thankful

welcome to our world lily!

happy birthday mom :)

lily vids – new voice

40 weeks, 6 days: hopeful

every curve/peak on the right is a contraction,
left is baby's heartbeart

went to the doc this morning and I got hooked up to the monitor. my contractions were showing to be a lot stronger than tuesday—going over 60 vs the 30 I was getting before. dr. perlis came in and was like "could you feel that?" and I of course again did not feel the contraction. she just like you will, it should feel like a lot of pressure. I'm like nope I feel just as normal when I'm not having one—tricky contractions. so from that monitor baby's heart beat was fluttering up and down but didn't drop when I was was having a contraction which is a good sign.

she checked my cervix and yet again CLOSED. geez do I have a cervix made of steel? although it would have been nice to be dialated a bit dr. perlis was still very confident i'll go into labor on my own. nothing was showing her that I needed to be induced so she said it's always best for your body to go naturally if you can. mark was hoping i'd be induced today—sorry love :)

I also got an ultrasound and she said I still have plenty of fluid and my placenta looks great. so medically everything looks normal to her even though yes I'm 6 days past my date. dr. perlis is on call at the hospital this weekend so she said sunday morning she'd give me call if by then I hadn't gone into labor. she said she would induce me then if that's the case.

I'm totally fine with waiting until then—two days away! I actually feel great and feel normal so another two days I could handle. it's also wally bear's (dad) birthday so if I could give him a really amazing gift then I'm very patient to do so. so that's where we are at right now.

please pray for us that all goes well and I go into labor tomorrow night on my own :) that would be perfect! if not just a prayer or happy thought to keep baby and I safe and healthy! xo

40 weeks, 3 days: doc appointment

baby's lil nose on the left and hand in the center :)

went in to see dr. perlis this morning. weight gain was a pound (fine), blood pressure perfect, protein levels good... cervix still closed... hmmmphf. she said it really doesn't mean too much since you really could dialate from nothing to 10 cm in a couple hours. since I am past my due date I needed to have my contractions monitored and fluid levels checked.

so my belly and I got hooked up to this machine to monitor her heart rate and contractions. I got to hold this buzzer/button thing to press every time I felt her move. I really wasn't sure what to look for but when I doc came back in she like it looks like you are contracting on you own as she pointed to the sheet that was printing out. every once and a while there was a curve. she was like could you feel them? and I was like no :) so she left me alone for a while to keep monitoring.... now I knew where to be looking... the the peak of my contraction was at about 30/31 which I think was on a scale of 100, but of course I still wasn't feeling anything atleast anything that was uncomfortable. so finally after a while my contractions zeroed out and it sounded like baby's heart beat got a lil slower (about 116bpm) she came back in and was like looks like she fell asleep. lil stinker.

next I was taken to have an ultrasound to check my fluid levels. I am still amazed how much a doctor or specialist could see on these screens because I barely could make things out. but lil one is faced downwards and to the right, which is good better than upwards :) my placenta still looked good, no idea how she could tell but I'll take her word for it. but fluid still looked really good too.

so after talking with dr. perlis she made it seem she would prefer to let me go naturally without being induced, because I was contracting on my own and everything still looked just fine. I apparently didn't show my impatience well enough. she asked I come in again friday morning to see if anything has changed—she's on call at the hospital this weekend so that would work out perfectly if that's the case. of course we'll see what happens over the next couple days. I asked her when I'd get induced and she said it would be after I hit the 41-week mark which is saturday.

so i'm trying to be as patient as possible. mark is too. I'll update again after my appointment friday... or maybe she'll be here before then!  :) who knows.

