Last Pregnancy Post!

So what on earth do you do all day when you know your not getting induced until 5 p.m tonight. Well for me I couldn't seem to keep myself occupied enough. I cooked banana bread. Cleaned about 50 bottles (and she wont even be getting a bottle for at least 6 weeks!). Looked in the bag that has been packed for about 7 weeks now, repacked it, re-evaluated the things I have in it. Opened the breast pump cleaned it and read a little bit about how to use it. I am kinda hoping the breast feeding experts at the hospital will be able to help with that! And other than that I just made sure the house was in top order so that when we come home from the hospital Tyler and I can just relax and enjoy our new little baby. I'm super duper excited and nervous and full of so many emotions it is hard to explain all of them at once. It's like one minute I cant believe this is really happening, I mean really nine months is a really long time to get used to having a baby in your body, to know its coming out is another thing! So the emotions are flying high and I am sure that there will be plenty of tears and laughing to come in the next 24 hours or so. I have this idea in my head this baby is going to hang on as long as she can,(not sure what gave me that idea seeing that she has stayed hibernating through 7 weeks of contractions!)  I'm down to my last hour before leaving to go to the hospital. Tyler should be home any minute and then we will probably have to go through everything once more to make sure we are prepared! Wait, Are you ever really prepared? I dont quite think so, but we are as ready as we can be and that has to count for something. I have been waiting my whole darn life for this moment and I cant believe it is finally here! Im gonna be a momma! It has been a long roller coaster ride of pregnancy but i have a feeling once I see that little girl's face it will be 100% worth every minute. We look forward to blogging about our adventures on the other side of pregnancy! And we cant wait to finally be able to write, say, and yell her name! That has been the hardest secret to keep and I really cant wait to share this babies arrival and name with everyone!

Preparation and Planning

It has been another whirlwind of a weekend to say the least.  The pressure and contractions continue to increase but with no real consistency. When I called the triage center they told me that even if the pressure is worse that if the contractions are consistent then it probably is not full labor. So we wait and I tough it out while just sitting here with nothing I can do about it but wait patiently. I lost what they call the mucous plug on Friday which is often a sign of impending labor, but long behold many women lose this and then dont go until full labor for weeks. I went to the doctor last thursday and once again I remain at 4.5 cm dilated 100 effaced. The baby had dropped even more, but still no changes. The current plan is set for an amniocentesis on Monday at 2:30. My mom will be accompanying me to this appointment. The stick a large needle into the amniotic fluid obtain a sample and then send it for three tests that look at little babies lung function. As long as one of these tests come back positive I will be induced Tuesday or Wednesday morning. The reason they do the amnio before induction at 37 weeks is to make sure the baby is really ready to come out. Although my body is clearly ready we have to make sure she is also ready for breathing an important essential function!  Again though my doctor has warned me that because I have been contracting for so long at such high frequency with no change that I may just be a person who does not progress even with the help of induction medications. Which in my case with the length I have been contracting is considered prolonged labor and then they are obligated to do a C-section because of the very long delay in your bodies response to deliver or progress during delivery. We continue to just keep our fingers crossed that my body just needs a little "push" pun intended to help get this little girl out. We spent the weekend doing last minute things an just hanging out together. We played Charades on Friday night. It is a 4 person game but we tweaked it into a two person game and had ourselves laughing at each other. Saturday we grabbed a few last minute hospital bag goodies from Target and went to see inception. Then we ordered pizza and lounged. We have also spent lots of time giving hulk lots of love and attention because soon enough he will have to compete with his sister! We once again have cleaned the house, grocery shopped and fully stocked ourselves in preparation for this week. Going into this week with an open mind and heart because we know birth plans don't always follow suite. I am beginning to become more and more nervous about the labor itself but know we have lots of angels up there to watch us and guide us safely through this journey. Tomorrow would be Laila's 6th Birthday. She passed away just before her 3rd birthday.  I'm quite sure she will be celebrating in Heaven. She always loved her chicken noodle soup and for some reason I can see that being her dinner of choice on her birthday. I know for a fact she will be watching over us in the next couple of days. In the past week every time I have turned my pandora on I hear our song "I'll stand by you" Carrie Underwood and it isn't even on the Carrie Underwood station. She is sending me and baby her love from Heaven. I also lost a good friend to Cancer last night and I pray that he safely arrives in Heaven. He had a seven year battle with cancer and put up one of the best fights. He was a person that changed everyone's life he was in for the better. Ill never forget all the people in my life that have come and gone so quickly. And as I have said before life as we know it is a circle  and we look forward to bringing our baby into that Circle we call Life.

