So One Reason Down

Heard from my Professor today. He says I can do my final as a take home so that gets that out of the way. Yay!



Went and saw Dr. Barbie today. She is going out of town next week. Some sort of Doctor evaluation boards. I didn't ask too many questions because, really who wants to know about their Doc being tested for competency... Makes me nervous thinking about the outcome.



She didn't check my cervix so I don't have any info on that part of my anatomy for you. (I know you were dying to hear about it. Sorry.) In other bodily news, my boobs seem to have grown again! I wish they would stop because I am going to be totally depressed when they go back to normal size. As in, will probably need therapy.



I made left over turkey soup today. That covers not having to make lunches for the rest of the week. YES!



Right now Rhea is stretching so hard that I feel like she is just going to pop out of my side. Ow.

Days until December

We have approximately 18 days until D Day.

I have my 38 week Dr.'s appointment tomorrow. Its at 10. You know, the appointment my Dr said she would be surprised to see me at? Because I would have already given birth? Yeah that one. Thanks Dr. Barbie, I'll see you tomorrow.

I'm so tired today. Not even the two servings of ice cream I ate are perking me up. I admit that I haven't been following any real meal plan but I have for the past 9 months eaten worse then I ever have. I've gained about 30 pounds and while not really bothered by it I still can't wait to go and work out. (My twig thin Doc hasn't made one little peep about my weight gain since the first trimester either. Which is why she is still alive.)

So with Rhea's delivery date approaching and myself contracting away I find myself torn. I really want her to quit screwing around in there and show up already but at the same time I have two things I want to accomplish before hand.

1. Take my Geography final so I won't have to take an incomplete for one freakin' test.

and (this is the good one)

2. Go to my office's dinner party on Wednesday.

My boss is taking us out to eat and hes been such a royal pain to me since he got back from deployment that I cannot wait to eat expensive food on his dime. Does that make me a shallow, petty person? Probably but that's who I am then. Rhea needs to learn that as soon as possible if we are ever to get along.

My eyes are literally closing as I write this and it's only 7 pm. I've never really been a night owl but this is getting crazy. So I'll catch you on the flip side. Peace.

Any time now kiddo, any time...

I guess it's been decided by the forces of the universe that Saturdays are Useless Contraction Days. I say this because this will be the second Saturday in a row where I had contractions all friggin' day. I didn't even bother going to the hospital this time and hey guess what? Yep, they are all gone now.

So if you are listening, sweet child of mine, anytime you want to leave is good with me. Just let me know and we can arrange new living quarters for you.

I was thinking this week about how strange this being pregnant experiment is. I have actually been the healthiest I've ever been for the past nine months. It must be all the vitamins. It's nice though to not be sick as the season's change. Hopefully it will stay that way.

I don't have much else to write about. I'm hording my last Ghirardelli Milk and Caramel Square but it will probably be devored right after I post this. Then I will be sad.

On a poop note, today was the first day I had the opposite poop problem of every pregnant woman. It was an interesting change of pace.

And

We saw Harry Potter.
The End.

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving. Seriously, screw the Pilgrims, this is a time for personal reflection for me. Right now things are good and I am very thankful for it.

The one very minor complaint I have is juggling family for the holidays. It really aggravates me having to jump around from house to house. I have four parents, Erik has four parents and all the extended family that comes with the territory. I am so sick of feeling like I need to please everyone.

So this year we only officially one family, my mom and stepdad. There 5 people at Thanksgiving dinner and it was delightful. Not full of family I can barely remember and have to pretend to be interested in. (I know I'm AWFUL but I actually cannot remember some of my relatives names...)

OK so I sound like a giant douche bag but I'm telling you how I feel.
Also we still "swung by" my grandmothers and Erik's dad's to say Happy Thanksgiving so it wasn't like I completely ignored them.

Today I am 37 weeks and excited to get this done! I keep bouncing back and forth between wanting her to be born RIGHT NOW and hoping she will hold out until December... I know it really doesn't matter what I want but still I wonder.

I keep having contractions so I'll get all excited and then they just fade away. It's really frustrating because you get all, "This could be it!!!!!!!!!" (yes that many exclamation points) and then nothing. I know that at some point they will be for real but until then it's like my entire existence revolves around my stupid aching back and tensing stomach.

Interesting...

I am totally buying stock in Zantac. I slept through the entire night last night (minus requisite pee breaks) without once waking up feeling like I have just made out with Lucifier. I even managed to sleep on just one pillow. You know, instead of the folded comforter and three pillows I have to use to prop myself up. It was a magical night.

In other news I'm testing out the Nikon D90 that was sent to our office from NGB. While we have D300s I actually prefer the D90 (mostly because it is smaller). So here are some photos:

I have no clue why the photos are stacked like that but anyways, it is Maggie, Fergus and Erik. Until Rhea's arrival these are the animals I share my home with. (Erik is the most house broken out of all of us.)

3 centimeters, 75% effaced...this could take forever

From what I understand, dilation and effacement are USELESS. That is until you hit the magical 4 cm and begin contracting (which I have stopped doing).

