So Here's My Life

The things we make,
the food we eat and
the shenanigans in between.

A blog about making things by
MICHELLE SEXTON

Friday, February 20, 2009

Baby is big.

I'm currently 33 weeks pregnant. Yesterday I had a sonogram and then a doctor's appointment afterward. During the sonogram we found out that this baby is a big baby. When the technician measured his belly, she said, "Wow! That's a BIG belly!" Then she started measuring other parts like his head, and his femur. After she was finished measuring everything, she told me that his length was several weeks ahead of schedule, and that he was incredibly tall for his age (I wish I could remember how long he was, but I forgot). Then she gave me his estimated weight - over 5 pounds. At this point, I believe they are supposed to be right around 4 pounds. AND THEN she told me that he is currently in the 70th percentile! WHOA! What the heck?? Apparently I have a large baby inside of me. After that I had my appointment with my OB. She said that if he makes it all the way to 40 weeks he should be in the 8 pound range. (Ahhhh!!) But then she also told me to cut down on my Carb intake, because carbs make your baby grow faster. That makes me so sad! I really love carbs - and I eat them frequently. So I will have to lower my intake of pasta and bread and muffins now. Did I mention how I love carbs? I love carbs. I really do. But if I don't lower them, this baby could get too big and then wouldn't be able to fit between my hips for delivery...and then I would have to have a C-Section. I really don't want that. So I've decided that consuming carbs is NOT worth having a C-section. Not at all! So from now until delivery, my carb intake will be much lower.

And on the same note about having a gigantic baby inside of me, I must confess that I am officially nervous. I am nervous about labor and delivery. Yes, I am. Here are the two things that make me nervous - 1) I haven't decided completely, but I am leaning toward a natural delivery. No pain medication. My family thinks I'm crazy. And perhaps I am. I've been told by several people who've gone the natural way that the recovery is so much easier. But still that is a lot of pain. I know. I know I could do it, but the real question is - once I'm in labor, will I want to or be willing to do it??? 2) Since I have such a gigantic kid inside of me, the issue now is "Will he be small enough to fit through my hips?" Oh, this makes me so nervous! At first I was going to blame Joel for the size of our child, you know, since my husband is so big. But then I started to think about it, and remembered how big people tend to run on both sides of my family, despite my average height. So it's a lot more likely that both mine and Joel's genes together have created one big tall baby. I am nervous. (Dear God, please do not let me have a C-section! Amen)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Life Lessons & other things I have learned from pregnancy

* listen to advice. think about it, and then decide for yourself whether or not it is something to act on.
* on that same thought - when you are told something, consider the source in which it is coming from. just because someone says things happen a certain way, doesn't mean they do. i had someone tell me that you can't tie your shoes when you are pregnant. i am 7.5 weeks away from my due date and can still touch my toes - and yes, i can still tie my shoes too.
* no matter how much you try, no matter how air-tight your argument is or how valid your point may be, some people cannot be reasoned with.
* chose your battles wisely. some issues are worth addressing, while others are not.
* the world is full of people who are paid not to think - like those who work for insurance companies and business offices. far too often, just because they say the answer is "no" doesn't mean that it really is. it just means that they don't know. don't be afraid to challenge them on this. it's your money, not theirs.
* ignore people who have nothing nice to say, and seem to be determined to deflate your hopes.
* if you are pregnant during the flu season, get a flu shot. that was one of the smartest things i've done during pregnancy, and it saved me from getting sick at least twice (excluding the last two weeks that i was sick - which was one of the most miserable experiences of my pregnancy, specifically because there was very little medication that i was permitted to take)
* true friends are willing to work through a conflict, or at least overlook a conflict that may come up in the friendship. those who cut you off, are not worth keeping.
* if you have plans to become pregnant in the near future, and have maternity coverage with your insurance, make it a point to know your coverage backwards and forwards. make sure that you know exactly what it covers. and then explore other options for coverage outside of your insurance. believe it or not we would have been better off NOT having maternity coverage with our insurance because there are so many other programs available that will cover all or most of your maternity costs if you do not have maternity coverage with your insurance. over the last couple of years, we put far more money into our insurance coverage for maternity than they are willing to cover. So after the baby is born, we will probably drop our maternity coverage and go a different route next time.

You are more than welcome to add your own lessons learned through pregnancy if you would like.

As far as the pregnancy update goes, I've experienced a couple of things lately - I think I have lost my mind. Some days are good, while others are just plain terrible. I spent Thursday through Saturday in a daze. I cannot even begin to elaborate the extent of my mental fogginess. It was terrible. I had the hardest time keeping track of what I was doing, and remembering what I needed to do. On Friday I went grocery shopping and spent half of my time circling the store and retracing my steps, because I would repeatedly forget to pick up and item from that part of the store. So frustrating. I've also increased ability to randomly drop things (like my cell phone - i really hope my cell phone makes it to the end of this pregnancy), or spill things. It seems that I am constantly forgetting to hold up my cup when it has liquid inside - like water...or orange juice. It's really bad. It seems that my baby has been sucking up my brain juice.

Speaking of the baby, it seems that he is becoming more and more particular these days, specifically when it comes to the position that I sit, recline, or lay. If I slightly off-centered, he will kick and squirm until I reposition myself. He also doesn't enjoy when I wear pants with the panels that cover most of your belly. He kicks at the elastic all day long until I change my pants at the end of the day. And frequently when I am trying to sleep, he will wiggle and squirm until I am no longer able to sleep and forced to get up. (My child is waking me up and he hasn't even come out yet!) I have a feeling that this baby is going to be a highly opinionated child.

