a-days. The swollen feet and belly really complete the picture, don't ya think? Oh, and notice the left side of the belly poking out more than the right side. No, the picture wasn't taken at an odd angle. That's really how the little boy is hanging out most of the time. I have yet to figure out exactly what it is that makes it stick out so much further. The picture is another painful reminder that this baby still has not arrived. Spring break is now over and I'll return to school on Monday, unless he decides to let us meet him tonight or tomorrow...but somehow I kind of doubt that happening! I think he's awfully comfy in there and has absolutely no desire to become an outside baby anytime soon.

Note that the left side of the belly still sticks out more than the right side...Crazy kid!


I've had an incredibly productive spring break and the dogs have really enjoyed me being home! I cleaned the whole house, did every single bit of laundry, got all the last little baby things that we'll be needing once we get home with Will, gone grocery shopping, baked cookies, and started cooking/freezing meals for us to have once Will comes home. The only thing I haven't done? Write lesson plans. The only thing that really NEEDED to be done? The lesson plans. So guess what I'll be doing tonight and tomorrow? Yup. Writing lesson plans. I'm not sure why I'm putting it off so much - it's really not that bad. And maybe once I write them, Will will realize that his mommy is fully prepared for him to come and he'll decide to arrive on his own...we'll see! Here are a few pictures of the cute cookies I made...they were lots of fun and are quickly disappearing!

Last night Will certainly decided to tease us. I took the dogs for a walk before Greg and I went to see Watchmen (very different movie, by the way). I started having contractions that were 5 minutes apart. By the time we finished dinner, they were 6 minutes apart. Then they moved to 10 minutes apart, then 30 minutes apart, and then they stopped about 3/4 of the way through the movie. I was just a tad disappointed! I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to actually believe I'm in labor whenever I actually go into labor. SO many false alarms!

Oh, send some prayers our way tomorrow around 1:00! We've been trying to sell the truck so we can get a more baby friendly vehicle. We haven't had a ton of bites and those that we have had haven't been anything we're interested in. Today, Greg got a call from someone in New Braunfels who is looking to buy a car for his son. He's going to drive up to Austin tomorrow and look at the truck and another car. Say a prayer, cross your fingers, or whatever that he'll love our truck and will buy it!

10 days left...I think I'm changing my vote in the poll to after April 1. That way I won't be disappointed ;)

33 weeks

Will is still growing away in there! There isn't a whole lot of new things happening this week - mainly just the usual maturing the lungs and gaining baby fat. He should weigh about 4 1/2 pounds this week and his lungs are almost completely mature. Yay! One thing I thought was very interesting is that his pupils will dilate/constrict in response to light. I didn't know enough light would make it in there for this to happen, but I think it's pretty neat! The experts say that by now, he should be getting in his birth position (aka head down)...I'm pretty sure he's flipped back by now because I feel something shoved up under my ribs. Here's to hoping that he is!

I'm still having a lot of contractions and a lot of cramping. It scares me a little bit that he might be coming early...but I'm going to stay on the positive side and say that it's just my body preparing for labor! Sitting down and putting my feet up really helps those go away, though. So I've been coming home and planting myself on the couch with a pillow under my feet :) Greg has been wonderful at taking care of me, helping to make dinner, cleaning up, etc. He's also incredibly understanding as my bedtime inches closer and closer to 8:00...hey growing a baby is exhausting, not to mention teaching some incredibly difficult 5th graders!

No belly picture this week...I'll get one this weekend for next week!

31 Weeks

Will definitely made his daddy and I smile last night! I was laying in bed getting ready to go to sleep and Greg came in to tell me goodnight. Will started kicking, so Greg put his hands on my tummy to feel him. Of course, he stopped right when Greg wanted to feel...figures! So Greg decided to poke at him a few times...and what did Will do? He poked back! This went on seriously for about 10 minutes. It was such a neat experience...our little boy definitely knows we're out there :)

Today hasn't been quite as fun of a "pregnant" day for me though. I always have lots of braxton hicks contractions every day, but today they've been accompanied by lots of cramping. It's not fun! I'm sure it's from being on my feet so much during the day...the hazard of being a teacher, I suppose. I'm going to go to bed early tonight though, and hopefully that will help everything.

Since I didn't post a 31 week update, here's what's been happening in Will's neck of the woods this week! His lungs are still maturing, but every day brings them closer to being fully developed. Yay! His ears are fully developed and he can hear my voice and the voices around me. This means he should recognize familiar voices after he's born. My weekly email says he weighs about 3 1/2 pounds now, but in our ultrasound last week he was already weighing in at 3 pounds, 11 ounces (which can be off as much as a pound in either direction). So he could possibly be quite a bit bigger than 3 1/2 pounds!

No tummy picture this week...sorry! I'll get one tomorrow :) Hope everyone had a good Friday!