In better news I went out and purchased some generic Zantac 75 today and IT IS AWESOME!!!!
The real test will be tonight when the heartburn from hell returns for it's nightly visit. (I never had heartburn until well into the third trimester. That's when it hit me like a Mack truck.)

I went and saw Dr. Barbie today. (My biggest goal for my delivery is that I can get a picture of her to show you) She thinks that I may not make next week's appointment because I will be birthing a watermelon, I mean baby, before then. I'm not so hopeful. She did tell me that I barely look pregnant in my uniform which is, of course, an outright lie but it made me feel better.

I called my mom and let her know how my appointment went today. First, some background on my mother. She is a robot. No emotion what so ever. Don't get me wrong she loves her children VERY MUCH, she just has problems showing it sometimes. She is also a nurse (and a professor and working on her PhD but lets not go there). So when I called her and told her what Dr. Barbie had said and Her Majesty, the Queen of Calm, squealed like my 15 year old sister I was quite taken aback. It took me a good couple of minutes to actually process that she did it. As in I didn't realize it until after I got off the phone with her. I'm going to hold on to that little gem until a really large family gathering.

I have a paper due in approximately 24 hours. I'm in final edits so I should be safe but if Rhea is going to be born I know for a FACT that it will be at the most inopportune time ever, like when I'm supposed to be handing in said paper.

I'm going to take a bath now because I can.

OH MY GOD THE HEARTBURN!!!!!!!
Its like my stomach has been filled with molten lava. I'm not lying to you. I have honestly never had heartburn so bad.

Why demon spawn? All I want to do is allow you to exist. Why torture me so?!

Tums is a waste of my hard earned money. If I survive the night I'm hitting the CVS for Zantec (or whatever it's called). I cannot do this another night.

36 weeks, 3 days...

I wrote a pretty graphic post about poop during my geography class today. For the sake of my one follower I think I will keep that in the "things I don't post on the internet" file. let it suffice to say that poop is a big deal when your pregnant.

(Erik is listening to Edith Piaf right now, he is very cultured.)

So after class today I came home and I hung two blinds. They are the faux wood slate blind (in white) and I absolutely love them. I have them in my bedroom and living room. They look so clean and they don't cost half as much as real wood so score. Although half of the windows still have the old blinds on them because of a purchasing miscommunication but I will get more probably this week after work gets done. I have misplaced my tape measurer again but I can work around that.

I love my bedroom. We spent a lot of time (and money) on making it nice and because of that it doesn't look like it belongs in the same house. Eventually we will move on to fixing up the living room, horrendous kitchen, other (pink) bathroom and two bedrooms upstairs. We will also eventually need to install a new septic system and heater but hey I can wait for that.

I have a tendency to make decisions without making sure Erik is fully on board first but it seems to be working out OK. AND he did pick out the AWESOME wood floors for our bedroom so it's give and take I guess.

This post had almost nothing about Rhea in it. Which is because she is being a good little doobie right now and not kicking the crap out of her host. If she decides to arrive on her estimated due date she will be here in 25 days. Holy Shit is really all I can say to that.

I've been working on Rhea's baby book on and off since I got it a couple of weeks ago. I'm hoping I'll be around to tell her all the interesting stories but when she gets older she will have a collection to look back on. I hope she enjoys it.

More importantly I hope I do right by her.

False Labor

As I lie here contracting...
It's 3:33 am on a Saturday morning. I've been having period like cramps since about 2:15. I lost count at 12 but I know I'm way past that. Do I think this is IT? No not really mostly because then it would be exciting. How totally like me would my daughter be if she waited until the day after I hit 36 weeks to go into labor? (that's the cut off for when they would stop your labor)

Anywho I wanted to have some type of record of this in case it was, in fact, THE EVENT. So now I'm going to try and go back to sleep.

*UPDATE*

So I wound up going to the hospital and getting hooked up to the monitors. Good news is that Rhea is looking good and I was contracting. Bad news is they are useless contractions as they are not changing my cervix at all. I'm back at home.

So I'm frustrated because:

1. This is not comfortable at all.

2. They can't tell me if they will stop or labor will begin.

These facts are upsetting to me because all I can imagine is being in pain like this for the next 3 weeks. Its not that they are all that painful, its the 21-26 days of potential crampy-crappy feeling that is bothering me. Plus even though they aren't bothering her heart rate I can tell that Rhea isn't fond of being contracted on... She pushes back so hard when I get one its like my body is between a rock and a hard place.

I'm hoping that I'll wake up tomorrow and be able to go back to complaining about how much my pelvis hurts.

This blows.

I feel slightly guilty that I have spent the entire day in sweats... Technically I'm doing a SUTA and I should only have to worry what my commander thinks but I can sense people judging me. Well go screw! Putting in my uniform was more of a challenge then I could handle this morning. On the productive side, I managed to create 4 drill schedules on the god awful DTMS program. Without excessive swearing or smashing of sensitive equipment. Go me!!!

Kind of Earthy

Lately I feel bountiful. Usually I'm not very curvy (except my especially large ass) and lately I've kind of been digging the pregnant lady curves. I have boobs for the first time in my life. That's pretty awesome.