Baby, Baby, Baby

So I have officially reached a breaking point. My contractions have gotten increasingly worse over the past week making me super uncomfortable. Most people at this point in their pregnancy that make them uncomfortable because they have a hard time breathing, or there back really hurts because of the ever growing belly, but I think i can honestly say that none of these top my list of things that make me uncomfortable. I actually have not had that much back pain, and my breathing has always been easy because I have been lucky to care low. Somehow when i started having painful contractions six weeks ago, there was no way I thought they could get much worse and I was very wrong. In the past two weeks they have progressed to the point that it is hard for me to eat because I cant even make it through a meal without getting my breath taken away 4-5 times due to a contraction. Otherwise Tyler and I continue to be very anxious about the babies arrival because I cant ever tell if we should go to the hospital or wait it out because the contractions let up for awhile. I am still preparing myself for breast feeding. I bought my pump this weekend and I can tell you already that Grandma would be shaking her head at me from heaven for buying that pump, for some reason she really hated the idea that I wanted to buy a breast pump instead of just renting one! Oh Grandma was always so practical, unfortunately I am such a yuppie as some would say that I couldn't imagine having to use a pump that someone else used, the thought of breastfeeding has grossed me out for a very long timeI dont really know why I have always just been breast feeding phobic) but I just wanted to know that the pump I use is mine and only mine, call it selfish or what you will but its my Boob preference! We will have an official plan for Baby Fevold's arrival after the doctor on thursday. As of right now it looks like it will be early next week. As for now just hoping Grandma Rossi is watching down on us from Heaven enjoying the view  from up there! Im sure she was already busy trying to catch up on the Bachelorette and all of her guilty television pleasures last night! We will miss you tons Grandma and hopefully I can convince Baby Girl to follow in our footsteps and be a nurse! We had a beautiful goodbye and send off for Grandma and we will miss her goofy stories! Love you Grandma.

What's up Doc?

Went to the doctor today and baby girl is still looking quite comfortable in my belly still. Despite my increase in contraction intensity and frequency our baby girl is still intent on cooking for a little while longer. In the past week since I had gotten the Doctor's seal of approval I have tried all of the so called "natural" ways to induce labor, including eating pineapples, riding my bike around town and over many speed bumps, increased my walking activity (although this is hard to do when I already walk hulk two times per day for 45 minutes a piece!), relaxing or trying to at least, and some other exercises! So far nothing is working for me anyway! The Doctor just laughed at me when I told him all the things I have been doing to help baby fevold make her way out! He reminded me that all of these things are just hearsay and none are proven methods of helping to move things along. He says she will be here soon enough as evidenced by my small cervical advancement! So I guess our little miss will let us know when she is ready. My uterus has been ready for almost 6 weeks! I cant believe it has almost been six weeks since we were admitted to the hospital. I am so happy that my body has been able to keep little girl safely tucked inside to grow and get those lungs fully developed. Our Condo is officially baby ready and taken over by the vast presents and baby gear! For now were just keeping our fingers crossed that baby decides to come soon so that her mommy can keep her sanity! Tyler and I are busy getting in out last minute reading, sleeping and time together before little miss has arrived. So far we have had a great time enjoying each other's company and learning about our upcoming new adventure! Tyler and I have been very blessed with our lives together and we are so excited to begin this next chapter together! Wish us luck as Baby, Ty and I continue to progress toward labor!

