Karen Chatters » Pregnant

Six weeks, give or take

Karen — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:00:09 +0000

I went to the OB last week for my regularly scheduled appointment. I sat around for an hour plus, waiting, only to get actual OB face time of 5 minutes. Maybe even 4 minutes. It was your fairly typical appointment. The doctor said I was measuring exactly where I should be, despite the fact that I feel as large as a double wide with the front porch extension. I also feel as though I’m going to give birth to an octopus but I was assured that wouldn’t happen. Do they really know that? I was hoping to get an ultrasound at my appointment but she said perhaps closer to 36-37 weeks. In the meantime, I’ll just go with the assumption that my baby has in fact grown more limbs and will be more alien-octopus than gentle human who loves his or her mommy.

I have a little less than 6 weeks to go until my due date. And only 41 days to my scheduled c-section date, which I may change. I went ahead and scheduled the c-section for 10/19, which is only 1 day past my due date. I feel like maybe that isn’t enough time to cook a baby, I don’t know. Courtney was no where near ready when her due date arrived (based on the lack of dilation and other medical indicators), I wonder if Segundo will be in the same boat. Or uterus. The OB doesn’t really want me to schedule much past a week so I’m hoping to get it moved back by 3 or 4 days. We’ll see what they say.

I’m pretty uncomfortable and my bladder appears to be as large as a thimble. I spend the majority of my day either peeing or thinking about peeing, that’s always fun. I’m sleeping like crap and have been taking a Unisom once or twice a week so that I can at least try and catch up on some much needed zzzz’s. As they say, sleep now because once that baby gets here, there’s no more sleep for me.

There are days when I feel like there’s no way I’m going to make it to 10/18 and other days when I think I’ll go way past 10/18. I know Segundo will come when he/she’s damn well good and ready or the doctor decides he/she’s ready. It’s not at all lost on me that if I went ahead and scheduled the c-section date a week or so prior to the due date, it could potentially be MUCH easier when it comes to our new home and the timing of it all. Or worse, really. If we don’t end up closing on our new place until 10/15 (which we’re hoping won’t happen) but we can’t make the closing because we’re in labor and delivery, that could potentially be an issue. But most importantly, the health and development of Segundo is what’s most important so we’ll let him continue to cook and crush my diaphragm until he/she decides to work his/her way out.

We still don’t have names picked out. I said something to Paul about having the boys name already, he didn’t seem to think that was the case. He also didn’t have any suggestions to trump the name I’ve already chosen. I have a list that I add names to, and a couple of girls names that I really like, but we’ve agreed/decided on nothing. It’s still a, “what do you think of Gertrude?” kind of question only to be met with a shoulder shrug and “eh.” Or a flat out “no.” But there aren’t any serious discussions going on here, we have way too many other things to be discussing. Like counter tops for the new home. Poor Segundo.

Update on house closing: We didn’t close yesterday and at the time I’m writing this, our new close date is this Friday. We shall see, I’m certainly not going to hold my breath.

Wordless Wednesday – An artists rendering

Karen — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:00:59 +0000

We do a lot of drawing around here. Sometimes Courtney will draw on her own, sometimes we do it together. Usually, she does her coloring thing while we do our coloring thing.

This is Paul’s coloring thing. I’m not sure what happened to my arms. Or my face. And the boobs are WAY too small. He does seem to think I have sticks for legs though…

‘

Upon further review, it is a bit Picasso-esque….

In my 30’s

Karen — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:00:44 +0000

As of today, I am officially 30 weeks pregnant. That means I am officially 3/4 of the way done with this baby making thing. In a week, I’ll be down to single digit weeks. I am exhausted. Fall on my face tired. My belly button popped at some point this past week, I think that means if I were a turkey I’d be ready to take out of the oven, carve up and serve for dinner. I feel like within the past 20 minutes, I’ve gotten HUGE. Monstrous. I don’t know what happened but I’ve blown up. Clothes that fit me last week aren’t fitting. I can still see my toes but I now have to lift my leg to do that. Oh, and I need to sit because if I lift one leg while standing, I’d fall over. The woman who did my pedicure last week said the color I’d chosen was cute, I’ll have to take her word for it because hell if I can see that far that well. And it’s really unfortunate that it’s August and society expects me to shave my legs, I can’t see my legs, why would I take a razor to them?