40 weeks: alright girly time to meet mom and dad

now I really really hope this to be
my last pregnant picture :)

yep. stillllll pregnant.

so our lil peach is being a real peach... apparently, our lil girl didn't want to give daddy an early birthday present. this waiting is not fun. i know her due date was yesterday and technically she should have waited until now, but geez the past 2-3 weeks have really been hard.

we're still really excited and waiting patiently, but it's hard because both of us thought we'd be holding her by now. kissing her lil fingers and toes and seeing her beautiful lil eyes look back at us. I told someone this last week, but it kinda feels like you're going to disneyworld for the very first time and someone keeps postponing it... it's slightly aggravating and sad but at least we know we're still going... VERY SOON.

my last baby check up was on wednesday with dr. salus. I hadn't seen her since the beginning and she's a really nice doctor... when she told me I was only dialated a fingertip I think she saw the disappointment on my face because she was like don't worry you'll probably go next week and it's progress from last week :) yeah it's progress... I was just hoping for a baby a lot sooner. if I happen to still be pregnant by 41-weeks (saturday the 17th) then I'll be induced the following monday (19th). I really stinking hope baby doesn't hang out that long.

saying that we found a list of "natural ways to induce labor" and thought we give some a try. this list is anything from eating spicy foods to walking a lot to eating chinese or other things I will not mention. just want to say it's a bunch of bologna—none of these have worked for us. I'm gonna go do squats and gallop like a horse. maybe those will work.

sorry for the blehhh post. I'm bored of being pregnant and just want her here ASAP. my next appointment is tuesday morning with dr. perlis maybe I could convince her to induce me earlier :D

I promise to update everyone once we're at the hospital (if we get there this week)—I'll need lots of prayers and happy thoughts sent my way :)

cravings: no idea. i'm bored of eating.
aversions: —

what's baby up to?
it's hard to say for sure how big our baby will be, but the average newborn weighs about 7 1/2 pounds (a small pumpkin) and is about 20 inches long. her skull bones are not yet fused, which allows them to overlap a bit if it's a snug fit through the birth canal during labor. this so-called "molding" is the reason our baby's noggin may look a little conehead-ish after birth. rest assured—it's normal and temporary.

39 weeks: any day now

I really hope this is my last pregger pic I post!

went to the doc this past tuesday and I lost a pound! it had to be the scale that was off last week, because I really didn't change anything. I rewarded myself with a raspberry hot fudge sundae :) hehe.

not dialated yet, but dr. perlis said I really shouldn't be yet. she said that most first time babies start momma into labor about 3 days AFTER my due date. what?! I keep hearing all different opinions on this so I'm frankly confused as to when nugget will make her appearance. I'm not counting on her being late—hospital bag is packed and ready to go. I like to plan ahead and be prepared... this whole not knowing part is kinda making me crazo. I'm quite content having a couple more days baby-free, but we're so close it's hard to relax about it. like mark would say, "so many women have done this, you'll be fine." yeah he's not the one pushing out a watermelon... I will be fine... just hard not know what to expect.

I was really hoping that this weekend it being labor day, baby would decided it's her time. but it being almost 5:00pm I'm thinking she's not about to change her mind. so here we are inching closer and closer to the 10th of september... she still could come before then, but we're just patiently waiting :) my pelvic floor is a bit sore almost feels like I rode a bike for 1,000 miles so I'm walking even more funny these past few days. every once and I while I get a sharp pain that stops me in my tracks—googling it the only normal information I get from it is that it could be my cervix dialating/effacing. I'll ask the doc on wednesday.

got to see baby's bff caela yesterday which was really fun—love seeing that baby girl. :) aubrey was giving me some much needed details and advice—still need to get that hard candy. love having her to tell me exactly what to expect without any holding back. chris had some funny details to share about his experience which mark appreciated.

also got our dresser this saturday—hallelujah! it came fully assembled which I'm pretty sure made mark's day :) now we're hanging up art and finishing up with the decor in her room. siri brought over the rocker on friday (thank you!) so that's all set up and ready to go. she said we could reupholster it—not sure if we will just yet.

5 days till d-day. :) everyone pray to give me strength and help our baby have a safe delivery. can't wait to hold her! xo

cravings: iced tea (unsweetened) and water
aversions: —

what's baby up to?
our baby's waiting to greet the world! she continues to build a layer of fat to help control his body temperature after birth, but it's likely she already measures about 20 inches and weighs a bit over 7 pounds, a mini watermelon. (boys tend to be slightly heavier than girls.) the outer layers of her skin are sloughing off as new skin forms underneath.