Baby Shower

Tyler and I had a wonderful weekend. The baby shower on Sunday was absolutely perfect! It was a gorgeous day my parents yard was perfect with all the summer flowers growing and a pretty tent with tables. My mom, aunt Kathy and Elle did a wonderful job. All of the food was home made and perfect for a Sunday lunch! I am very thankful for my family and friends! This little baby could not be any more lucky. She has a whole family that loves her so much! My family might be tiny but they through a great party and they buy enough presents for a tiny army of babies! I want to thank everyone again for a wonderful day filled with lots of smiles, great food and a pleather of present! Tyler and I have officially put together half of the stuff we got! Ok Baby Fevold we are ready for your arrival! Hurry up cause you have lots of people who cant wait to meet you, love you, kiss you and squeeze you! The first picture is the gift table before anyone arrived, meaning this is all from my mom, aunt, and elle! 

bumpdate

I went to the doctor today and he has officially given out little miss the clear to come at anytime now. She is measuring a bit over 5 pounds and is considered healthy and ready from there standpoint. I have not had any advancement in centimeters over the past week, but he could feel her head easily when he checked me this week which means she is lower than last week. My contractions get stronger by the day if not the hour so he says the minute they progress to more painful that we will have to head because she will probably be on her way very quick once my body decides its officially ready. He says it seems like it could be as close to tomorrow or as long as a couple of weeks all depending on my body and the baby. It looks like we will be waiting with anxiety until D-day! Right now just trying to make it through the weekend which is the shower and getting to see my Grandma. Unfortunately Grandma Rossi has had some health problems and is in the hospital not doing well. We are currently just praying for her to have a comfortable easy passing. As many have said along the way we cannot control birth or death and as one life passes on  it makes  room for another life to come. Apparently Grandma has decided that she needed to make room for our little girl. When Elle went to see her in the hospital she made sure to tell her what we will be naming our little girl. For now we just want both life and death to be easy. Please pray for all of us in this very hard time. Lots of love to my Grandma Rossi.

Happy 4th of July!

Tyler and I had out very first 4th together this year! It was my very first holiday off since I have graduated nursing school in 2005, crazy I know! We had a wonderful, relaxing weekend. Friday night we went to the Taste of Chicago and just strolled around (By strolled I mean walked very slowly and took lots of  sitting and resting breaks), walking with contractions is just not that easy. We had some delicious corn on the cob dunked in butter of course, a rib sandwich, and funnel cake! (YUM-O)!  Saturday we ventured out to my parents and decided to go to the local swimming pool, Tyler and I had fun soaking in the water and going down the water slides, but our favorite part was watching all the people with there little ones and anxiously awaiting the day we get to hang out at the pool with our little miss! Saturday night we went to the carol stream town center to listen to some live country music, eat ice cream and watch the fireworks! It was a pleasant surprise watching the fireworks from somewhere besides the window at Children's! The fireworks were wonderful and we had front row seats for the show. Baby girl was wiggling inside the whole time, im not sure that she liked all the boom's and bang's interfering with her sleep! Sunday I woke up early to walk Hulk before the sweltering heat wave began. Then I baked some yummy cookies for the shower! Baking is my favorite past time it really helps me not think about these constant contractions! My dad gave Tyler his first instruction on rib cooking. They dry rubbed the ribs, basked in BBQ sauce and the put on the grill for over four hours! They did something right because the meat fell of the bones it was really a great way to spend the 4th! We ate lots of good food, spent quality time together and with my family,oh yeah and baby fevold stayed put overall what I call a great weekend! Tyler and I are officially Costco members,we decided to join especially for the diapers and wipes, but we were able to find a great variety of things and are set for the next 6 weeks with food for lunches and quick fix dinners! The house is clean, hulk got a bath today, all the sheets are washed and the house is fully stocked with food. Can you tell we are over prepared for this baby to arrive. We continue to await her arrival with highly anticipated anxiety. There are some hours in the day were I contemplate having to go to the hospital because the contractions are so strong, but they seem to get better the next hour so then we go back to just living our life the best we can while waiting. I just want to make sure that I can get to the hospital with enough time for an epidural. Seeing that I have already been in labor almost 4 weeks, and have progressed pretty far in that time, I worry that Ill be too far along for an epidural and that scares me the most. So I continue to keep my fingers and legs crossed that we will make in to the hospital in time to carry out the labor plan we hope for, but we will see what Little Miss has planned. Here is to making it my baby shower on Sunday!