And I have recently realized that I've been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions (pre-labor contractions that start after about 20 weeks that prepare your body for birth). But the funny thing is that I didn't realize what they were. Last week late at night, I kept having a pinching feeling in the lower part of my belly that seemed to come every couple of minutes. I was a little confused about this whole thing, but because I was so tired, I went to bed. I had a couple more of those pinching feelings, but they stopped after I layed down. The next morning I called the doctor to ask about those pinching feelings. After a series of questions, she was able to determine that they were in fact, Braxton Hicks contractions. I was like "OH! Man that explains a LOT!" Apparently I've had them for at least a couple of weeks, but didn't realize it. I thought when you had Braxton Hicks, that you would feel your whole torso contract - not nessicarily the case, so I learned. I laughed for a while after that. Sometimes I just amuse myself.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Preparation

As of tomorrow, I will officially be 7 months pregnant. Two more months left! Last night I realized that my baby will be full term (38 weeks) in only 6 weeks...so he could possibly come as soon as six weeks from now. The reality is growing and sinking in more and more by the day. But I'm still not scared. At least I don't think I am. I feel ready for him - as ready as I can be without the parenting experience. Someone told me recently that I had no clue what I was getting myself into, no matter how much preparation I've made (classes, books, babysitting, etc) that I was in for a huge surprise. Basically they were trying to tell me that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. That wasn't very nice of them, and by the way they spoke to me, it was quite obvious they were deliberately trying to make me feel foolish and inferior to them. But you know what?
1.)- that person is not a nice person, and obviously has some personal issues to deal with.
2.) - they haven't kept in contact with me over the past ten or so years, and therefore really don't know me, my experiences, and obviously misinterpreted what I was really saying.
3.) - they were 23 when they had their first child. I'm 28. (btw, I'm totally not putting down those who've had their children earlier in life than myself) There is quite a difference - a lot changes between those years. And I know for a fact that I have had way more life experiences than they had before they had their first child. I am not the same as this person, and they seem to think that I am in the same position that they were when they had their first child.

Realistically I understand that I cannot be completely 100% prepared for this - of course not! But I do have the understanding that there is a lot of sacrifice, attention, stress, etc that goes with raising a child. I understand that my life will never be the same. I understand that everything will change. I understand that there will be problems and complications to deal with. I understand that I will lose a lot of sleep taking care of my child (but, wow, after being up all night and unable to get more than an hour of sleep last week when I was sick, I totally feel like I can handle all the late nights with my baby!). That's what I mean when I say that I am ready. I am ready for this change. No, I don't know exactly what will happen. But I'm ready to embrace it. I am as ready as I can be without the parenting experience. And that's what I mean when I say that I am ready.

On a slightly different note - Joel and I have started to get Levi's room ready. The theme we chose is monkeys with a green and brown color scheme - incredibly cute. You can see our theme here at Babies 'R Us. The room is currently a disaster area, because we have to find new places for several items we used to keep in the spare/guest bedroom that is now becoming Levi's room. At this point, we could easily fill a four bedroom house instead of the the three bedroom that we have now!

At the beginning of this blog I mentioned the fact that I will be full term in six weeks. I intended to elaborate on that thought a bit more, but got side tracked with the whole subject of being personally attacked by that one not-so-nice individual. So back to that thought. The possibility of Levi coming in six weeks as opposed to 2 months, really caught me a little off guard. I don't know why...it's only a two week difference, but I guess it's different way to think of these things. But that's ok. These past 7 months have been one giant waiting game for me. Sometimes (well, most of the time) I can hardly stand the anticipation, and want to fast forward to the end of pregnancy. But I'm still not nervous. At least I don't think...but I have started to have weird pregnancy & delivery dreams - mostly that he comes too early (before 38 weeks) and I want to put him back inside of me and continue to grow him! Weird. So if having those kind of wierd dreams is some sort of way saying that I have subcontious fears, then maybe I am nervous and don't even realize it. Perhaps I am in denial. Or maybe I'm just crazy!

And btw, does anyone have any creative, economical suggestions to celebrate Valentine's Day? I'm trying to figure out a way to celebrate Valentine's Day this year without spending more than about...oh...I don't know...ten dollars!! Ha ha.

Friday, February 6, 2009

sleepless - once again.

It is currently 1:15 a.m. After several hours of laying in bed without any hope of sleeping, I have decided to get up. I am sick. A sick person came over to my house at the end of last week and was kind of enough to share their cold with me. Thanks for being so considerate as to getting the pregnant lady sick. Thanks a lot. I would really like to call her right now and give her a piece of my mind. Apparently there is not a lot of medication that you can take while you are pregnant. How convenient. My sinuses are so congested that I can do nothing but sit up in order to breathe. Unfortunately I cannot sleep sitting up, unlike some people (my husband). So I took one plain Sudafed, the only decongestant you can take during pregnancy. It's so ironic that it's non-drowsy. Yes I feel very non-drowsy from the Sudafed, yet drowsy at the same time. I don't know what to do. I sympathize for insomniacs. Seriously. This is the second night in a row that sleep has alluded me. Last night, no matter what I tried, I felt like I was suffocating when I tried reclining or laying down to sleep due to my sinus congestion. So tonight, I tried my other option - non-drowsy medication. Now I can't sleep because the Sudafed is keeping me awake. Man, I am in bad shape here. This weekend my mom is giving my sister (who is also pregnant) and I double baby shower I am now convinced that I am going look as bad as I feel for the shower. This will be my second consecutive night in a row without sleep. I wonder how many nights in a row I can go without any sleep? I may soon find out. Someone mentioned to me earlier that that's how motherhood will be. Arg! Do you think it's very appropriate to tell me something like this right now? Did you really think that would help me feel better? Thanks for the encouragement. People can be so insensitive sometimes.