I saw some friends the other night that I don’t see very often, they said I looked cute. I know they’re good friends to lie to me like that. Courtney is cute. Puppies are cute. I am not cute.

I’m not sleeping well. Or just not sleeping at all. I’ll wake up at 4:45 and never fall back to sleep. Or I don’t fall asleep because my imagination is out of control, the things that I’m coming up with are preventing me from sleeping. I can’t get comfortable. I’m hot. I’d prefer to sleep in an icebox. I want to lie on my stomach and am debating cutting a huge hole in the mattress so I can hang my belly in it. I’m 100% certain that Segundo is completely spread eagle, with a hand or a foot in all 4 “corners” of my uterus. While not possible, there are times when I’m not sure that isn’t happening. How can Segundo be in so many places all at once? Or maybe the OB is wrong and there are 4 kids in there, duking it out for space.

I’m having a hard time holding Courtney. If she sits in my lap, she falls out because there’s barely any room. If I hold her, she rests in such a way that she pushes on Segundo who pushes on my bladder and I practically pee myself. Not that I don’t pee myself anyway but she’s not helping. And I’m 100% unsure how I’d give Courtney a bath, there’s no way I can bend over the tub. I can probably just hose her off or something, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.

I went to the OB last week for a regularly schedule appointment. She said that Segundo has a fabulous heartbeat but is measuring a little large. Ya think? At 29 weeks I was measuring 32 weeks, but that could have everything to do with the position of the baby and not necessarily his/her size. Or the position of the moon, this isn’t an exact science. And as for all the cramping, it’s most likely my uterus pushing against the scar tissue from my previous c-section. Too bad so sad, nothing they can do for me. If I have another c-section they can try and clean that up but as I don’t plan on having more kids after this, I don’t expect my uterus to ever be this large again.

Ten weeks to go and so much growing to do. I can’t imagine where I’m going to be in 5 weeks. Hell, how big will I be in 2 weeks. Or 2 days. Probably like my boobs, I’ll be in your zip code and mine.

Happy weekend!

Karen — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 13:50:40 +0000

I didn’t get a chance to write much for today because Courtney didn’t nap yesterday, just screamed and I was trying to make another baby hat but the screaming was throwing me for a loop and I kept screwing up. Then last night we were officially in Cry It Out mode (how long does this go on, I thought we’d done this a year ago already) so I drown out the noise with some music and more sewing while Paul buried his head in the pool (and she only cried for 30 minutes, which is better than the hour we’ve had every night for the past week). I finished the hat, which may fit one of Courtney’s dolls, and then made a quilt for her dolls. I’ve officially lost my mind, I’m making quilts for dolls. I also spent part of the night cleaning up dog pee, which Hunter felt the need to leave by the front door for me. But then I was on a vinegar/water cleaning spree and decided to ruin the carpet in the bonus room. Well, maybe. I’ll need to do more carpet cleaning today and see what damage I’ve done.

Oh, and today is the LAST DAY OF SWIMMING!!! YAY!!

Note the babies new quilt, made by me. I’ve decided I’m not quite a quilter yet.

Have a great weekend!

Let the nesting begin

Karen — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 12:58:51 +0000

I didn’t get to write anything witty or not-so-witty yesterday because, frankly, I was too busy nesting. I had to clean the freezer and do some sewing. (How is it that I clean the freezer, throw a ton of stuff away, and then have less room than before?) And then last night, I had to finish the sewing. I wanted to start another project but didn’t have everything I needed, so maybe tomorrow I can do that after I go to the store. Today I have to finish cleaning my closet (which I started last week) and then maybe bust into Segundo’s room.

These hats are to be for Segundo but unless he/she’s got some ginormous head, they won’t fit until he/she goes to college. That’s ok, these were practice. Now that I know what I’m doing, kind of, I’m going to make a couple more but shrink the pattern way down. I also need to figure out the ears, not sure why they aren’t standing up. Sorry the pictures aren’t better, my model wasn’t being very cooperative.