Plus mother Earth can be a total bitch and we still love her so it's cool.

If I sound a little out of it now it's because I am. Sleep is becoming quite the chore. Tonight I'm going to try sleeping sitting up and see if that helps because I can no longer lay on my side. The back pain in the night is horrid.

I've been having real, honest to goodness contractions. They never stick around and don't intensify so the Doc isn't worried but I'm souped! If I can make it until Friday without going into active labor then she won't stop labor if it decides to start after that point.

Speaking of my Doc reminds me that I have a confession. I kind of hate her. She is always matchy-matchy with nice outfits, perfect hair and flawless make up. I really dislike sitting there with my ACUs on that don't come close to looking the same color, pants unbuttoned because I refuse to get maternity ACUs and being confronted with her fashion sense. Grrr. Just wait until I'm covered in sweat, blood and all other bodily fluids trying to expel this watermelon and she has the absolute gall to show up all put together.

I have yet to finish my single paper that is due for my stupid class. It's due next week and I can't get into writing it. Dammit. Also, I missed class yesterday because the ass of my jeans ripped as I was leaving the parking lot to go into the classroom. I'm not going to get into my feelings on that because, well it was just a dark time.

Sunday is a work day

I had to cover a general officer promotion today. It was me and one other person in ACUs. I can't fit into my Class As right now. I look at myself naked in the mirror and I feel like I look like a ghostly version of a starving Ethiopian. My belly is all distended. You get used to looking one way and then it changes so fast. Hope everything goes back to it's relative location.

I have 4 weeks and 5 days until my due date. That's 33 days if you would like it further broken down. I can't wait until I'm on maternity leave. People keep talking about how busy I'll be but I'm not sure I buy it. I'm pretty freaking busy right now with school and work. When I go on leave I won't be working and I'll be on a break from school. The only thing I will have to worry about will be taking care of the baby.

Now when I go back to work and school. That will be a challenge for sure! Lets not borrow trouble though.

I had a second baby shower yesterday. It was really nice and fun. I'm still missing some of what I would term essentials but there isn't too much left to get. I started packing my hospital bag today too. I'm kind of a control freak and would be really pissed if this baby came and I didn't have my pajamas packed. I don't really like hospital johnnies.

I started putting entries in the baby book last night and today Erik added some entries of his own. I think it's something that Rhea will really appreciate when she grows up. That her father cared enough to make some notations on how he felt about us having her. My father never cared enough so I might be projecting just a little. Oh well. :)

Day two of a five day weekend

I have a five day weekend so I'll probably be posting more frequently for the next few days.

Today we hung the bathroom mirror and one blind in our new bathroom. Erik got so frustrated with the screw driver that we had to stop without hanging the other blind. It's getting there though. Slow but steady I guess.

Rhea has been quite busy today but not to the point where I can't do anything else. I have been doing a lot of laundry, vacuuming and organizing. I don't like having a messy house but unfortunately household chores don't rate very high on my favorite things to do list. All I can think is I have about a month before D Day and I want things done!

I have been wondering alot about what type of daughter I'm going to have. What type of person will she be? How will she interact with people? Will she value them for every little thing they bring into her life or will she see them as tools? How much of her will I have a hand in developing? How much will she be born with and carry with her through out her life?

My dog, Fergus, has been farting all day and it is so bad that it actually made gag.

I'm still frustrated by the restrictions that being pregnant but it's not as bad today. I honestly have never wanted to go for a run so much in my life.

Oh my god....

So I like to think I'm handling this pregnancy pretty well for someone who really never planned on reproducing. These last few weeks have made me thank any deity I can think of for such smooth sailing so far.

Things I'm whiny about lately:

1. I'm tired, I can't sleep

2. My little girl seems to think if she just pushes on my uterus enough that there will be more room (trust me there won't be any)

3. Heartburn is my constant companion

4. I can't roll over in bed without stabbing pain

5. I have to pee every 5 minutes (literally)

6. I CAN NOT TIE MY OWN SHOES!

All I can think is that some women will spend their entire pregnancies in bed OR with chronic pain OR vomiting the whole time OR some crappy combination of symptoms I can't even imagine.

Now I will be honest,because well I don't feel dishonesty will get me anywhere. I'm feeling a little resentful of this alien invader today. I'm not one of those women who feels an instant connection with their baby and I'm sick of people telling me I don't look excited when I talk about the baby. Believe me I will be, when she is here. Until then I'm going to wonder about all sorts of things that will prevent me from getting super excited about her.

My mom told me she didn't think I would make it to 40 weeks and would probably go around 38 weeks. This made me almost cry tears of gratitude but, was swiftly followed by crushing guilt. What type of woman would feel that way?

This woman.

Now let me wrap this up by saying this:

Today was a tough day. I probably won't feel this way tomorrow but I would be lying if I said I'll feel completely different tomorrow.

So I'm 34 weeks and 4 days pregnant. Its pretty much amazing and confusing. My body feels like it's weighed down by an extra 100 pounds (even though I only gained 30ish). Uck. Rhea is moving a lot today and while it's interesting, it's not exactly comfy feeling. I had a mini breakdown yesterday but today seems to be going better.